Event: 4th Annual Southern Nationals – 1/8th Scale Indoor Offroad
Date: Oct. 4-6, 2013
Location: Ike Hamilton Expo Center – West Monroe, Louisiana
Team Hitec Attendees: Billy Tompkins, Adam Drake, Matt Sistrunk, Paul Coleman
By: Billy Tompkins
The Southern Nationals is a 1/8th Scale Indoor Offroad racing event that takes place in the small town of West Monroe, Louisiana. The race is held in the arena of the Ike Hamilton Expo Center, which is normally used for Horse Exhibitions. The facility is very large, with arena seating on one side that allows all of the spectators to have great viewing of the racing excitement. This was the 4th year that this event has been put on at the Ike Hamilton Center and I am sure there will be more to follow as this is a fantastic venue for such an event.
The 2013 Southern Nationals saw the largest attendance in its 4 years of existence, with the best racers from all over the South, as well as racers from the East and West Coast. With almost 350 race entries, this year boasted one of the largest racing events in the South. News coverage of the event was done by Jeremy Flint of RC Insider.com, and live racing coverage of the event was handled by LiveRC.com. The race announcing was done by Top Notch Racing Series announcer Notch Johnson. The Southern Nationals is such a large event that it couldn’t be put on by just one person. The team of individuals that helped create this event are very talented, and hardworking and take great pride in being involved in such an event. Jeff Gray and Jason Correro lead the way for this awesome team.
Since the start of this event in 2010, Hitec has had the pleasure of being a sponsor. This year, we stepped up our sponsor level to be one of the Headlining sponsors of the event, along with TLR, Proline Racing, and Extreme Klean RC product
Hitec’s number one driver, Adam Drake was able to make the event, and raced three different classes this year. Adam entered the Pro Nitro Buggy, Pro Nitro Truggy, and Pro E-Buggy classes. After qualifying, Adam was able to take the Top Qualifying position in Pro Nitro Buggy and Truggy, and the second starting position in E-Buggy. At the start of the Pro Nitro Buggy class, Adam got off to a rough start dropping him down a few positions. At about the 10 minute mark of the 45 minute main event, Adam regained the lead and never looked back, taking the win in the Pro Buggy class. In the Pro Nitro Truggy class, it was pretty much the “Adam Drake Show” as he led almost the entire race taking the win in the end. The Pro E-Buggy Class turned out to be the nail biter, as it was a Triple A main format. Adam would take 2nd place in A1, and 1st place in A2, thus leaving it to A3 to decide the winner. In A3, early on in the race Adam would fall behind the hard charging Ryan Lutz. A bobble by Ryan later in the race would allow Adam to catch up and latch on to his coattails. With only a few laps left in the race, Ryan would struggle over the triple leading to the straight away, Adam nailed the triple perfect giving him a ton of acceleration allowing him to pass Ryan down the straight. At that point, Adam held his ground and took the win in A3 giving him the overall victory for the Pro E-Buggy class.
Adam said his HSB-9000 series servos worked flawlessly all weekend. Adam runs the HSB-9370TH for steering in his E-buggy, the HSB-9380TH for steering and HSB-9370TH for throttle in his Truggy, and HSB-9370TH for both steering and throttle in his buggy.
The 2013 Southern Nationals is an event that is growing every year. The event organizers have managed to make each year better than the year before. This year will be a tough year to beat, but I am sure the Southern Nationals crew is more than up for the task. With that being said, we look forward to working with the Southern Nationals team next year to help promote this fantastic hobby and bring an even better event for the racers.
More Event Coverage:
RC Insider
Podium Shots – http://rcinsider.com/?p=54396
Hitec Coverage – http://rcinsider.com/?p=54363
Team Hitec Racing Footage (video) – http://rcinsider.com/?p=54355
