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Western Grand Nationals, Monroe, WA, 6/25-7/2

“From Jr. Honda to Lt. AA, you just can’t beat a RICE CAR!” That’s what people were saying after TEAM RICE brought home 2 more Grand National Championships; Jr. Honda with Famous Rhodes, & Lt. AA with Tommy McCarthy. Winning in such a broad spectrum (those classes are about as far apart in speed as it gets) just goes to show how versatile that these RICE CARS really are, and how they are fast in any class.

Qualifying started off strong, with Famous Rhodes ripping off an awesome time in Jr. Animal to qualify 2nd, & newcomer Dario Retych running a great time himself to get 3rd quick. Another Grands rookie, Peyton Sias, also had a great run to qualify 7th. In Jr. Honda, Famous kept up the good work by pulling in another 2nd fast time. In the (in)famous Red, White, & Blue Sr. Honda car, Blake Bower was a little too loose & came in with 7th quick as well. Jr. Stock was up next, & Famous had a good run to net himself 5th fast (he would later go on to absolutely dominate the “B” main but dq’d due to a post-qualifying oversight. More on that later). As we moved along into the faster classes, TR had just as much success. Tommy McCarthy qualified well enough to sit on the pole of the Lt. Mod “A” main, and the lap before he went on the clock was good enough for fast time. Blake Bower’s 2nd car, Lt. 160, was a little too snug as well, & he came in with a 12th place qualifying run to put him in the “C” main. His Lt. B however, was moving pretty well around the track as he qualified outside pole in the “A”. And speaking of AAs, Tommy McCarthy’s BRAND NEW (1st time out!!) XR Evolution Lt. AA car was an absolute bullet, missing FT by .004 (read: 4 thousandths) due to what we later found was an out of round RF wheel (oops!). His Lt. World Formula car did almost as well, and finished as the fast car in the “B” main (which he would later win). In Hvy. WF Harley Rose was bad fast, but a little bit of lack of focus left him with a qualigying time to put him into the “D” main. Not to worry, though. He wouldn’t stay there.

We didn’t really have too many cars in the lower mains (always a good sign, so I guess we’ll start with Harley’s Hvy. 160 car, which started out in the “F” main. Well, he won that one & transferred 3 times up into the “D”, where he was running a strong 3rd when a car spun right in front of him to end his day. Later on in the “D”s, his WF car was awesome, & he easily transferred out. And then he did the same in the “C”. And then again, while running strong in the “B”, a questionable decision cost him the chance to move up yet again into the “A” main. Blake transferred with little drama from the “C” to the “B”, and then from the “B” to the “A” in his Lt. 160 machine. Tommy did the same in his only “B” main car (Lt. WF), winning the “B” main as previously mentioned. The only drama came after the Jr. Stock
B”, where Famous Rhodes ran away with the race, but after it was over going through scales we realized that we had forgotten to get the motor sealed after qualifying. This was a hard pill to swallow as we had a really fast car, and it’s always tough to explain something like that to a kid who is all excited to have just won a race. I guess it is just one of those learning experience things, and I guarantee it won’t happen again (or at least not for a very long time!).

So on to the “A” mains, where Jr. Animal was the 1st race out. Famous jumped out to an early lead after starting 3rd, & then was passed on a missed corner to run 2nd for a while. We went about 20 consecutive green laps, & Famous made his move & passes the leader, but after only a couple laps of leading a yellow bunched the field back up. A great battle ensued over the next few laps, but we unfortunately came out on the short end and finished a strong 2nd. Sr. Honda was up next, & Blake was pretty fast and even had a chance to possibly get to the front on a late restart, but he unfortunately got freight-trained & shuffled back to 6th. The Jr. Honda finish more than made up for it, as Famous came home with his 2nd Grands championship in as many years. He started 3rd and was either 1st or 2nd the whole way, keeping his nose clean and driving just an absolutely perfect & very smart race to bring home the 1st win of the day for TR. It definitely made the Stocker mistake not sting so bad! Lt. Mod was up next, but we left the sway bar loose on the car, which made the thing push like a dumptruck after only a couple laps. Tommy McCarthy still drove it for all she was worth to bring in a 6th place finish, but that was definitely a disappointment after such a strong qualifying run, and especially for such an avoidable thing. Another learning lesson, I guess. Blake’s 160 was next, where he must have come from the back 3 times to place a really strong 4th. In Lt. B, I think we definitely had the car to beat. Blake really tried hard & drove the wheels off of it, but his lack of experience in the upper classes showed a bit as the race wore on. He still did great, coming in 4th, but I think he definitely learned some things that he can use the next time. And at this level, learning is what it’s all about. The race of the day came 2 races later, however, when basically the plot of the final race in the movie “Days of Thunder” played out. As previously mentioned, Tommy had a brand new XR Evolution that was on its maiden voyage, and man did it deliver. He started 4th, just biding his time running 2nd or 3rd, but as the race went on the car started to tighten up a bit. On a caution halfway through, we brought him in to make an adjustment, but barely made it out past the green flag (the figurative Pace car) to stay in the race. He came out right in front of the leader, but buckled down & started to pull away. Luckily, we got a caution a few laps later which allowed us to go around to the back of the pack. Tommy began picking them off 1 (and sometimes 2) at a time, getting up to 2nd place. With 7 to go, another caution came out putting us directly behind the leader. That kid had no chance. Tommy put an awesome move on him and when he went to pull off the corner, his RICE POWERED AA motor (a motor we call SledgeHammer for good reason) absolutely rocketed off the turn & he just drove away with it from there to win his 1st ever Grand National Championship, & TR’s 2nd of the day (btw, Team Rice has now won 2 of the last 3 Lt. AA Western Grands. Just saying.) After the race, the Vega rep came over & looked at the tires and said that they were the best looking tires he’d seen all day, and that we could go another 100 laps on those things right then. I guess that RICE XR Evo was working pretty good... ;). The day finished up with Tommy driving his Lt. WF car to a very respectable 4th place. We took what we learned in the AA race a little too far & he was a bit too loose.

All in all, the week was a great success & we are so proud of all the TR drivers that competed. We are really excited about all of the new families coming in, & we really have a great stable of drivers moving forward into the next few years. Thanks so much to the Washington club for the hospitality, & now onto the USAC “grands” - Battle at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway!

USAC Battle at the Brickyard Nationals, Indianapolis, IN, 7/6- 9

Once again, TEAM RICE’s domination at USAC National events continued. Coming away with 2 more USAC Battle at the Brickyard championships, we were able to extend our streak of winning at LEAST 2 at every event we’ve ever been to. And this year, it was a little bit harder to do that, because we only brought 3 cars, with recently crowned Jr. Honda QMA Western Grands Champion Famous Rhodes driving in Jr. Honda, Jr. Animal, & Jr. Stock. The week started out with a mad dash to get from Seattle, WA all the way out to Indianapolis in just 3 days, but we made it just under the wire. We didn’t even have time to set up the cars before we pushed off for practice! Famous was quick right from the start, though, especially in Jr. Animal. He won the Jr. Honda heat race, and then promptly turned around and won the Jr. Animal heat as well. He made a couple mistakes in the Jr. Stock race, and actually finished 3rd. That was still good enough with his passing points, though, to put all three of his cars right into the A main, which gave us a whole day off on Friday.

When the mains came around, Famous was a little bit rusty in the Jr. Honda (although it WAS the 1st race out in the morning…), and he made a couple errors that caused him to wreck out of the race and DNF. He would quickly remedy those issues though, as he then went on to win BOTH the Jr. Stock & Jr. Animal races. In the stock race, an early DOT sent him to the back, and he was really patient and drove a really smart and great race to get back up to the front. Once he got out front, though, he began to pull away and won fairly easily. In the Jr. Animal race, though, was when he and his RICE XR7 car really shined. He started on the pole (they don’t invert), and just drove away. Every caution, he would pull away again. The only thing that slowed him down was a 10 minute red flag from when water from the plastic walls (water filled) leaked all over turn 4 after someone ran into them. After that was cleaned up, Famous went back to work and just absolutely dominated the race after that, pulling out to a ¾ lap lead. In his post race interview, he was very quick to thank the entire TEAM RICE team for giving him such a fast car & motor, as well as his competitors in all his classes and of course, his mom.

We had an absolutely amazing time at the “Mecca of Motorsports”, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. From the racing to touring the museum, to a special treat where we even got to go out onto the track and kiss the bricks (I KNOW!!!), the people at USAC, IMS, and the Indianapolis area showed us an absolutely great time, and we can’t wait to come back next year!