Round 1 kicked off at Ultimate RC in Alvin, Texas. Mother Nature would make an appearance with an Ice storm blowing in cancelling Friday practice. 4 hours of practice would be held on Saturday.

Saturday practice was “wet” causing cars to pick up weight, nearly 3 lbs at times!  However come qualifying time the track would dry up enough to race on.  Due to the practice the program was cut short to 2 qualifiers which allowed Tekin powered Brian “Smiley” Henn to Tq 4wd SC and take 2nd in Pro 1/8 E Buggy.

Back on schedule had mains running on Sunday. The track was nice and dry but a little rough due to the weather. First up was 1/8 Pro E buggy where Henn would take A1 battling it out with Jake Dillinger. A2 was much of the same the two battling for the lead however Dillinger would take A2. Due to the reduced schedule only two A’s were ran with the tie breaker coming down to average times, giving Henn the win! Brian chose the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and Gen2 T8 1900kv to power his HotBodies D8-12e buggy.

In Pro 4 SC it was the “Smiley Henn” show with Brian taking both A1 and A2 in dominating fashion.
Brian chose the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and Pro4 HD motor for his TLR SCTe 2.0.

The Power Stroke Winter Shootout was held at Maximus RC Raceway. The layout for the event was technical and with the recent improvements to the track the grip was higher than normal which would make for tight racing all around. Over 140+ entries was a great turn out even in the cool conditions.

John Cravotta would would battle it out in the Pro2 SC class with his Tekin RSX Gen2 8.5 powered X-Factory truck being the only driver clearing the large double double on the track every lap to take the overall win!

Tekin powered Scott Furtado would Tq and take the overall win in the 1/8 E-buggy class running the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc and T8 Gen2 1900 motor. Scott would also finish 2nd in 4wd Mod Buggy with his Tekin RSX Gen2 6.5 powered TLR 22-4 having only the weekend to get the car dialed in!

Rock Racing in Knoxville Tennessee hosted the Run for the Riches. A one day event that was a challenge for the race directors as well as the racers to pack all the action in for one day. Mother Nature also threw a few curve balls, with the temps in the teens, 50-70 mph wind gusts, and slow flurries. But hey, everyone there loves racing RC!!

The qualifying rounds were cut to 2 races as voted by the racers themselves to avoid some very late night mains. Tekin factory driver Barry Pettit qualified in 1/8 E-Buggy as TQ just in front of teammate Mugen/Tekin driver, Shay Brand. Pettit would make a mistake allowing Brand to take the lead who never looked back to take the win!  Pettit would joint his Tekin teammate on the podium 2nd overall.

(L-R) Pettit, Brand, unkown

Both drivers chose the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 esc and Gen2 T8 motor to power their Mugen Eco buggies!

Round 1 of the spring session JConcepts Supercup at Space Coast RC in Cocoa, FL. (Host of the 1/10 off-road nationals in 2014). The Supercup is a large racing event in the state of Florida and attracts some of the best racers.

Tekin team drivers in attendance were JR Mitch, Brett Kingsbury, Chris Viesins, and Peyton McDonald.

4wd Mod Buggy kicked off with Tekin powered Brett Kingsbury from P3. The race would be finish in the order it started with Kingsbury taking 3rd behind JConcepts own Jason Ruona and young gun Daimon Borkowicz.

Tekin powered JR Mitch would take 2nd overall with his Tekin RSX equipped TLR 22 2.0 buggy.

photo courtesy of RedRc

JR continued his success with his Tekin Rx8 Gen2 powered TLR SCTE taking the 4wd SC class with Tekin teammate Chris Viesins hot on his heels for 2nd place. Chris also chose the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and Pro 4 4600 motor in his TLR SCTE.

photo courtesy of RedRc

Tekin factory driver Peyton McDonald would take his Tekin RS Gen2 Redline Gen2 17.5 powered T4.2 to a win in the Stock ST truck class.

photo courtesy of RedRc

Each year one of the most anticipated Florida State races is the Minnreg carpet on road race held in Clearwater Florida. This facility has deep roots in RC holding several ROAR nationals and the IFMAR World Championship in 2003. This year the Minnreg race had a record turnout with racers traveling from all over the southeast to battle for the win.

Tekin team drivers Cory Parson and TJ Bradley were there competing in the very competitive 17.5 Touring class looking to bring home a “W” and build momentum heading into the Snowbird Nationals.

When the first round got underway Cory Parson showed the fasted pace laying the only 35 lap run in the field with Austin Harrison qualifying second and TJ Bradley rounding out the top 3. After round one we had a re sort setting up the rocket round with everyone looking to improve and take a shot at Parsons TQ. After round 2 Cory was able to improve his time securing the top spot and Bradley improved his time moving up to second on the grid putting Tekin drivers one and two on the grid going into the main. Austin Harrison would lock in the three spot with Dave Bowser landing the four spot from the B qualifier and Joe Sumasky rounded out the top five.

In the A-Main Cory left on the tone and pushed a little wide in the first corner allowing Bradley to overtake. TJ’s lead was short lived after a bobble put him back down to fourth and in a battle with Harrison, meanwhile Bowser made up two spots to second and Cory back to the lead. Cory was not going to give it up again and raced to the win with Bowser finishing in second and Bradley third. 

Bradley, Parsons, Bowser(L-R)

OCRC Raceway in Huntington Beach, CA hosted Round 3 of the JConcepts Top Notch Winter Series Round #3 on January 18th. An 8-race points based series run at various tracks throughout Southern California. Note: OCRC Raceway is the site of this year’s Reedy Race of Champions! In attendance were Team Associated’s Kevin Motter, Nick Wautlett and Wayne Wyrick, TLR’s James Raschko and David Jenson, Tekno RC’s Rudy Rico, Mugen’s Tim Long, Serpent’s Matt Schreffler, and a number of very fast local racers. There would be two rounds of 5 minute qualifiers, followed by 5 minute A Mains. Announcing would be handled by Notch Johnson. There were approximately 180 entries this round.

The layout was very tight, with a number of 180 degree turns, S-turns, and two table-top jumps into immediate 90 degree turns. Because of the tight layout, Tekn factory driver Lucas Sanford elected to replace his usual Tekin 2050kv T8 motor with the new T8i  1950kv “Indoor” motor. The weight savings would make his Tekin powered Kyosho MP9 more nimble. It proved to be a wise choice, as my car was “unbelievable in the turns.” Lucas would run a mistake free A-main run starting from the Tq position to take the overall in.

“I can honestly say that my Kyosho MP9 TKI 3 on AKA clay Handlebar tires, with the Tekin RX8 Gen 2 and T8i motor, has never performed better on an indoor track!” Sanford

Sanford would alos make the 2wd Mod Buggy podium starting from the 5th position powering his Kyosho RB6 with a Tekin RSX and Redline 7.5 Gen2.

RC Excitement hosted its annual Snowball Off-road Championships! With over 160 entries running in the low 40 degree temps it shows the diehard group of guys they have in this region.

In SC Pro4 Tekin factory driver Scott Furtado ended up leading every lap from the TQ position taking the win! Furtado chose the Tekin Rx8 Gen2 and Pro 4 400kv motor.

 The 2014 Chili Bowl Jr. kicked off in Tulsa, Ok this past weekend starting on wednesday. With over 230 entries going through controlled practice only allowing for 2 runs in each class.

During the first day of qualifying some issues with the timing system forced the race to drop Q1 to be fair to all in attendance. This helped out Tekin team driver Brian Stanton who had a collision while on Tq pace in round one erasing his 14th for the round! Whew!  That was the good news, the bad news was the last 2 remaining rounds would count, no excuses!

Day 2 of qualifying the track was tightening up a bit as the grip was coming up. Stanton was 1st run in his class and laid down a fast but safe run to take a 7th for the round getting him in the fast resort for the last round. Stanton gambled with a drag brake change last minute as he watched a few cars exit the race line upside down to grip rolling! His gamble paid off taking a solid 5th for the round!

Mains day was up with Stanton starting from the 5th position in the Midwest Modified class. Brian recaps his main:

“Going out for my hot lap session, the car was a little free in the turns but after a couple of laps my car was locked in and became a little tight off the turns pulling the front tires off the ground with ease from the Tekin RSX & Gen 2 8.5 motor.  After making a quick adjustment to get into the turn better, then an adjustment to get off the turns better, I was ready to go.  It was time to get rolling, literally with a rolling start.  The first few laps went by like a freight train running around the track before a bobble ahead of me moved me into the 3rd position.  Only 2 laps later, I got caught up in a back marker accident and spun into the sandy portion near the wall, losing over a lap.  I was sure my race was done at this point.  I wanted to get back all the positions that I could and knew that I needed to stay clean to make up these spots.   By lap 13 I was back to 4th after dropping to 7th.  Two laps later, I was up to the 3rd position.  I could see the second place car in my peripheral vision, but couldn’t make up a lot of time while making my way through traffic.  Then, with less than 30 seconds to go, I was able to make the pass into second place after a pile up in turn 2.  As the race ended, only the top two turned in 45 lap runs and I made the climb from as low as 7th back to a second finish position.  Following the race, I still had plenty of power and traction to pull the front wheels off the ground.” Brian Stanton