A1 wins for Schoettler & Hartson in Tacoma

Michael Schoettler and Steven Hartson took comfortable wins in the opening legs of the main Buggy A-Mains at the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals, Top Qualifier Schoettler dominating Mod Buggy while Hartson came out on top in the 4WD Buggy which saw three lead changes.  Behind Schoettler Luke Smith finished as he started with Ryan Matesa making up one place to complete the Top 3 of the 2WD class.  In 4WD, World Champion Hartson was followed home by one time race leader JR Mitch and John Walentia while Top Qualifier Tyler Vik had a tough race eventually pulling off to save tyres.

Winning by a 6-second margin Schoettler described his drive to victory as a ‘smooth clean race’.  Helped by an early bobble by the similar B5M of Smith, the 18-year-old said this allowed him to get a gap on the field and from there he was able to ‘control the race’.  Never forced to push over the 5-minutes he said his Reedy powered buggy was like in this morning’s Q4, very easy to drive and for A2 his plan is to just try and ‘repeat’ A1.

Switching to the tyres he used to TQ Q3, Smith said the fronts were too far gone leaving him with an aggressive car.  Trying to just pace himself so as to not to traction roll he said after an early mistake he tried to push to catch back up with the leader and ended up traction rolling.  Happy to come away with second for the race, the 20-year-old will run a larger pin AKA tyre for A2 which he hopes will allow him to mount a challenge to his fellow local racer Schoettler.

‘Went good’ was how Matesa summed up his race.  Planning to be patient, he said that paid off and he was able to get by the No.3 buggy of JC Johnson when the TLR driver went wide on lap 3.  Closing in on second he said the only flaw of the race was when he over jumped his Kyosho over the double just before the loop and flipped his Orion powered RB6.  Fitting new front tyres for the race he said this helped and he was happy with the consistency of the car.   For A2 he said the plan is to drive a little more aggressively.

Finishing fourth from sixth on the grid Brent Thielke was the best of the visitors but the Associated team manager said his B5M was ‘better than fourth’.  Running a set of front Barcodes tyres JConcepts’ boss Jason Ruona had been using on his B5M, Thielke said his Reedy powered B5M was much smoother to drive than in qualifying due to the bigger pins with a different insert also contributing the improved performance.  While he cant match Schoettler he is confident he now has the car to race the others starting ahead of him.

Running a new set of tyres on hisB44.2, Hartson said this was the best his buggy has felt all weekend but it took a bit of getting used to at the beginning of the race.  Running JConcepts Dirt Webs on the rear and Barcodes on the front he said it was so easy to drive that even when he had control of the race after Mitch’s delays he still pushed it hard.

Despite rolling out of the race lead which he held for 9 laps, Mitch was happy with second saying it was a good start.  Benefiting from a mistake first by Hartson and then Vik, he said he just drove his own race.  Rolling over his TLR22-4 on the table, something he said was due to him ‘turning a little too much’, this allowed Hartson to the front but as he tried to recover from the roll a tangle with Thielke ultimately ended his chances of re-challenging for the lead. Really happy with the buggy, for A2 he said all he plans to do is ‘charge the battery’.

2WD Mod Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Michael Schoettler – Associated – 21/5:06.045
2.(2) Luke Smith – Associated – 21/5:12.107
3.(4) Ryan Matesa – Kyosho – 21/5:13.683
4.(6) Brent Theilke – Associated – 20/5:00.283
5.(3) JC Johnson – TLR – 20/5:00.408
6.(9) Mike Brown – Schumacher – 20/5:03.588
7.(5) Steven Hartson – Associated – 20/5:05.325
8.(10)John Walentia – Associated – 20/5:08.588
9.(8) JR Mitch – TLR – 20/5:10.532
10.(11)Marty Barnes – Associated – 20/5:12.619
11.(7)Tanner Denney – Associated – 19/5:09.322

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(2) Steven Hartson – Associated – 21/5:02.338
2.(3) JR Mitch – TLR – 21/5:06.124
3.(5) John Walentia – Associated – 21/5:08.677
4.(9) Luke Smith – Associated – 21/5:11.845
5.(4) JC Johnson – TLR – 21/5:12.332
6.(6) Brent Thielke – Associated – 19/5:01.184
7.(10)Tanner Denney – Associated – 19/5:01.611
8.(8) Anthony Honstain – Associated – 19/5:03.785
9.(11)Evan Margeson – Associated – 19/5:04.250
10.(7)Chris Gould – X-Factory – 19/5:05.709
11.(1)Tyler Vik – Xray – 18/4:25.618

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