April 12, 2014

In the Pits – Mid motor RC10

Fri-ClassicMid-7

The brainchild of Dan Lopez, this mid motor Associated RC10 took a month of long hours to produce and is made using an original 1985 RC10, with a later stealth transmission, as the donor. The rear transmission has been rotated 180 degrees around the drive line and using a new custom chassis plate with side plates donated from the ’85 car, as well as a longer layshaft to allow the motor to be mounted closer to the centre line, the car was made. The new chassis allows the use of the shorty, in linear, horizontal or even a saddle pack and Dan finished the car off with a JConcepts Finnisher body.

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April 12, 2014

Chassis Focus – Steven Hartson

Fri-HartsonB5M-10

Chassis: Team Associated B5M
Motor: LRP X20 8.5T
Batteries: LRP 4500 Shorty
ESC: LRP Flow Works Team
Body: JConcepts Silencer
Tires FR/RR: JConcepts Dirt Webs (Gold)
Radio/Servo: Futaba 4PK SR/XP1015
Remarks – Current 4wd World Champion Steven Hartson is running the Associated B5M here in Tacoma with a new line of harder plastics throughout. The dark grey material is to make the car more responsive in the corners by removing flex in the chassis and components, allowing the suspension do all the work. Other changes made to the car is to remove the central cross brace to the front of the battery which, combined with a shorty battery pack, allows the speedo and receiver to be mounted further back in the car and along the centreline providing more traction and making the front less edgy. In terms of setup Steven is using his same setup, tires and tire sauce from his home track OC/RC.

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April 11, 2014

Track Focus – Tacoma R/C Raceway

Fri-Track-5

Track Name – Tacoma R/C Raceway
Owner – Scott Brown
Country – USA
Location – Tacoma, Washington
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt

This weekend the JConcepts Indoor National Series visits some new territory taking the second stop on its 5-race calendar to the north-west of the country to Tacoma R/C Raceway in Washington State.   A hobby shop that has been in business since 1984 and moving to its current location 5-miles from the centre of Tacoma City 14-years-ago, the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals is the biggest race to visit the Scott Brown owned facility.  A former World Championship finalist and ROAR National Champion, Scott has been the driving force behind the popular r/c outlet since 1995.  Born in Tacoma but working for the original Losi company down in California, when the opportunity came up to buy the business he jumped at the opportunity to move back home. Heading into to his 20th year of running the business this year he said he still enjoys the fact he gets to ‘play with toy cars everyday’.

Covering a total of 9,000 square feet, the facility has a well stocked r/c car shop, off which the indoor dirt track & pits are housed in an airy high roofed building.  Built in a space 90ft by 60ft, a new track layout for this weekend JConcepts race was built by Scott on Monday with a good 2WD lap pace running at a low 15-seconds lap. On a regular week the track runs racing four nights a week (Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) with a good night attracting around 80 entries but Scott said racers tend to spread themself out well over the four nights meaning that he can run a good programme of racing each night without running too late.

In terms of the layout, World Champion Steven Hartson , who is making his first visit to the track, said one of the most notable things of the track is the height of the drivers stand which for an indoor track is very highly elevated.  Describing it as fun to drive the Team Associated driver said the biggest challenge of the lap is staying within the narrow racing line, with it easy to get out of your rhythm.  In terms of the tracks features he said the step-up chicane after the triple in front of the drivers stand can be a little tricky.   Commenting on the track Associated team-manger Brent Theilke said the piping takes a bit of getting used to describing it being more like curbing.  With the track being built up to the piping rather than the piping having been laid afterwards he said its hard to differentiate between whats track and whats more like curbing which on some corners can lead to rolling.

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February 10, 2014

Denney & Mitch win at JConcepts Indoor Nats

Mod Podium

Team Associated’s Tanner Denney and Team Losi Racing’s JR Mitch claimed the big wins at the opening round of the JConcepts Indoor National Series in St.Louis.  Winning the third A-Main of 2WD Buggy, having won A2, Top Qualifier Denney claimed an important win for Associated’s all new B5 on its debut race weekend while Mitch also backed up his A2 win in 4WD Buggy to claim the overall win with his TLR22-4.  Joining them on the podium Steven Hartson & TLR’s JP Richards finished 2nd & 3rd respectively in 2WD while Denney claimed second in 4WD with Xray’s Josh Wheeler completing the overall Top 3 on the fifth running of the Winter Indoor Nationals at the SmacTrac.

Denney

With everything still to play for in A3, Denney, Hartson and Richards were in contention for the overall 2WD win, Denney almost threw away his chances before the final encounter even started.  In the warm-up, with his view blocked by marshals going to their posts, he would crash very heavily into one of the i-beams on the perimeter of the track.  Continuing the lap it was discovered he had broken a front arm.  Calling it an ‘novice move’ and believing from the sound of the impact that he had actually completely broken the car, he said the ‘organisers were nice enough’ to give him time to replace the arm allowing him to take up his pole position for the race start. Leading away the 11 car field the 18-year-old Arizona driver would lead the race from start to finish. Only having to push hard for a time in response to team-mate Hartson moving into second, he said he was happy to take the overall win on such a significant weekend for his team albeit it with a plain white bodyshell.

JR Mitch

Going into the final leg of the 4WD A-Main it was also a three way battle for the win with Mitch, Denney and TLR’s Cody Hollis thanks to a second A2 in contention.  Unfortunately for Top Qualifier Hartson, two difficult legs meant the World Champion had no chance of the win.  Having had a disastrous opening lap in A2, he led away the field and looked to have things under control to at least salvage one win but landing his B44.2 into the corner piping in the centre of the track, this would allow Mitch to the front where the Florida driver would stay to the end with Hartson second and A1 winner Denney third.  His first time to race at SmacTrac, Mitch was very happy to take the overall win.  As he had hoped for after his A2 win the track was again watered ahead of the round.  Describing his buggy as ‘really good’ in stickier track conditions, he said the race went to plan with his focus being to just stay ahead of Denney, the Associated driver admitted himself afterwards that he ‘totally blew out’ in the encounter.

Hartson

In the truck classes Hartson took the top honours in Mod Truck with his T4.2, while Mitch took home a second winners trophy taking the spoils in 4WD Short Course with his SCTE.  In 2WD Short Course Luke Richards took his Kyosho to the win.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Results
1.(1) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 22/5:08.841
2.(4) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 22/5:11.311
3.(2) JP Richards – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:04.388
4.(5) Brent Thielke – Team Associated – 21/5:06.655
5.(6) Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:07.398
6.(7) Trevor Nault – Team Associated – 20/5:09.205
7.(3) Taylor Larsen – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:09.519
8.(10)Luke Richards – Kyosho – 21/5:12.367
9.(9) Matt Gosch – Team Associated – 20/5:13.719
10.(8)JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 19/5:02.498
11.(11)Daimon Borkowicz – Team Associated – 19/5:08.193

2WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 200 pts
2. Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 199
3. JP Richards – Team Losi Racing – 197
4. Brent Thielke – Team Associated – 194
5. Taylor Larsen – Team Losi Racing – 194
6. Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 193
7. Trevor Nault – Team Associated – 188
8. Luke Richards – Kyosho – 187
9. Matt Gosch – Team Associated – 186
10.JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 185
11.Daimon Borkowicz – Team Associated – 182

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Results
1.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 22/5:09.097
2.(1) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 20/5:04.928
3.(2) Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 21/5:02.659
4.(4) Josh Wheeler – Team Xray – 22/5:11.162
5.(6) Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 22/5:10.543
6.(5) Mitchel Gardner – Kyosho – 21/5:03.924
7.(8) JP Richards – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:13.746
8.(7) Nick Gibson – Team Associated – 21/5:06.086
9.(11)Taylor Larsen – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:07.216
10.(9)Brent Thielke – Team Associated – 21/5:14.261
11.(12)Matt Gosch – Team Associated – 19/5:07.993

4WD Buggy Overall Result
1. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 200 pts
2. Tanner Denney – Team Associated – 198
3. Josh Wheeler – Team Xray – 196
4. Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 195
5. Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 195
6. Nick Gibson – Team Associated – 192
7. Mitchel Gardner – Kyosho – 191
8. JP Richards – Team Losi Racing – 187
9. Taylor Larsen – Team Losi Racing – 187
10.Brent Thielke – Team Associated – 186
11.Matt Gosch – Team Associated – 182

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