World champion Ryan Cavalieri and his new BJ 4X4 were the only story at the 4th Annual Team Losi Off-Road ChampionshipSponsored by the Minnreg R/C Club and presented April 8 – 10, 2005 this year at the West Coast R/C track at Lake Park near Tampa, Florida. This track for many years was home to the Florida WinterChamps race, and with the Minnreg crew running the event, it went off flawlessly.

Brad Reelfs brought Cavalieri’s BJ to the track Thursday morning, and the champ ran two packs for practice, pronouncing the car ready to go. Ironically, on his first official outing with the new car, Ryan broke a front control arm on the first lap of H-1.

Cavalieri really got it going in H-3, besting Travis Amezcua by 2 ½ seconds with nine laps between 30.4 and 30.9 and one of 31.0, one of the most consistent races I’ve ever seen. Travis had five 30s, including an amazing last-lap 30.0, but was less consistent. Jesse Robbers had four 30 sec laps, and Matt Francis had three. JR Mitch and Adam Drake had two, and Jared Tebo had one. Only Cavalieri lived the whole race in the 30s.

In H-4 Ryan smoked the field again, this time besting Matt Francis by 5 seconds. This time Cavalieri had nine 30 sec laps and a 31.1 while Francis had only three 30-sec laps. Adam Drake had three, Mike Truhe, Greg Hodapp, and Travis Amezcua had two, and JR Mitch had one. Again, Cavalieri’s domination of H-4 was awesome.

At first it appeared that Amezcua was the TQ.  He had won the first two rounds, and Cavalieri had won rounds 3 and 4.  So TQ would go to the tiebreaker:  who had the best throwout round?  Officially, Cavalieri had a DNS for round one and a 14th in round two.  Amezcua had a 2nd in round three and 17th in round four.  However, a check of the scoring sheets shows that Cavalieri recorded 10 laps in round two, not the 8 that the score sheet shows, and the 10-lap run made him 2nd in that round.  When they finally sorted it out, Ryan was the TQ.

A-1 saw a wide variation in tire selection, as the first round of As started at 9AM. Many people argue that these races have become a tire war and say this is a reason for hand-out tires, while others argue that it’s another concern which drivers must think about and overcome. 4WD was race 8 so we got underway about 10 and the sun had warmed the track up a bit.

Greg Hodapp wore Tapers on both ends, while Brandon Hershey used Holeshots front and rear. JR Mitch and Jason Ruona both used Blockheads and BK Bars while Mike Truhe had Tapers all around. Jesse Robbers used X-2000s on the rear and Holeshots up front and Adam Drake used Tapers front and back, but the fronts had some wear on them. Francis had Blockheads and Tapers, Amezcua used Tapers front and rear, and Cavalieri had Tapers and BK Bars.

The start was clean, with Cavalieri in front of Amezcua and Francis. Amezcua bumped the pipe on the 180 before the pitcher’s mound, giving Cavalieri some breathing room. Then Francis and Amezcua collided going into the double-doubles, holding themselves and everyone else up, and Cavalieri motored off into the sunset. Ryan had a full length of the straightaway lead finishing the first full lap. Truhe came out of the mess second with Drake right on his tail, and they got involved in the 180 after the third crossover. Drake got the best of that with Truhe well behind and Cavalieri through the first crossover before Drake was even on the straight at the end of the second full lap.

Many drivers switched to Tapers and BK Bars for the second A main or Tapers all around, and nobody was running ProLine tires now, as the ProLines seem to work best in the morning when it’s cool. A really clean start gave a determined Travis Amezcua the opportunity to firmly attach himself to Cavalieri’s bumper, and they slowly drew away from the rest. Amezcua lost 7/10 second on the first lap, and fought to make that up, turning an incredible 30.1 on lap four. This was turning into a good race, as Travis and Ryan kept turning laps in the mid 30s about 10 feet apart.

They each made small mistakes on lap 5, with Amezcua doing a snap roll under the third crossover but landing on his wheels and Cavalieri touched the outside wall on the straight getting up on two wheels and requitring him to slow down to collect it. So they finished that lap as they started, about 10 feet apart. With half the teeth cut out of the belt, Amezcua’s car was clearly audible all over the track, but the car sure was fast. Francis was running in third a ways back, with Drake a bit further back, and by lap 6 everyone else was out of it.

At the end of lap 7, Adam Drake snap-rolled at the end of the straight and broke the right rear hub carrier. He realized the car was broken as he went through the banked sweeper on the left side of the track and started to pull off by going over the first hill of the first crossover and turning right to take the car out of the way next to the drivers’ stand. But here came Cavalieri and Amezcua through the chicanes under the crossovers, and Ryan ran into Drake’s car! It only cost Cavalieri a little bit, but now the positions were reversed, with Amezcua in front and Cavalieri right behind. then Ryan rolled in the 180 after the last crossover on lap 9 and Amezcua took the win.

A-3, the last race on the program, took place after the long gas races about 7PM with the entire track in shadow from the low sun and the surrounding trees. Everybody was on BK Bars or Tapers for the rear with Blockheads or Tapers on the front. Drake had almost bald Tapers on the front and Francis has almost bald Blockheads. Cavalieri changed tires just before the race, and it became apparent he made the right choice with Tapers and BK Bars.

Cavalieri simply checked out in A – 3, with more than a straightaway lead after lap one. There were all sorts of crashes behind him but at the end of lap two Amezcua was solidly in second place, though 5 seconds behind the leader. Ryan Cavalieri put it on cruise control and won the 4th Annual Team Losi Championship by almost half a lap. Congratulations, Ryan!!