2005 TCS North Ameri

The 11th Annual TCS North American Finals have just concluded and 4 new TCS National Champions have been crowned, three of which will be flying to Japan in November to compete at the Tamiya World Championships.

The three drivers going to Shizuoka City Japan will not only be representing the USA at the Tamiya World's, but they will also get a factory tour of the inner workings of Tamiya as well as a tour of Tokyo.

The racing this year was some of the best. The qualifying format was comprised of four qualifying rounds. All classes qualified using the IFMAR format where all heat races put individual racers on their own clock. The two best rounds counted for the racers overall laps/time to qualify for a respective main event.

The men to beat in GT-1 seemed to be Corey Lewis of Long Beach and Mark Dawson of Los Angeles. In the end it was Lewis taking the pole position and Dawson close in second. In the First main event it was all about the Lewis factor as he was able to run away from the field while Dawson was still looking to find set up that could keep up with Corey's machine through the sweeper part of the track. By the second main Dawson's car had found its sweet spot and for the first 2.5 minutes was right on the heels of Lewis. Not to sure what happened to Dawson's car, but it seemed to fade after a while which allowed Lewis to sneak away. Corey Lewis was able to clinch the GT-1 Championship in the two first mains while Dawson was able to clinch the second podium spot in the third and final main.

In the F-1 class George Canare was an early favorite as he had won the regional race at Tamiya America back in June. Now that the TCS Finals rolled around the competition got tighter as Kevin Smith, Steve Wang and Edgar Fiallos had something in store for everyone. It was Edgar Fiallos of Montclair, California that shocked the F-1 class as he was able to take the TQ spot after qualifying with Canare and Wang filling out the top three.

The F-1 mains turned out to be quite interesting as like the real deal in F-1 racing we had a restart. After the restart our pole sitter Fiallos was able to get an early lead and ran away with it as the rest of the field battled for the remaining 9 positions. In A main number two things got a little interesting as Fiallos lost the edge he seemed to have in early qualifying with his spring and brush combination. George Canare who had qualified second rocketed so close to Fiallos that Fiallos only reaction on the drivers stand was "OH OH". Canare had clearly figured out a speed secret and was going to do everything in his power to get in a win. Fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Steve Wang and Kevin Smith had good cars as well which allowed them to do battle with Canare and made Fiallos yet again run away and hide from the rest of the field. With that, Fiallos took "A" main number two and he secured the overall F-1 Championship win.

In Mini it was anybody.s chance to win as TQ bounced from Doty, White, Man and Davies depending on which qualifying round you looked at. In the end it was Jerry Man who secured the TQ spot. The mains proved to be quite exciting as Tom Davies took the first win and White took the second win. The Championship would be decided in the final "A" main and Deven white had the motor to beat. After a couple of laps White took the inside pass on Jerry Man and never looked back. The battle for second podium finish was left for grabs and Davies would be that driver followed by Jerry Man.

The GT-2 class was the biggest class of the TCS Finals this year as 40 drivers went head to head in qualifying to make the top 10 "A" main event. There were a lot of favorites this year and as it turned out everyone that made the "A" main had a good shot of winning, but because of the single handout motor rule, qualifying position was absolutely crucial. John Houda would secure that position as he had figured out his TA-05 for GT-2 competition. In the First main Houda was able to take the win with local elder John Christensen finishing third after a #2 starting position. In "A" main number two Houda got a good start, but fumbled slightly in the first 180 turn that resulted in the field collecting him one by one. A fair start was deemed as Houda had put himself in that position and the field had no where to go. This resulted in Houda being dead last and put him in a precarious position. With a sigh of relief Christensen was able to take the win as the field behind him was doing everything to catch him, but time had just ran out. Houda was able to catch most of the field and ended up second. It would come down to the last main to determine a winner and this time Houda would not make the same mistake twice. He had a good start with Christensen in tow, but it would not be enough as Houda had an edge in motor and a slight edge in corner speed. Houda would take the win as he later disclosed his secret in agility. Houda as it turned out used older Panasonic NHMH 3000 batteries that by today's standards are a very light cell compared to the more favored GP 3700's. It seems that most drivers opted to buy high voltage 3700's, but Houda's gamble in having a light car paid off. Since the Johnson motor can only pull so much the extra voltage would not be enough as we clearly saw.

The "A" mains were not the only exciting races to watch. The lower mains saw some good racing too as drivers in the "B" and "C" mains wanted to show that close racing was not only possible in the upper mains. There were some good battles in GT-2, GT-1 and the Mini lower mains and we congratulate all the winners that won their respective main event.

Tamiya America would like to thank all the host sites and participants of the 2005 TCS Season 11 series and we are very grateful for your support of the series. The series is constantly evolving and striving to be the best and most fun series a manufacture can offer to its customers. Season 12 is just around the corner and some new things will be implemented to liven up the series and keep it fun and economical for all. Some new rules will be set up to adapt to rising concerns. Season 12 rules will be posted by mid October along with the host sites that will be participating. Stay tuned...