Team Drivers Zack Barry, Andy Castellini and Carissa Figelski race reports The 2008 18th Scale Indoor Offroad Nationals were held at RC Madness in Enfield Ct. USA on March 28-30th. A record turn-out was reported this year, with 268 entries, [which was about 40 more than last year], demonstrating that the popularity of 18th scale racing is still growing. We arrived at the track for practice to find a track unlike any others at previous years Nationals. The jumps were HUGE! There was a wall climb that was very tricky to master, and a huge quad jump that was about 4 feet high. After spending 11 hours on Friday practicing and reworking all of our set-ups, we felt fairly confident going into the qualifiers on Saturday. The qualifiers on Saturday were long and grueling, starting at 9:30 in the morning and ending at 12:30 that evening, 3 rounds were run. By the end of the day, Zack had set the TQ in stock class, he also TQ'd in the open Buggy class [with the fastest run in all of qualifying by any racer in all classes]. He qualified 2nd in Mini Monster and 3rd in Open 4wd Truck. On Sunday the mains were run. We arrived at the track at 7:00 am for a little bit of last minute practice and tuning. Zack's first race was 4wd Stock Truck. Zack was running the Tekin B1 and having set the TQ, he started in the first position, followed by Team Associated's Josh Anderson. At the horn Zack took off and never looked back, holding onto the lead the entire race, and winning by about a half track. Next up was the Mini-Monster A-Main. Competition in this class was fierce this year, with Team Losi's Billy Fisher having set the TQ and starting in the first position, followed by Zack in the 2 spot. At the horn Fisher got the hole shot and held onto first for the entire race, followed by Zack and fellow Tekin Team Driver, Mark Smyka, who battled back and forth for second. At the end of the race it was Fisher in first , and Zack with second.
Zack's fourth, and final race was open 4wd, where he started in the third position. At the horh they were off. In the first turn Zack was put head first into a pole where he sat waiting for a marshall. By the time he got back into the race, he was running in dead last. Zack slowly made up ground, working his way back up to 3rd place with skill and the power of the Mini Rage and 6.9kv Redline Mini! As bad luck would have it, he landed wrong coming off the big jump and broke, he still managed to finish 7th. Race report by Jim Barry Running Five classes means no time for motor or speed controller issues. The track was tough and there was plenty of abuse on the chassis. The Tekin Mini Rage ESCs and Tekin R1 ran flawlessly. Shocks, diffs and gears were a problem, but no speed controller issues. The Mini-Rages saw a variety of cells and voltages including 6 cell packs, 7 cell packs, 2 and 3 cell lipo packs and never once was there a problem. A simple Mode change and the ESC's were ready to meet any power pack. The Mini-Rage Systems simply work and work consistently. This allowed Andy to concentrate on set ups and other repairs. 4wd Stock Truck, 4wd open truck, 4wd open buggy, mini monster and open rally. He raced them all. The Mini Rage powered all the open class 4wd's and that Heavy Trinity NOW Mini-Monster was powered by the Tekin R1 with a 8.1kv mini motor. Just an awesome combination. The stock truck used Tekin's B1 with NiMH cells. The competition was tough, and the Tekin Systems helped Andy make it a Five by Five Day. Just Perfect! Now to catch his Teammate Zach Barry could be a whole new story. He already has his Tekins... Tekin Team Driver, Carissa Figelski, TQ'd and won the Stock 19t Class using the B1 ESC.
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