December 14, 2013

JConcepts Indoor Nats arrives in Nebraska for ’13 Finals

Steven Hartson

The JConcepts Indoor National Series has arrived at the fifth & final stop on its 2013 calendar with HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex in Omaha, Nebraska, playing host to the ‘Finals’ of the popular electric offroad championship.  Attracting a competitive entry, including newly crowned World Champion Steven Hartson, day 1 of the 3-day event is an opportunity for drivers to work on set-up with open practice being split between open wheel cars and Short Course.  With most of the top drivers focusing their attentions on running their 2WD buggies, it is tyre choice and preparation that is keeping them busy so far.

Hartson

Winning his first World title with a thrilling victory at the 4WD Buggy World Championships in Chico at the end of September, Associated driver Hartson is pleased with how his mid motored B4.2 is running so far.  Describing the track as ‘overall pretty simple’, he said the height of the rostrum gives a ‘weird’ drivers view and takes a bit of getting used to.  Switching between JConcepts Barcodes in Gold and Green compounds the 21-year-old said the Gold compound for now feels a little faster but a driver known for attention to detail & knowledge in tyre prep he still has a few things he wants to try in relation to pin sizes.  Also racing 4WD Buggy and 2WD Short Course, he said he will run these in the evening practice runs in preparation for tomorrow’s qualifiers.

Ryan Maifield

Team-mate Ryan Maifield has also focused his efforts on what he called the ‘prestigious class’. Running his mid motored B4.2, which features a number of new parts from JConcepts he said he was very happy with a set of Black compound Barcodes he ran fresh out of the bag.  Describing the track as ‘not difficult’ he sad it still had its ‘own challenges’ but overall it was a fun layout to drive.  Like Hartson, Maifield will also run 4WD Buggy and 2WD short Course, winning both classes at the previous round of the JConcepts Indoor National Series in Boston, and will switch his attention to these cars this evening.

BT Act

Responsible for both drivers, Team Associated team manager Brent Thielke is racing 2WD Buggy and Mod Truck.  His first time to visit the Hobby Plex facility he said the track is fun to drive adding that the surface is a little rougher than what he used to for an indoor track.  Having brought a ‘bunch of used tyres’, he is using them to gauge how different pin heights effect his mid motor B4.2.

Dustin Evans

Winner of 2WD Buggy at the Fall Indoor Nationals in October, Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans said his day so far has all been about trying to figure out tyres.  He said everything he has used so far works but its getting how much they need to be broken in and sanded that he is looking to perfect.  Although he raced here at the 2009 ROAR 1/10 Offroad Nationals, this is his first time to race on the track since they enclosed it with walls and a roof.  Describing the track as having ‘not a whole lot to it’ he added there are a few sections which to get right are a bit tricky.

Hollis

One of the few top drivers to have raced here previously this year when he took part in the Novak Race,  Cody Hollis said the track is a lot different now, the snow outside probably having something to do with that.  The Team Losi Racing driver said so far he has done very little to his TLR22 saying it is all about getting the right tyres first. In addition to 2WD Buggy, Hollis will also race Mod Truck and 2WD Short Course this weekend.

JR Mitch

Making his debut at Hobby Plex TLR’s JR Mitch summed up the facility as a ‘cool place’ and the Florida driver meant that both subjectively and literally.  Joking that he had gone from ’82 to 22 degrees’ he was here for racing and he was looking forward to it.  Having ran both his 2WD and 4WD Buggies he said he was like everyone else playing the tyre game and tyrying to ‘follow the leader’.

View our event image gallery here.

December 13, 2013

Track Focus – HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex

Fri-Track-4

Track Name – HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex
Country – USA
Location – Omaha, Nebraska
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous key events hosted – 2009 ROAR 1/10 Offroad Nationals, 2011 ROAR 1/8 Electric Offroad Nationals

The JConcepts Indoor National Series is in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend with the impressive HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex facility hosting the Finals of the popular five event tour of America.  Situated about 45-minutes from Lincoln where the HobbyTown franchise all began, the Hobby Plex facility will soon celebrate 10 years of business having opened its doors here in 2004.  Housing an impressive hobby store, an indoor carpet track and a now indoor offroad track it occupies a total space of 32,000 sq feet.

Originally the offroad track was outdoor but when rain affected proceedings while hosting the 2009 ROAR 1:10 Offroad National Championships, owner Ken Kailen decided he didn’t want this to happen again and so decided to enclose the offroad track.  After 2-years of going through planning it was completed just in time for its second ROAR Offroad Nationals when it hosted the 1:8 Electric classes in 2011.  Luckily for drivers this weekend he made that decision as outside there is a covering of snow on the ground.  The Onroad carpet track, which is in the same area in which all drivers pit, hosted the 2008 ROAR Carpet Nationals and will again host the event in February so they are no strangers to hosting key events.

As a race venue Hobby Plex caters for around 200 racers each week on its offroad track with dedicated nights of racing for Dirt Oval and Short Course with Saturdays set aside for the regular 1:10 classes.  Such is the size of the track they also  run 1:8 Nitro with the latest round of their Winter Championship attracting over 90 drivers.

Store Manager Alex Sturgeon, who is also responsible for the maintenance of the offroad track and who it is great to see is racing himself this weekend, has built and presented a very nice track for the JConcepts Indoor National Series finals.   The layout of the large track, which is producing circa 22-sec lap times in 2WD Buggy, looks relatively easy but with a lot of elevation up towards the rather tall drivers stand it is proving a little more challenging.  A nice touch is the blue painted infield which really helps define the track layout.

Image Gallery

September 29, 2013

Hartson is World Champion following thrilling A3

Hartson

Steven Hartson is the 2013 4WD Electric Buggy World Champion, the American claiming the 15th IFMAR title in a thrilling 5-minutes of racing at the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway in Chico, California.  Having been a surprise winner of the opening A-Main from fifth on the grid, the factory Team Associated driver was one of five drivers in with a shot of the title going into the deciding third A-Main but came out on top to win ahead of Naoto Matsukura and Ty Tessman, the same order as how they would line up on the final podium.  Once again Top Qualifier Joern Neumann would drop out of an early lead, a problem with the front shock leaving the German with a very difficult buggy, and the 2011 Runner-up would only end up 7th for the leg to finish 4th overall ahead of outgoing champion Ryan Cavalieri.

Hartsons

A driver who much prefers to do his talking on the track, Hartson’s reaction to becoming World Champion was what one would expect had he just won a club race but the 21-year said making his first World A-Main and winning it felt ‘really good’.  Having won A1 and then finishing 5th in A2, he said he knew he had to win or beat Matsukura to win the title and that’s exactly what he did.   Fourth at the end of lap one, he soon found himself shadowing the leader Cavalieri and Tessmann.  Knowing he had a faster car he said he played a waiting game and that paid off first as Cavalieri had a bobble just as they came up to complete lap 7 and then two laps later when Tessman landed badly off the quad at the end of the straight.  Getting down the inside of the HB driver, Hartson looked to have the race under control but two laps later traction rolled allowing Tessman back to the front and into a title winning position.

Tessmann

Unfortunately for the Canadian on the next lap, just as it was announced 10-seconds remained, he too would traction roll right in front of the rostrum.  While he pulled off an impressive save, Hartson was through as was the fast charging Matsukura both of them just crossing the line ahead of the 5-minutes, Tessmann and Cavalieri missing the cut, to set up a last lap shoot out for the World title.   Running behind Hartson and with the sport’s biggest prize on the line Matsukura went for it trying to jump over the Associated but the buggies collided in the air both landing on their roofs.  Hartson got going first but it was for a parade run to the finish and Associated’s 27th World title as the Yokomo was broken.  Such was the intensity of the race afterwards when asked about the traction roll that almost cost him the title Hartson said he had no recollection of it.  Having missed out on the 1:8 Buggy World Championship, finishing runner-up in Argentina, while holding the reign of US Champion and to come so close to the title today as reigning electric Champion, Tessmann was understandably emotional after the race.

Joern

Having come very close to his first World title in Finland and looking on target for reparation of that motor failure, Neumann again had to deal with mechanical failure.  The former European Champion, said in the warm-up his DEX410 ‘felt perfect’ but in the opening lap his front right side spring managed to push over the spring retainer.  Causing the front of the buggy to drop a number of millimeters resulting in the nose diving bobble that cost him the race lead on lap 2.  Commenting on the earlier Legs, he said the wind caused him ‘big problems’.

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September 29, 2013

Overall & Leg 3 Result

4WD Overall Result
1. Steven Hartson – Associated – 2 pts
2. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 3
3. Ty Tessman – HB – 5
4. Joern Neumann – Durango – 7
5. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 9
6. Ryan Lutz – Durango – 11
7. Travis Amezcua – Durango – 12
8. Dakotah Phend – TLR – 12
9. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 14
10.Lee Martin – Tamiya – 15

4WD A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(6) Steven Hartson – Associated – 12/5:30.093
2.(8) Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 12/5:34.809
3.(3) Ty Tessman – HB – 11/5:00.169
4.(2) Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 11/5:00.368
5.(9)Travis Amezcua – Durango – 11/5:05.079
6.(10)Dakotah Phend – TLR – 11/5:09.186
7.(1) Joern Neumann – Durango – 11/5:09.805
8.(4)Ryan Maifield – Associated – 8/3:45.193
9.(5) Lee Martin – Tamiya – 7/3:12.538
10.(7) Ryan Lutz – Durango – 6/2:42.978