Nothing makes me happier than fresh gear! Master Paintsmith Nick @ The Bawdy Shop (old link but you get the idea) comes through yet again with some shiny new lids for me! I made him add some blue metal flake this time to bling it up a bit. Got them all whored up and ready to rock for next weekend! Great to have a sweet painter local. His work can also been seen on the cover box photo of the Team Associated FT TC5F that he painted for Kevin Herbert.
Glenwood R/C 3rd Annual Pro Factory Trophy Bonanza!
This race has become sort of a USA vs. Canada race since we first came down there as unknowns and made it an "EH" Main..haha! Every year it gets bigger and this year they are pulling in racers from: NY, PA, OH and Ontario. Should be tight. I think I have permission from the wife...good thing it is only an 1 1/2 to get there from my house.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
So I ended up in 3rd place in the Jconcepts/oOple Race Report Contest. Got some swag out of it so that is cool! I will post the winner and runner up reports as well if they get posted. Very cool to have companies like them doing all sorts of cool things! I guess I will have to step it up to take out the competition! LOL.
I also just picked them up as a sponsor for 2009. The johnnyboy.ca empire continues to grow!
Thanks to everyone for checking in and out of the blog during CRCRC's Midwest Champs race! I got about 5200 hits over the week. Hopefully I will be able to make it out to some other big races this year (Cactus or ROAR Nats maybe?) and see if I can top that.
Also BIG thanks to the Kyosho/Orion guys. The team is awesome this year and everyone worked together to get everyone up to speed and with helping each other out with pitting etc. Joe, Cody, Jared and Al were a great help! Cheers!
So we only ran 3 qualifiers for Mod yesterday and are running the last round now. Track was pretty much left alone. Watered only in spots that needed to be fixed and then swept. I think all the big names are on slightly worn Pink BK Bars on the rear and Pink Taper pins on the front (worn Losi 7202 ribs for 2wd).
I personally have struggled with my 2wd (the 4wd was only ok). I like the track, just wish the traction was like last year. Thank god Steve picked up some BK Bars in our tire order! Qualifying here is tough. Lots of bumping and grinding out there. I couldn't put together 2 good runs. In 4wd I finally had the car hooked up and broke a stupid part in the last qualifier :( Oh well, I will keep coming back till I get a result I am happy with! HAHA.
Tebo and Cavaleri are just on another level out here. They seemed to check out every time and lay down crazy lap times. In 4wd they both turned 20.0 laps fast laps (nobody broke into the 19's). that was crazy fast. I was happy getting low 23's. These two were REALLY close in qualifying. Tebo ended up TQ in 4wd with Cav in 2nd, Cav was TQ in 2wd and Truck with Tebo in 2nd for both. It's cool to see a manufacturer battle again out there instead of the A/E show as of late. The mains were gonna be good!
4WD Modified A Mains:A1 The "Theilke Incident" right at the end...You can see the frustration of both Cavaleri and Theilke at the end of the video. Tebo: 1, Cavaleri: 0
Right after the race, I hear a big "SLAM", turned around and saw Brent caught up in the moment. Could have been a pivotal mistake as Jared Tebo went on to take the 4wd Modified Class and stop a repeat sweep of the event for Ryan Cavaleri.
A2
Cavaleri makes a questionable pass at 1:10 and Tebo goes deep into the pipes. Battles back but Cavaleri takes the win. Tebo: 1, Cavaleri: 1 It's gonna go to A3 to decide the winner.
A3
I had to go home as I have a real job to go to on Monday morning and we had a 6 hour drive home (7 hours with all the damn snow in PA). I will try and steal it from someone and post it (thanks Rodney B!).
2wd Modified A Mains:
A1
A2
A3
Random Thoughts:
- I blew out into the....uhhhhhhg..."E" Main in 2wd (which I won) and the "D" Main in 4wd (where I came from being punted into last to 2nd and gaining till I broke). Just couldn't get 2 good runs in to qualify better. I like rocket round style! I think bottom of the B or top of the C's were obtainable if I could get my act together. We'll see next year. - It was cool being Tebo's pit man for some of the mains. Gave me a good chance to check out his cars up close. There are some subtle tweaks that he has done to them to eek out every ounce of performance. - The new Kyosho Truck looks really good. Tebo was looking for a little more bite in the rear. I had some of the Kyosho 0.5 degree rear hubs that we tried (some of the A/E guys were running the Rayspeed 0.5 degree hubs there). He tried them in Truck A1 but said it made the car worse....haha, sorry! - Cavaleri can see a 1/2 foot wide opening opportunity coming up and dive right in. I saw him do that a fair amount over the weekend. Reactions of a cat that kid.... - The chip truck out back made a mean Philly steak and cheese - I didn't even know 6XL shirts existed... - This Blog gets around. About 3500 hits over the weekend. People kept coming up to me and saying "your the dude with the Blog right?" - I wanted to do interviews etc, but it was hard when I was trying to get my cars right. - I think it is tradition now for Kinwald to drive a 3 wheeled car around in the mains and do a big ass jump - Everyone was fairly chill there. Good group of people in the hobby - Mike Ciresi is funny. I thought he had a secret set up on his RB5. Turns out he just had the steering rack on backwards by accident....lol. Work pretty good though. - Can you believe Brian Dunbar? Never has driven a B4 before (B4 before...funny), never used DSM radio before, never used brushless or lipo, hasn't raced electric off road in 5-6 years and just misses the A Main (he was BQ). That my friends is skills. Cool dude to boot. I loved the old skool wheel dots he ran on his 2wd! - Joe Pillars is the man as well. Busy looking after all the Kyosho and Orion guys and still makes the show and does well. - Jesse Robbers drove great and while quiet was pretty cool (they were behind us in the pits). If he could just get more consistant out there he would be right in the mix. Too bad the new D2 didn't get to run much (it was benched after the first day of practice). - Ty Tessman is another quick little dude. He made up for the rest of the Canadian lack of talent (us Ontario guys) by throwing it down out there. - I convinced Dakotah's mom to make cupcakes for the Big Kahuna race next month as there was an uproar on LiveRC chat that there were not going to be cupcakes... - She also heard that people were talking about her butt on LiveRC (I guess she was standing in front of one of the cameras...haha - The ShamWOW makes a good pit mat. - Customs were a breeze this time (I am sure it was because I didn't have Chet in the car). The lady didn't look like she wanted anything to do with a bunch of grown men coming back from a toy car race...LOL...she waived us through pretty quick. - Got home at midnight. The Red Bull's got me through the whole 7 hour driving stint. - Damn the person who set the fire alarm off at the hotel at 5 AM. - Breakfast at the Hotel was great....stole a bunch of it for snacks too at the track. - Someone spilled the tire bucket again at the end of the day on Sunday...
Jayism's:
- Jay came off the stand dripping sweat, even his grip on his transmitter was wet. He was a little nervous out there...haha - Jay (and Steve) found that a beer helped his driving on the track - Jay will be back next year - Jay never did rebuild his diff
Jay and Steve go to White Castle Eye up the 30 burger deal...but the service was so slow we left.... Old pic I found on my iPhone from our local track...haha
Tebo's Lazer FS 4wd Set Up Tebo's Ultima RB5 Set Up
The new A/E LiPo Set up.
Some Pics and Short Vids:
Tebo checking my car out and asking for set up help...HAHA...kidding. He was just making sure my car was set up ok. Thanks! Tebo's Lazer FS with TC outdrives Tebo's RB5 with modded axles Fantom Racing father son duo Chet and Fred Kelsey. Chet made the show in 2wd stock and I think the C mains in mod. Fred had some bad ass luck in the mains. Snapped a front arm on his B4 in the warm up lap, then some dude who shouldn't have even been on the track at the time was driving the wrong way with his truck on the track, took out the front shock on Fred's B44 on the warm up lap. Kinwald's X6 The now annual Kinwald 3 wheeler... Teching in Tebo Pressure is on me to make sure Tebo's body is on right. I had to reassure him the tab was pushed in ;) Tessman getting Cody King teched Strawberry Pop Tarts were the snack of choice for me. Maybe I'll fill into the 6XL shirt after all? Tebo's RT5...nice Cody King's pit Big ass ceiling fans. They shut the ones over the track off as they were drying the track out too quickly! Not a slicks track this year. The locals were saying it was more like their club track's surface. So they asked on the sign up sheet what size shirt you wanted. I chose Medium. I went to get one and they were all gone. I figured I'd grab the biggest one they had. This turns out to be 6XL (or as the guy there told me "tent size"). There were about 10 of them in the pile. What I want to know is, who checks off 6XL and then proceeds to take a Medium sized shirt? That is an optimistic New Years resolution..
Some pics stolen from Brent Theilke Cool shot showing the varying degrees of pin used throughout the weekend. Start with slicks when wet and then as the track dries out you work your way over to full pin Tebo on the Hot Bodies drill press tweaking the tires. This was the best way of doing it for sure! Cody wishing he was over there with Tebo...lol Ryan kicking it the old skool way.
Man, track surface has changed. No slicks at all. People are mostly running BK Bars, Bar Codes and Taper Pins. Cav. and Tebo are flying in all the classes. Evans is looking good in the Losi camp too. Cody King's 4wd looks really good too.
A Lap with Tebo's RB5
A Lap with Cav's B4
Matt Chambers
Dustin Evans
Al Horne
Sorry for the crappy quality. My camera was set on standard instead of fine. Next ones will be better.
Team Cavaleri hard at work. Lou Dog getting things ready Kyosho Camp The announcers keeping everyone in check There are a few drill presses here that people are using to sand down tires to make "Ghost Pins" X Factory guys hard at work Kinwald prepping
Ok, so I was having some set up issues today and couldn't get to alot of the blog stuff I wanted to. I apologize, but I had to try and get my cars up to speed first. Traction will be a big issue this year. Should be slicks to start and it is pretty warm in the bulding so I would think the pin will increase as the day goes on. I heard they will only water once in the morning only. Later on people were using ghost pins and by the end of the day JConcept Bar Codes and Losi BK Bars looked like the hot ticket. I took some quick pics and a couple of quick videos (I should have lots of time in between rounds to do some uploading tomorrow).
People looking fast:
Ryan Cavaleri -In all three classes looks fast. Particularly in 4wd though. Very dialed Dustin Evans - Ripping in 2wd Jared Tebo - Looking good in all three classes. Al Horne - 2wd is looking really good Cody King - 2wd and 4wd are dialed Brent Theilke - Was laying down some fast times Jesse Robbers - Looking good in 2wd and 4wd
I know I am missing some, but these people came to mind first.
*pic still coming Jay'isms
- Jay is loving seeing the Pro's in action - Jay did not re-build his diff - Jay's cars are sitting dirty on the floor in our room right now, while Steve is working on his like a champ. - Shame on Jay. HA! - Jay could have picked up Jane (the 60 year old cashier at Walmart). I think she took a fancying to him and kept asking him questions about the race?!?!
Random Thoughts:
- I miss Jill (Mike's Garmin GPS's voice). I am going to toss my crappy i-way GPS out the window after it gave us a nice little tour of Columbus while trying to find a Walmart. I had to again buy the coveted US only baby formula for my kid and the GPS took us about 15 minutes out of the way. - Steve and Jay (aka Harold and Kumar) tried to go to Whitecastle, but the service was so slow, we booked out of there for Wendy's instead - There is a new Team feeling with Kyosho. Jared really has brought a new professonalism to the team over what I noticed from last year. All those guys (Tebo, King Pillars, Horne) are all very cool with us lesser types and are egar to have all the Kyosho's out here running well. Very cool. - Kyosho's varying rear spring lengths caused a bit of confusion for us today. - There are lots of new LiPo set ups out there for the "Big Three" without using weight plates. - The track drying out is going to make it tough for set up during the day. It will be interesting to see how it affects lap times - It is friggin cold out here still - I think I saw Dakotah's mom. I am going to ask her for cupcakes tomorrow. - The Shamwow makes for a very nice pit mat (some people actually noticed it..haha) - Rolling Rock is plentiful here (I got a 12 pack at Walmart and had one at lunch today!)
Some pics:
Denver's Losi Ace Matt Chambers in the Hot Bodies secret tire tuning "booth" shaving some tires down.
VIP pit spaces
Robbers D4
Young Canadian Gun Ty Tessman's B4. Rumor has it they were breaking parts on the D2 - I only heard that second hand though, so don't quote me on it! Kyosho boys getting it done! X Factory X5 (squared?) Can't get away from the Glenwood guys! Good to have them around as always! Tebo's and Cavaleri's cars chilling in the hotel lobby while their owners eat breakfast. Matt Chambers XXX-CR Dustin Evans XXX CR (I think) A/E Manager Brent Theilke's B4 Cav's B4 (running the new LiPo set up) Al Horne's RB5 Cody King's RB5 Pillars hacking the only female racer here...haha A/E's newest driver Brayden Obremski's T4 Al Horne's RT5 (Al's paint is KILLER!) A small sampling of Tebo's tires Mike Barrett's B4 Old Skooler - Brian Dunbar's B4 (pre stickered...which was a time consuming event in the hotel room evidently)
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