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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Track Focus – Speed RC

Track Name – Speed RC
Host –  Scott Speed
Country – United States
Location – Mooresville, North Carolina
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt

The JConcepts Indoor National Series has travelled to North Carolina for the Series Finals with Speed RC the location for the fifth & final stop on the 2016 calendar.  Located in Mooresville, around 25 miles north of Charlotte, the track is owned by ex Formula 1 and Nascar driver Scott Speed.  A keen RC racer, on switching from a Nascar programme of 38 weekends to a Global Rallycross Programme of 12 weekends, it was having ‘a lot of free time’ that led him to set up Speed RC which has a lot of motorsport neighbours the biggest of which is NASCAR team Richard Petty Motorsports.  Getting into RC through ‘a few friends in Nascar (who) were doing it’, Speed opened the doors to Speed RC a year & half ago filling a void left by the closure of the area’s previous track 5-years ago.   Also featuring an outdoor dirt track for 1:8, the 90 by 50 foot indoor track caters for around 40-60 racers each Wednesday night and Saturday with a monthly trophy race attracting over 100 drivers.  In terms of layout the track is changed every three months but the Spring will see the entire track move to a new building. Originally part of a bigger business plan that was focused on online retail, Speed said ‘as everyone has sponsorship now it is almost impossible to compete as a retailer’ and to keep the track viable they will move to a smaller building as they ‘don’t need the retail area’ anymore.

Asked about his own RC racing exploits Speed, who is racing this weekend in what is the biggest event his track has hosted, joked, ‘I beat Max Flurer once and retired after that.  I got one fluke chance to beat him and knew after that I had reached my max’.  The current back to back Global Rallycross Champion in his Andretti Autosport Volkswagen Beetle, Speed’s big focus now is on his 15-year-old stepson Rex racing RC saying ‘I try to help and get more enjoyment in that’. Having become good friends with Jared Tebo, even sponsoring the Kyosho star through Speed RC, he said Jared, who is pitting next to him this weekend, has been a huge help in teaching Rex how to prepare the car and tyres adding ‘there is no book on how to do it so working with Jared is great guidance to have’. Comparing driving RC to 1:1 racing, the 33-year-old said his biggest issue is, ‘I look at the apex rather than the car as that’s how I do it when I’m inside a car racing but Jared looks at his car with the apex of the corner in his peripheral vision’.

Along with Tebo, another offroad star racing in the JConcepts Indoor National Series Finals at Speed RC is World Champion Spencer Rivkin.  The Team Associated driver’s first time at the track he said, ‘It’s small but fun’ adding ‘It is a little bit difficult to get consistent laps’.  Elaborating the Arizona driver said, ‘the breaking point at the end of the straight is really difficult’.  Describing the dirt as ‘unique’, he continued, ‘the way the tyres grip the dirt is not like west coast dirt’ and ‘it going to come down to tyres and finding comfort in the tyres’.

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