Tebo take first 4WD qualifier at JConcepts Finals

Having topped seeding practice yesterday at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals, Jared Tebo picked up where he left off to claim the opening round of 4WD qualifying at Speed RC in North Carolina.  Topping the first of the three qualifiers from Damion Borkowicz by one second, Tebo’s run was far from perfect with the Kyosho driver benefiting from the mistakes of others namely Alex Kosciuszek who ended up third. Posting the fastest lap of Q1, Kosciuszek looked on target to open qualifying with a TQ until he rolled his Associated allowing Tebo to snatch the fastest time.  Having set the early pace Spencer Rivkin would fail to finish pulling an arm off his Associated half way through the 5-minute qualifier as he ran side by side with Tebo on the track, Tebo being delayed when he collected Rivkin’s broken car coming onto the straight.

‘I decided not to change shock oil and for sure it was too soft’ was Tebo’s reaction after Q1.  Describing his Orion powered ZX6.6 as ‘hard to drive’ he said ‘I will definitely go up (in the oil) for Q2’.  After traffic issues at the beginning of the run, he admitted this left him a little flustered dropping him to an early P5 pace. Working his way slowly back into contention but dropping behind Borkowicz after getting caught up in Rivkin’s error, a late charge that saw him finish with his fastest lap of the qualifier, would give him the TQ with him concluding ‘it was all good in the end’.

Borkowicz was content with his P2 but felt he had a good chance at the TQ until a mistake at the triple.  A mistake up the hill to the triple meant he had to double the jump this ‘possibly cost me the TQ’.  In terms of his car, the Florida driver who was 4th in seeding yesterday was much happier with his B44.3 today having made ‘a bunch of changes this morning’.  Changing both diff and shock oils in anticipation for today’s cooler weather he also ground down JConcepts new release Octagon tyres resulting in a better car which he said was also helped by the ‘track (being) a little better today’.

‘Bad’ was how Kosciuszek summed up Q1 adding ‘that should have been an easy TQ’.  The 17-year-old lost out when he rolled his B44.3 but said the problem was there was no marshal so it ended up being a ‘pretty big wreck’.  Changing the rear shocks this morning he said the change was pretty spectacular and with the car ‘amazing’ he is determined to make amends for his errors on his second qualifying attempt.

Posting the fourth fastest time Matt Cline said his Associated pushed a bit in the qualifier and he will make a front spring change for the next one.  Suffering an early mistake that cost him over 3-seconds, the Ohio driver added, ‘If I can take out the one wreck I can definitely improve’.

Racing at his home track, Max Flurer would take his TLR 22-4 to fifth a result he was far from pleased with.  Already a JConcepts race series winner this year, he said ‘I ran slicks when I shouldn’t have’.  ‘Struggling to get side bite’ leading to ‘2 or 3 wrecks’, he will go back to a pin tyre adding with side bite the pace for Q2 should be better.

Completing the Top 6 would be Chad Eubanks but the Xray driver felt he got his diff set-up wrong for the conditions.  Looking to improve the car by going down in the diff oils he said his XB4 was ‘diffing out’ and he needs to go back up a little for Q2.  In terms of the overall run he was happy he ran pretty consistent lap times but added ‘I need to bring down my lap times to get on everyone else’s pace’.

View our event image gallery here.