On The Track: RTR Diecast

by Ali Kidder-Mostrom

Last week’s Saturday Night Grudgefest, pitted a red Jeep Gladiator (representing Hot Wheels) against a white Jeep Wrangler (racing for Matchbox).

The Matchbox pulled ahead to an early lead in lap one and, in a trick fit for Chaos Canyon’s Lily the Dog, literally rolled across the finish line and landed on her wheels. Lap two saw a similar stunt from the white Wrangler; unfortunately, this time landing in a much less glamorous posture, as well as second to the red Gladiator.

With each Jeep recording a win, it all came down to lap three. This one was clean racing, with each competitor giving it all they had to jump across that finish line to the win. However, after pulling ahead it was ultimately the Jeep Gladiator that walked away with a rare Hot Wheels win.

Once that grudge was settled, it was on to the most recent main event to grace the Mayes Mountain Motor Speedway: the RTR Truck Series.

In this tournament, groups of four compete in a round-robin race to see which two will move on in the series. Groups A and B raced this week sending the first four on in the competition.

Group A started with Po’ Boy in the lead out of the gate, but when he flipped in the final straightaway, Alex Payne took advantage and drifted across the finish line, well ahead of the rest of the competitors. In lap two, two cars stood out from the pack: Str8tline Livie’s deep blue Chevy took a commanding lead coming out of the first turn to win the lap and Po’ Boy demonstrated that (when he can stay on his wheels) he had impressive closing speed, coming up from nowhere in the final straightaway to finish 2nd.

Lap three ended in a photo finish between Str8tline Livie and Todd Owen. In lap four, Str8tline Livie lost some luster (finishing last), but it was still enough to carry that Chevy on to the next round. Str8tline Livie moves on with Todd Owen, who snuck up from behind, moving from third to first throughout the round robin race.

Group B featured a Chevy, a Datsun and two Fords. These trucks liked to stick together, but as inevitably happens, the competitors eventually spread out, with Chad Hall (in a black Chevy) finishing first in 2 laps. When all the points were tallied, Big H and his white Datsun managed to join Chad Hall in moving forward to the next round, after he took a long lead out of the turn and a lap four win. He just edging out Cole Peters ’ orange Ford (which won lap three).

For those who want a little extra racing action, RTR also posted footage of the “Four Horsemen” (RTR, FRRC, Chaos Canyon and Jackson Pass) doing a practice run of vehicles apparently headed to the Hot Wheels Calgary Birdco 1000. If you’ve also got a vehicle headed to Canada, this might be the perfect opportunity to scope out the competition.