Hartson heads entry at Winter Indoor Nats

With no official timing and drivers getting only a limited number of runs per class, practice at the opening round of the JConcepts Indoor National Series in St. Louis, has been a rather relaxed affair.  Running 6-minutes each time they hit the track, we will only get a true picture of who is fast at the SmacTrac, and who needs to do some work, when the day concludes with a round of controlled practice that will determine the seeding of the heats for tomorrow’s qualifying action.  The smallest track the series visits, a good seeding, which will be based on the average of a driver’s five fastest laps from the 3-minute run, is going to be very beneficial for qualifying.

Due to a busy nitro testing schedule, in preparation for the Dirt Nitro Challenge in 2-weeks time, last year’s Winter Indoor Nationals biggest winner Ryan Maifield has had to skip the event.  4WD World Champion Steven Hartson heads this year’s entry on what is a significant weekend for his team as Team Associated gives its all new B5 its race debut. Associated Team Manager Brent Thielke, offroad legend Brian Kinwald and young gun Tanner Denney are among 15 or so drivers debuting the extremely well received new 2WD Buggy at the event.

Having completed just 5-battery packs with his B5 at OCRC Raceway before making the trip out from California for the event, Hartson said he put the car on the track as he ran it back home and straight off it is working ‘really good’ here.  Completing only two runs, not changing the set-up between run, he said the biggest initial difference between the B4 and the B5 is how much more consistent the new buggy is to drive.  Running sanded green compound JConcepts Barcodes on all his cars, he is also running 4WD Buggy & Mod Truck, he is happy with how they are working describing the track’s dirt & traction levels as ‘good’.

Thielke described the difference between the new & old car as ‘just more solid’.  Sixth in 2WD here last year,  he said he has changed his set-up each run using the information & feedback from his team drivers who are all running the car at different tracks to build up as much set-up data as possible.

Running JConcepts Dirt Webs tyres straight from the bag, Denney said his 2WD was ‘really good’.  Making a front end caster change after the first run the 18-year-old felt his lap times are competitive and he is looking forward to qualifying getting underway.   Commenting on his 4WD buggy, he said ‘it went around the track’ but he hopes a front swaybar & shock piston change will should help improve it for the seeding practice round.  Kinwald managed just one run with the B5 instead spending most of his day preparing tyres.  Happy with his 6-minutes of track time, he is also running 2WD Short Course this weekend as well as RC10 classic.

With Kyosho’s Jared Tebo having to unfortunately withdraw from the event having made the drive to St.Louis, the biggest challenge to the Associated team will come from Team Losi Racing.  Making his first visit to SmacTrac, JR Mitch said he was using the practice round to ‘just get some track time’.  Also running Dirt Webs on his cars, he said he is sanding them having been ‘hurt’ at the 2013 Series Final in Omaha back in December when he opted to let his tyres come in through natural wear.  Commenting on the track he said he races on a similar sized track back home in Florida and so he has been able to quickly adapt to the size and drivers stand.

Returning to the St.Louis, having attended the race for the first time last year, TLR’s Cody Hollis used his practice runs to break in tyres.  Describing a lap of the track as ‘pretty fast’, the Oklahoma driver said its ‘fun’ to drive.  Running his TLR22 in mid motor configuration in addition to 4WD Buggy he is also running 2WD Short Course this weekend.

One of the stars of the Series Finals at HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex,  Taylor Larsen said he couldn’t have asked for better from his rear motored TLR22 in the practice runs.  Running the car pretty much the same as he did at Omaha, where he was Top Qualifier, the 15-year-old said he is sticking with the rear motor configuration because he simply hasn’t done enough testing with it as a mid motored car.

View our event image gallery here.

Track Focus – SmacTrac

Track Name – SmacTrac
Country – USA
Location – St.Charles, Missouri (approx 20-miles from St.Louis)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous key events hosted – 4 X Winter Indoor Nationals

For the fifth year running the SmacTrac in St. Charles, Missouri, plays host to the opening round of the JConcepts Indoor National Series.  The fourth year of JConcepts popular electric offroad series this is actually the fifth time for the track to host the Winter Indoor Nationals.  Opening in 2010 it hosted the race that same year before JConcepts decided to merge all its key indoor events to form them into a series.

Owned and operated by Scott McDonald, who is himself racing this weekend, a regular week at the SmacTrac consists of Monday & Thursday night practice with racing held each Saturday. Operating all year round and the only indoor track in the area, for the months of April and May the track is exclusively used for Oval racing. Looking after all the racers needs next door to the track there is a separately operated hobby shop, Blaze RC which is owned by Mike Marshall.

One of the smallest tracks that the series visits, the track covering an area of 90 X 48 feet, according to 4WD World Champion Steven Hartson this year’s layout is the best Scott has come up with yet.  Better building of the jumps gives the track a better flow to the laps with a good 2WD lap time expected to be a late 14-seconds.  Main features of the track are the hip jump in front of the drivers stand and the wooden rumble section.

Image Gallery