Tebo take first 4WD qualifier at JConcepts Finals

Having topped seeding practice yesterday at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals, Jared Tebo picked up where he left off to claim the opening round of 4WD qualifying at Speed RC in North Carolina.  Topping the first of the three qualifiers from Damion Borkowicz by one second, Tebo’s run was far from perfect with the Kyosho driver benefiting from the mistakes of others namely Alex Kosciuszek who ended up third. Posting the fastest lap of Q1, Kosciuszek looked on target to open qualifying with a TQ until he rolled his Associated allowing Tebo to snatch the fastest time.  Having set the early pace Spencer Rivkin would fail to finish pulling an arm off his Associated half way through the 5-minute qualifier as he ran side by side with Tebo on the track, Tebo being delayed when he collected Rivkin’s broken car coming onto the straight.

‘I decided not to change shock oil and for sure it was too soft’ was Tebo’s reaction after Q1.  Describing his Orion powered ZX6.6 as ‘hard to drive’ he said ‘I will definitely go up (in the oil) for Q2’.  After traffic issues at the beginning of the run, he admitted this left him a little flustered dropping him to an early P5 pace. Working his way slowly back into contention but dropping behind Borkowicz after getting caught up in Rivkin’s error, a late charge that saw him finish with his fastest lap of the qualifier, would give him the TQ with him concluding ‘it was all good in the end’.

Borkowicz was content with his P2 but felt he had a good chance at the TQ until a mistake at the triple.  A mistake up the hill to the triple meant he had to double the jump this ‘possibly cost me the TQ’.  In terms of his car, the Florida driver who was 4th in seeding yesterday was much happier with his B44.3 today having made ‘a bunch of changes this morning’.  Changing both diff and shock oils in anticipation for today’s cooler weather he also ground down JConcepts new release Octagon tyres resulting in a better car which he said was also helped by the ‘track (being) a little better today’.

‘Bad’ was how Kosciuszek summed up Q1 adding ‘that should have been an easy TQ’.  The 17-year-old lost out when he rolled his B44.3 but said the problem was there was no marshal so it ended up being a ‘pretty big wreck’.  Changing the rear shocks this morning he said the change was pretty spectacular and with the car ‘amazing’ he is determined to make amends for his errors on his second qualifying attempt.

Posting the fourth fastest time Matt Cline said his Associated pushed a bit in the qualifier and he will make a front spring change for the next one.  Suffering an early mistake that cost him over 3-seconds, the Ohio driver added, ‘If I can take out the one wreck I can definitely improve’.

Racing at his home track, Max Flurer would take his TLR 22-4 to fifth a result he was far from pleased with.  Already a JConcepts race series winner this year, he said ‘I ran slicks when I shouldn’t have’.  ‘Struggling to get side bite’ leading to ‘2 or 3 wrecks’, he will go back to a pin tyre adding with side bite the pace for Q2 should be better.

Completing the Top 6 would be Chad Eubanks but the Xray driver felt he got his diff set-up wrong for the conditions.  Looking to improve the car by going down in the diff oils he said his XB4 was ‘diffing out’ and he needs to go back up a little for Q2.  In terms of the overall run he was happy he ran pretty consistent lap times but added ‘I need to bring down my lap times to get on everyone else’s pace’.

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Nothing in it as Tebo tops 2WD seeding from Rivkin

Having topped 4WD seeding at the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals, Jared Tebo went on to complete the double when he topped the 2WD times but only just from Spencer Rivkin.  Tebo set the fastest three consecutive laps in a time of 50.804 while Rivkin posted a time of 50.809.  The only other driver to manage a 16-second lap around the Speed RC track, Brent Thielke would complete the Top 3 with the Team Associated Team Manager outpacing his team driver Alex Kosciuszek and Serpent driver Will McIver.

Pleased to end his day by topping the 2WD Buggy time having also gone quickest also in 2WD Mod Truck, Tebo said, ‘I had a little more rear traction than I expected but overall my car was awesome’ adding the ‘the balance was perfect’.  Feeling the high rear traction could be wing related, for tomorrow the Kyosho driver ‘will mount the rear wing a little different’ while also considering adding a brass front suspension mount for extra weight, repeating ‘I had a lot of rear grip’. Like in 4WD, he ran his Orion powered new RB6.6 on a Pro-Line Electron front and Positron rear tyre combination and he plans to stick with that for qualifying.

Running a brand new set of JConcepts new slick called the Octacon, Rivkin said while the seeding run went well, with his tyres being new he didn’t get the maximum potential from them adding they should be better as they get more sauce.  Feeling the track conditions of the night time run wasn’t as advantageous as they would have been earlier in the day and with Tebo running a pin tyre, which better suited the condition, ‘it was a good thing’ to have been able to match his rival’s pace.  Set to leave his Reedy powered B6 unchanged for the start of qualifying the World Champion will just sauce up his tyres, adding ‘the more they are sauced the better they get’.

‘My car was dialled’, was the reaction of Thielke after seeding his B6 in the Top 3. Having ‘been tweaking the car all day’ making a ‘couple of spring and piston changes’ he said the switch to JConcept’s Octagon tyre produced the lap times.  With a lap time fractionally faster than that of his star team driver Rivkin he would be 6/10th off Rivkin & Tebo’s 3-lap pace and while he wouldn’t be able to get any closer to their time he was ‘looking forward to tomorrow’.

Kosciuszek said his B6 was good but running on a brand new set of Octagon tyres left him struggling a little as the fresh tyre lacked side bite.  Prepping his tyres different to his team-mate Rivkin, for qualifying the 17-year-old will adapt the same tyre prep while also changing to a set of the tyres with more running on them adding, with these changes he ‘hope(s) to be right there tomorrow’.

Behind McIver, Damion Borkowicz said his P6 time ‘wasn’t too bad’ but the car felt loose because he ‘sauced too late’.  Like his team-mates, the 16-year-old also opted to run JConcepts’ Octagon tyre but he felt it was a little too dusty as the the day came to an end. Expecting the track to be more moist for the first qualifier due to the overnight watering of the track he said the slick Octagon should be then be better than a threaded tyre like that which Tebo ran.

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Tebo tops 4WD seeding at JConcepts Finals

Jared Tebo topped seeding practice at JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals in Mooresville, North Carolina, the Kyosho driver fastest over 3-consecutive laps of the Speed RC track.  With just a single round of seeding practice, the Kyosho driver was over a 1-second fastest than his close rivals with Spencer Rivkin and Alex Kosciuszek recording an identical time of 49.660.  The JConcepts Indoor National Series’ first visit to the track of ex Formula 1 and Nascar racer Scott Speed, the event is set to decide this year’s overall 4WD champion with the three winners from the season’s previous four events, Rivkin, Kosciuszek and Max Flurer. Winner of the 4th round in Boston back in October, Flurer would struggle in his seeding round setting the 5th fastest overall behind Matt Cline with Daimon Borkowicz completing the Top 6.

Describing his seeding run as ‘really good’ and also managing the best 5-minute time, Tebo said his new ZX6.6 ‘might be a little soft’.  Planning to ‘go up in the shock oil a little’ for tomorrow’s opening qualifier, the former World Champion felt his 5-minutes was probably better than his 3-laps’ adding he is feeling confident going into qualifying. Running Pro-line’s Electron tyre on the front and Positron on the rear, he said of the combination ‘I like it a lot and with stick with’.

Running in the heat before Tebo, Rivkin felt he ‘lost a lot of time with traffic’ adding ‘Tebo had a cleaner run than me’.  Running JConcepts’ all new Octagon tyre on his B44.3, the 18-year-old said while the car and tyres where ‘pretty good’ he ‘didn’t drive that disciplined’.  Feeling the car is gong to get better as the tyres get more laps, the winner of Rounds 2 and 3 of the series plans to leave the car unchanged for Q1 but will ‘freshen up’ shocks as this should make the car ‘a little smoother through the turns’.

‘The car was really good that time’ was Kosciuszek reaction after the seeding run.  The Team Associated driver said work to his JConcepts Octogan tyres had improved the car from the earlier practice.  Thinking about qualifying, the winner of the season opener at SmacTrac in St.Louis will change his rear shock set-up on his B44.3 to improve it through the corners and to soak up the ‘random bumps better’.  Describing the grip from the dirt as ‘good’, he concluded, ‘I like the track a lot’.

Having rebuilt his shocks ahead of the seeding round, Cline said his B44.3 was really good.  The Ohio driver is another driver who likes the track layout describing it as ‘smooth and consistent’. For qualifying the 22-year-old said he will ‘probably leave the car alone’ and instead focus on driving ‘more consistent’.

With Speed RC his home track, Flurer will be looking for improvement tomorrow.  The TLR driver described his seeding performance as ‘pretty bad’ adding his car ‘pushed like a dump truck’.  Running on JConcepts’ Spacebar tyre he said the handling was probably down to tyres and he ‘work on tyres tonight’ as well as ‘go through the car’ which he said ‘hasn’t been looked at for a while’.

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