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.
