Tekno RC Team Report Week 49-50, 2017

The 4th annual Drumstick race was a huge success! I ended up running mod 2wd, mod 4wd, and ebuggy for the event. With 272 entries there was plenty of time! Qualifying was excellent, and after 3 rounds I ended up 5th in mod 2wd. 3rd in mod 4wd, and tq in ebuggy.

The mains went great! Had some issues with traffic in both 2wd and 4wd. But would battle back to a respectable 6th in 2wd, and 4th in 4wd. Just missing 3rd by 2 seconds! In ebuggy I led wire to wire, but still had a great battle with Mugen driver Kevin Siller for the first few minutes. But, my Eb48.4 was money and ended up in the winners circle!

Overall results:

TQ/1st: Mike Legue – Tekno EB48.4

2nd: Kevin Siller

3rd: Thomas Buckley

This was the annual Toys For Tots charity race at FRC. There was a good turnout with over 100 entries for this 1 day race. During practice I tweaked my shock/diff setups and felt fairly confident going in. The EB410 felt great as always taking me to top qualifier and 1st overall! The EB48.4 was great on this high-bite track, but with such stiff competition any mistake costed dearly. I qualified 2nd and finished 2nd overall.

Overall results:

TQ/1st: Kevin McCoy – Tekno EB410

2nd: Greg Gatewood

3rd: Demarco Pendarvis

What a better way to spend my Father’s birthday weekend than to go racing together! It’s become a family tradition. The Badlands crew have always supported us Savannah boys and we make an effort to return the favor. The layout this year was very reminiscent of the Masters Of Dirt RC Championships a month prior, featuring high speed high flying jumps, off camber doubles, and a crossover. We had the option to practice on Thursday or Friday. I opted for Thursday and spend early Friday cleaning and rebuilding before seeding. The Teknos felt awesome, even on my “recycled” tires. I say recycled because they had some wear to begin with, but the grip was so incredibly high, I was able to finish them off properly and not feel wasteful, lol. Seeding Qual went very well! My ET48.3 was P1 and my EB48.4 was P9. Next morning was qualifying. The track had even more bite and was getting hungrier for tires! My Truggy was awesome, no problems! My Buggy held its ground too and navigated the track with ease! After qual points were tallied best 2 out of 3, I took TQ in E Truggy and P6 in Pro E Buggy! Main day was a long grueling wait.

For A1 of truck, Jeff Keeton glued me up some JConcepts R2 Reflex that were perfect! They hooked great and barely showed any wear after 8 minutes. I took the win in that one. For A2, the sun had set and temps had dropped. With that, I went back to the Blue Reflex I ran in Q2 and 3. It was a very fun battle with Jader Lopez with him saying to his truck motor “Come on little buddy!” I tried a jump pass early on that failed, but the 2nd attempt later on put me on the inside and I made the pass to hold on for the win and the overall! In E Buggy, A1 was frustrating. My diff setup was lite to begin with and the extreme RPM and grip made it even thinner. After a head on collision early on, I got very frustrated and pulled off early to regroup. With the help on my NTM Matt Wolter, he gave me the parts, tools, and the support I needed to comeback for redemption in A2. I spent the next hour redoing my diffs and planning for another try. I stayed in 5th for awhile, eventually made it up to 3rd, but with 2 bobbles, I came home 5th. Overall, I would finish where I started in 6th. This weekend really taught me the meaning of friendship, family, and teamwork! The overwhelming support I received onsight from Tekno and JConcepts was a huge boost in confidence and morale that I needed! Thanks to the Badlands crew, Race Director Lance MacDonald, Matt Wolter, Joe Bornhorst, Mason Eppley, David Scott, Mark Unrath, Mike Stubblefield, Mitchell Looper, Terry James Decker, Anne Rowland Decker, Jeff Keeton, Thomas Tran, JR Mitch, Jackson Brunson, Landen Lewis, Alex Mueller, and of course the birthday boy my dad Pat Rossiter. As always, thanks to my sponsors.

Overall results:

TQ/1st: Patrick Rossiter – Tekno ET48.3

2nd: Chris Bing

3rd: Jader Lopez

The Lone Star Classic has been running for 23 year straight here in Texas. The track was super fastest I’d ever seen at Indy. Practice saw pros getting into the 23s lap times as the day progressed the times began to drop closer and closer to 21s laps. The layout was fun and had quirks and option lines that really made you think about risk/reward.

Etruggy I was able to set TQ and better my time in the later rounds. In the mains I locked in the win in A1 and A2. I ran A3 to see if I could better my time. Ebuggy was stacked! I was able to qualify in the A-main in the 10th spot which really made me happy. I ended up finishing 8th overall which was a feat because the track was fast and the drivers were even faster!

Overall results:

TQ/1st: James Titus – Tekno ET48.3

2nd: Andrew Chutz – Tekno ET48.3

3rd: Josh Conrad

What monumental effort the Capital City Raceway crew did to give us a track to race on. Three days of the rain had ruined a pristine surface. Friday’s scheduled practice was lost to the weather. The crew got to work as soon as the rain passed Friday night and worked most of the night to get the track ready. The surface would end up to be quite bumpy but lead to some exciting racing throughout the event.

Saturday was shortened to several hours of practice and 1 round of qualifying. Sunday would then be 2 rounds of qualifying and the double electric mains. My ET48.3 electric truggy felt excellent from the start and I had great runs to set TQ in all three rounds of qualifying.

For the double A-Mains, I chose to stay with my round 3 tire choice and was able to lead tone to tone in both mains.

Lance MacDonald ran an exciting program and the Capital City crew put in a herculean effort to get the race in.

Overall results:

TQ/1st: John Bernard Jr. – Tekno ET48.3

2nd: Chris Giraldo – Tekno ET48.3

3rd: John Corry – Tekno ET48.3

Today I decided to attend the ROAR NJ State Champs held at TAP Raceway in Williamstown NJ. This was 3 day race and I was not planning on attending because I was unable to make Friday and Saturday. They decided to run 1 qualifier on Sunday at the last minute so I decided to try my luck. I arrived at the track as early as I could and was able to get 1 practice run with each of my cars. I entered 1/10 Stock Buggy Expert and 1/10 13.5 4wd. First up was 2wd. I was on brand new tires so my car was a little loose. I had a few mistakes early but, managed a 4th place qualifying time. Next was 13.5 4wd. My car was on rails. I bested the TQ time set on Saturday by 1 lap. I would start from the pole.

Mains were set, double A’s for both classes. First up was 2wd, the start was a little weird as none of us were ready and the tone just went off. the 2nd and 3rd corners were complete carnage but I drove through them and took the lead. I cruised to a win in A1. Next was 13.5 4wd. I started on the pole and lead from start to finish. A2 for 2wd. The start was much better for all. I came out 3rd after the 3rd corner and battled with Tom Lane for 2nd most of the first 2min. Not sure what happened but, Tom fell back and I was all alone in 2nd. I tried my best but could not catch Scooby Horton for the lead. I ended up 2nd and with the combined 2nd overall. In 13.5 4wd I again lead from wire to wire and clinched the NJ State 13.5 title.
Thank you all for your support!

Overall results:

TQ/1st: Frederick Perkins

2nd: Faiello Anthony

3rd: Juwan Hunter

I made the trip down to the new Sun City R/C Raceway, right outside of El Paso, for the US Open. Joey Showers and the rest of the Shower’s family have created an awesome new facility!! I expect to race there many times in the future. As always, Kenny Brosh and Tim Lime ran a great program and Joey Wolters Christensen built us a great track.

In Nitro Truggy, I ran well all weekend, qualifying 11th, placing me P2 in the B-Main. I had a great 20min run and won the B-Main, bumping me up to the A-Main, with some of the best drivers in the US! The A-Main was 45min and I was able to battle my way up to 8th, where I finished. I’m pretty happy with my performance, but of course, plan to do even better next year.

In 4wd Short Course, I expected to do well, but struggled in qualifying. I had to start in the back of the A-Main, but got a great start, worked my way through the field, and made the pass for the lead on the last lap, winning by 4sec!!

Overall results:

1st: Tony Hinojosa – Tekno SCT410.3

2nd: Cesar Gallegos

3rd: Shannon Adkins – Tekno SCT410.3