The X Factory Challenge is here for the second year, much bigger and better than last year, when it consisted of just one 4WD race at the Hot Rod Shoot-Out. This year, like last year, four drivers from AE, four from Losi, and two from X Factory are competing for cash prizes, and everyone is encouraged to root for their favorite driver, both on our forums and in person at the track. When the Challenge races were run at the Losi race, we saw absolutely nobody in the pits and the track totally lined with spectators, who cheered loudly as the races went along.

For 2006 X Factory will put on four races with the same 10 drivers in each, paying cash prizes for each race and additional cash prizes for the series winners. We have already run one buggy race and one 4WD race at the Losi race, and there will be one buggy and one 4WD race at the Shoot-Out in July.

Each race will pay $100 for first, $50 for second, and $25 for third. At the end of the four races, the laps and times for all four will be added together, giving a result something like 45 laps in 20:43.81, and this will give a finishing order for the series. The series winner will get $200, second $100, and third $50.

The first race, for buggy, was run on Saturday at the Losi race between H-3 and H-4. X Factory's Greg Hodapp, driving his magnesium proto X-6, led from the second lap on but faced a race-long battle with AE's Ryan Cavalieri. It was a true 5-minute battle, with the crowd cheering on every corner as young Ryan tried everything he knew to get past the wily veteran. Their battle carried them to more than a straightaway lead over the race for third between Jared Tebo and Jesse Robbers. Jesse's mistake on lap 7 cost him three seconds and he made up 1 ½ second in the final two laps to finish fourth just 9/100s second behind.

The second race, for 4WD, was on Sunday after the second set of A mains. In this one World Champ Ryan Cavalieri's BJ 4X4 checked out early and stayed there the whole race, winning by five seconds over Jared Tebo, who was another eight seconds ahead of the xxx-4 of Billy Fischer. The best race was back in the pack where Mike Truhe's xxx-4 took sixth from Ryan Maifield's BJ by 4/100s.

We have the video of the 4WD race up now, but unfortunately the buggy race video is lost. Something happened when we downloaded the buggy vid on Sunday - the audio runs smoothly, but the vid is a series of jerky still pictures. We intend to video both races at Hot Rod.

This incredible field includes a World Champion and all three current ROAR Champions!

Greg Hodapp......................Current ROAR National Champion
Paul Sinclair....................................Designer, X – 5  and  X - 6

Cavalieri.....................................................................AE.....................................................................18/11:00
Tebo..........................................................................AE.....................................................................18/11:07
Robbers.....................................................................Losi....................................................................18/11:18
Ruona.........................................................................AE.....................................................................17/10:49
Fischer.......................................................................Losi....................................................................17/10:50
Truhe.........................................................................Losi....................................................................16/10:03
Amezcua....................................................................Losi....................................................................16/10:07
Sinclair...................................................................X Factory...............................................................16/10:33
Maifield.......................................................................AE.....................................................................15/9:29
Hodapp..................................................................X Factory...............................................................11/6:36

Another $175 will be up for grabs in the buggy race on Saturday at the Shoot-Out, and yet another $175 on Sunday in the 4WD race. Then, $350 more will be paid to the top three drivers for the series. No more bowling trophies – these top pros have their eyes on the dollars!

What do you think Cavalieri, Tebo, and Robbers should do? They're the only ones on 18 laps, and so long as none of the other 7 gets a lap on them, they're guaranteed to be in the top three for the big prizes. So, if you're one of them, do you play it conservative, or do you go for the win. Look what happened to Hodapp when he broke.

How hard do you run if you're Ruona or Fischer? Both a lap down, and winning either or both of the last two races puts them in good shape. But none of the top five can afford to break.

Truhe, Amezcua, and Sinclair have to go for broke. They'll have to make money by winning the remaining races and hope they guys ahead of them don't do as well. Can Maifield come from 9th? TQ at the Worlds certainly has the talent. And Greg Hodapp can upset everybody's plans by winning.

So make sure you come out to the Hot Rod Hobby Shoot-Out if you can to see the final two races in the X Factory Challenge Series and cheer for your favorite driver. We'll do our best to keep you updated from the track along with our other race coverage.