Video – 2wd Controlled Practice Rd1
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Tyre prep order of day in practice at JConcepts Finals
Tyres are the order of proceedings on the opening day of the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals at HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex in Omaha, Nebraska. The fifth & final stop on the JConcepts INS calendar, the series’ third year to visit the impressive Hobby Plex facility has attracted a high quality driver line up among the 260 plus entries with all using practice to get their tyres down to the right thread depth in preparation for qualifying.
As the schedule switched over to a round of seeding practice new World Champion Spencer Rivkin, who is racing 2WD & 4WD Buggy and Mod Truck, said things were going ‘so far so good’. Content with the performance of all his Associated cars, the 17-year-old said he was ‘just getting tyres dialled in for qualifying’. Running JConcepts gold compound Dirt Webs with Dirt-Tech inserts on 2.2 rims, he said the 4WD needed the most work ahead of qualifying but added that was down to the tyres not yet having reached their optimum point with the Reedy powered B44.3 improving with each run on the same set of tyres. Describing the track layout as ‘awesome’, the Arizona driver added it was ‘challenging’ and would ‘show the men from the boys’.
Although he did the National Championship double here in 2009, when the track was outdoor, this is Ryan Cavalieri’s first time to race on Hobby Plex’s indoor track which was built in 2011. The Associated driver said the height of the driver stand was ‘challenging’ but in terms of his cars ‘everything was going good so far’ with ‘everything dialled’. Racing 2WD Short Course as his third class this weekend, the multiple World Champion said getting his AKA tyres prepared was the biggest focus of the day adding ‘I haven’t touched a whole lot’ on the cars as they have been ‘all in the ball park’ from the first practice. The only adjustments being a rear spring change on his B5M Champions Edition and going to a heavier oil in the rear of his B44.3.
Winner of the two big classes here last year, Jared Tebo said ‘all my cars are pretty good and I have just been working on tyres’. The Kyosho driver said matching the tyres so that the front and rear have the same grip level, joking ‘I hope once I get them right that they don’t wear too much’. Asked about the level of wear the AKA driver replied ‘Its hard to tell as I have been grinding them down (for each run)’. Also racing in Short Course he said his tyre for this still needs a bit of work but for 2WD & 4WD Buggy he can now work on getting a second set ready. Asked about his pace he said with the level of traffic on the track its hard to tell where everyone is at but he declared himself ‘pretty happy’.
Making his dirt race debut with Team Losi Racing’s new 22 3.0, Ryan Maifield said practice was going ‘really good’. The 2014 JConcepts INS Champion said his focus has been getting used to his new 2WD and trying different set-ups to see how it reacts, adding it ‘feels really good already’. Only running buggy this weekend, in 4WD he said he was running ‘standard stuff’ on his TLR22-4 describing it as ‘easy to drive’. Apart from learning about his 2WD he said ‘getting tyres prepped’ was the main order of the day.
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Chassis Focus – Ryan Maifield
Chassis: TLR 22 3.0
Motor: Orion 7.5T
ESC: Orion Vortex R10.1
Batteries: Orion XS4000
Radio/Servo: Airtronics/Spektrum
Body – JConcepts S2
Remarks – Current JConcepts Indoor National Series Champion Ryan Maifield is making his race debut with the production version of the TLR 22 3.0 that he helped to develop. The new car which was announced last month has a new 3 gear transmission, as well as the possibility to use the more standard 4 gear configuration, and a new chassis plate to accommodate the sideways mounted battery which all allows a much different weight bias to the previous car. Other new features include updated front A-arms that allow the shock position to be changed without the need for the shock to be adjusted and also sport the new optional outer arm pin position which along with the new front caster blocks allow for variable length arm adjustment. Comparing this to its predecessor he says it now corners better, is faster as well as being easier to drive. Other new items on the car are the final production version of the new S2 body shell from JConcepts which made its debut at the Worlds in Japan and a new Stabilizer rear wing, but more information on those items later.
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Track Focus – HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex
Track Name – HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex
Country – USA
Location – Omaha, Nebraska
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous key events hosted – 2013 & 2014 JConcepts Indoor Nats Finals, 2009 ROAR 1/10 Offroad Nationals, 2014 ROAR Electric Onroad Carpet National.
For the third year running the HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex facility in Omaha, Nebraska, plays host to the Finals of the popular JConcepts Indoor National Series. The fifth stop of the tyre, body and option parts manufacturer’s annual series, the race has attracted a healthy 260 plus entries. With 2WD Mod Buggy the biggest category it also looks set to provide the main action with the likes of new World Champion Spencer Rivkin, last year’s event winner Jared Tebo, 2014 INS Champion Ryan Maifield and multiple World Champion Ryan Cavalieri among the line-up.
Situated about 45-minutes from Lincoln where the HobbyTown franchise started out, the impressive Hobby Plex facility is 11-years in business with the 32,000 sq feet facility housing a well stocked hobby store, an indoor carpet track and the indoor offroad track which hosts this weekends action. Since it first hosted the JConcepts Finals in 2013, Store Manager Alex Sturgeon says there has been a lot of changes to the offroad track in terms of the dirt and how they maintain the track. The purchase of a John Deere tractor and a tiller last year have made all the difference with Alex, himself an accomplished racer, saying it has resulted in the dirt blending better making it easier to build new tracks.
Another big change relates to track watering. Previously they didn’t water the track during race meetings but on attending his first Reedy Race at OCRC in California where they have a plumbed in misting system that changed. Unfortunately Nebraska experiences very cold winters, although this year’s temperatures are pleasantly warmer than the previous snow covered ground conditions of previous visits, so fitting a mister system was not an option but instead they manually mist the track every 2-hours. This has the effect of making the track change and break-up less dramatically than when they didn’t water with Alex saying it makes it easier to choose what tyre to run for the event.
Also changed from our visit in 2013 to the track is that the oval racing circuit that was located in the centre of the dirt area which elevates up towards the very high drivers stand, and which dictated the track layouts has been moved off to the right of the track. While making for a slightly narrower area in which to build an offroad layout knocking about 3-seconds off the lap times, Alex said the smaller size is better suited to 1:10 and gives him a clear canvas to work with. With the track to host next year’s ROAR 1:10 Offroad Nationals, plans are afoot to rebuild and improve the pitlane layout making access to the downhill track easier.
Winner of both 2WD and 4WD buggy at the event last year, Tebo said this year’s layout is ‘pretty cool’. The Kyosho driver said while its ‘not too technical’ it is ‘fun to drive and will make for very close times’ adding ‘you have to drive it pretty hard to go fast’. Making his dirt race debut with TLR’s 22 3.0 this weekend, Maifield described the layout as ‘fun’ and ‘really flowing’ with the the biggest problem for him being that the track piping is higher than the track in some spots causing him to lose sight of the car.
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Offroad rookie Coelho is 4WD World Champion
Bruno Coelho is the new 1:10 4WD Offroad World Champion, the Xray driver securing the sport’s top prize in Japan with a convincing victory in the second A-Main of the Yatabe Arena hosted event. Coming into his first electric offroad Worlds as a relative unknown in the class, the Portuguese Touring Car star would become the second Rookie to triumph at the first Worlds to be run on astro turf, Spencer Rivkin winning the 2WD title at 16th running of the bi-annual IFMAR event earlier in the week. A driver who burst onto the international scene when one year ago to the week he finished runner-up at the Touring Car Worlds in the USA, today’s result was made even sweeter by the fact that he would beat his onroad rival & reigning Touring Car champion Naoto Matsukura to the title. With Coelho forced to sit out A3, Matsukura would take the win ahead of David Ronnefalk to finish 2nd overall with Ronnefalk completing the podium.
A driver who has quickly amassed a worldwide fan base in onroad, thanks in part to him rocking the establishment in the Euro Touring Series and winning, Coelho is also popular for being humble, with that personality trait apparent by his somewhat underwhelming reaction to the biggest win yet of his career. Declaring himself ‘Super happy’, his team-mate Martin Bayer joking about his reaction by saying ‘yeah I won a race, its ok’, the 22-year-old was quick to highlight the effort behind his win. ‘There was a lot of work behind this. I worked the least so a big thanks to Bayer and Juraj. They developed the car and it really works amazing’. After a slightly controversial A1 win, when his rivals felt he shortcutted he track after a mistake while leading, the Top Qualifier said A2 ‘was all perfect’ joking ‘but A3 was boring’. Having wanted to race the third final, he had to sit it out getting to watch the podium deciding battle from his position on the driver stand. A driver whose racing started out in 1:8 Onroad and who made his Worlds debut in Argentina in 2007 crashing out while leading his Semi Final to finish 12th overall & be crowned the Junior World Champion, Coelho said today’s victory was for his dad. ‘I owe a big thanks to my father. He invested a lot of his life and money in me so this is for him’. His first season as a professional driver he said he couldn’t have asked for much more in his first year in the job. A multiple discipline driver, him recently being crown European Nitro Touring Car Champion, when asked what title he most wanted most to win next he said ‘Touring Car in China next year’.
A driver who was widely tipped for the 4WD title, in particular after the opinion dividing decision was announced that the event would be run indoors on an artificial surface, Matsukura said his ‘qualifying cost him the title’. Having won the Warm-up Race, the Kyosho driver said the final was always going to be a three way battle between himself, Coelho and Orlowski but missing out on securing P2 on the grid with a poor Q5 run left him always on the back foot in the finals. The 22-year-old said he was too aggressive for the track but added ‘safe is not my style and thats why I miss the win’. Commenting on A2 he said the race was ‘maximum shit’ after heavy contact from former 2WD World Champion Hayato Matsuzaki resulted in a broken spur gear. With him and Ryan Maifield the only two finalist from the previous Worlds to make the A-Main, he said he was happy to finish second for a consecutive time adding next year I will win twice, referring to the 1:12 and Touring World title. He also announced that he will make his 1:8 Offroad World Championship debut next year in Vegas as he moves into the class for the first time thanks to Kyosho.
Claiming his first IFMAR podium finish, his previous best being 4th at the 1:8 Offroad Worlds in Argentina, Ronnefalk was very happy with 3rd. Securing the final step on the podium with a second in the final A-Main, the HB driver said compared with 2WD earlier in the week they made a huge step forward for 4WD. Having accepted third overall halfway through A3 he said ‘then Naoto crashed so maybe if I had been pushing a little more I could have got second overall’. Still, being his first year with HB since a surprise switch from Kyosho the tall Swede said the result made for a great first season with his new team.
Missing out on the podium, Michal Orlowski said ‘it wasn’t my day. I made so many crashes in the final but I am happy with 4th’. The 14-year-old added that leaving Durango last November after they dissolved their race team no one probably expected him to be fighting for the World title but he is very proud of the Schumacher team today showing ‘the car and team are perfect’. Commenting on A3 which he led off the grid as Coelho sat it out, he said he made a good start with the first couple of laps going well but then gave way to Matsukura rather than running close together and risking a crash but after doing that he crashed himself. A driver well ahead of his age in terms of his maturity he said he was especially pleased that he ‘showed the world our new car is very good’.
A driver who went into the third main with an outside chance of a podium finish after a great drive from 9th on the grid to 3rd in A2, Maifield would end up 5th and the top American, only two drivers from the powerhouse of offroad to make the final, the other being Jared Tebo. Getting his TLR22-4 up as high as third in A3 before dropping back to 5th, he said ‘I wasn’t as fast as the others but was good getting through carnage’. Describing himself as a ‘road block’ he said ‘eventually they got mad and pushed me out of the way’. His first Electric World Championship’s with TLR he said, ‘I’m not happy we weren’t competitive but I’m happy to start 9th and finish 5th’. With many feeling that the European’s would have the advantage on the astro turf track, that not proving the case as Tebo TQ’d and Maifield’s protege Rivkin took the win in 2WD, the Arizona driver said ‘it all about car set-up, if you have that you don’t have to be the best driver to be fast’. He added with a good set-up, ‘the track is good to drive but its not good for racing’. Saying ‘its not what I have grown up to enjoy as racing but I do think it has a time and place in racing but not at the World Championships. Behind Maifield, making his first World Championship final, Tom Cockerill would complete the Top 6 for Yokomo on what was overall a disappointing performance for them on their home race but they can take some satisfaction from their efforts in putting on a very well organised event.
View the complete final overall results here (PDF).
View our full event image gallery here.
Video – 4wd A-main Leg 3