Tekno RC at 2017 DNC

Although Pro classes get the greatest percentage of the media attention as the most prestigious in any event the racing action doesn’t stop there. Besides Tekno RC’s good results in Pro classes at 2017 DNC having one of the biggest teams at the event our team drivers had success in expert classes with Carlos Arredondo leading the pack, please check Carlos’ race report from the race below:

“Day 1: It’s practice day at Nitro Challenge and my first practice is truggy ,with a fresh and technical track there wasn’t really a fast line around the track and the talk around the pits was the tricky 9 pack in front of the drivers stand. So truggy didn’t really get off to a good start but I knew the car would get better as the day went on and as the track would get better. Next came Ebuggy and nitro buggy and the cars were automatically good, going with the setups that I usually use at my local tracks, I was able to get around the track pretty easy and get to know the track and how it was going to shape up. I went into the seeding practice round with a good gauge on the track and a few changes to the cars. Well for truggy my seeding practice would end early without even getting a 3rd lap in, I clipped the very top of the steep step-up in the middle of the track and would end up breaking. Ebuggy and nitro buggy would go pretty well with me seeding 1st in ebuggy and 7th in nitro buggy. I would then go into qualifying on Thursday pretty confident in my cars.

Day 2: Ebuggy and Truggy qualifying Day. In the first round of qualifying for truggy, my bad luck in truck would continue. My pit crew would end up getting my truck started late after a mechanical issue that we would soon figure out was a ripped seal in my pipe head. So I get on the track a lap behind and just go and try to get just normal laps in. With me seeding in the 2nd to last heat the competition wasn’t that great and I would end up coming from a lap behind to take the win and end up 21st overall for the round. Ebuggy went really smooth with me leading from tone to tone in qualifying to take the TQ for round 1. Truggy round 2 I was able to get to start on time and take the win with a 9 lap run and set the new TQ. But I knew I had the faster heats after my heat so I was hoping for the best on trying to get my TQ run to stay. As the faster seeds took the track I was hoping for TQ to stay a TQ by the end of the round…..and it did. Ebuggy I would have to work a little harder for this round with everyone going faster than round 1 but, I was also going faster to once again take the TQ for the round and overall TQ for the A-main event. After TQing Ebuggy there was still work to be done in truck. I would once again set the TQ to beat for round 3 with the faster seeds coming up. It was a little bit closer this time with 3 drivers close to my TQ but, they were never able to get above my time so I would end up taking the TQ for round 3 overall TQ for the A-main event.

Day 3: Today is the qualifying day for nitro buggy and the track just keeps getting tougher and tougher and ever changing track surface driving buggy on this track was going a tough one. The first round of qualifying went smooth with me and a couple of other guys battling for TQ for the round and overall after round 1. I would end making a few mistakes towards the end of the race and hand the round TQ over to Chuck Hicks. In round 2 of qualifying I would make a few changes to the car but nothing to major just a change of springs and links. I go into round 2 and have a bad start to my race, crashing a few times on the opening laps. So the whole race I was coming from behind and would end up 5th in the race but 10th overall for the round. Round 3 was coming up soon and I was thinking of making a tire change but ended up staying with the tires I had. In round 3 I was able to get out front early and lead about half the race on a TQ pace but, the 9 pack got me again. I made that mistake and it sent me back to 3rd and I would stay there and end up 5th for the round. A 2nd and 5th would put me 4th on the grid for the A main.

Day 4: Well it’s officially main day for truck and ebuggy. But first before mains we had A main warm ups because we wouldn’t get to drive all the way until about 6 to 9 o’clock in the evening. In A main warm ups the cars were phenomenal. The ebuggy was working very well and was very easy to drive. As for truggy, the car was absolutely outstanding. The car did everything I wanted it to do. So after A main warm ups I was feeling pretty confident in my cars and myself.

Ebuggy Main: As soon as the tone sounded I was out front and pulling away from the rest of the field and would put in some pretty consistent lap times to pull away. At about the 5 to 6 minute mark I started to hit heavy lap traffic and as soon as I hit traffic I lost a bit of focus and started making a lot of mistakes all over the track and that allowed Austin Pannone to catch me and put a pass on me. Put as soon as he passed me I tried putting the move right back on him in the 9 pack and tried to make a risky pass on him but it wasn’t meant to be. I would end up going on my lid and behind him by about 5 seconds. I started to put in the laps and put my head down to try and catch him and on the last lap we were neck and neck. He left the door a little bit open in the section after whoops and I tried to take it but he shut the door last minute and we ended up coming together and both of us crashed but I got the bad end of the stick with me ending up on my lid. I would have to settle for a 2nd place.

Truggy Main: After losing the ebuggy main I was motivated to get this truggy win. As the tone sounded it was a battle between me and Eddie Laret, we would go back and forth with me leaving the door open a couple of times and him making some mistakes. As pit stops cycled through I was able to open up my lead a bit more and the competition would continue to fall behind. By about the 20 minute mark I was able to open up my lead to about 30 seconds over 2nd place and put it on cruise control and cruise my way to the Expert Truck Championship.

Nitro Buggy Main: Well After A main warm ups for the nitro buggy A main I would make some front end changes to the car. During the warm ups for the main the car was on point and feeling good. The tone sounded and we were off, my last race of my long weekend so I wanted to make it a good one. I picked up a couple of spots on the first lap but watched it all slip away when I would come up short on the first triple of the 9 pack and flip over and watch the whole pack go by and go to dead last. So I put my head down and tried to lay down the laps and get back up to front. Just before first fuel stop I would find myself back in the hunt for the win as I made my way up through the pack and would find myself in a top 3. After pit stops cycled through I would find myself in the lead for a few laps but would make little mistakes that would push me back to 2nd. After a few more mistakes I would find myself about 22 seconds behind the leader, I thought to myself if we’re gonna make this happen I’m gonna have to put in some good laps to make up the gap. So the final pit stop came around I was 20 seconds behind with a tank of gas. I would start to pick off a couple seconds a lap trying to minimize the gap. At 2 minutes to go I got the leader , Chuck Hicks , in sight. But as I closed it to about 3 seconds with 2 laps to go , I made a mistake in the whoops which cost me about 5 seconds on the leader. I soon realized the charge was over and would have to settle for 2nd place.

Wanna give thanks to Matt Wolter and Daniel Lewis and the whole Tekno Team for all the support this weekend, Mason Eppley and Billy Fischer for pitting me in buggy , Ryan and Austin Panonne for pitting me in truggy, and thanks to all my sponsors: TeknoRC, AKA, LRP, CHR, Hitec, EKD, MattoxDesigns.”