Posted: 7/8/10
After months of waiting, and running numerous qualifiers, it was finally time to pack the Axial RV and head off to the Axial West Coast Championship Finals in Cisco Grove, Ca. The build-up for this years comp began back in January when the first 2010 AWCC Qualifier was held in Escondido, Ca. For this year's championships no one got a free ticket into the main event Saturday afternoon. You either had to attend one of the 5 qualifier events, and earn an invite by a top 10 finish or sign up for the "Last Chance Qualifier" on Friday before the finals and make the top 20 on that day. So, this event anyone you were competing against earned their way into the main event. Axial hoped this would make for a really tight/competitive comp as far as the top scores go, and that is pretty much how it all played out. Hit one bad gate on any one of the 5 courses and you dropped 10 places in the overall standings instantly. There was no room for error at this year's event...................period.The drive through California via the 395 highway.
The RV was getting a little thirsty, so we stopped off for a drink.
Back on the road.
Settling into our campsite.
Axial staff hard at work.
Game on!!
Brandon spotting for me on course #1.
Team Axial driver Becky Barger working course #2.
Scott Hughes and his freshly built XR10 working course #1.
Jason Gainey works course #1.
A few more random shots from the 3 courses down by the river.
RCCrawler.com was on hand broadcasting video of the weekend's events.
John Hubbard from RCCrawler working the live feed. He looks so content in this picture for some strange reason.
No clue what is going on here.
More pictures from courses 4 and 5.
Brandon on course #4.
Scott H working course #4.
Me on course #4.
After everyone was done running courses it was time to gather around the Axial tent for the trophy presentation.
And the winners are..........
Last Chance Qualifier-Pro
1st Chris Mcmullin
2nd Doug Toney
3rd Kevin Gunderson
Last Chance Qualifier-Sport
1st Eric Hill
2nd Justin McCoy
3rd Dustin Howe
Sport Class-Finals
1st Michael Boling
2nd James Roque
3rd Tom Havel
Rock Candy-Finals-Sport
1st Shannon Davis
2nd Natalia Morales
3rd Kacie Vess
Rock Candy-Finals-Pro
1st Becky Barger
2nd Candance Flaming
3rd Jess Downing
Pro Shafty-Finals
1st Jay Robbinette
2nd Jake Wright
3rd Tom Brown
Pro Overall-Finals
1st John Ripplinger
2nd John Hall
3rd Jason Veal
Congrats to all the winners, you guys really earned it!! Axial would like to thank everyone that helped us with this event, and the overall series. A huge thanks goes out to Brian Parker and Stuart Gartner for all their hard work throughout this whole series, we couldn't have done it without you guys! Thanks to all the sponsors that helped support the finals too, Vanquish Products, Futaba, Novak, Pro-Line, RCCrawler.com, and Xtreme R/C. We couldn't have done it without your support either.
The dust has barely settled on this year's AWCC Series, and I am already excited for next year's series to start. If you couldn't make it to any of these events this year, try and make it to one next year, you won't be disappointed. And like Warren Miller always says, "If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do." See you next year!!
