I decided to write a blog while I travel and while writing isn’t my forte nor is grammar i hope you enjoy these😆

AMS 14.0
Like the start of many of my journeys, it starts around 12 pm the night before as I have my buddy Billy drive me over the mountain from my house on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic to the airport in Santiago. Spirit has a great red eye flight that leaves at 3AM and lands in Ft Lauderdale at 5 AM,

Usually I have to catch an Uber to the nearest Starbucks and wait for  Dany Paz  to finish work and then we start our trip. Luckily this time we needed to be on the road early so he picked me up at the airport and we made our way to Lake City FL  to meet up with Lance, Patrick and Gene. We then loaded all the gear into the camper and truck and then started our road trip to Cullman Alabama for AMS 14.0. I have come to really enjoy these road trips with the team. We are all excited to get to the race we talk and make jokes most of the way and of course it’s a race to see who falls asleep first ! I am proud to say I didn’t fall asleep but I may have blinked for a long time!

We arrived around 9 pm and unpacked some stuff and then chilled out for the night because we knew from Wednesday on we would be busy.

I was very excited about this race because it’s the last ⅛ of the race where all the top pros would attend plus we had a contingent of European drivers as well as some good friends from Bermuda and Paraguay coming over to attend. I was looking forward to seeing my friends from around the world all in one place as well as some epic racing battles.

Wednesday was the set up day while Rc Track Masters finished off the track, Dany Paz and Gene woke up early and started setting up all the equipment that brings you guys the live stream. This was the first time Dany had been to AMS but he is a genius and they had everything figured out by the time I rolled out of bed and had a coffee. The work that goes into before setting up and then breaking everything down and packing everything away after the race  in order to do these live streams most do not see.

Wednesday I started to see the pits filling up as racers and families showed up for the weekend of racing and the RC Tent City started to pop up. Robert Batlle, JC3, Nicola Marrone and Marco Baruffolo Scott and Alice were the first Euros to show up as well as South American Champion Alex Lim from Paraguay. It was good to see Robert and the guys and I was very happy to see them come to a race in the SouthEast for the first time. Salty Joe, Kimo And the Bermuda Boys showed up next and of course we were all waiting for the guy who is always late JQ who was coming with Pekko and Greg Degani.

The rest of Wednesday was spent  greeting racers, meeting new people and also meeting my boy Brady Bell who has become a good friend of mine over the years!

JQ showed up Thursday morning and of course he is missing a bag as the airline lost it, luckily he had his car and radio as well as tools . There were 2 rounds of controlled practice followed by seeding practice on Thursday. We did not broadcast that day so I got the chance to hang out in the pits with JQ and everyone to  catch up and make sure JQ behaved! I also got to watch my buddy Axel’s new mag brake system in action in his Mayako which worked great in my opinion.

Friday was qualifying day and it did not disappoint JC3 was top qualifier in Pro nitro buggy Ryan Lutz was very fast in all classes as well. All the top Americans were fast as well and young upcoming racer Jonah Wilson also showed great pace. There were 3 qualifiers for each class but this was just to qualify into your Superpole heat and starting positions for the 10 min Superpole races on Saturday.

The unique format at AMS is about runtime and Racing. Saturday everyone participates in a 10 min heads up Superpole race. It’s like a LCQ for everyone. If you are in the C sort of your class and win our C superpole you bump to the B final of that class the next day. It also sets the starting grid for that final. So while JC3 was TQ after qualifying that meant he only started on pole for his pro nitro buggy superpole.

The Superpole races did not disappoint there was action at all levels and the pro nitro buggy the IceMan  Mason Fuller would win the A Sort followed by Ryan Maifield and JC3. This would mean Fuller would start on pole for the 45 Min final!

Pro Ebuggy Superpole would see JC3 taking the win followed by Fuller and Spencer Rivkin and that’s how they would start for the 3 A Finals.

Pro Truggy Superpole win went to Dakotah Phend, Maifield and 3rd Ryan Lutz !

After Superpole races on Saturday we would start on the lower C mains and go to the last one to start on the B mains on Sunday.

AMS is all about run time ! So not only did you get a 10 min superpole but all lower Nitro finals where 30 mins long and lower Ebuggy had 2 10 min finals. 3 drivers would bump from each final to the next as well.it does not stop there as all A nitro  finals for all classes where 45 mins long and all electric A finals 3 10 min finals. This made for long days but a plethora of track time !!!

To save time on this blog I’ll only talk about pro nitro.

The start of the Pro Nitro Buggy main started at 1125 pm
Sunday night and it was a good battle between Fuller and Ryan Maifield with them breaking away slightly from the pack with Ryan Lutz, Jonah Wilson and Phend. Maifield looked very aggressive and fast from the start and hounded Fuller from the start and was waiting for Mason to make a mistake. That mistake came at the 38:30 mark when Fuller got it wrong after the double double jumps and crashed. This would allow The Maifield to get into a lead that he would never relinquish.

Around the 31:00 mark Phend and JC3 would mount a challenge to RM but JC3 was on a shorter pit cycle than Phend and Maifield.  Near the end of the race it looked like Dakotah would mount a charge to challenge Maifield but mistakes would see that challenge fizzle out.

Congratulations to Ryan Maifield on this win and Tekno RC after the race in the interview Ryan said the car was the best Tekno car he had driven all year and was very happy with the progress they have made over the year. Dakotah Phend would have to settle for 2nd Mason Fulker in a solid third JC3 in 4th and a solid 5th for Ryan Lutz!

Dakotah Phend would take the W in Pro truggy and JC3 in Pro Ebuggy as well.

After the Final Ebuggy race at 12:34 AM it was time to break everything down and pack away. While we did this, Cole Ogden Entertained everyone with his nitro fuel can fireworks show and we finished packing the camper at around 3Am and in bed around 4am. We were up at and on  the road at 8 am and it was a fun filled sleepy drive back to Lake City.

Congratulations to all the podium finishers and everyone that attended. It was a great time seeing all my friends and having a chance to hang out. It was good to see JQ who actually drove great all weekend and then blew it in the last minutes of the intermediate running out of fuel before his final pit stop. Patrick Rositter would take the win and get an applause from the crowd and I’m told he might even get a street named after him after beating JQ!  JQ would have to settle for Vice Champion.

All in all it was a fun time at the AMS 14.0 thank you to Dave Leikum & RaceTime Entertainment for having me there and putting on this race  as well as TrackMasters for the track that held up exceptionally well and made for fast paced racing.

Thank you to Lance, Dany, Patrick Gene of the Elite RC Productions crew for all their hard work. Also thank you to my buddy Axel for letting me room with him at the hotel and   my snoring.

Most of all a big thank you to the racers that supported me through the waffles and podcast. Without you none of this is possible. Thank you for coming up shaking my hand and letting me know how much you enjoy the podcast and what we are doing at races it means a lot🙏🏼

This is race 1 of 5 the next race after this was the Florida Carpet Championship but I will talk about that awesome experience in the next blog!

Cheers,
Lefty