2025 Florida RC Championship Round 1 Sundancers Raceway RC Club - Port St. Lucie, FL

Feb 15

2025 Florida RC Championship season opener kicks off at Sundancers RC in Port St Lucie, FL. We decided to come down to Florida from North Carolina a few days earlier so we could visit with family and check out 727RC.

We left Tampa Thursday to Port St Lucie.

Thursday we dropped off the trailer and then started our search for food. Sundancers is 20ish minutes away from food or gas. I prefer being out and away from the crazy busy areas. We found a restaurant on the water called Cobbs Landing. Good service and tasty Blue Point Oysters!

Friday gates opened at 0800 and practice kicked off at 1000. The track was pretty wet so I waited for others to get out there and put some rubber down. It was overcast so I was hoping that would clear so the sun could dry the track out as well. The track is known for its hard packed and high bite surface. It just needed to dry out and it would be there. Right now it was pretty loose with all the moisture.

Looking at the weather we had rain on the way so I hit the track with the E buggy. I went out on Promotion Vipers T1 compound. This was my first time out on them and they worked well on the loose surface but lacked some forward drive.

Buy Promotion Viper

The second time out I went with Promotion Talons in Soft Compound. They were definitely better on this loose surface than the Vipers. Then the rain hits, some light showers with heavy downpours mixed in. Now we wait for the rain to end and then the several hour delay in hopes the track dries out again.

Buy Promotion Talon

I decided the next time out I would mount the camera on the car for some on track footage. With very little practice and NO setup changes to compensate for the camera I went back out. Man what a difference the camera weight and height made to the car. Next time I will run stiffer springs and thicker sway bars. I will say once I got use to how the car acted with the camera it helped it in some situations with this loose surface. Either way I will be more prepared next time with the camera car. After that run it was still overcast and no hope in sight for the track drying out. We decided to call it a day and call practice a defeat. We got back to Cobbs Landing for dinner and got poured on. Looked on the radar and sure enough it poured at the track too.

Saturday usually kicks off the mains at 8 but we were on a delay due to how wet the track was. Luckily the sun was out and the track was drying. I would be up first in E Buggy for qualifying followed much later on by Nitro Buggy. I would use Soft Talons for both of my quals. The Nitro Buggy is a fresh build and I am still working on dialing in. The main issue I had was the lack of brakes. Both runs went well with plenty of work to be done for the second qual. Unfortunately due to the late start we would only run one qual so no chance of improvement for a better run. I am grateful we did this as it would mean we would get out at a somewhat decent time.

Mains come around and I would be up in Nitro Buggy B Main first starting in 2nd. I dialed more brake into the car and would keep the Talons on the car but move to Soft Long Wear. The tire was a bit much and I should have went with a Phantom in the same compound. Oh well lets send it and see where we land. In the first few turns I would take over the lead and start to pull away. I cross the line and hear the car flame out, Great! We get the car going again and so much time went by I just went out and did what I could. I managed to work my way back up to 7th after being in dead last (12th). Guess not too bad with the little time I had on the track, especially with this car.

E buggy A Main is next starting in 6th. A few mistakes I find myself fighting from the back of the pack up. I make my way up and then a mistake on second to last lap puts me back to 10th where I would finish. I stuck with Talons in Soft Compound and they were great. My end result was 100% driver sucks! A2 is up still using Soft Talons and still taking unnecessary risks I finish yet again in 10th.

2025 Florida RC Championship Round 1 Sundancers Raceway RC Club - Port St. Lucie, FL

Absolutely terrible performance on my part. Absolutely awesome event by Elite RC and Sundancers. Looking forward to the next event! Now back to North Carolina!

John Cate