Race #102

On Sunday February 22, 2004 TrackSide Hobbies celebrated its ninth year as a regional host to the Tamiya Championship Series. Now in its tenth year, Scotty Ernst, owner of S&N's TrackSide Hobbies has been a long time supporter of the series and is one of the many reasons why the series is so much fun. Scotty has become a well known name in the R/C announcing and race directing arena. He has become a welcome part to many of the premiere R/C events that are held in the U.S. These events include the Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions held at Tamiya America, The IFMAR Worlds, The HPI Challenge World Finals, Kyosho Mini Z Championships and the 1/8 scale Gas On-Road World's. To say the least Scotty has become the busiest announcer and Hobby Shop/track owner around.

In 2005 S&N's (Scott and Nancy's) TrackSide Hobbies will be celebrating their tenth annual TCS regional event and we would like to announce here that Tamiya America will be planning a special event to celebrate this milestone.

This weekends racing saw some familiar faces do well. Lee Passehl (19 years old) swept the GT-2 and GT-1 classes. His father Don was his chief mechanic and they both proved that they work well together in finding the right set-up. Lee and his Dad opted to race the TB Evo III for the GT-1 class and the TB-02 for the GT-2 class. Mark Rodney proved to be a formidable opponent as he set the fastest lap in the main event. Local racers Marty Hageman and Gary Katzer both made the A main and were trying their best to bring down Lee's winning streak. Michael Lack from Trackside Hobbies and out of town John Disher (Michigan) were also setting fast times all weekend.

One of the most fun races to watch during the weekend involved the battle between youngsters Sarah Ernst and Nathan Weir in the TL-01 Spec class. These two are the offspring of veteran racers Scotty Ernst (1996 4WD national Champion) and David Weir (2003 Mini National Champion) and both fathers were eager to see their kids have fun. Through most of the race Nathan proved to be able to stay in front of Sarah, but one little mistake cost him the lead and Sarah was right there to take advantage. Nathan was able to mount a comeback, but the race clock ran out and Sarah was able to hold on for the win. This is Sarah's first win at a TCS regional event and she was also awarded Top Rookie honors.

Just like real Formula 1 racing, the F-1 class saw a brother 1 & 2 finish with Bruce Hickman (former F-1 TCS National Champion) taking 1st place honors and Steve Hickman finishing second closely behind. Bruce Hickman has proved to be a master with the F201 chassis. His national title was won with a F-103 and he'll be the first to tell you that they are two completely different cars.

In the Mini class Matt Sunderlage took top honors in a class that is every bit as strong now as the first day of its inception. Boomer Ersnt (Scotty Ernst's older brother) made the "A" main show in the Mini class and has proved that having fun on the race track will yield good results. Look for Boomer at the Nationals in August as we think he wants to follow in his younger brother's footsteps and become a TCS Nationals Champion.

Tamiya America would like to thank all the racers that support the TCS series. We especially would like to thank those racers that made a long trek to be a part of the TrackSide event. Those racers represented states like Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan.