Tekin would like to welcome Chris Wheeler to the team! Chris is a very accomplished TLR factory driver out of Arizona. Chris’s recent accomplishments include taking 3rd in the 2wd Mod SCT division at the 2014 Cactus Classic.
Chris is making his Tekin debut this weekend at the SDRC Top Gun Shootout!
Chris will be rocking the Tekin RSX esc’s and Redline Gen2 in his TLR factory rides.
Tekin factory pilot Elliott Boots would take the Tq and win in dominant fashion at the Kyosho Masters this past weekend. Elliot running a lightweight setup utilizing the award winning Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and T8i 1950 motor in his Kyosho MP9e buggy. Elliot would win all 3 A mains by nearly a lap on the field in each.
This past weekend I attended Round 1 of the Triple Crown Series at Maximus R/C Raceway up in York, ME. This series is one race a month during the Summer months of June,July, and August. The driver with the most points at the end of the 3 races is crowned Champion in that class.
In attendance were drivers from all over the New England estimating a total number of entries between 70-90 with 12 heat races. Tekin powered Scott Furtado was competing in 2 classes: 2wd Mod buggy and 4wd Mod buggy. With the biggest class of the weekend was 2wd buggy with 3 heats.
In the end Furtado ended up TQ in 2wd Mod buggy and finished 3rd, and in 4wd Mod buggy, Furtado qualified 2nd and ended up winning the main. “I had a great day of racing and my Tekin powered TLR22 ( RSX speedo and 8.5 Gen2) and TLR 22-4 (RSX speedo and 6.5 Gen2) were on point all day. I want to thank Tekin for all their support!” Scott Furtado
This past weekend Tri-Cities RC held the Northwest Buggy Championship’s in Pasco, Washington. In the 1/8 Electric Buggy class, Tekin Team Drivers Jeremy Potter and Nick Buechler would fight hard in the 3 rounds of qualifying to start 2nd (Potter) and 3rd (Buechler) on the grid for the triple A-Mains. In A1 Potter and Nick would engage in a 3-way battle for the lead, halfway thru the main Potter would pull away from the rest for the A1 win, with Buechler locking down 2nd. In A2, once again Potter and Buechler would jump out front early on where Potter would never look back. Buechler would have a couple rough laps to finish out in 8th. In A3 with Potter on the sidelines already wrapping up the overall, Buechler would jump to the lead by the 2nd corner, but a mechanical issue would end his run where he would have to settle for a 6th overall. AE’s Chris Nealeigh would take the win in A3 and 2nd overall with Brian Munn rounding out the podium in 3rd. Both Jeremy and Nick’s Hot Bodies D812E’s were equipped with the award winning RX8 Gen 2 ESC and Tekin T8 Gen 2 Motors.
Pic courtesy of 2wdmod.com
This year the Region 4 R.O.A.R. Regional On-Road Championships were held at Valkaria RC in Malabar Florida. Region 4 is a very competitive region and this race brought out Florida’s fastest. As you roam the pits at a region 4 race you will come across past and current national champions all competing for this home turf title.
On Friday June 6th was a full day of open practice for drivers to shake down car set ups and get familiar with the track. The layout was fast and flowing and the racing was sure to be tight.
Saturday morning came and qualifying was set to begin. The race format was rocket round and the cooler morning track conditions made round 1 very important. The first round was underway and after several heats of 17.5 qualifying Tekin’s Cory Parsons would find himself 2nd overall missing TQ by 3 tenths due to a small mistake. In modified TC Cory would go 3rd fastest in the first round followed by teammate TJ Bradley posting the 4th fastest time. As expected the times in round 2 were slower due to the hot track conditions and no one challenged the round 1 fast times. After the second round there was a reshuffle putting both Cory and TJ in the A groups going into round 3 qualification. As the afternoon was transitioning to evening the third round had a lot of potential for drivers to put in fast runs. In the 17.5 A Group Michael Bruce would run clean and edge out Cory Parsons and Mark Burt to reset TQ in 17.5 touring car. In Modified TC Scotty Gray would make his presents known choosing to run a set of new tires and putting down a blistering 23 lap TQ over nitro ace DJ Aplolaro shaking up the A-Main. In the fourth and final round of qualifying the 17.5 TQ spot was safe and Cory would hold his number 2 spot on the 17.5 grid going into the final. In Modified TC DJ Apolaro would not quite be able to match Grays 3rd round pace going 22 laps followed by Mark Burt, Scotty Gray, And TJ Bradley all with 22 lap runs.
After a exciting couple days of qualifying everyone was ready for the mains. Single A-Mains would decide would decide the Region 4 Champions.
In 17.5 the group would get a clean start with Parsons pressuring Bruce in from the tone. Cory and Bruce got together letting 3rd qualifier Austin Harrison take the race lead. Cory would recover from the mix up with Bruce and stalk Austin for a few laps before making his move to the point. After Cory made his charge to the front he didn’t look back and continued to spread the gap from the rest of the field becoming the R.O.A.R Region 4 Champion! Cory Chose the Tekin RSX and Hotwire 2.0 to take his Region 4 title.
Cory Chose the Tekin RSX and Hotwire 2.0 to take his Region 4 title.
In the Mod A-Main DJ Apolaro and Scotty Gray would get together in the first corner with DJ fairing the best from the incident. DJ would continue to run in the lead holding off a hard charging Scotty Gray and after some intense dicing on the final lap take the win. The Modified class would be DJ, followed by Felix Law, Mark Burt, Scotty Gray, and TJ Bradley rounding out the top 5. Congratulation to all the winners and thanks to the awesome group of racers and the Valkaria crew for putting on a great race.
TJ Bradley showing off his Tekin RSX and Gen2 Redline powered Mod TC ride.
The 6th annual NorCal Champs race held this past weekend made for some of the closes racing and the most fun at the new Norcal Hobbies facility. After being forced to move recently Norcal Hobbies bounced back into shape to host a great race. Huge improvements to the dirt and the facility from their previous location.
The Norcal Championship belts were on the line for the winners. 4 rounds of qualifying and triple A Mains brought some good battles on the track. Drew Lorenzo brought the heat in 2wd SC. Tyler Vik and Lorenzo were in different heats and were trading TQ for the first 3 rounds. In the first main, Vik got hung up and Lorenzo took over the lead. Lorenzo didn’t hold on to the lead too long, dealing with back markers. In the end, Lorenzo took 2nd overall. People really enjoyed watching an 11 year old bring the veteran a great challenge.
Lorenzo also took 3rd in the E Buggy Lite class. Battling it out with Mason Eppley for the 2 spot each race, who he battles with up at Outback Raceway all the time.
After the podium picture, we were talking to a few people including Tyler Vik, and some guy said “Drew represents the Tekin tagline perfect, He’s smaller, smarter, and faster than everyone except you- Vik.” Vik said, “this little s**t was faster than me, look at the lap times. He just made a couple more mistakes and got hung up more in traffic. He had me sweating”. Drew just smiled and said, “I’ll be back next year to try again for that belt.”
Jeff Lorenzo had some rough luck in qualifying in 4wd SC. He pulled it together and earned second on the grid in the A, behind Vik. Jeff was able to hold that spot for the final position.
“Overall, we had a great weekend and once again Tekin Electronics worked flawlessly. Thanks again for the support and we really enjoy representing Tekin at the races.” Drew and Jeff Lorenzo.
Both Drew and Jeff chose the following products:
Tekin RSX Esc, Redline Gen2 Motors, Tekin RX8 Gen2 Esc, Pro4 HD, Hotwire 2.0.
The 2014 Alabama Manufacturers Shootout 5.0 in Cullman Alabama has been completed and was one awesome event to attend. With 600 entries getting practice on the track was difficult to say the least. If that was not enough Thursdays practice was cut short due to a storm and power outage. The seating practice never happened so on Friday Jimmy Babcock had to run a tight race program to get the 600 entries qualified.
Tekin factory drivers riddled the Pro E-Buggy class at the AMS this year. Adam Drake would take the overall Tq of the class. Starting off the Drake would start the race running a teammates car and fall back early on. Tekin teammate Joe Bornhorst would inherit the lead and try to put some space between him and the pack. Tekin powered Ryan Lutz would slowly chip away on his lead though and the two would take it down to the last corner, with Bornhorst taking the win. A2 had Tq Adam Drake out in front with Bornhost and Lutz in tow for the first few laps. Drake would bobble giving Bornhorst the lead. The two would come together on the straight allowing Lutz to capitalize taking the lead. Lutz would run out front trying to get some distance on the field. Bornhorst would chip away and take the lead with about 2 minutes to go after Lutz would tap a pipe. Bornhorst would fend off a late charge from The Drake taking A2 and the overall win! Ryan Lutz would take 2nd overall. Joe Bornhorst chose the award winning Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc coupled with a Tekin Gen2 T8 1900kv motor while Ryan Lutz chose the T8i 1950kv motor.
Pic courtesy of LiveRC
Tekin factory driver Dylan Gerard was able to TQ all three rounds of qualifying in 4wd Short Course. Resetting TQ every round of qualifying and was the only truck to finish on a 10 lap run. Gerard would go onto win A1 and A2 and was also the only truck to finish on 16 laps in both mains. Gerard chose the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and Pro4 HD 4300kv motor in his TLR SCTE truck. Tekin teammates Chris Viesins and Martin Harrison finished up 2nd and 3rd both also running the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc and Pro4 HD motor! Sean Ramos also chose Tekin to power his Tekno SC Truck to a 4th position.
Tekin powered Chris Viesins TQ’d 2 out of the 3 rounds of qualifying for 1/8 E-Truggy which secured the overall TQ spot. In A1 of 1/8 E-Truggy Viesins managed to lead throughout the whole race and take the win. In A2, Viesins would repeat this win from tone to tone again to take the overall win in the 1/8 E-Truggy class! Tekin teammate Martin Harrison would take 3rd overall, Paul Ciccarello 5th. The winning combination yet again was the award winning Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc and T8 Gen2 2000kv motor.
Last weekend was the Tale of Two Cities race at Hal’s Hobby Warehouse in El Paso, Texas. Hal’s Hobby Warehouse has served as El Paso’s largest full line hobby store since 1954 and has a 4,500 square foot store with both an on-road and off-road track. The event kicked off with practice on Friday and racing took place Saturday. The event had 12 heats. Adam Drake competed in the 1/8th electric buggy class and was able to take the TQ and victory with his Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc T8 Gen2 1900kv powered TLR 8ight E 3.0. Tekin/TLR teammate Casey Peck would take 2nd running the same equipment, as was young privateer Andruw Martinez.
The SWorkz Challenge was hosted at the Silver Dollar Speedway, previous home of the 2013 Ifmar worlds! Track guru Kevin Jelich put in yet another epic layout. This one was riddled with off camber sections putting a premium on in air car handling skills. Lucky for Tekin we had a qualified group of “whip artists” ready to clean out the 1/8 E Buggy class.
Ryan Lutz would lead the way with his Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc T8i powered Dex408v2 buggy. Ryan recently switched to the T8i after stripping his cars weight down to 3250g, near minimum weight. “The power band was awesome. SUPER smooth and nothing compromised on the top end.” Lutz Tekin teammates Phil Atondo was nipping on his heels in A1 taking P2 followed by Tekin/TLR teammate Jacob Haas in 3rd. They would run A2 with the same overall results. Tekin would monopolize the podium. Lutz in P1, Atondo in P2, Haas in P3. Lutz chose the Tekin T8i while Atondo and Haas chose the Tekin T8 Gen2 1900kv, all 3 chose the award winning Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc.
Tekin powered Elliot Boots is on a tear in his BRCA 1/8 E Nats title hunt. In Rd3 Elliot chose to continue using his Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc and T8i 1950kv motor he set the fastest lap of Neobuggy with.
Boots would take the Tq and dominant win over the field.
“This is the best feeling and most durable electronics system we’ve ever had in the 1/8 E Buggy class” Elliot Boots.
