Report by: James Barry

As usual the track was prepared with perfection in mind. This race is held on a carpet track with hand made jumps covered with the same material as the carpet track. In preparation to the nationals, Zack and I worked hard in the months leading up to the event, working on set-ups and honing driving skills. With the thought of last years Nationals, Zack put a run together placing him in TQ and 2nd place in 2wd brushless, 7th place in 4wd stock, 6th place in 4wd mod, and capturing TQ then finishing in 1st place in novice class. This year Zack was determined that he wanted to make a better showing at this prestigious 18th scale event. Zack received his first Xray M18MT for Christmas of 05, and that was when we saw a dramatic improvement in his driving and winning at club level racing almost immediately. We participated in this years 18th scale Nationals with expectations of Zack finishing well. Needless to say, he surpassed my expectations and finished better than expected.

In Big-Block monster class Team Associated's Tony Phalen held the TQ, but Zack was not far behind with a couple of rough qualifiers. When the main was over, Zack had taken the a-main victory with an Xray M18MT almost a full lap on second place. In the 4wd Stock class, we qualified 4th close to 3rd place qualifier Team Associated's Eric Desrosiers. In the final, Zack ended up passing Eric to gain the 3rd place finish. In 4wd Mod class, Zack qualified 4th place on the grid, but when the main was over 3rd place was taken from one of Team Associated's driver by Zack. Zack captured Top Qualifying position along with a first place finish in the 2WD Brushless class.

For a final race after all the mains have been run, they took the 10 best drivers from all classes and held a Super Main. In this grand finally Zack took down 3rd place with his M18MT.

At the end of the weekend of a long race, Zack at the age of 12 years old, and having only been racing for a little over 2 years, proved that he and his Xray trucks can run with the best of them.

Congratulations to Zack for his hard work and dedication!