October 7, 2012

‘Fall Indoor Nationals’ Q2 Update

The second round of qualifying for the ‘Fall Indoor Nationals’ at RC Excitement was a repeat of Q1 in terms of the pace setters with Steve Hartson once again topping 4WD Buggy while Dustin Evans repeated his opening 2WD Buggy performance with another convincing TQ run that secures them both pole position for their respective A-Mains.

Team Associated’s Hartson, who has already sewn up overall 4WD Buggy honours in the five round JConcepts National Indoor Series, took Q2 with a time of 20/5:05.602 with the similar B44.1 of Gunnar Rieck second fastest just 2-seconds adrift of the Californian.  A slightly slower time than his morning run, Hartson said the track was less consistent second time round with a number of ruts developing something that is to be expected due to the massive record entry the event has attracted.  The winner of 4WD Buggy at the three preceding rounds in the series said he is not planning to change anything on his buggy for tomorrow morning’s third & final qualifier but with the weather expected to be considerably colder tomorrow he will wait and see if this has any effect on the track conditions.

Rebuilding his diffs for Q2, 14-year-old Gunner said this helped improve the buggy but the main reason for his strong performance second time round was that he put in a clean 5-minutes of driving.  Unfortunately having posted the 3rd fastest time in the first 2WD Buggy qualifier the Pennsylvania driver wasn’t able to replicate his 4WD buggy performance making a number of mistake which eventually lead him to pop a rear ball cup.  Starting the heat with a strong pace he said his B4.1 was really good but the driver ‘lost my head’.

Having crashed three times in Q1, Andrew Castellini produced a clean second run to set the third fastest time in 4WD Buggy.  Switching from green to blue compound JConcepts Bar Codes on the rear of his Associated he said it was a big improvement and he was very pleased, with his time was just 2.6 seconds off Harston’s pace.  Asked if he planned to make any changes for the morning’s final qualifier he said he may revert back to a green rear which he said from testing has proved better when there is moisture in the track.  Having had a terrible first 2WD Buggy qualifier due to being in a bad heat which leaves him in the 3rd highest of the heats, Castellini did a good job in Q2 to set the fourth fastest time.  Also changing to a blue rear tyre on his B4.1 along with a stiffer front spring he said this made the buggy more stable and he was able to run a strong heat.

The star of the first 2WD Buggy qualifier, Alex Kosciuszek has now also found his impressive form in 4WD Buggy as he set the fourth fastest time.  Changing to a stiffer rear spring on his B44.1, the 13-year-old said despite the rougher track conditions in Q2 he felt a lot more comfortable with the buggy and this allowed him to improve his driving a lot.  In 2WD he repeated his Q1 performance with another Top 3 time just behind Evans and Harston. Elsewhere in 4WD Buggy Mike Gay was unable to repeat his P2 run in Q1 after he changed from green rear Bar Codes to Blue which he said made his buggy ‘super aggressive’.  JConcepts boss Jason Ruona, who was third fastest in the opening qualifier, couldn’t repeat the run as he lost almost 4-seconds when on his opening lap he caught a rut and rolled over his B44.1.

Once again dominating the 2WD class, Team Losi Racing’s Evans set a new faster time in 2WD Buggy and looks set to easily defend his title along with those we won last year in Stadium truck and Short Course.  Missing a 20 lap run by just .377 of a second, Evans said he opted to stick with running used tyres on his TLR22 but with the TQ wrapped up he will try a brand new set in Q3 to see how they work with a view to helping him decide his tyre choice for the single A-main here at the Massachusetts event.  A massive 10-seconds off Evans’ pace Hartson said his run to the second fastest 2WD buggy time in Q2 was full of mistakes as he struggled a little with the looser more rutted conditions.

In 4WD Short Course Matt Olson put in a blistering run lapping the entire field with his MIP converted Losi.  His main rival Hartson switched to the same tyres as the Clash Champion but said the JConcepts Pressure Points did not suit his Associated like they do the MIP and such is Olson’s advantage, tomorrow’s race is going to be a battle for second for which he plans to revert back to Bar Codes on his SC10 4X4.

View our event photo gallery here.

October 6, 2012

Evans dominates Fall Indoor Nats 2WD qualifying

Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans has dominated the first round of 2WD qualifying at the ‘Fall Indoor Nationals’, the Colorado driver setting the pace in Buggy, Short Course and Stadium truck all classes of which he is defending champion.  In 2WD Buggy, the biggest class among the record entry at the R/C Excitement hosted event, Evans’ closest rival was 4WD Q1 pace setter Steven Hartson whose Associated was 3.8 seconds off the 19/5:01.640 set by the 2011 US National Champion.

Evans described his opening buggy run as ‘conservative’ but added his Orion powered TLR22 felt good however on running his Short Course and Truck qualifiers he believes he can improve it for Q2. Running a scrubbed set of JConcepts blue Bar Codes on the buggy he said running newer tyres on both his trucks he felt it gave him better rotation in the corners on what is a tight track. Evans said he will keep an eye on the track and see how it fares over the 42 heats that make up each round of qualifying but he is debating running new tyres for the second of the third buggy heats.

Hartson said his B4.1 was good and it had the pace for a TQ run until he had difficulty with lapped traffic.  Planning to leave everything as is, he said the reseeding of the heats after Q1 should allow him to put in a clear second run and take the fight to Evans. Behind the full factory supported drivers of Evans and Hartson, were two young up and coming stars of the future – Alex Kosciuszek and Gunnar Rieck.  Just 13-years old, Kosciuszek said he was himself ‘surprised’ by his pace but said his Associated felt really good and he hopes with another clean run in Q2 he can secure himself a spot in the A-Main.  Backing up his strong run in 4WD Buggy 14-year-old Rieck also set the fourth fastest time in 2WD Buggy.  Behind the two youngsters Mike Gay completed the Top 5.

Managing the only 20 lap run in stadium truck ahead of Gunner and Rob Betts, Evans said his 22T felt good but the biggest improvement today was to his Short Course truck. Phoning team-mate Mike Truhe & TLR team-manager Kevin Gahan, who are racing at the Reedy Truck Race in California this weekend, when he got back to his hotel he said they came up with a set-up to try for today which he said transformed the 22SCT.  He took the truck to a convincing 19 lap TQ run over Kosciuszek and Nicholas Sass.

View our event photo gallery here.

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.

View our event photo gallery here.

October 6, 2012

Practice Update

With no official timing, today’s open practice for the JConcepts Fall Indoor Nationals at RC Excitment was a very relaxed affair with drivers getting plenty of time on a track which they all reported as been super consistent throughout the day meaning little set-up changes, the focus instead being on tyre compounds. Steven Harston, who is chasing a fourth straight ‘Indoor National Series’ win this weekend in 4WD Buggy, said he was pleased with all three of his factory Associated cars.  Describing the track conditions as a little loose he said they have been consistent all day and having switched to blue compound Bar Codes for his evening runs he feels he is in good shape for tomorrow’s qualifying.

Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans said he focused most of his attentions on his 2WD buggy running his 2WD Stadium truck and Short Course truck just once each with both feeling really easy to drive.  Having had to change very little on the set-up of his Orion powered TLR22, last year’s 2WD Buggy victor said everything felt good for tomorrow and he used much of his track time scrubbing in tyres for qualifying.  Running JConcepts blue V1 Bar codes on the rear and blue Bar codes on the front, he said for now the tyres gave him a good feeling with the buggy but with the temperatures in the Fitchburg area set to drop considerably on Sunday he said he is not sure how that will effect the track and his tyre choice for the mains.

Local track expert Mike Wilder, who joined Evans on the podium at the Massachusetts event last year, focused most of his attentions today on his Viper powered Associated B4.1.  Having only this week received Associated’s new big bore shocks, the 25-year-old said he was really happy with how they work and after fitting a new rear diff near the end of the day he said he is confident he has the pace to again make the podium.  Commenting on 4WD Buggy he said it was pushing a little but with his front diff a little rough he plans to fit a new one for the morning which he is confident will give him the little steering he is currently lacking.

Top Qualifier in 4WD Buggy last year, Mike Gay said he focused on his tyre combo and has decided on JConcepts Bar Codes blue fronts and green rears.  The Associated driver said this gives him good forward bite and helps pull the buggy through the corners.  Describing his 4WD as ‘very good’ he said his 2WD is ‘nice and consistent’.  Gay said his biggest concern was how the track was going to react to Sunday’s forecasted weather change but he hoped it wouldn’t change things too drastically as he was looking forward to some good close racing.

Chasing his first podium finish in his own series this season, JConcepts boss Jason Ruona said things were going ‘so far so good’.  Changing from green to blue compound Bar Codes on both his 2WD and 4WD Associated chassis, he said it improved the overall feeling more so on his B4.1 allowing him to post his best run of the day.  Describing the track as ‘super tight’ the highly regarding r/c product designer said his plan for qualifying was to ‘stay smooth’ as the track punishes mistakes heavily.

Managing a best lap of 15.2 with his MIP 4WD Short Course truck, Matt Olson said it was a productive day.  Focusing on tyre choice he said he tried both Bar Codes and Pressure Points finding the latter to be slightly better.  Also playing around with compound choice he used the cooler conditions of the evening runs to see if he could get an idea of what to except for Sunday but he said the temperature change was not significant enough and the track was stayed ‘very consistent’ all day.

View our event photo gallery here.

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.

View our event photo gallery here.