February 6th, 2010 -  A new year brings a new season, a new event and a new venue. The New York RC Monster Truck Challenge for the first time rolled into Enfield Conneticut's R/C Madness racing facility for the first ever RC Monster Truck Challenge Winter Wars event. This is a one off racing and freestyle evene to open the season. This event was not a points event for the reular series, the drivers only had to worry about performing today, and that they did. 17 monster trucks were on hand to do battle on the indoor carpet track for racing and freestyle. Some trucks are sporting new paint schemes and we have several new trucks and new drivers. George Fabbiani debuted a brand new look for the SLAYER monster truck which looked awesome. Today also saw the driving debut of Julie Aldrich driving her monster truck JEWELZ, our first ever female driver in the RCMTC as well as Chad Costa driving a new Bigfoot truck as well as a second Grave Digger truck dubbed "Digger 2". Derrick Algieri made his return to monster truck racing with Bounty Hunter, Firestone Wilderness and Mr. Destruction. Derrick last competed in the 2004 RCMTRA World Finals. John Browning was the fourth driver making his RCMTC debut with the Cult energy activator and two other race trucks.   The indoor facility at RC madness holds two carpet tracks, the other track featured on-road oval racing all day, so there was alot of RC action to catch on this day.

RACING HIGHIGHTS - The racing competition today was one of the toughest we've seen. The unique racing course made for some challenging runs for the drivers and everyone was close. Kyle DeFalco had an early edge with the CPE Maximum Destruction. Max-D won three of the five racing rounds held, with Shock Threapy close behind. Dan DeFalco won round 2 over Bigfoot Destination and was pulling off strong rounds all day. Abdul Rascoe showed major strength during racing by taking a round in the brand new TANG twin force machine. Abdul's Big Red monster was also strong for most of the day. Also Bounty Hunter and Slayer were among the top racers even after George Fabbiani wrestled steering problems early he was able to pull off some good passes. Maximum Destruction was able to grab the overall racing win, with Shock Therapy second and Bigfoot Destination third, Tang fourth and Big Red rounded out the top 5. Places 5 through 17 were all seperated by a matter of 5-7 points per position.

FREESTYLE HIGHLIGHTS - freestyle was exciting as always. There were plenty of obstacles to hit and the trucks let loose and impressed everyone and there were plenty of highlights. Everyone had strong runs and some good hits. Chad Costa's opening run in Bigfoot held the lead with a score of 21 for the first 8 freestyles until Shock Therapy bettered the run with a 22. Mr. Destruction , Big Red and Slayer and Maximum Destruction all had good moves but not enough to grab the lead. Dan DeFalco's Grave Digger was last out and was on the way to a winning run when the right front tire broke off. Digger continued but couldn't do enough to grab the win. Shock Therapy will grab the freestyle win.

Check out some pictures from today's event.
A diagram of the racing trackAbdul Rascoe debuts "Tang" a kyosho twin forceKyle DeFalco's revamped centurion chassis ran great all day. The new identity for this was not yet ready so Bigfoot Firestone Destination made a return. The truck is seen posing with JewlezGeorge Fabbiani's brand new SLAYER truck, sporting a brand new ford body and xtreme x-c2 chassisChad Costa's monstersJohn Browning's Cult Energy Activatorthe first lady of the RCMTC!!! Julie Alrdrich driving Jewelz. This truck is the former Dan DeFalco driven Rammunition/Raminator from 2003-2008John Browning's Cult Activator is joined by his other racers, Big Bird and Big Bad EscaladeDerrick Algieri showing off his three racers. RCMTC is allowing brushless this season, and the Bounty Hunter was sporting a system that gave it tons of power!!Grave Digger landing hard and bringing home a winPro-line Firestone Wilderness on the line with The SlayerJohn Browning's Big Bad EscaladeGrave Digger vs. Big Bad EscaladeBig Red vs. JewelzAMSOIL Shock Therapy was sporting a brand new powerplant this weekend that helped propel the truck to a second place racing finish and a freestyle win.Racing winner Kyle DeFalco driving the CPE Maximum Destructiondoor to door racing at it's best!!!Cult Energy Activator leading Digger 2Mr. Destruction airbornCult Activator over the hillJohn Browning catching some big air!!Big Red wrecks wildly while Amsoil Shock Therapy flies overheadJewelz grabbing some big air!!!Max-D grabbing another winpart of the freestyle setup. Featuring a big double jump, double stacked cars, a camper jump and a trailer jump off to the right not picturedmore freestyle obstacles featuring double stacked cars, a tire jump and big air rampBigfoot over the big rampBig Bird freestyleThe aftermath of Grave Digger's freestyle. Dan DeFalco broke the right front off and tried to continue on three wheels but wasn't enough to top his previous run in Shock TherapyShock Therapy sitting atop the camper after being declared the freestyle winner
It was a completely awesome start to the sophmore season of the RC Monster Truck Challenge of New York. A big thanks goes out to all the competitors of both the monster truck and oval racing events. Most importantly we'd like to thank Chris from RC Madness for providing us with an awesome venue to hold this race and we can't wait til we're at RC Madness again.
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