April 13, 2014

New in the Pits – MIP B5 Bi-Metal CVAs

Sat-MIPB5biMetal-1

MIP have some shown us some pre production versions of their all new stock class 17.5 Bi-Metal CVA shaft assemblies for use with both rear and mid motor Team Associated B5 buggies. The shaft is made from 7075 aluminium for light weight and features their well known replaceable puck system, while the CVA joint is made from hard to wear steel. Both parts are keyed and are screwed together and work with the standard Associated wheel axles. The final versions will be hard anodised and the complete set comes with the aluminium diff halves, dogbones, CVA joints, puck system and all fasteners and offer considerable weight savings to the drivetrain with the dogbone being 33% lighter than the kit version and the diff halves 44% lighter.

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April 13, 2014

Vik doubles up in second 4WD qualifier

Vik

Tyler Vik made it two out of two at Tacoma R/C Raceway as he topped the second round of 4WD Buggy Qualifying at the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals again outpacing World Champion Steven Hartson, both drivers pulling off 21-lap runs.  Only 9th fastest in Q1, Team Losi Racing’s JR Mitch improved his pace by almost a full lap to complete the Top 3.

Vik

Fitting a front swaybar to his Xray XB4 for Q2 as well as removing screws from the chassis for more flex, Vik said the ‘changes were good’.   The San Francisco racer said the track had become ‘super abrasive’ and for the penultimate qualifier, which brings today’s proceedings to a close, he will run a different set of tyres saving the set he ran in the opening two qualifiers for tomorrow’s finals.  Having run in the lowest heat, something he said he quite liked, a reseed after Q2 will now see Vik running in the top heat but set to start first he said he should be fine.

Hartson

Posting the fastest lap of the round with a 14.392 second lap, Hartson said his Associated B44.2 was on pace but once again he made too many mistakes. Running his car the same as he did in Q1, when he switched to geardiffs, he said he will continue to run at as is but added that with the traction coming up a lot ‘which is better to a point’ he may have to make some small adjustments for the morning’s final qualifier.

JR Mitch

JR Mitch was very happy with his second run.  Struggling with his TLR22-4 on the step-up to the table top he said his front shock oil was ‘way too light’.  Going up ‘a lot’ in oil weight for Q2, he said it transformed how the buggy landed on the table top.  With the track getting more abrasive like Vik, the Florida driver plans to save his current tyres for tomorrow and so will run a new set of JConcepts Dirt Webs for Q3 to see how the car works on fresh tyres should that be needed.

John Walentia

Fourth fastest John Walentia headed the local challenge in Q2.  Changing his set-up after Q1 he said his B44.2 felt weird at first to drive.  Taking some time to figure out how to drive it he said once he did it was faster and by the end of the 5-minutes he was pleased with the changes.  For Q2 he plans to switch to a slightly lighter rear spring as he looks to make the buggy a little more comfortable to drive.

Houstain

Posting the fifth fastest time local racer Anthony Honstain said he is enjoying the opportunity to run with some of the sports top racers, the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals being the biggest event for Scott Brown’s track to host.  Running a stock kit B44.2, he said the buggy is running well and for Q3 he doesnt plan on making any changes.

4WD Mod Buggy Qualifying Round 2
1. Tyler Vik – Xray – 21/5:10.107
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 21/5:13.723
3. JR Mitch – TLR – 20/5:02.024
4. John Walentia – Associated – 20/5:04.068
5. Anthony Honstain – Associated – 20/5:07.976
6. Luke Smith – Associated – 20/5:09.052
7. Chris Gould – X-Factory – 20/5:09.669
8. Brent Theilke – Associated – 20/5:10.372
9. JC Johnson – TLR – 20/5:12.779
10.Dion Denison – Associated – 20/5:15.452

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April 13, 2014

Another TQ run for Schoettler

Michael Schoettler

Michael Schoettler put in another flawless drive at his home track to TQ the second round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals.  Having topped Q1, this time round the 18-year-old’s took the qualifier by an even larger 6.2-second advantage from Steven Hartson.  The Top 3 for the second of the four scheduled qualifiers at Tacoma R/C Raceway was completed by another quick local as Kyosho driver Ryan Matesa laid down his first 20-lap run ahead of TLR’s JR Mitch.

Michael Schoettler

Again posting the fastest lap of the round with a new outright fastest lap time of 14.657, Schoettler was pleased to put in another clean run.  Running his B5M the same as he did in Q1, the 18-year-old said it felt good but with traction coming up a lot between rounds for Q3 he will go to a heavier shock oil for Q3.  With the increased traction he said tyre wear is increasing.  Set to run his JConcepts Dirt Web tyres for a third time he said he expects them to be done after the 5-minutes but said the run should also show whether slicks will work for the conditions.

Steven Hartson

Taking a slower approach to his driving for Q2, Hartson said other than a pretty spectacular flip at the end of the straight his second run was a lot better.  Having changed the receiver in his car before travelling out to Washington State for the race, he said a switch back to his older receiver after Q1 improved the feeling of his B5M which he described as being ‘really good now’.  Still the 4WD World Champion feels he is well of the pace of Schoettler saying even without his one mistake he wouldn’t have been able to close down the 6-second advantage.

Matesa

Matesa said being able to see properly made a huge difference to his driving and he was very happy with his run. Having had problems judging the track from the position he was forced to use in Q1, he said his RB6 was again really good.  Planning to again leave it unchanged the 18-year-old said his focus is on trying to just repeat how he drove in Q2.

JR Mitch

Leaving his TLR22 untouched JR Mitch said he just drove around looking for another strong points haul so as to lock himself into the A-Main.  Very happy with where his mid motored buggy is compared to yesterday he said there is definitely a few more seconds in his own driving.  Looking to save the set of JConcepts Dirt Web he ran in the opening two qualifiers the Florida driver will run a new set in Q3.

Brent Thielke

Having failed to make the Top 10 in Q1, Associated Team Manager Brent Thielke said Q2 was ‘quite a bit better’.  Running a different front tyre, switching from JConcepts Dirt Web to Barcode, he said this made his Reedy powered B5M much smoother to drive.  Starting the heat last and having to let Schoettler, who started first, by he said he learned a lot from following the local teenager who he said despite his blistering pace is not driving as hard as he expected.

Luke Smith

Second fastest in Q1, Luke Smith completed the Top 6 with a ‘not so good’ second run.  Changing to a new set of AKA tyres for Q2 he said they ‘never really came round’.  For Q3 he will run the same set of rears but after he has run them on his 4WD in Q2 which he said should help break them into where they need to be at.

Denney

Rolling his B5M three times at the end of the straight, Tanner Denney could only manage 10th for the round.  The driver who gave the B5 its first big win when he won the opening race of the JConcepts Indoor National Series in St.Louis back in February, the 18-year-old said the front end is rolling too much and for Q3 he will switch to heavier front shock oil.

2WD Mod Buggy Qualifying Round 2
1. Michael Schoettler – Associated – 20/5:01.117
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 20/5:07.341
3. Ryan Matesa – Kyosho – 20/5:08.642
4. JR Mitch – TLR – 20/5:10.612
5. Brent Theilke – Associated – 20/5:11.886
6. Luke Smith – Associated – 20/5:11.895
7. Mike Brown – Schumacher – 20/5:13.300
8. Tyler Vik – Xray – 20/5:13.978
9. John Walentia – Associated – 20/5:14.609
10.Tanner Denney – Associated – 19/5:02.757

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April 12, 2014

Vik TQ’s opening Tacoma 4WD qualifier

Tyler Vik

RC America team driver Tyler Vik has TQ’d the opening round of 4WD Buggy Qualifying at the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals, his Xray outpacing World Champion Steven Hartson by 3-seconds around the Tacoma R/C Racway track.  Local racer JC Johnson made it three different manufacturers at the top of the time sheets as he posted the 3rd fastest time, his TLR22-4 just 6/10ths off Hartson’s time.

Tyler Vik

Like in 2WD Buggy, Vik is running in the lowest heat having opted to skip last night’s round of timed practice in favour of a good night of sleep.  Pleased to take Q1, he said it ‘felt like a conservative run’ adding that his AKA shod XB4 was ‘hard to hang on to’. Suffering from oversteer, for Q2 he will fit a 1.0mm front swaybar having so far ran without one since arriving at the Scott Brown owned track.  Also looking to add more flex to the chassis without changing the buggy’s balance, which he said is quite good, he will remove some chassis screws.  Hoping the changes make the buggy a little easier to drive he also plans to push harder the second time of asking.

Hartson

Hartson said his B44.2 was ‘a lot better than practice’ but he ‘just kept crashing’.  Describing his buggy as feeling good he said he is still struggling to get used to the height of the drivers stand which he feels is way too high for the track.  Switching over to geardiffs and going up in front shock oil for Q1 he said the changes were good and for Q2 he will run the JConcepts Dirt Web equipped buggy as is and try to eliminate the mistakes.

Johnson

Johnson described his first 4WD qualifier as ‘pretty good’ adding it was a safe run.   Happy with his set-up the only change he will make for Q2 is to his tyres.  Running AKA Typos he said he will run a newer set for his next outing so as to have two sets of equally worn tyres available to him for the rest of the event.

Brent Chassis

Posting the fourth fastest time Brent Thielke said his run had no big mistakes although he did miss his lines a few times.  The Associated Team Manager said after his 2WD run in which he had one very costly mistake he just focused on a safe 4WD run.  Struggling with his Reedy powered B44.2 getting ‘a little wiggly’ on heavy cornering he will switch to a stiffer rear spring for Q2.

John Walentia

Setting the 5th fastest time was local Associated racer John Walentia.  Describing his run as ‘not bad’, he said his B44.2 was a little loose but he hopes a shock piston change will sort out that for Q2.  In addition to the shock change he will also fit a fresher set of JConcepts Dirt Webs to the buggy.  Behind Walentia, Anthony Honstain also driving a B44.2 completed the Top 6.

Denney

For factory supported Associated driver Tanner Denney, the opening 4WD qualifier netted only the 7th fastest time.  Adding weight to his buggy along with changing the position of his front shocks on the tower, he said this made it a lot more lazy which took a few laps to get used to.  Suffering a couple of bad laps, a bad rear hub bearing not helping matters, he said his B44.2 is still not where he needs it to be and for Q2 he plans to try a different tyre additive.

4WD Mod Buggy Qualifying Round 1
1. Tyler Vik – Xray – 20/5:00.060
2. Steven Hartson – Associated – 20/5:03.467
3. JC Johnson – TLR – 20/5:04.024
4. Brent Theilke – Associated – 20/5:05.218
5. John Walentia – Associated – 20/5:05.941
6. Anthony Honstain – Associated – 20/5:08.980
7. Tanner Denney – Associated – 20/5:12.356
8. Yoshii Harley – Associated – 19/5:00.253
9. JR Mitch – TLR – 19/5:01.324
10.Thomas Tran – Kyosho – 19/5:02.090

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