October 5, 2012

JConcepts Indoor National Series touches down in Massachusetts

JConcepts’ Indoor National Series today touched down in Massachusetts for the penultimate round on the 2012 calendar with RC Excitement in Fitchburg, which is about an hours drive north east of Boston, playing host to the electric offroad event. Known as the ‘Fall Indoor Nationals’ this is the fourth of five events that makes up the series which is now in its second season with an entry of around 300 racers expected to book in before tomorrow morning’s opening qualifier.  Having already visited Missouri for the ‘Winter’, Texas for the ‘Spring’, California for the ‘Summer’ and set to culminate with the ‘Finals’ next month in JConcepts’ home state of Florida, this is the 3rd time the well known tyre & body manufacturer has brought its events to Todd Anderson’s RC Excitement track.

Heading the entry for the event will be factory Team Associated driver Steven Harston who has contested and won at all three previous rounds of the series, the 20-year-old having already bagged the overall title honours in 4WD Buggy a class in which he remains unbeaten this year. The 20-year-old from California missed this event last season but has previously raced at the venue when it held a JConcepts event prior to the creation of the Indoor National Series.  Describing the track as ‘tight but fun’ Harston said his biggest challenge this weekend is going to be in 2WD Buggy both in terms of getting his B4.1 ‘dialed in’ and in terms of the competition with Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans making his first appearance of 2012 in the series this weekend.  In addition to both buggy classes Harston will also contest 4WD Short Course.

Evans, who took the win in 2WD Buggy, Truck and Short Course at this event last year when he made his only appearance in the 2011 series, says he is looking forward to the weekend as its a track he really likes as it requires ‘tight precise driving’ which he is how he likes to race.  Expecting a good battle with Harston in 2WD, the only class the duo will go head to head here, the 2011 Reedy Race Champion said he expects local Boston racer Mike Wilder and Pennsylvania’s Mike Gay to be knocking on the door with JConcepts boss Jason Ruona also one to keep an eye on.

Driving for Team Associated Mike Gay was Top Qualifier in 4WD Buggy last year but in the final had to settle for second in the final behind AE team manger Brent Thielke.  The 23-year-old said the RC Excitement track, which is bigger than what he is used to racing on back home, has a nice flowing layout and his aim is to mix it with both Harston and Evans.  Describing his B44.1 as dialed he said his focus for today’s practice is to work on his 2WD Buggy set-up.

In 4WD Short Course JConcepts Clash Champion Matt Olson will be looking to further add to the list of successes for his MIP truck.  This is the 21-year-old’s second outing in the series this year having contested the third round at A-main Hobbies’ track in California where he battled it out with Harston for the win.  Losing out to the Associated driver he said he hopes he can reverse the result this weekend. Also competing in 2WD Short Course Stock class with an Associated SC10, Olson is testing a number of new soon to be released MIP parts on the truck.  Designed to reduce drag and aimed specifically for use in stock racing he is running aluminium drive shafts with replaceable pins made of a delrin material, aluminium out drive cups and an aluminium top shaft.

Today’s schedule at the Fall Indoor Nationals is open practice per class with the serious business set to start in the morning with the first of three rounds of qualifying, the best two of which will determine the grids for Sunday’s finals.

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September 24, 2012

Maifield completes ‘Clash’ title defence hat trick

Ryan Maifield pulled off a hat trick of wins at the 6th Annual JConcepts Clash with the factory Team Associated driver successfully defending all three of his 2011 titles at this year’s event which took place in Mississippi.  Having wrapped up 2WD Buggy & Short Course earlier in the day at the Flowood Indoor R/C Park, Maifield completed the perfect event when he dominated the 30-minute 1:8 Nitro Buggy finals as his main rivals hit problems.  In the end Maifield took the win by four laps from the Losi of Jason Smith with Top Qualifier Dustin Evans recovering from two engine flame-outs to complete the podium.

Pleased with his weekend in Mississippi, from where he will tomorrow travel straight to Argentina for the 1:8 Buggy World Championship warm-up race, Maifield said he had expected a tougher race. Having worked on his RC8.2’s set-up throughout the four days of the event he said it was ‘dialed’ in the final, a fact that was endorsed by his 20.594 fastest lap of the race.

Running one less stop than Maifield, Smith was delighted with second spot as he held off factory TLR driver Evans by 4 seconds.  Competing in his fifth JConcepts Clash, the North Carolina driver benefited from being able to get 10-minutes between stops from the Novarossi engine in the back of his 8ight.  Suffering from brake fade for much of the run he said knowing he had the buffer of one less stop than his rivals he was able to work around the problem.

Running up on a pipe on lap 2 which allowed Maifield to the front, Evans said he had the better car at the start of the race but it counted for little once he had his first flame out 13 laps in.  Cutting twice on the landing after the triple, Evans said increasing the idle cured the problem but having run without problems before the final he had no idea why it suddenly changed.  With his Orion engine running fine following the adjustment he said as the race went on his 8ight got harder to drive as his tyres wore down and developed more and more grip.  TLR/Orion team-mate JR Mitch, who started fourth on the grid, was the first driver to hit trouble in the race when he too suffered a flame out at the triple just 3 laps into the race.  Suffering two further flame outs he called it a day just half way through the race.

Starting from 6th on the 12 car grid, Tanner Denney looked like he might take a podium. Running the 3rd fastest lap of the race, joining Maifield and Evans as the only drivers to run under 21 seconds, the 17-year-old was battling with Smith over second spot when his Reedy engine stopped on lap 41.  Losing a lap as his RC8.2 was brought back to the pitlane and fired back up he rejoined in 7th from where he recovered to finish fifth behind Tim Smith.

With the 1:8 Nitro Buggy final out of the way the schedule moved on to the 3rd round of mains for the electric classes.  With Maifield having wrapped up the two higher profile classes of the event, 2WD Buggy and 2WD Short Course, A3 was all about deciding who was going to be runner-up.  First up was 2WD Buggy which with Maifield sitting the race out had Evans at the front of the grid but the race was to produce no less than four different leaders with Evans, Ruona, Denney and Flurer all getting to run out front it was the former who took it to secure second overall ahead of Flurer.  Evans also went on to win A3 of 2WD Short Course with his 22SCT but despite retiring his example it was Mitch who finished overall runner-up on a tie break.

Elsewhere in 1:8 Electric Buggy Max Flurer won the third A-Main to take the overall win from Jake Dellinger. Top Qualifier and AE team boss Brent Thielke had to settle for third overall on a tie break with A1 winner Dellinger.  In 4WD Buggy event creator and JConcepts founder Jason Ruona took the spoils ahead of A2 winner Denney as he repeated his A1 win in A3 while Max Flurer completed the overall Top 3.

So another JConcepts Clash is in the bag. Having had to contend with rain for the past number of years the 6th running of the event ran swiftly and without interruption. The first time to hold the race indoors the Flowood Indoor R/C Park proved very popular with racers.  JConcepts, who supported RedRC’s coverage of the event, would like to thank everyone who made the trip to Flowood possible, track owner Bubba Barham for the use of the great facility along with Reedy, LRP, Associated, A-Main Hobbies, P1 Brand, Airtronics, Durango, O’Donnell and Futaba for supporting the event.

1:8 Nitro Buggy
Overall Result
1.(2) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 83/30:00.688
2.(5) Jason Smith – Team Losi Racing – 79/30:12.782
3.(1) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 79/30:16.705
4.(9) Tim Smith – Associated – 77/30:15.811
5.(6) Tanner Denney – Associated – 76/30:04.935
6.(8) Jake Dellinger – Assocaited – 75/30:03.691
7.(10)Kevin Hawkinson – Team Losi Racing – 73/30:13.783
8.(12)Shane Ogden – Team Losi Racing – 73/30:21.118
9.(11)Blake Boggs – Associated – 73/30:22.291
10.(3)Cole Odgen – Team Losi Racing – 68/30:06.761
11.(7)William McIver – Team C – 60/24:47.393
12.(4)JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 29/14:30.954

2WD Buggy
A3-Main Result
1.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:16.401
2.(7) Max Flurer – Associated – 16/6:16.569
3.(6) Jason Ruona – Associated – 16/6:18.556
4.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:22.730
5.(8) Tanner Denney – Associated – 16/6:23.296
6.(5) Zack Genova – Kyosho – 15/6:00.012
7.(9) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/6:02.253
8.(10)Steve Bortolotti – Tamiya – 15/6:04.811
9.(4) Brent Thielke – Associated – 15/6:07.975
10.(11)Paul Wynn – Associated – 15/6:12.646
11.(12)Jeffery Fleckenstein – Associated – 14/6:11.172
12.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – DNS

Overall Result
1. Ryan Maifield – 200 pts
2. Dustin Evans – 199
3. Max Flurer – 197
4. JR Mitch – 196
5. Jason Ruona – 195
6. Tanner Denney – 192
7. Brent Thielke – 191
8. Zack Genova – 190
9. Daimon Borkowicz – 187
10.Steve Bortolotti – 185
11.Paul Wynn – 181
12.Jeffery Fleckenstein – 181

2WD Short Course
A3-Main Result
1.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 15/6:00.484
2.(4) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/608.614
3.(5) Max Flurer – Associated – 15/6:14.648
4.(6) Paul Wynn – Associated – 15/6:22.534
5.(7) Justin Cranford – Associated – 14/6:01.718
6.(8) Chris Viesins – Team Losi Racing – 14/6:15.220
7.(10)Brian Abbott – Associated – 14/6:17.305
8.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 14/6:23.239
9.(12)Brent Lebo – Associated – 13/6:11.780
10.(11)Jerold Brock III – Associated – 12/6:04.218
11.(9)Tylor Weaver – Team Losi Racing – 12/6:07.363
12.(1)Ryan Maifield – Associated – DNS

Overall Result
1. Ryan Maifield – 200 pts
2. JR Mitch – 198
3. Dustin Evans – 198
4. Max Flurer – 196
5. Daimon Borkowicz – 196
6. Paul Wynn – 194
7. Justin Cranford – 190
8. Chris Viesins – 189
9. Brian Abbott – 187
10.Brent Lebo – 183
11.Jerold Brock III – 181
12.Tylor Weaver – 180

View the complete results here.

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September 23, 2012

Maifield retains 2WD titles at ‘Clash’

Ryan Maifield has retained both his 2WD titles at the JConcepts Clash, the Associated driver backing up his A1 wins with victory in the second of the Buggy and Short Course Truck Mains.  While Short Course was another easy encounter for the classes’ Top Qualifier, in buggy the Arizona driver looked like he was going to have to settle for second behind TLR’s Dustin Evans until the 2011 US Champion clipped the piping just as he came around to complete lap 11 of 16.  Losing almost 4-seconds as he got beached on the pipe this allowed Maifield back to the front where he would stay to take the win by 2 seconds to wrap up the title early.

With two 30-minute nitro races having run on the track since the first 2WD Buggy Main, Maifield said track conditions for the second of the 6-minute races were totally different to the morning and running the same set-up as A1 on his B4.1 it was a handful to drive.  Getting chased down by Evans the end of lap three saw a mistake from Maifield allowing Evans to the front. However 7 laps later while looking to have the race under control Evans hit trouble at the very same spot handing the race back to his rival.

Having struggled with his set-up in A1, Evans changed his front shock set-up for A2 which he said due to the track conditions didn’t make it any easier but it did give him a slightly better buggy than Maifield. Commenting on his costly mistake on lap 10 he said off power his steering was ultra sensitive as he had so much front end grip but summed it up as a ‘silly driver error’.

While Maifield checked out in 2WD Short Course the big battle of the race was between Evans and his team-mate JR Mitch.  With Evans having the quicker of the two factory TLR trucks in A1 before retiring, it was Mitch who was running sway bars who had the better handling truck this time round.  Mistakes by Evans in the closing laps handed the advantage to Mitch who again took second behind Maifield. The third and final leg is now a battle for the runners-up spot between the TLR pairing for which Evans is going to copy Mitch’s set-up and fit sway bars.

The second round of Mains at Flowood Indoor R/C Park also saw the 2WD Mod Truck title decided after Brent Thielke pulled of the pass of the event on Tanner Denney. Having taken the lead from Top Qualifier and A1 winner Thielke on lap 11, 17-year-old Denney looked like he was going to force the title to go to the third main but his team boss pulled a spectacular surprise pass at the last corner denying last year’s runner-up the A2 win by 43/100th of a second.  Once again Kyosho’s Zack Genova completed the Top 3 for the leg.

Also wrapping up a title early at the 6th Annual JConcepts Clash, which is being held outside Florida for the first time, was Matthew Olson. The MIP driver backed up his 4WD Short Course A1 win with another victory over Max Flurer the second time of asking.

One class that will go the distance in terms of determining who takes home the overall winners trophy is 4WD Buggy. Having got beaten by Jason Ruona in A1, Top Qualifier Tanner Denney got the job done second time of asking while Ruona broke and retired 2 laps from home.

2WD Buggy
A2-Main Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/6:04.328
2.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:06.667
3.(7) Max Flurer – Associated – 16/6:12.435
4.(4) Brent Thielke – Associated – 16/6:13.384
5.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:20.264
6.(6) Jason Ruona – Associated – 16/6:20.423
7.(5) Zack Genova – Kyosho – 15/6:00.727
8.(9) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/6:03.184
9.(10) Steve Bortolotti – Tamiya – 15/6:07.874
10.(12)Jeffery Fleckenstein – Associated – 14/6:21.911
11.(8) Tanner Denney – Associated – 3/1:15.979
12.(11)Paul Wynn – Associated – DNS

2WD Short Course
A2-Main Result
1.(1) Ryan Maifield – Associated – 16/6:16.157
2.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 16/6:23.800
3.(2) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 15/6:02.151
4.(6) Paul Wynn – Associated – 15/6:12.373
5.(4) Daimon Borkowicz – Associated – 15/6:12.868
6.(5) Max Flurer – Associated – 15/6:22.590
7.(7) Justin Cranford – Associated – 14/6:03.521
8.(10)Brian Abbott – Associated – 14/6:10.745
9.(8) Chris Viesins – Team Losi Racing – 14/6:13.108
10.(12)Brent Lebo – Associated – 13/6:20.830
11.(11)Jerold Brock III – Associated – 12/6:05.200
12.(9)Tylor Weaver – Team Losi Racing – 7/3:22.668

View our event image gallery here.