Tekno RC Sweeps AMS 7.0!
The 7th edition of the Alabama Manufacturer Shootout was held at Cullman Alabama. Tekno RC was present at the race with Factory Team drivers Ryan Lutz and Joe Bornhorst, managing the get the win in Nitro Buggy, Electric Buggy and Nitro Truggy classes. Joe Bornhorst reports back from the race:
Driver’s briefing at AMS 7.0
“This weekend the Tekno team converged on Cullman Alabama for the 7th Annual Alabama Manufacturers Cup, also known as AMS 7.0. Factory drivers Joe Bornhorst and Ryan Lutz were in attendance along with a lot of team drivers to help make this race a new record amount of entries at 620.
Joe working on his NB48.3
This race schedule is a little bit different than normal to where practice is on Thursday, quals Friday and mains Sunday. Practice went well for everyone and not too many changes were needed. With it being open practice, there was a lot of cars on the track making it difficult to get many clean laps. Most of the day was spent just making sure our cars were alright and testing some tires. We got a sufficient amount of track time and called it an early night to get prepared for the early morning qualifiers the next day. Qualifying day started bright and early at 7 a.m. We had some ups and downs through the day but came away with some solid finishes and a few TQ runs. Ryan qualified 2nd overall in both Pro Nitro classes and 6th in eBuggy, while Joe qualified 3rd and 4th in Pro Nitro Buggy and Truggy respectively along with the TQ in EBuggy. Quals wrapped up at about 1130 p.m. and we headed back to the hotel. 
Ryan’s NT48.3 Truggy
Main day came around and we had most of the day to prepare for our races while the lower mains were running. Up first was Pro EBuggy A1 and it went pretty good. Joe had a little bit of a rough start but regrouped and got back to the front with the win.
Up next was the Pro Truggy 30 minute main. In the beginning it was a top 3 breakaway of Ryan, Dakotah Phend and Joe. They ran in that order until right around the first pit stop and then Ryan took the lead and set sail. Joe fell back a little bit and settled into a pace in 3rd until the 18 minute mark when he had an issue and had to retire from the race. Ryan stayed clean and continued to pull away to take the win!
Next up was Pro EBuggy A2. Joe and Ryan both got good starts this time and were running 1-2 for the first few minutes. Ryan seemed to have a little more pace so they worked together and kept moving forward. Ryan would take the win with Joe coming around in second which was also good enough for Joe to grab the overall win! Ryan came away with a 6th overall.
Last up for the night was the Pro Buggy Main. The start to this one was pretty crazy. A battle ensued between the top 5 with the lead changing almost every lap. After a few people had issues, Joe found himself in the lead with a lap lead and only 7 minutes to go. Ryan had a few issues late in the race but was still able to finish a solid 5th while Joe kept it clean and brought home his second win of the day, which also completed the Tekno sweep of AMS 7.0!
Overall Results:
Pro Nitro Buggy:
1st: Joe Bornhorst
2nd: Josh Wheeler
3rd: J.R Mitch
Pro Nitro Truggy:
1st: Ryan Lutz
2nd: Dakotah Phend
3rd: Tyler Jones
Pro Electric Buggy:
TQ/1st: Joe Bornhorst
2nd: Michael Paige
3rd: Collin Weatherholt
Overall a very good weekend for the entire team with many A main appearances from team drivers and Tekno customers in all classes. Next up for Ryan is the Novarossi Challenge in New York in a couple of weeks and then both Ryan and Joe will be at the ROAR Electric 1/8 Nationals. “