It is truly a sad week for R/C racing in the Central Illinois area. Wally Norris passed away of a heart attack on Tuesday, January 18th. Wally was one of the friendliest racers to ever visit Allen's R/C. No one ever had more fun putting a r/c car on the track than Wally did, and no one worked harder on both his cars as well as himself to improve week in and week out. Wally raced r/c cars for all the right reasons and always had fun no matter the outcome. Always there to greet the new racers and make friends whenever he could, and always eager to lend a helping hand to anyone that needed it.

An enemy of no one, a friend to everyone. Wally, you will be missed. Godspeed buddy.

JANUARY 15th RECAP posted on Jan 23rd, 2011

Alot of great racing again at Allen's R/C. Fierce action on both the Off-Road and Oval provided a lot of entertainment and fun for all competitors. Up first for the day was the ever exciting Carpet Off-Road racing. In 16th Scale, Allen Mendenhall was able to overtake Steve Quartermouse on the final lap to pick up the win. Wally Norris and Bailey Goldsberry battled back and forth all day long in Sportsman 2wd but it was Norris picking up the win after Goldsberry's battery failed in the closing laps of the race. Chris Shearburn took the win in Spec Slash followed by Toe Taft who managed to hold off a hard charging Jim Fisher.

In the oval portion of the day Allen's R/C saw the return of pan-cars for the first time in over a year. Several drivers showed up for the BRL 15.5 Open class. Kevin Klyber dominated most of the day and picked up the A main win with father-son duo of Jim and Alex Fanning battling for 2nd with Alex coming out on top. The Mini Late Model class was full of surpises and excitement as Kace Schuh picked up his first career A Main win in the "top dog" class. Brian Mills kept Schuh honest as he hounded the young driver within 1 - 2 seconds all race. Alex Fanning made use of his B Main bump up to score the 3rd position.

RACING SATURDAY 1/8/2011 posted on Jan 7th, 2011

Just a reminder there will be racing this Saturday (tomorrow). Same schedule as the New Years Day race. Track opens @ 9am. Off-Road Racing begins @ 11:30am with Oval practice starting when off-road ends and Racing @ 4:00pm.

NEW YEARS DAY RECAP posted on Jan 3rd, 2011

The first race day of 2011 for Allen's R/C raceway is now in the books. A good turnout, good food, and of course good racing made for an enjoyable day of remote control car racing in Rochester, Illinois. To kick off the new year, both Oval as well as Off-Road racing was run on the carpet on the same day. First on the rug was the increasingly popular Off-Road racing.

The first A Main of the year was the newly created 1/16 Short Course Truck class. Soon to be split into Losi 2wd and Traxxas 4wd, it was decided to run a combined race for the New Years kick-off. Wood River, IL native Steve Quartermouse took TQ honors with his 1/16 Losi 2wd. Mark Daniels would make a rare driver appearence sporting his new Traxxas 4wd SCT. On the tone, Mark Daniels would jump out to the early lead while pole sitter Quartermouse played tag with the first turn wall. Coming around for the first lap it was Daniels leading the way with Chris Shearburn driving the Allen Mendenhall prepared Losi 2wd rent-A-ride in 2nd place after having to start shot-gun on the field.

Daniels enjoyed between a 2 - 3 second lead for the first few laps of the race until he bobbled going into the sweeper on lap 6. This gave Shearburn the lead and the eventual win. Daniels would manage to hold on to 2nd place after a small mid-race battle between he and Quatermouse who rounded out the top 3.

Next on the grid was the Sportsman 2wd class. This class features the future stars of r/c racing at Allen's. Any two wheel drive car is allowed in this class where drivers can race and gain that much needed experience before moving up. Wally Norris would grab the TQ in his first ever off-road race. However, Andrew Green jumped out to the early lead while Norris got off to a rough start in 3rd behind Bailey Goldsberry who slid into 2nd. After a few laps Norris managed to get around Goldsberry for the runner up spot and got as close as .3sec behind Green. However, Andrew Green was able to run just clean enough to hold on for the win after also setting fast lap of the race. Norris and Goldsberry would finish 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The third and final race of the day was the Stock Spec Slash class. The truck that started the Short Course craze, made by Traxxas, is a 1/10 scale 2wd short course truck. Very durable, simple, minimal setup options, and just fast enough to be fun. Chris Shearburn would take the TQ position with Matt Morton and Chris Usherwood 2nd and 3rd on the grid. On the tone Shearburn and Morton would jump out first and second while the rest of the field scrambled for the 3rd spot. Shearburn would lead Morton around to complete the first lap, however on lap 2 Shearburn got sideways over the rumble-strips heading onto the backstretch moving Morton to the lead and Doug Canham to 2nd. Shearburn would slide back in line in 3rd just behind Canham.

While Shearburn and Canham battled for the 2nd position Morton set sail to a 3 second lead. On lap 7 Canham rolled it over coming onto the front stretch giving an easy pass for Shearburn and a clear path to the leader Morton. As the laps clicked off Shearburn was able to gain some ground on the lead until just before halfway when Morton rolled it over himself at the end of the sweeper. This gave the lead back to Shearburn which looked like all he needed to secure the win. However, with about 45-seconds remaining Shearburn tangled with the lapped truck of Allen Mendenall, not once, not twice, but three times. This gave the lead back to Morton who would be able to cruise to over a 6 second win over Shearburn who managed to hold on to 2nd while Doug Canham rounded out the top 3.

Next on the rug was the OVAL portion of the event. The oval racing featured both the traditional 18th scale Losi mini Late Model as well as the new Spec 13.5 Pancar class. The first main of the day was the B Main of the Mini Late Models. Just missing the cut for the A Main was Kace Schuh who started from the pole along side Justin Fernandez in 2nd. On the tone it was immediately apparent how brutal the 4-minute race would be. Fernandez was out early while pole sitter Schuh got off to a rough start himself. Brandon Eskew would lead breifly before Alex Fanning would take over and never look back to secure the win and the bump-up to the A Main. Schuh managed to crawl back to 2nd place while Brandon Eskew finished a solid 3rd.

The new Spec 13.5 Pancar class was up next. Spec tires, motor, battery, body, and utilizing the ROAR sportsman ESC rules makes this class the most cost effective way to get into pancar racing. Jason Renard, after a strong 3rd round performance, would snag TQ honors away from the Missouri Legend himself... Mike "MadMan" Kelm. On the initial start, Kelm "accidentally" got into the left rear quarter panel of the pole sitter sending him into the infield. Since the corner marshall was't paying attention and everyone wanted a good clean start, the race was restarted in hopes of a cleaner restart.

On the restart, the field got off cleanly with Renard and Kelm nose-to-tail freight-training away from the field. For the first half of the race the two cars wouldn't be separated by more than a few carlengths as they sliced their way around lap traffic. However, after a few bad mis-que's and a good thump against the outside retaining wall, Kelm's race would end early just one and a half minutes shy of the end. This gave Renard easy sailing to his first win of the day. Shelley Renard clawed her way to a 2nd place run to make it a Renard 1-2 finish while Jim Gaines held on to score a 3rd place finish.

The last race of the day was the A Main of Mini Late Model. TQ was once again Quincy, IL hot-shoe Jason Renard while the southern duo of Steve Quartermouse and Cliff Wilkinson took the next two spots in qualifying. However, the traditional A Main Invert put bump-up driver Alex Fanning on pole along side Joe Taft. On the tone, Taft would lead the first few laps before Renard could carve his way to the lead from the last spot on the grid. Once he got there, it was no stopping the all white #7 as Jason Renard would pick up the win and sweep the Oval portion of New Years Day racing at Allen's R/C. Alex Fanning made good use of his B Main bump-up to finish 2nd while Steve Quartermouse, after struggling most of the day, managed to pull off a solid 3rd place run.

Everyone at Allen's R/C would like to thank those who came out to race and we hope everyone enjoyed themselves. There was a lot of good racing and we look forward to hopefully seeing everyone again in 2011.

- OFF-ROAD RESULTS
- OVAL RESULTS