Author: Randy Pike

Ryan Lutz takes 4th overall with his Tekin powered Dex408 prototype buggy. Ryan’s recap :

“Main day has came and went and all that there is left to show for it is the results. Lets get down to business.

In A1 I had a decent start and got up to 5th from my 8th starting position. I got into ‘no mans land’ as I call it where the top 4 had a good lead on me and the rest of the pack were a few seconds behind me. I took it easy for most of the main but on the last couple laps I made some mistakes and allowed Truhe to catch up and pass me on the last lap and so I settled for 6th.

In A2 I got an even better start and worked my way up to 4th. I was staying as clean as possible and was able to overtake Cavalieri for 3rd and I held the position until the last lap. On the last lap Truhe once again caught me and passed me with 1/2 a lap to go. I stayed glued to the back of him though and over the left side double he got a little short and went out wide and we both went over the single onto the straight away together but his car rocked a bit and I pulled just barely ahead and in the sweeper at the end before the finish line he got right on my rear end and basically pushed me across the line. So I was able to take 3rd in A2.

In A3 I knew I had a legit shot at Podium. I had an okay start and after a few laps was up to 5th. I worked my way up behind Cavalieri and I knew if I could beat him I could get 3rd overall. We battled close for a few minutes with me having a couple chances but always getting up on 2 wheels or a hard landing or something keeping me just behind. With one lap to go though I was on his bumper and we landed the coming at you double side by side but my car hit the rut that had developed over the weekend and rolled over. This allowed Cav to get away and King to pass me as well. I finished up and took a 5th for the round. Overall this put me 4th place! Not bad for a prototype buggy on my first big race with it! Overall I was pretty pleased with the final result and look forward to more running in the E-Scale class!”

“I was ready to go for the e buggy class. I knew a few new guys had made the switch from Nitro to electric and had gotten really fast the the 1/8 buggy class was going to be a fast and hard class to win. I ran a couple packs in practice to get ready for the quals. My car was good right from the get go so I just left it alone. The first qual started really well and I was flying and on a TQ pace when it all started to go south. I got into traffic and started making a lot of mistakes and that drooped me down off of TQ pace. I ended up 3rd for the round so I was pretty happy with that. The 2nd round of quals started and after the shuffle I was in the A qualifier. The qual started off bad and right from the start i was making stupid mistakes again and was having some troubles. I got the car rolling mid way through the qual and was clicking off fast laps and making up a lot of time but it was to late for the qual. I ended up 4th for the round and that is where I would start on the grid for the final. The A main got off to a good start and everybody was able to get away clean. Fellow OFNA team driver Brian Bourland had jumped out to an early lead and I had settled into 2nd. Bourland was setting a fast pace and I was pushing really hard to catch up to him. I was making up a little time and he got into traffic and had a few issues and made a few mistakes to let me catch up. I finally got to him and ran right behind him for about 4 laps putting pressure on him hoping he would make a mistake. In one section of tha track I was a li ttle faster then he was and I put a lot of pressure on him and he let me go. I got to the lead and he stayed right with me pacing me the whole way. We got to lap traffic once again and I was able to get through it clean but Bourland got hung up with a lapper and that gave me the advantage I needed to pull away and take the win. I was super pumped with the results after being off the pace in quals and coming back and winning the A main.” Mike Malott

7 teams competed in this 5 hour enduro event. Both Nitro and Electric 1/8 Buggies competing for the overall title head to head. The teams included Team Vertigo, Z-Mat, River, Team Sandbag, High Voltage, and Mugen Mafia.


Half way through the race the top three teams were all on the same lap “Mugen Mafia”, “High Voltage” and Team “Vertigo”. The race between the top 3 teams jockeyed back and forth for the whole race as each team had break downs of some sort that changed the lead and had all thinking one team had it in the bag before something broke and they dropped down to 3rd or 4th place. Break downs from snapped A-arms, flame outs, diff failures, and various other mechanical failures plagued every team. 

One of the highlights of excitement happened when team “Mugen Mafia” held the lead with only 10minutes left in the race and 2nd place team “High Voltage” running in 2nd place 18 laps behind. Thinking they had a comfortable lead the “Mafias” rear diff case melted and the rear drive shaft came out while running 2 laps in front wheel drive only until the car stopped dead! With 30sec lap times 10mins meant 2nd place could pull 20 laps and take the win from 18 laps behind. But, thanks to a back up car that was sitting in sections in the pit, the “Mafia” made a 4min rear end swap to get back on the track and take the overall win!

1st Place went to the “Mugen Mafia” team. Their Tekin powered Mugen Mbx6 Eco was piloted by drivers Ty Mills, Willy Mills, Ryan Mosley and Team Captain Jason Wipf. The team chose a tried and proven T8 1900 Rx8(TT2312) combo as their power plant. 


2nd was  “High Voltage” which included Jake Dellinger, Courtney Vaughn, Rusty Purifoy and Brian Stanford. They also ran a Mugen MBX6 Eco.


3rd “Team Sandbag” included Jason Branham, Brian Branham, Ruben Samuel and Grayson Witt. The team ran a Nitro powered Hot Bodies D8 Buggy.

Team Tekin driver Andy Castellini had a great time at the Prestigious 25thRunning of the Eastern States, co-sponsored by Team Tekin at Family Hobbies Raceway in Vineland, NJ. Racing six classes in a two day period, and doing well in each class was a challenge, but Andy was up for the task. He qualified all six entries in the top three of each class and was the TOP QUALIFIER in the well represented Eighth Scale Electric and Nitro Buggy Classes, taking a convincing win in Electric Eight! Castellini’s 2 wheel buggy and short course were powered by Tekin’s RS-Pro and Tekin Red Line Motors and his SC 4×4 was powered by the Tekin’s RX8 and the 4.5 SC Motor. Tekin’s consistent delivery and trouble free running allowed Andy to concentrate on set-ups and driving; but reliability was a necessity for the next day. 

Derek wrapped the multi race series at Modesto RC Raceway. Derek took the overall in Mod Buggy and Open SC.  Here’s Derek’s final main recap:


“Main time came and I knew my two cars were solid enough to pull off the wins. First up was the buggy main and I would check out with my buggy powered by the RS/ Redline 13.5 combo to take the win over second by a lap with Brian Curran in 2nd and Mike Clark finishing 3rd. In Open SCT I would 2nd with my SCT powered with the RS Pro/ Redline 8.5 motor. I would follow for a good 2 minutes of the race on the tail of Jason Smith’s Kyosho SCR, with my dad attacking me from behind. I would finally put the inside pass on Jason leaving him and my dad to battle it out will I said, “See ya later”. In the end I would take the win with Jason Smith second and my dad Greg Stephansen 3rd.”

4wd SC Mod – I had my Tekin powered DESC410R rockin around this 1/8th scale track and as always my goal was to beat my 1/8th Buggy times. My SC truck was still equipped with the Tekin 4.5 Sc4x system that I had ran at the Nationals and it was plenty of power to get around the track. I was able to get my lap times within a second of my 1/8th buggy! My overall time in my qualifiers would have put me top 5 in the expert buggy A-main! Come main time I started from the pole position and just took off. Extending my lead during the 7 minute race to take a little over a lap victory on the rest of the field.

Keeping the Tekin powered Durango DEX408 prototype hidden from the public proved to be a bit harder this weekend. People wanted to check it out but I was ordered to keep the body on it so that is what I did! I didn’t do any set-up changes from what I ran the week prior in St. Louis and the car still handled very well. I was able to eek out the overall TQ over Atondo and I knew we were set for a good battle in the main. Starting from the pole I did a conservative first section and Philip was all over me. Coming before the gap jump he got all up on top of me and both of us flipped into the adjacent lane. We went down it backwards and turned around and I had the better end of it so I waited for him and let a car or two go by. On the second lap on the tricky left hand section I think Philip cased it a bit and popped out a center driveshaft ending his race chance. It was a bummer because I was looking forward to a 10 minute battle. However I just put my head down and got back up to the lead and set out on a clean run. I ended up lapping the field and giving my prototype DEX408 it’s second victory in as many weeks! I have my work cut out for me next week though as I’m heading to the electric 1/8th nationals. It’s going to take everything i’ve got to continue that winning streak! . . I’m up for the challenge

“Well I had a great weekend at the Surf City. I won Pro-2 SC.  Started 2nd on the grid. After a few bobbles to start the race I put enough pressure on the leader to take over thelead and never looked back. The Tekin Powered XXX-SCT was awesome.The Tekin power was too much for the field and I got the win.

“The race was a 1/8 only event so I entered in just the 1/8 E-Buggy class with my Hot Bodies Ve8 and Tekin RX8 and T8 1900 KV Motor. There were drivers from all over the Northwest and Canada
gunning for the win. The track flowed very well and had some very tricky sections that . Through out qualifying I was still trying to get a grip on the track but I still managed to TQ a round and ended up 2nd on the grid for the triple A-Mains. In A1 I was able to get into the lead early and pulled a 12 second lead just over the halfway mark when a mechanical issue hit me and I was forced to retire. In A2 once again I jumped out front early on and ran away with the race, taking the win and setting up a showdown between me and the TQ who won A1. I was able to take the lead early in A3 but I made a few un-timely errors and fell back abit. I was able to reel the leader back in abit but just didn’t have enough and had to settle for 2nd place and 2nd overall. My Tekin equipment ran great all weekend long in the 90+ degree weather and Tekin was able to sweep the podium in dominating fashion!” Jeremy Potter

” In Pro Ebuggy, my first two qualifiers left me sitting 3rd and a little off pace. After some adjustments I bettered my time by more than 20 secs which still left me Q3 but back up to speed with TQ Brian Seitz (Mugen ECO), Q2 Brian Bourland (Hyper 9e) and Q4 was Dan Rennekamp (Nexx8).  At the tone to start the main, I found myself upside down in the third corner and watched the entire field drive by. Not a good start to say the least but 10 minutes is a long time so I just got back going and settled into my pace. Not but just a few laps in I was really clicking off some super fast laps and had quickly reeled in the leader, Bourland, and took over the top spot. I built a comfortable lead and was able to close out the deal with my fellow Ofna teammate Brian Bourland in second. This win felt pretty good considering I was a full lap off pace in the beginning of the day and was able to make the right car and driver adjustments to pull this off. ” Jubal

1st.  Jubal Dike Hyper 9E(Tekin)
2nd. Brian Bourland Hyper 9E
3rd.  Tony Newland  Losi 8E 

Norcal Hobbies hosted the 2011 Annual Offroad Kings race as a nationals warm up event. The event went off without a hitch and proved to have some great racing battles.


Phil Atondo took his Tekin powered Losi Ten Scte to the overall Tq in the Pro 4 SCT class. Phil went out to easily take A1 and A2 by nearly a lap each round! Proving once again the Pro 4 is in a class of it’s own!

Jacob Haas having just signed with Tekin days prior to the event took his Tekin powered TLR 22 to a Tq and overall win in the Open 2wd Mod buggy class. Jacob used a Tekin RS Pro and 10.5 Redline to take the win. Shon Wilcox taking 2nd overall with his Tekin powered TLR 22 as well. Great racing guys!