This year at the snowbirds I decided to race the Serpent ERYX 2.0 in stock rubber and 13.5 Super stock rubber to create some interest in our products and see where we could improve our car as well as my knowledge of rubber tc racing.

I also raced my favorite class mod 12th scale with the Serpent S120 LTX. I have been running almost every week at my home track “The Gate” and a few other local tracks, Red Mosquito and Access Hobbies, so going into the race I was very prepared in tc for high grip traction rolling cars. I practiced with Sweep and Jaco tires and had a good setup for both of them, the only problem is the newest batch of Jaco’s pushed like mad! It caught me off guard as in Vegas almost everyone was having an over steer problem with Jaco’s so I figured this would be the same. So all week I was searching for steering and by the mains I was pretty close with only a small percent to be at my and the cars best. What was weird is the track had lots of grip because 12th scales were traction rolling so I knew it was the tires on the TC.

There was a good amount of practice time to get the car dialed in, I was very tentative to go to much at once so it probably took me a little longer than it should have to get where I needed to be. Basically for me everything high, stiffer and more rigid was better, where the months before the race it was the complete opposite.

I qualified 11th in 13.5 super stock and was able to bump to the A main. I didnt have a good start to the race, my body tucked on the start and was a lap down before I even crossed for my first lap. At that point I was out of contention but enjoyed driving my car around since it was so much better than earlier in the week.

In stock TC I qualified 12th. I had a couple chances of being directly in the A main but my pace in qualifying was not fast enough to where if I had an error I could get in. Both of my fast qualifiers I had traffic issues and only missed the A main by a few tenths. In the B main I started 3rd and made it to 2nd, I followed the leader for a bunch of laps trying to get around but every time he made a mistake I let off so I wouldnt hit him. I was being very nice but in the end it bit me as the last time he made a mistake it took us both out of contention for the bump up. I did wind up 3rd after all the chaos.

For mod 12th the grip on the track was super high but I though my car worked really well all week. I just could never find the pace of the A main guys. All in all the car was great to drive and I finished 3rd in the B main.

Paul Ciccarello
Serpent America