10 different drivers attending 7 different races in 3 different continents are featured in this week’s team report! Tekno RC drivers Kevin Lee, Matt Bridge, Michael Lightfoot, Shaun Kirkman, Seth VanDalen, RJ Hart, David Hemenway, Clayton Wittmayer and Casey Bias, all won their respective races, making this week’s report the longest one so far! Report from each race follows:
Tekno Winter Series (US), report by Eric Fletcher:
Tekno RC sweeps four classes of the 2015/2016 TeknoRC Winter Series at the HobbyPlex in Omaha, Nebraska. The series was scored best 5 of 6 races spread over a 6 month timeframe from October to March bringing in racers from all over the country. There were racers from Minnesota to Colorado to Missouri to Indiana that drove in to race.
The format was simple yet very competitive with two qualifiers in rocket round, and A-Mains of 30min, B-Mains of 15, lower mains of 10. With average race entries totaling over 120 racers per round it was a stacked field in all classes. Clayton Whittmeyer who works at the HobbyPlex during the week took the Overall Win for Electric Buggy. He just joined the team at the beginning of the series and has been improving each outing with increasing speed and consistency.
In the Nitro Buggy Class Seth VanDalen took overall after switching to Tekno half way through the Series. He has been a quick study and was able to get up to speed in just a few runs with the car. The points came down to the final race with Seth having to TQ and win the nitro buggy. He was able to pull this off and win the final race by a lap over the second place finisher and Race Director/Organizer Alex Sturgeon.
Seth also took the Nitro Truggy class in a dominating performance. On multiple weekends he was able to lap the field with his OS powered TeknoRC NT48.3. His Pit Dad (Sean VanDalen) has been a great asset to helping improve everyone’s speed at track.
The series had a few interesting races including a race the race in January where the temps were around 0 degrees F. That race was quite a challenge for the racers to get the motors to run properly and to find tire compounds to work in that extreme of a temperature. Another interesting part of the series was the first round of the series in October, the RTM for the region Eric Fletcher struggled in the qualifying with his NB48.3 and ended up qualifying in the F-Main. But he was able to race himself from the F main to the A main only to have the battery dump in the A main.
Also would like to take a note to say the Villagio Pizzeria across the street from the HobbyPlex has been very gracious to us after the races. We spent many nights after the races over there eating some delicious pizza and watching Supercross! With everything all said and done, Tekno RC would like to thank everyone for coming out and racing with us this winter. This has been a great series and great fun. Thank you all.”
Deerdale Summer Series Round 1 (UK), report by Daniel Austin:
“An excellent day had at Deerdale, the venue for next weekends E Buggy and Truggy nationals. A large number of drivers had turned out to this “National warm up” meeting to try and get as much track time on the mega high grip surface as possible.
Matt Bridge Took the win in the Truggy class with the NT48.3 with teammate Steve Alcock coming home 2nd with the ET48.3 giving Tekno a nice 1-2 finish.
In E Buggy it was a Tekno 1-2-3-4 with Michael Lightfoot taking the win, Richard Metcalfe taking an excellent 2nd, Daniel Austin in 3rd and Neil Bent taking 4th. 7 Tekno drivers making the A Main out of 13 cars.
Superb results and good fun had by all. Looking forward to the national next weekend.”
1st DongHae Race Series (KR), report by Kevin Lee:
“First race of DongHae Race Series was held on last Sunday. It was raining in the morning so we lost some entries. This race was about to cancelled but track owner insisted to run the race.
The track was wet and produced zero grip as race went on, I had to change my diffs down and sways bars to adapt to low grip level and my EB48.3 was dialed again!
I was able to place TQ and Win with about 25 second gap to 2nd placer HoiDan Seok(Tekno EB48.3)”
Grassroots Racing Series Round 3 (US), report by Shaun Kirkman:
“Last weekend was the third round of the Grassroots racing series. The event was held at the Proline Racing Headquarters test track with 16 heats of racing! I qualified 2nd overall in the expert nitro buggy class. By the time the mains came around it was cold and windy and I had a 20 minute main to prepare for. At the beginning of the main I had some tangle ups with other cars, so I fought my way back to the lead by the 10 minute mark and never looked back to take the Win! My buggy ran great!”
2016 Winter Series (US), report by David Hemenway:
“The Winter Series ran over the course of the winter months at The Barn brought racers from the surrounding 4 states out to participate. Often largest classes were Pro 4 (4wd SC), ProLite (2s eBuggy Lite), and Open 2wd SC. Competition was great with many hard fought battles near the front on the loose and dusty true off road indoor clay track, allowing for real side by side racing and rubbing through many turns in a row. In the end, the performance and durability of the Tekno vehicles allowed me to secure wins on most race days to take the overall victory in both Pro 4 and ProLite for the 2016 Winter Series.”
The Serpent Race (US), report by RJ Hart:
“We showed up Friday to RC Clubhouse in Warren, MI for The Serpent Race and ran some practice laps and did a little bit of tuning. Only a couple adjustments needed to be made, and my SCT410.3 & EB48.3 were feeling great! Saturday morning we kicked off qualifying and with 190 entries we knew it would be a long day. Qualifying went well for most part. I was able to grab a couple heat wins in each class but lost overall TQ in both 4wd SC and E Buggy, putting me 2nd on the grid for both of the mains. In 4wd SC, I had a back and forth battle with Jon “Taz” Motors, for a better part of the race. In the end I was able to come out on top, with some consistent, smooth laps.
The E Buggy main didn’t go quite as well. I had a close battle going with JConcepts driver Ryan Hughes for the first part of the race, only to have a bobble drop me back a couple spots. After another charge to 2nd, I caught the tube again, and dropped back to 3rd, where I would finish the race. My Tekno rides were smooth and fast all weekend! Thanks to my sponsors for their continued support!”
March Metdown (US), report by Casey Bias:
“Code 3 RC hosted the 2016 March Meltdown this weekend to help support The Children’s Miracle Network. The new layout would not only prove to be fast but also very challenging especially with the dry and slick conditions. Throughout the Friday practice and Saturday morning classes I had the car to beat. As the track began to dry out I had to chase the setup a bit and stuck myself with a 3rd place start in E-Buggy and a 5th place start for Pro-4.
In Pro 4 I was able to work my way up to second place but I ended up adjusting the truck too tight to be consistent for the 10 minute main but was able to hang on for 3rd place. Teammate Steve Downs would take the TQ and 2nd for a Tekno sweep in Pro 4.
In E-Buggy I was able to get a clean start and my car was truly the class of the field. There was a technical double-single in the center of the track and I had the only car that could triple the gap on a consistent basis. Once I took the lead I never looked back and lapped all the way up to 2nd place.
I would like to thank Tekno for the support for not only myself but also for the race. The prize winners were very excited about the Tekno products they received.”
