The South-West Tour Series will be holding several races again at the Encino Velodrome in '09

The Season KICK-OFF will be Saturday February 21st. This will be the SWT Series 1st race of the year.

The 3rd Annual International **Allstar-Shootout** will take place April 25-26, and will feature a ISC" International Speed Challenge" Closed course competition* (details to follow)

Stay Tuned for more, or visit www.southwesttour.com (http://www.southwesttour.com)

Just a little update for the Encino Velodrome.

The tour kicked off the season on the high banked 250 meter velodrome last weekend.

40 entries, 29 of them running 21.5/LIPO made for a good day of racing. The weather was a perfect partly cloudy high 60's day, the kind of day made for SPEED.

With the ALLSTAR SHOOTOUT running the 21.5/LIPO combo this year, that's the direction virtually everybody has migrated, so it was expected speeds were going to pick up.

At the end of the day, Joe Blackburn would SHATTER the track record, previously set by Buck VanPatten, 3 times.

The new benchmark in the 21.5 class is a 29/5:08

Drivers will have to wait a few months to break that however. The NEXT visit to the VELODROME in April is the special and uniquie 20 car ALLSTAR SHOOTOUT which does not use a timed racing format, but instead is a "LAP" race.

With a single car (4) Lap qualifying session, the grids will be set for (4) qualifying heats.

The TOP (3) Cars from each of those heats will transfer to the SHOOTOUT TWIN 33 lap Main Events. (12 cars) From there, cars not in the field will run either ONE or TWO "LCQ's" (Last Chance Qualifiers) to transfer the next (4) positions.

The 17-20 spots will be reserved for (3) Past SERIES CHAMPIONS, and (1) Past SHOOTOUT winner. (If not already "in the show") If all competiting "past champions" are securely locked in the field, the remaining positions will then go to the next finishers from the LCQ(s)

SOUND Complicated? IT IS! (But it's usually exciting...once you get past the scoring system nightmares - LOL )

Added to this years event is the ISC (International R/C Speed Challenge) INSANE SPEED RUN.

The INSANE SPEED RUN will primarily feature

A Stock type package. 1/10 Scale production type chassis (Any 540 based motor, brushed or brushless) and a 2s Lipo, or a 6 cell NiMh type battery.

Modified. 1/10th Scale 'special creation' chassis - unlimited Electric Power and Motor

Other. This group will be virtually any scale r/c vehicle (from 1/18th scale to 1/4 scale)

The Encino Velodrome is 250 meters (820 ft) with a steep high banking, located in Southern California.

www.southwesttour.com

www.allstar-shootout.com

http://www.rc-isc.com/Events.html

http://allstar-shootout.com/images/isc_flyer_small.jpg

http://allstar-shootout.com/images/allstar_flyer101_small.jpg