Author: Randy Pike

This past weekend hosted the 2015 Race On The Rug event at the R/C Complex in Bolivar, Missouri. The facility recently decided to remove their dirt offroad track, and replace it with a European style carpet offroad track. Winter weather and icy roads unfortunately struck the area leading up to the race.

The Mod 4wd Buggy class was a bit light in attendance, but still offered some close racing and blistering fast speeds for the spectators to enjoy. Tekin’s Mike Garrison managed to capture TQ in qualifying with the only 18-lap run in the class. As the A-Final got underway, it was a back and forth battle in the early laps between Garrison and Intech’s Dave Ferrell. After a slight mistake by Ferrell following close in 2nd, Garrison was able to stretch out his lead and cruise to victory!

Mike says, “I was skeptical of the idea of racing offroad on carpet, but after this weekend I must admit it was definitely a good time! Thank you to Tekin, TLR, Horizon Hobby, Spektrum, JConcepts, Venom RC, RDRP, and Moto1 Paint for making it all possible!”

The 2015 Motorama was once again held in a 15 acre indoor complex in Harrisburg, Pa. 2 different tracks, one for 1/10 and one for 1/8 scale. Each track had maxed out at 350 entries a piece!

The 1/8 track had 95 racers in E Buggy and 50 in E Truggy. 3 rounds of qualifying with the 2 best runs seating you for the triple A-mains.

In Pro E Buggy Griffin Hanna was able to take the top qualifying spot. For the mains they ran a triple A main format taking your best 2 runs for overall position. In the buggy A1 race Tekin powered Griffin Hanna lead the first lap and he had a screw back out of the steering knuckle which lead him to finish last in the first run. Not going to plan. A2 was a nail biter, first lap Griff stuffed the pipe a few turns in and dropped to 4th. By the end of the first lap he was up to 2nd. The pressure was on and he needed a good finish to be top 3. Midway in the run he made a small mistake which let the leader get away. He needed a little luck on his side and he got it. With about a minute to go the leader rolled it and Griffin was able to take the lead. He would go on to take A2. In A3 Griffin put in a clean run and lead start to finish. That gave him the overall win in Pro E-Buggy title! Brother Collin had a few rough qualifiers but not bad overall. He would qualify 4th in the B main. From the B main they would take the top 2 to transfer into the A group of racers. Collin Hanna stayed patient till the time was right and was able to get by the top 3 racers. As he was coming around to take the checkered flag,he managed to catch a kicker and flip on the big sweeper. Luckily the turn marshal was able to get back straight to take the win. Collin had a great car but coming from the back of the pack was tough. In A1 he finished 8th,A2 he was able to grab a 4th place finish. A3 he was up to 3rd and caught the same rut and would drop back to 5th. With his total points he would finish 5th overall which is really strong.

Top 3 in buggy are Griffin Hanna ,Anthony Mazzara and Jason Shreffler.

In the Truggy class Griffin Hanna would qualify 2nd on the grid. All three A mains were really exciting. He would finish 3rd in A1,3rd in A2 and 2nd in A3.With his best 2 runs he would finish 2nd overall.

Top 3 in truggy are Anthony Mazzara and Jason Shreffler, Griffin Hanna

The RX8 ESC and 1900kv motor ran great in both buggies. Griffin ran the same Esc in truggy but ran the 2000kv motor in it.

Thank you to all of the boys sponsors: Serpent, Desoto Racing,Team Tekin Racing, Sweep Racing USA, Avid bearings, Leadfinger r/c, Beach Hobbies and Danny Sullivan from SMC batteries.

Hosted at Laliwarehouse Indoor track in Hong Kong Tekin team drivers Carson and Jonathan Yeung would get big results with their Tekin powered vehicles in this 5 round race series. Classes included 1/8 E buggy, 4wd SC, 4wd 1/10 Buggy, and more.

In the final round Carson would take the win in the Open 1/8 E Buggy class with his Tekin Rx8 Gen2 T8 Gen2 2050 powered Tekno EB48 buggy.  Jonathan would take a well earned 3rd place as well running the same setup having taken 2 Tq’s in the Tekno Cup Class.

Final results for the 1/8 Open E-buggy class would put Carson Vice Champion, and Jonathan 3rd overall for the series.

In the 4wd SC truck class Carson would Tq the final round with his Tekin Rx8 Gen2 Pro4 HD 4300 powered TLR SCTE 2.0 and was followed in P2 by his son Jonathan.  In the A final Carson would take 2nd followed by Jonathan in 5th.

This finish gave Caron enough points to take the overall Series Title with his son Jonathan joining him on the podium taking 3rd overall.

1/10 4wd buggy was a battle with Carson taking a 3rd place in the A final with son Jonathan taking 4th right behind his father.  Running a Tekin RSX 5.5 Redline powered PR Sb-401 buggy Caron would be Vice Champion overall in the series with son Jonathan taking 4th tied for points after losing a tiebreaker. Now that’s tight racing!

The 2015 Southern Indoor Championship was held in Autaugville, AL this weekend. There were 197 entries at this event.

Friday morning practice started and went to 8 PM that night. The track looked to be a fairly easy layout but drivers quickly discovered just the opposite. The cold and damp surface was slick and quickly developed lots of ruts, breaking bumps and holes throughout. Then there was the woop section which was a handful by itself.
On Saturday John Michael McGinty was able to TQ 3 out of the 4 rounds of qualifiers earning him the overall TQ.

Sunday morning the mains kicked off bright and early. There were triple A mains for all electric classes.
JM was able to lead the A1 main from start to finish to take the win. In A2 JM swapped the lead back and forth with Mugen teammate Barry Pettit. With 3 laps to go Barry slipped by John to take the lead. The next lap John Michael slipped by Barry on the inside right after the crossover section. JM was able to keep his lead and won the A2 main giving him 1st place overall for the class.

“John Michael’s Tekin Gen2 RX8 ESC and Gen2 T8 1900 motor performed flawless all weekend. Thank you Tekin for great support!!!” John McGinty

The 2015 Snowbirds Nationals was held the last weekend of January at the Park Inn in Kissimmee, FL.  A unique race where on-road and carpet oval racers use the same track at various times throughout the day.  The track crew removes the road course barriers, swaps them for oval barriers and they’re off and racing! Amazing to watch this gets done in about 20 minutes time too. Team Drivers Eric & Steve Salvas had an up and down weekend taking away a few wins and a few”adjusted” car in one their classes. Let’s see the recap.

Eric Salvas ran TOUR Stock Spec which is a blinky class ran on spec tires. Running the Tekin RSX in the 90+ entry deep division had him qualified 12th just 2.3 seconds back from Tq showing how close and deep this competitive class this was. Running the B for the lead and the bump some contact pushed him back to 3rd. Day over.

In TOUR Cup 10.5 running another Tekin RSX esc in qualifying 7th in the A. A bad crash on the first lap ended the race for Eric. See picture!

Eric Salvas would again choose the Tekin RSX in the SK 17.5 which is blinky spec. 32 entries deep, Eric would qualify 5th in the A. Dodging bullets the entire way he’d work his way to the front taking the A-main win!

Still hot from his 2015 CRC New Year’s Dash win in Super Stock 13.5 on January 11th, Steve Salvas headed south to the 2015 Snowbird Nats hoping to repeat against the fastest racers in North America. Steve would compete in both Super Stock 13.5 and COT 13.5

Super Stock 13.5 was strong with 48 entries. The Super Stock 13.5 was not going to be a walk in the park. The fast paced Boosted 1S 13.5 oval cars zoomed around the track on Tuesday and Wednesday for practice runs and once the dust settled Steve Salvas was on top of the chart “TQ’ing” the last practice by heat round.

The 4 qualifiers were held on Thursday-Friday-Saturday. It was hammer down as the high level of grip from the 165′ ozite carpet oval was not to spare anything, Steve kept his cool, made proper car adjustment and used proven RS-Pro settings to put his Tekin powered ride on the pole for Sunday’s main event.

Sunday : It would take not only a fast car but great driving in the main to stay clear of the fierce competition and possible wrecks. At the sound of the tone Steve put his finger down and once Ken “Scarecrow” Holmes called “Everybody’s done” .. the 2015 Snowbird Nationals Super Stock 13.5 champion was the Tekin’s powered ride of Steve Salvas.

COT 13.5

Steve also competed in “blinky” 1S 13.5 (COT) where 90 cars entered this year’s event. COT 13.5 always provide extremely close racing where a fraction of a second after a 4 minute run will put in the show or not .. and this year would be no different. Steve’s RS-Pro powered ride made the show, grabbing the 8th starting position out of the 10 available spots. The A-Main would have Steve involved in an early incidents resulting in an 8th position at the finish.

Austin Blair attended the NSX at Thunder Alley entered into 3 classes which included E Buggy. Running his Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc and T8 Gen2 powered SWorkz S350 Evo1 buggy after only having 2 runs on the track layout. Qualifying in the P1 position and having sorted out a battery battery connector to take the overall Tq. From the tone Austin would fend off the field for 10 minutes taking the win ” My Tekin powered Sworkz s350 evo2 electric buggy was awesome the whole race. No issues” Autin Blair

Be sure to take a moment and vote for the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc, T8 Gen2 , and Tekin Hotwire app in the RCCA Reader’s Choice Awards!

Round five of the Western Canadian Indoor Champs series was held in Oceanside City, BC. Hosted by IROCC and NRC. The two clubs hosted what was referred to as “the round you can’t miss” by many.  230+ entries strong with all 8 classes having deep competition proved everyone was prepared to battle.  This is the second half of the season and guys were itching to get results.

In Mod TC Tekin powered Dave Ehrlich would Tq every round as well as take to a solid win. Dave chose the Tekin RSX esc and Redline Gen2 4.5T motor.

Pic Courtesy of RedRc

Dave Ehrlich continued to dominate qualifying with his Tekin powered VBC cars in the premier modified classes. Dave would Tq the 1/12 Mod class, set fastest lap, and take the win!  Dave once again chose the Tekin RSX esc and Redline Gen2 series of motors to take down the competition.

Pic Courtesy of RedRc

Dave Ehrlich would once again take a Tq spot this time in WGT using a RS Gen2 esc this time. Dave would get some fierce competition from 2013 Champ Korgae Scales who would overtake Dave on lap 5 and fend him off the remainder of the race to take the win, followed by Dave in 2nd.

Pic Courtesy of RedRc

Held at Flowood RC park in Flowood Mississippi 285 entries would make for a busy schedule. Open practice on Friday gave everyone plenty of time to get up to speed with the layout and conditions. Three qualifiers would be on the schedule to sort the A’s.

Tekin powered Ryan Lutz would make a huge push running 5 classes!  Round one of qualifiers would have Lutz on top in all 5 classes: 1/8 E Buggy, 1/8 E Truggy, 4wd SC, Nitro buggy, and nitro truggy.  Round 2 Lutz would nearly repeat the feat but lost out in 1/8 E buggy. Q3 This time Lutz would again Tq 4 of 5 rounds missing Nitro buggy this round. So 5 classes, 4 Tq’s going into triple A’s. Martin Harrison would take 4th in E buggy, 2nd in E truggy and 3rd in Pro4 SC Truck.

Triple A-mains were up and Pro4 SC truck was up first. Lutz was on a mission taking A1 and A2 uncontested. Martin Harrison was on point to finish higher than the 4th he settled for having a mechanical failure in A3 taking 4th overall still. Lutz would chose the award winning Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc and Pro4 HD 4300kv motor to power his Tekno SCT410 to the top position.

Pic Courtesy of RedRC

1/8 E Truggy was up next and again Ryan Lutz would start on point.  Lutz would thermal his Tekin powered Tekno ET48 not having a fan installed opening the door for Tekin teammate Martin Harrison to take the win. Lutz would not repeat his mistake in A2 taking convincing a win. Going into A3 there would be a three way tie for the overall between Lutz, Harrison, and McCoy.  Lutz would get out in front with Harrison in tow from tone to tone finishing this way in the overall.  Both Lutz and Harrison chose the award winning Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and T8 Gen2 motors.

Pic Courtesy of RedRC

1/8 E buggy was a heavily contested class all weekend. Lutz would start from P1 being kept honest but Jake Dellinger the entire time. Dellinger would make a few mistakes allowing Ryan to take A1 easily. A2  however was a hard fought battle the entire 10 minutes. The two would swap the lead too many times to count. On the last lap Dellinger would put a pass on Lutz forcing an A3 battle!  A3 was a brawl same as A2, but a few minute in Dellinger would bobble allowing Lutz to capitalize pulling a gap and taking A3 and the overall win. Great racing! Martin Harrison would take 3rd overall right behind the epic battle putting in a great drive as well. Lutz and Harrison both chose the Rx8 Gen2 and T8 Gen2 motors to take top positions on the podium.

Pic Courtesy of RedRC

Please take a moment to vote for the Rx8 Gen2 esc and T8 Gen2 line of motors in the RCCA’s Reader’s Choice Awards!

Savannah GA was host to race the Colonels Winter Classic. There were about 261 race entries and the Savannah crew did a great job with the program.

The first class up was 2wd and it was awesome! With 30 racers in this class. At the sound of the tone Viesins, Melton, and Hanna took off wheels spinning. With in a lap or two, Viesins and Griffin were able to make a move into the 1 and 2 spot. They battled the whole 10 min race trading places with each other. Hanna was able to get into the lead. The racing got exciting with Viesins last min charge to try and take the lead but finished in the 2 spot. Tim Smith took the 3rd spot. Griffin was able to take the win with his Tekin RSX Redline Gen2 powered Serpent Spyder.

Pro 1/8 E Buggy was up next with John Michael McGinty taking Tq honors. From the tone Mcginty ran pretty much a perfect race and lead start to finish. Viesins has mechanical issues and pulled out. Griffin was able to finish in the 2 spot but Associated driver Chris Pace didn’t make it easy early on. He put the pressure on the first half of the race. Pace would hold down the 3 spot. John Michael would take the win followed by Griffin Hanna in 2nd. Both drivers choosing the award winning Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and T8 Gen2 power system.

Please vote for the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and T8 Gen2 for RCCA’s Reader’s Choice Awards!

This past weekend LSR Speedway hosted it’s Icebreaker race. Racers from all over Norcal and the surrounding states such as Nevada would converge to battle out for big wins, fun and clean racing.

Tekin driver Derek Stephansen would have an up and down weekend having missed open practice on friday. He would continue to improve his times around the track just in time to peak in the mains. The 2wd SC class was Tq’d by Kyle Layton and the triple A-main format would make for some exciting racing. A1 would be a battle between the top 3 coming down to the last laps where Derek would take 3rd. Derek would make a costly mistake again settling for 3rd. It would come down to A3 for the overall. Tq was out of contention having a dnf in A2 so it was all or nothing going into this main. Jason Gainey was the only other driver that could take the overall but would break out in A3 allowing Stephansen to cruise to an overall win. Derek chose the Tekin RSX and Redline Gen2 7.5T to power his TLR SCT 2.0 to the win.

Stephansen would continue to put in a huge effort taking on the local track heros taking 2nd in the 4wd Mod buggy class with his Tekin RSX 6.5 Redline Gen2 powered TLR 22-4 buggy.

Justin Moon would battle hard for a 3rd place in the 2wd Mod Buggy class with his Tekin RSX 7.5 Redline Gen2 powered B5m.

Be sure to vote for for Tekin in the RCCA Reader’s Choice Awards!