A rather successful weekend for the Tekno RC Team with wins in USA, Costa Rica and UK! Tekno RC team drivers Aaron Royston, Seth VanDalen, Jeffry Villalobos, Michael Lightfoot and Justin Kirk all winning the races they attended, congratulations everyone! Report from each race follows:
MNRC Round 1 (US), report by Seth VanDalen:
“This weekend was our outdoor season opener here in Minnesota and with the beautiful 70 degree plus weather this turned out to be the biggest race we’ve seen. Drawing 192 entries from multiple states and Canada. We arrived at the track on Friday about 5pm with a practice from 3pm-10pm we still had some time to run. As we walked in we saw a very loose and very rutted out track. This after only 2 hours of practice. We knew it was going to be rough. Starting with our standard set up knowing we would need to change some set up things we tested tires and found what we needed in Proline’s X4 Holeshot. With a few more practice runs changing setup slightly each run to adapt to the diminishing track. We felt confident going into the first round of qualifying the next morning.
After the smoke cleared from the first round of qualifying I was able to TQ all four classes I ran, Stock Buggy, E-Buggy, Nitro Buggy and Nitro Truggy. This gave me good confidence as the track continued to get rougher. We decide not to make any changes and just try to find smooth lines in round two of qualifying, I was able to lock up TQ in Stock Buggy, Nitro Buggyand Nitro Truggy. In E-Buggy the track was much rougher the second round and we didn’t change the shock package to the conditions like we did in the Nitro car. With a shock change in the E-Buggy and tire testing in the Nitro Buggy round 3 was fast approaching. In the third round I was able to TQ Stock Buggy, Nitro Truggy and come up short in E-Buggy by one second. The Tire testing was good, but to good and made the car catch ruts and flip over, so now we know for sure that we were on the best tire. Saturday qualifying ended with Me TQ’ing Stock Buggy, Nitro Buggy, Nitro Truggy and starting second in E-Buggy. Totally happy with my Tekno rides on there first outdoor style track and really rough surface.
Sunday “Main Day” with 192 entries and starting with “E” main in Nitro Buggy our day kicked off at 10am. With “A” mains starting in the late after noon. My Dad and I prepaired the cars for the long mains. 15 Minute Stock Buggy and 2-10 minute E-Buggy and 30 Minute Nitro Buggy and Truggy. Glued some Proline X4 Holeshots up, checked over and charged everything.
First up was E-Buggy A1, Me starting second as the tone sounded we all took off to a quick left hand to a spine jump then up hill to the staircase. At the bottom of the staircase I miss judged and ended up falling from 2nd to 11th and with a short 10 minute sprint I knew no more mistakes were needed to have a chance. I started picking my way through traffic and by the time I was in secound place Losi’s Hunter Holmberg was 8-10 seconds out. With 6 minutes to go I was pushing my Tekno EB48.3 with Fresh Proline X4 shots hard and if it wasn’t for my PT Oils and Futaba 4PX radio keeping me connected I would have never been able to chase down the leader. As I closed and applied presure, Hunter made a mistake and I was able to get around and hold on till the end. Taking the win by 2 seconds.
Nitro Truggy, I would start out front and lay down my fastest lap on lap 2 turning a 29.7 then backing it with 3 more fast laps. By the 2 minute mark I was passing lap traffic and never looked back until I ran out of fuel. We refueled and set back out with over a lap lead yet and I would finish out with nearly 2 laps on the field. Super happy to hold onto the win as all 12 trucks finished the race on this gnarly track surface.
Nitro Buggy, I got out to a clean fast start and was able to pull away and drive my own race before the first pitstop. Driving clean and fast I now had a lap in the field just past the halfway mark and would stay there while driving around the holes in the track and finish 24 seconds up on Kyosho’s Kyle Holmberg. This was a tuff track and only 8 of the 12 survived to finish the race. Only one race left to run.
E-Buggy A2, I again would start second and caught a rut two laps in a flipped. Lost 3-4 spots and had to work my way back up to second. Losi’s Hunter Holmberg now with a 19 second lead and only 6 minutes left I set out to charge hard and make something happen. Just as I start to make ground the computer program freezes. The race committee decide to completely rerun the race after allowing us to charge our batteries and run the Pro 4 A2 before us. Terrible luck for some and good luck for others. I knew I would need to stay with Hunter and drive mistake free to keep the pressure on. Hunter and I started quickly to gap the field and thats when about 4 laps in I started to apply pressure looking for away around him. As he came down the staircase and jump the uphill triple he just caught the inside pipe and flipped handing me the lead with Kyosho’s Kyle Holmberg behind me 4-5 seconds. I drove clean and smooth with only a couple bobbles due to the deep and never ending ruts and finished 10 seconds clear of Kyle. With both A1 and A2 wins earning me the overall and the 4 class sweep of the event.
I’d like to thank everyone from the crazy designer of the gnarly layout to the committe who promotes this great racing series and all of my friends and family who enjoy this wonderful sport of racing toy cars to all my sponsors Tekno, VP Powermaster, Proline, PT Oils, OS engines, Futaba, Team Orion, King Kong Hobbies, New Style Customs and 510 Raceway thanks for all the support.
See ya at the races!
Seth VanDalen”
Final Results:
TQ/1st: Seth VanDalen
2nd: Kyle Holmberg
3rd: Tony Sletten
TQ/1st: Seth VanDalen
2nd: Greg Baumel
3rd: Nick Moxley
Electric Buggy:
1st: Seth VanDalen
2nd: Kyle Holmberg
3rd: Hunter Holmberg
UK Short Course Nationals (UK), report by Justin Kirk:
“This weekend saw the 1st round of the UK Short Course nationals at the fantastic ARC track. The weekend consisted of a full days practice on the Saturday and Racing on the Sunday. Team Kirk were in attendance representing Tekno and RPRC and did an awesome job! Team Captain, Justin Kirk managed to take TQ with some blistering pace and consistency on a very difficult track and then go on to take the first 2 legs of the A main and come away with the overall victory. A superb result for Justin with his SCT410.3. There were a total of 6 Teknos in the A Main! Great job guys!
The next round of the nationals moves to the excellent track at Telford where hopefully Team Kirk are able to carry on this winning streak.”
P.S: Happy birthday from everyone at Tekno RC Justin!!
Final Results:
TQ/1st: Justin Kirk
2nd: Jamie Hall
3rd: Lewis Williamson
T&T RC Hobbies Grand Opening (US), report by Aaron Royston:
This was the Grand Re-Opening of the T&T RC Hobbies indoor clay track under new ownership. We had 3 Tekno team drivers in attendance for the 4wd SC class and took all 3 top spots: Aaron Royston 1st, Kaleb Hamby 2nd (TQ), James Titus 3rd. 7 of the 10 A-main trucks were Tekno!!!! Aaron Royston also took TQ/1st honors in the Mod 2wd SC class using a Pro-Line Pro-2 truck outfitted with the Tekno M6 driveshaft/hub conversion kit.”
Final Results:
4×4 Short Course – Pro4
1st: Aaron Royston
2nd: Kaleb Hamby
3rd: James Titus
2wd Short Course
1st: Aaron Royston
2nd: William Reneau
3rd: Greg St. John
HobbyDepot Cup (CR), report by Jeffry Villalobos:
“This race was part of the HobbyDepot Cup, one of the local hobby shops. It’s pretty well organized and you can always find a very friendly atmosphere. Local weather was about 34 Celsius degrees.
Practice went pretty well, I was coming from Neo16 my set up so I just made a couple of changes on shock positions and it made huge difference on how the car felt. Also change tires and car was spot on. I did great on the heats being able to get right on to the second spot on the a main. I was on the first position from the start and was able to maintain it through the whole race lapping my teammates a couple of laps so I was very solid. The event was a part of a local races sponsor by HobbyDepot our local tekno distributor. So far I have won all races on this track!”
Final Results:
1st: Jeffry Villalobos
2nd: Elias Chaves
3rd: Andres Roldan
NDOR Summer Series RD1 (UK), report by Daniel Austin:
“Superb day for Tekno UK at the the 1st round of the Ndor/Racepace RC summer series. Another “wet” qualifying but were lucky to have a dry track by the finals.
In Nitro buggy, Carlo Demarco put on a superb display taking 2nd in qualifying behind Graham Alsop and then drove an awesome final really pushing Graham and having a great on track battle with him at some stages. Eventually Graham would break away from Carlo after a couple of harsh mistakes but Carlo showed what the NB48.3 is capable of against National standard competition getting the fastest lap in the final and of the day and finishing 2nd in the final. Graham and Carlo were the only 2 drivers on the lead lap and both had lapped 3rd place twice!!! Great going Carlo.
In EBuggy, it was once again a dominating performance from the Team with 6 Tekno EB48.3‘s in the Main. Micheal Lightfoot was dominant all day taking every round of qualifying and won the main. Drivers Neil Bent and Richard Metcalfe put in great performances aswell qualifying 2nd and 3rd respectively and would have had these positions in the final aswell but some unfortunate luck for Neil in the final allowed Daniel Austin to creep into 3rd and take the final podium spot behing Micheal and Richard.
A great drive from Martin Connolly aswell also secured the victory in E Truggy.
Thanks to NDOR for great meeting.
All attention now focuses on Round 2 of the EBuggy and Truggy nationals this coming weekend at the amazing Kent track. Bring it on!”
Electric Buggy Final Results:
1st: Michael Lightfoot
2nd: Richard Metcalfe
3rd: Daniel Austin