2013 JConcepts Indoor National Series gets underway in Missouri
The opening round of the 2013 JConcepts Indoor National Series got underway in St.Louis, Missouri, this morning with SmacTrac playing host to the ‘JConcepts Winter Indoor Nationals’. The first race on the 5 round calendar, the event has attracted a quality 300+ plus entry with all of last season’s champions in attendance as they look to defend their titles but they face increasingly strong opposition from Kyosho’s Jared Tebo and Associated’s Ryan Maifield, two big names drivers who have declared their intentions to go for the title in this the 3rd running of the series.
Champion of both 2 & 4WD buggy, winning all five rounds of 4WD buggy in last year’s series, Steven Hartson expects this to be his toughest race yet with the arrival of Tebo and Maifield but he is looking forward to the challenge and said the higher level of competition is good for the profile of the series. Commenting on the track which facility owner Scott McDonald has come up with, the factory Associated driver said its fun to drive especially due to the nicely detailed curbing, but tighter than last year he feels it will be hard to race on adding that qualifying is going to very important. Wishing that there were a few more jumps he said in the early runs both his buggies felt good. Also competing in 2WD Short Course the Californian said his SC10 needed a little work as it felt a bit loose.
Looking for a sixth consecutive win in 4WD Buggy, Hartson’s biggest treat comes from within his own team as Maifield makes his debut in the series this weekend. One of the sports most spectacular drivers, Maifield said he is looking forward to a good weekend of racing adding that while the track is a ‘little small’ the surface is ‘really good’ and its ‘fun to drive’. Also here from Associated is team-manager Brent Thielke, who after putting on the Reedy Race of Champion two weeks ago, will have a slightly less stressful weekend but as defending champion of the Mod Truck class he wont be able to relax to much.
His first time to race in the series, Tebo had an early start to the opening day of the event as he left his house at 05:30 this morning together with team-mate Cody Turner to make the three & a half hour drive from Raymore across to St.Louis. From California, Turner flew out to the former World Champion earlier in the week so they could prep their cars together both running 2 & 4WD buggy with Tebo also doing truck and Turner focusing on 2WD Short Course. Commenting on the narrow track after a few early runs, Tebo described the track as ‘very interesting’ adding that the racing should be ‘fun’.
Better known as a nitro offroad racer, making the final in December’s 1:8 Offoad World Championships in Argentina, Xray’s Josh Wheeler should be one to watch in 4WD Buggy this weekend. Living just 25-minutes from SmacTrac, Wheeler runs regularly at the track saying when it gets too cold outside for nitro he does a bit of indoor electric running. Now that Xray has entered the electric market with their XB4, the RC America driver is doing a bit more running although he said for the 2013 season his main focus will remain nitro. Also running a 2WD Buggy, he said this is purely to get track time and he hasn’t touched the Kyosho between runs, but with his XB4 feeling more similar to his nitro buggy to drive he is hoping to be up there in 4WD come Sunday. Having only got the XB4 at the beginning of January he said he is still learning every run.
Factory MIP driver Matthew Olson is champion of 4WD Short Course and having also won the 2WD Stock Short Course title will this season move up to 2WD Modified SC. Expecting a good battle with Hartson and Turner, he said the many elevations on the track are hard to determine from the drivers stand and for the large sized Short Course trucks the track is really tight and he expects overtaking to be hard.
View the event images gallery here.