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It is now April of 2024 and it has been an exciting season of 1/8th scale off road racing so far with 3 major events in the books and 3 different winners. Southern Indoor Championships or SIC as it is more commonly known, was held in Alabama in January and won by Sworkz’ Brandon Rose. Across the pond we saw the most stacked Montpellier GP in France with all the top talent in Europe attending and the Infinity Driver from Italy Riccardo Berton taking the win. Few weeks ago we saw the 25th edition of the Dirt Nitro Challenge with the Brit, Elliot Boots coming home with the Nitro Buggy title with his Sworkz ride.

This weekend all eyes are on a small town that is White Pine Tennessee for the 17th Psycho Nitro Blast. PNB is the brainchild of Dave Leikum and @RaceTimeEnterntainment and is the second RaceTime event of 2024 as SIC kicks off the 1/8th season in the USA. RaceTime has 4 events per year all under a roof and in various locations around the SouthEast. PNB is the biggest of these events taking place in the biggest indoor venue of the year called The Great Smoky Mountains Expo Center. The track is the biggest we see with a front straight of between 250-300 feet each year, over the years we have seen some of the biggest jumps, wall rides, joker lanes and even a long jump competition held outside with drivers building special rocket cars to send them as far as possible. Adding on to this PNB has pyrotechnics, lights, music, big screen tv’s, monsters walking around 24 hours of practice and big entry counts. This race is truly the most Psycho race on the planet. Dave and the RaceTime crew pull out all the stops on this event.

This race attracts racers from around the USA every year as well as international drivers and all the top Pro racers in the USA attend this race and has become one of the major races in the world of 1/8th RC Racing. This year is no different as we will see the top pros make the trip as well as some of the best intermediate, 40+ and sportsman drivers make the pilgrimage to PNB to compete in various classes that PNB offers. As you know nitro is the glory here at the NNRC so we shall focus on the Pro Nitro Class in this blog.

This year at the PNB we have been told there will be no wall rides or joker lanes but a very big technical track done by Bobby Moore and his RC TrackMasters Crew. The race director of the event is Lance Macdonald who is the premier RD in the SouthEast and one of the best in the world, this year he will introducing Block practice for the first time at a RaceTime event to keep the lines shorter and allow for people to practice with their own skill levels. Also in attendance with Lance is Dany Paz and the Elite RC Productions crew who will collaborate with Racetime’s Jacob Peterson and virtually with The NNRC Podcast Crew Professor Max and myself to provide pictures, social media content, and written reports everyday. The live coverage will be done by Live RC with the legend himself Scotty Ernst doing the commentary online for the world to see.

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One of the biggest names in the Rc racing world to attend his first PNB is the Viking David Ronnefalk who is making the trip over from Sweden, after coming second in Pro nitro buggy at the DNC the Viking is the biggest European driver to attend the PNb in its 17 years and. The 2016 World champion will be looking to give the Euros their second win in the USA in 2024. The Viking is showing the determination we saw from him in 2022 when he joined Mayako and had an excellent year. After a lackluster 2023, now on the XRAY chassis and back on an open tire Ronnefalk is looking like one of the favorites to take the Win in any of the classes he enters.

The American drivers will be looking to even up the score against the Euros. Ryan Maifield will be looking for revenge in pro nitro buggy after 4th at SIC and 10th at the DNC. The Tekno Rc driver is one of the best in the world and will be looking to reassert his dominance in the Nitro buggy class and take the in like he did in 2022 at PNB.

Dakotah Phend comes into PNB as your defending champion having won this race last year and finishing third at the DNC. Phend has had an up and down 2024 showing great pace and speed as usual but unable to capitalize and take a win.

The Iceman Mason Fuller always seems to do well at this race. Last year he finished second in the nitro buggy. Team Fuller made the switch to the SWORKz Chassis for 2024 SIC was his first race with the new car where he finished 3rd. Mason finished 8th at the DNC and would not be happy with this result. He has won Truggy at PNB and has won A buggy at other races as well but that first big Nitro Buggy win has eluded the 18 year old. Will PNB Be the race that Mason takes the W and stamp his authority on the RC Racing World?

BRose!!!! One of the most liked drivers in Rc Brandon Rose from Texas who took his first major win at SIC in January with superb and exciting drive. He backed that up with a solid 6th at the DNC. BRose finished 3rd in Pro Nitro buggy last year and with the switch to JConcepts tire this year he seems to have kicked his racing into high gear and will be looking to show the world it truly is RoseTime!!

With 18 drivers making the A final there are lots of potential racers to compete for the win and many drivers looking to do that like Ryan Lutz, Joe Bornhorst, Spencer Rivkin, Camden Lime, Lil Bump, Tyler Jones and more. All are capable of winning but there can only be one and who will it be?

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Also don't forget that the PNB is the 3rd race for the pro Nitro Buggy class on the NNRC Cup Virtual Series Tour brought to you by Elite RC Productions. With Dakotah Phend leading the points followed by Brandon Rose it will be interesting to see who comes out on top after PNB.

The NNRC Cup also includes the intermediate and Sportsman Nitro Buggy classes and is the second race on the schedule.

Chuck The Iceberg Slim Berg leads the points in Intermediate Buggy and is going to be in attendance and in the Sportsman class Ronald Kimball leads the points in Sportsman.

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The 2024 Psycho Nitro Blast is looking to be stacked and full of competition and looking to be one of the biggest races of the year. I look forward to watching how the race unfolds over the weekend.

Who do you think will take the win of this years most Psycho race on the Planet ??