October 6, 2012

Hartson tops 4WD Buggy Q1 at Fall Indoor Nats

Chasing his fourth consecutive win in this year’s JConcepts Indoor National Series in 4WD Buggy, Steven Hartson got the fourth round of the series, the ‘Fall Indoor Nationals’, off to the perfect start as he took his Associated around the RC Excitement track in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in a fastest time of 20/5:03.910 ahead of last year’s Top Qualifier Mike Gay with JConcepts’ Jason Ruona third.

Setting the fastest lap of the round with a 14.658 compared with Gay’s best of 14.937, Hartson was overall pleased with his run despite twice parking his Reedy powered B44.1 in the corner pipping.  Running JConcepts blue compound Bar Codes all round, the 20-year-old Californian said his buggy benefited from the wider groove the track had developed since yesterday’s practice and other than trying to get a clean run he wasn’t planning any changes for this evening’s second qualifier.

Also running Barcodes on his B44.1 but in green compound on the rear, Gay said he found his buggy a little squirmy out of the corners this morning compared with yesterday’s practice.  The 23-year-old said he didn’t make the best of starts to the round with a few less than perfect laps but by the end of the heat he had settled into his rhythm and is confident he can be much closer to Hartson’s pace in Q2.  Not planning to change his buggy set-up he said he will watch the track over the day and then decide what way to go in terms of tyres but at the moment he feels a switch from the green to blue compound rear tyres is probably the way he is going to go to make his buggy a little more stable out of the corners.

Also running a B44.1, Ruona described his buggy as ‘awesome’. Having turned down the power of his LRP speedo for the first qualifier after finding it a little too powerful in the single 4WD practice run he ran yesterday, the Florida driver said it was very consistent to drive.  Making a couple of small mistakes towards the end of his run, Ruona said he needs to clean up his driving a little and overall needs to drive with a little more aggression which should allow him to be closer on pace to Hartson and Gay who where 8 and 1.6 secs faster respectively.

Setting the fourth fastest time, Gunnar Rieck said his LRP powered B44.1 was ‘pretty dialled’ but he lost a little time as he got ‘roughed up’ a bit in traffic.  His third annual visit to the RC Excitement track, making the B-Main last year,  the 14-year-old said this is one of his favourite 1:10 tracks.  Despite the event attracting a record 367 entries, to make it the biggest ever JConcepts Indoor National Series event, the Pennsylvania racer said he is confident that this year he can make the main show.

In 4WD Short Course, MIP team driver Matthew Olson set the pace in the opening qualifier just missing out on a 20 lap run.  Setting a time of 19/5:00.997 over Steven Harston’s second fastest time of 19/5:06.282, the recently crowned JConcepts Clash Champion said his truck is ‘working really well’ and without the two roll overs he had in Q1 a 20-lap run is easily on the cards in Q2.  Running JConcepts Pressure Points on his MIP Pro4-mance converted Losi, Olson said the only thing he needs to change for next run is to keep his driving clean.

Hartson, who ran Blue Barcodes on his Associated SC10 4X4, said his run was not perfect as he made a few driver errors and also had some issues with traffic.  Planning to follow Olson in terms of tyre choice for Q2, he said things should be a lot closer next time out.  Completing the Top 3 in 4WD Short Course was 14-year-old Damian Lamy at the controls of an Associated.

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September 22, 2012

Another 2WD Buggy TQ run for Evans

Dustin Evans kicked off Day 2 of qualifying for the 6th Annual JConcepts Clash with his second TQ run in 2WD Buggy, the most competitive class at this year’s event which is for the first time being held outside of Florida and run at an indoor track.  The Team Losi Racing driver took his Orion powered TLR22 around the Flowood Indoor R/C Park in Mississippi in a time of 13/5:09.97 to pip defending champion Ryan Maifield by .158 seconds with Brent Thielke third a further 1-second off the TQ time.

Benefiting from a crash by Maifield on the final lap, Evans was happy to once again start the day with a TQ run as his buggy was difficult to drive particularly in the right hand section of the track.  Using JConcepts blue compound Bar Code tyres all round, the 2011 US National Champion said he ran the wrong insert in his front tyres. Running standard foam inserts he said his buggy had too much steering and he had to be very cautious through the corners.  With team-mate JR Mitch running closed cell inserts on the front of his TLR22 allowing him to post the fastest lap of the round, Evans said he will switch to that option for this afternoons fourth & final round of qualifying when the track is set to be much faster as highlighted in Q2 yesterday when Maifield posted the first & so far only 14 lap run.

Running new tyres all round on his buggy for the first time having run used fronts in both of yesterday’s qualifier, Mitch said his buggy was near perfect for the track conditions.  Having just moved to the top of the timing screen Mitch threw away a potential TQ run on the same lap turning in too early on the run up to a table top corner which left him stuck in the pipe. Making another substantial mistake on his last lap Mitch said the only change he wants to make for Q4 is to the driver and try and eliminate the mistakes as his buggy has the pace.

Losing out on the TQ run with the second of two crashes over the 5-minute qualifying, Maifield said his tyre choice for the round wasn’t right.  Opting to run a softer green compound rear set of JConcepts Bar Codes while sticking with blues on the front he said it made his B4.1 squirmy.  Team Associated manager Thielke along with Tanner Denney also ran the same tyre combination but the pair still managed to post their best rounds.  Thielke said while the tyre choice was wrong he found the overnight reseeding of the heats helped with judging your pace.  Also moving up to the top heat Denney had the pass for a top 3 time but early in the run got tagged going into a corner by a slower buggy he had passed earlier in the lap dropping him from second to sixth.  In the end the 17-year-old recovered to set the fifth fastest time.

In 2WD Short Course and 2WD Truck round 3 saw the overall TQ honours wrapped up as Maifield and Thielke complete a clean sweep of three fastest times from three qualifiers.  In Short Course defending champion Maifield once again topped Evans to secure pole position for tomorrow’s A-Main while in Truck bagged himself the No.1 race number for his T4.1 as he took Q3 from Denney. The round was the best run from Zack Genova as he set the third fastest time. Running Proline M3 Holeshots on the rear and Scrubs on the front the 15-year-old Kyosho team driver said it was the wrong choice of compound and his Novak powered RT5 struggled with a lack of forward traction.

In the 4WD classes, Denney produced his second TQ run with a new overall fastest time in Buggy to take the round ahead of Q2 pace setter Jason Ruona with Genova’s Kyosho posting the third quickest time. In Short Course Matthew Olson knocked a second of his Q2 topping time to TQ the third round of qualifying ahead of Q1’s fastest man Max Flurer.

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September 22, 2012

Maifield TQ’s second 2WD Buggy qualifier

Defending JConcepts Clash Champion Ryan Maifield has TQ’d the second round of qualifying for 2WD Buggy becoming the first and so far only driver to record 14-laps around the Flowood Indoor RC Park in Mississippi. The Associated driver made best use of the high traction track conditions to set the pace ahead of the morning’s Q1 top qualifier Dustin Evans, the TLR driver missing the 14-laps by just under 3/10th of a second.

Switching from the blue V2 Bar Code JConcept tyres he ran in the morning to V1 for the afternoon qualifier, Maifield described his run as ‘pretty descent’.  Managing to run a fastest lap time that was a full 1-second faster than the best lap of Q1 set by Evans, Maifield plans to leave his Reedy powered B4.1 as is for the morning’s Q3 but will try a wider foam insert in the front tyres to try make the front a little stiffer.

Evans said he thought about running a harder front spring on his TLR22 in anticipation of the track having more grip but didn’t and this cost him the chance of a second TQ run.  With the track having ‘a lot more grip’ his buggy was very hard to drive especially as his tyres, the same set as he ran in Q1, warmed up.  Losi team-mate JR Mitch took third for the round and after messing up his opening lap declared himself happy with his recovery.

Jason Ruona took his Associated B4.1 to a strong 5th fastest time just ahead of Brent Thielke.  The JConcepts boss said the higher traction in Q2 suited both the buggy and the driver better than the morning and despite one small mistake he was happy with his performance.  Like his team drivers Ruona ran blue Bar Codes which he said suited the conditions perfectly but with the track set to be watered overnight and the penultimate 2WD Buggy Qualifier up early in the morning he thinks a softer compound will be better for that round.

Running JConcepts Rips on the front of his B4.1, Thielke said while it made his buggy very easy to drive he will switch to Bar Codes all round for Q3.  The AE team-manager said while it will be more aggressive to drive it will give him more corner speed and if he wants to be in with a chance of a podium finish he is going to need that extra pace.  Behind Thielke was Tanner Denney but the 17-year-old had the pace to post a Top 3 time only to hit problems with traffic that resulted in two 27-second laps.

In 4WD Buggy it was Ruona, who hasn’t raced 4WD since last year’s Clash event, that took the TQ ahead of David Gibson after Denney again had traffic problems this time on his final lap while running a TQ time.  Setting the fastest lap of Q2 with a 21.630 lap, the incident resulted in a 31.3 second last lap for Denney dropping him to third for the round.

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September 21, 2012

TQ run for Evans in first 1:8 Buggy Qualifier

At the sixth running of the JConcepts Clash Dustin Evans is enjoying a great debut at the famous US event as he repeated his morning’s 2WD Buggy performance by topping the time sheets with a 14/5:08.314 in the opening round of 1:8 Nitro Buggy qualifying. Posting the fastest lap of the round, Evans took Q1 by 3-seconds again ahead of defending champion Ryan Maifield but were it not for traffic problems on the last lap it would have been a much closer run between to two factory drivers.

Evans said his buggy felt really good as it had done in practice yesterday only today he was able to position himself on the left side of the drivers stand giving him a better view of the right side of the track which he said he was having trouble with yesterday. Running JConcepts blue compound Hybrids on his Orion powered 8ight he said the buggy felt great and for Q2 he plans to stick with what he has adding that if he can run another good qualifier this evening he will use Q3 to try the new Stacker tyres with a view to preparing for Sunday’s half hour main.

Maifield, who set the pace in yesterday’s practice, felt his LRP powered RC8.2 was on for a TQ run but on his final run down the straight contact with traffic caused him to crash and post a 24.645 final lap compared with his fastest lap for the race which was a 21.421.  Running the same tyres as Evans, he felt the compound may not have been the best choice for him and he plans to change for Q2.  In terms of his set-up the Arizona ace said he wasn’t yet sure if he was going to make any changes.

Despite having a front tyre come unglued on his 8ight towards the end of his heat following heavy contact with a track marker, JR Mitch posted the third fastest time.  Having ‘missed the memo to run blue compound’ he ran JConcepts Green Hybrids which he said started to go off by the end of the run.  Planning to switch to blue compound for Q2, which he said he will glue them better than his green set, he will also try to find a better tune on his Orion engine as he looks to get a little better mileage.  Leaving his set-up untouched he said he hoped in Q2 ‘the old guy could give the others a run for their money’.

Behind Mitch, Cole Ogden set the fourth fastest time with his Murnan Novarossi powered TLR 8ight just missing out on a 14 lap run.  The 18-year-old from Georgia, who is making his first Clash appearance, said he was very happy to start the event off with a Top 4 run adding that he loves the track layout.  Running Sweep tyres, he plans on leaving everything as is and instead work on improving his driving having had a few moments in Q1.

In the biggest class at the 2012 JConcepts Clash, 1:8 Electric Buggy, Brent Thielke took his Associated RC8.2e to the fastest time ahead of Justin Cranford and Jake Dellinger.  In the Short Course classes Ryan Maifield TQ’d 2WD from Dustin Evans while local Associated driver Max Flurer got the job done in 4WD.

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September 21, 2012

Evans tops opening 2WD Buggy qualifier

Dustin Evans got his first JConcepts Clash appearance off to the perfect start as he TQ’d the opening round of 2WD Buggy qualifying this morning at the Flowood Indoor RC Park in Mississippi.  The Team Losi Racing driver took his Orion powered TLR22 around the large indoor clay track in a time of 13/5:13.153 to top defending champion Ryan Maifield by over three second with TLR team-mate JR Mitch claiming third for the round.

Evans said he ‘didn’t drive super hard’ in his first qualifier but was forced to push a little harder than planned when Mitch started to close in on him early in the 5-minute run. Using JConcepts Blue V1 Bar Codes all round on his buggy, the 2011 US National Champion said the track didn’t feel as good as yesterday’s practice, something he put down to the cooler morning temperatures.  Expecting the track to be better for Q2, he said he will not make any changes to either his set-up or choice of tyres.

Associated’s Maifield who was running JConcepts blue compound V2 Bar Codes on his Reedy powered B4.1, which features production versions of AE new big bore shock, said his buggy felt a little loose.  Not entirely sure if it was down to the track he plans to add a washer to the rear camber link as well as switching to V1 Bar Codes which he said will treat with motor spray.

‘Pretty happy’ was how Mitch summed up his run to the third fastest time.  Selecting JConcepts green compound 3Ds tyres for the rear of his TLR22 and blue Barcodes for the front in anticipation of the morning track conditions he said they worked well.  Admitting to making a few little mistakes but ‘nothing major’ last year’s runner up said his buggy was good and just 4/10th of Maifield he said its very close in terms of pace.  Planning to go to Bar Codes all round for Q2 he will leave the set-up as is and instead try to run a cleaner round.

Associated team manager Brent Thielke took his Associated B4.1 to the fourth fastest feeling his tyre prep could have been a little better.  Easy to drive he too will using motor spray on his tyres for Q2.  Asked about the new big bores shocks that all the AE team drivers are running here at the Clash, Theilke said they are the final production versions of the shock which they have been developing for the past 2 years.  Starting to ship to their distributors and set to be available in shops in the coming weeks he said they are easily the nicest and easiest shocks he has ever worked with in all his years of racing.  Running them in all his 1:10 cars this weekend, Thielke used them to good effect in 2WD Truck as he TQ’d the opening round ahead of team-driver Tanner Denney who in turn used them to TQ 4WD Buggy ahead of Max Flurer.

Setting the fifth fastest time in 2WD Buggy was new Kyosho signing Zack Genova. Running his Novak powered RB6, the 15-year-old said it felt really good although he lost a little time with traffic which he felt cost him a place.  Running Proline Square Fuzzy M4 on the rear and Ribbed on the front he plans to stick with the same combo and set-up for Q2 and just focus on his driving.  Behind Genova, whose father Larry is a leading body painter with Maifield among the drivers running his creations, it was event organiser & JConcepts boss Jason Ruona who completed the Top 6 for what is building up to be the main battle at 6th running of the Clash.

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