ROAR Carpet Nationals Swept up by Awesomatix

     This years ROAR Carpet Nationals were held at Prolevel RC in Chesterfield, MO March 6-10 and Awesomatix showed up firing on all cylinders.  There were five touring car classes ranging from Mod to 25.5 VTA and Awesomatix drivers were at the top of all classes throughout the event.  The Awesomatix Team showed its top talent did not comprise of just a couple fast guys, but an entire team of them.  If it takes a village to raise a child, this talented group showed how a team sharing information could raise champions. 

     Seating rounds occurred on Thursday March 7th.  In Modified Touring Car it would be Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix) seated 1st with Keven Hebert (XRAY) 2nd and Kyle Klingforth (Awesomatix) 3rd.  17.5 Touring Car would see Kyle in 1st with Robbie Dodge (XRAY) in 2nd and Mike Gee (Awesomatix) 3rd.  21.5 Touring Car would have Awesomatix lock out the top 5 spots with Michael Toth taking 1st, Brent Klingforth 2nd and Dustin Layne 3rd.  USGT would see Awesomatix lock out the top 6 spots with Kemp Anderson 1st, Clayton Young 2nd, and Chris Kemper 3rd.  Last, but not least, VTA would see Clayton Young (Awesomatix) taking the top spot with David Panter (XRAY) 2nd and Myron Kinnard (Associated) 3rd.

     Qualifying happened on Friday and Saturday with some things getting shuffled around, but Awesomatix continued its strangle hold on the top spots.  Modified would have Isaacs keep TQ with Kyle moving up to the 2nd and Brandon Clements (XRAY) 3rd.  17.5 would also see Kyle keep his top spot with Clements 2nd and Dodge 3rd.  21.5 would see a reorg at the top with Arthur Scrimo (Awesomatix) taking TQ over Bill Sydor (Awesomatix) and Brent would move to 3rd.  USGT would like very similar to seating with Anderson keeping TQ over Young in 2nd and Brent Klingforth would start 3rd for the mains.  VTA would see Young remain at the top taking TQ with Kinnard and Panter swapping spots.

     The mains welcomed Awesomatix National Champions across the board.  In Modified it would be Sam Isaacs capitalizing on his TQ spot to go two and out winning A1 and A2.  Kyle would come in 2nd over Clements in 3rd.

     17.5 Touring Car would see also see another two wins and out by Kyle Klingforth taking the national title over Clements and Dodge.

     21.5 Touring Car would be a battle among the Awesomatix team.  Scrimo would take A1 and Sydor would take A2.  A3 would see two restarts after calamity in the first three corners of the first start and the back of the field jumping the gun on the first restart.  In the end it was Sydor taking the win over Scrimo in 2nd and Toth 3rd.

     USGT would see Anderson go two and out taking A1 and A2.  The rest of the top three remained in qualifying order with Young 2nd and Brent 3rd.

  VTA would see a repeat of the USGT mains with things remaining the same as qualifying.  Young took A1 and A2 with Kinnard 2nd and Panter 3rd. 

Triple TQ’s and Triple NATIONAL TITLES for Awesomatix!!! Dave Johnson takes USGT and Can-Am Stock TC! Justin Lyon takes USVTA!

The 2019 Snowbird Nationals are in the books and it was an incredible event.  Team Awesomatix had strong showings in all touring car classes -- even if we didn't win them all.  The largest team at the event worked together to come to terms with the ever changing grip levels and when it was all said and done we TQ + Won three classes and were in contention in the remaining two.

In the very close TC class which was ran the Can-Am RC Series format Awesomatix drivers would fill the A-main, and the overall podium.  Dave Johnson would reset TQ round 1 and 2 until Eric Anderson would reset TQ in round 3 by 6 hundreds of a second over Dave.  Dave would fire back in round 4 to take the overall TQ by less than 7 hundreds of a second.  In the main qualifying order for the top three would maintain throughout the 5 minute event.  Dave and Eric would pace each never more than 3 tenths apart for the entire 5 minutes with Dave taking the win and Eric securing second.  Sal Amato would finish 3rd after suffering a roll induced body tuck and riding it out for nearly 4 minutes of racing.  

In USGT Dave Johnson would sweep qualifying resetting TQ every round with his Awesomatix A800 MMCX-A.  During the main Dave would get a great start to put him a couple turns ahead of the field by lap 3! He would then maintain his 3 second lead to become 2019 USGT Snowbird National Champion! 

In USVTA, Justin Lyons would set TQ in round 3 on his own lap as compared to the rest of the field.  Pre-race favorite, Wayne Gerber, said he wife wouldn't let me run USVTA so Justin could finally get a win in the class this season.  Justin would fulfill the wishes of the Gerber family by taking the win with this A700 shaft car.  Congrats to Jamison Reichard for racing up from 7th on the grid to 3rd!

In Mod TC Awesomatix would place four cars into the A-main with Sam Isaacs starting 2nd, Matt Lyons 4th, Kyle Klingforth 7th and Donny Lia 8th.  At the start of the main the most exciting racer in the field was Matt Lyons pushing to put passes Yugo Nagashima.  Eventually when the 5 minutes were over, Sam Isaacs was just 1.3 sec behind Alex Hagberg.  Matt would finish 4th followed by Kyle in 5th.  Donny had a rough start and would round out the field 10th.  

In Super Stock TC Awesomatix would place six cars into the A-main with the team sadly tapping out during qualifying while on wicked fast TQ runs.  During the main Kyle Klingforth was given a bit of room by Matt Lyons to push up on the leading pair of XRay drivers, Jan Ratheisky and Robbie Dodge.  Kyle would put two pass attempts on Robbie but after some clean and respectful driving Kyle would have to settle for 3rd place.  Eric Anderson would come home 4th, Matt 5th, Ray Darroch 7th, Craig Xavier 8th and Kemp Anderson 10th. 

After a week long of racing in Florida we had some great results and maybe some even better laughs.  Big thanks to everyone who came out, and for Mike Boylan and crew for putting on the 25th Annual edition of Snowbirds.

2019 Hudy Indoor Champs

A brand new location of ProlevelRC in St. Louis hosted their annual Hudy Indoor Champs from January 3rd to 6th 2019.  The brand new facility just was finished days prior so the participants at this race would be on brand new CRC black carpet just like at major hotel races vs what we usually find at track-based races.  Team Awesomatix USA tackled the challenging new track with wins in three classes -- USGT, Stock TC and Super Stock TC.

In USGT, Art Scrimo would lead an Awesomatix sweep of the podium taking the TQ and Win!  Eric Jones qualified second and finished second.  Brent Klingforth qualified 4th and raced up to third.

In Stock TC the racers would have an additional challenge of handout motors without fixed timing or gearing.  Bill Sydor would handle the challenge better than all others taking the TQ and Win.  Eric Jones would race his way from 4th on the grid to second overall.

In Super Stock TC Bill Sydor would again take the TQ and Win.  Bill attempted to mimic his win on Danny Sullivan's great spin and win at the Indy 500 by surviving a spinout in the sweeper while leading to just take the win over Dan Hamman.  Brent Klingforth would race up from 4th on the grid to take third.

4th Annual Stock Wars

Awesomatix rolls at Stock Wars

     This years Stock Wars, under race promoter Robbie Dodge, were hosted at 180 Raceway presented by Awesomatix and saw drivers coming from the midwest as well as up and down the east coast.  180 Raceway, the fastest small track in the county, is home to multiple national champion drivers such as the race promoter Robbie Dodge, Craig Xaiver, and current Roar National Champion drivers Mike Gee and Sam Isaacs.  This event also was the 5th major event run using Can-Am RC Series rules.  Pro and Open Touring Car were both run with Can-Am stock motors.  The difference between the classes being, any driver qualifying for an A-Main event at a major race this calendar year had to run Pro, leaving the open class for up and coming drivers.

     Friday would be open practice, followed by a seeding round.  While drivers continued to roll in from near and far, the track would see plenty of action as drivers adjusted to the Track Lyons, newly applied to this 80' x 34' bastion of speed.  Touring car, Pro and Open would be hot lapping at 8.2 and 8.4 seconds per lap respectively. USGT would be close behind running hotlaps at 8.5.

     Like normal, Saturday's four rounds of qualifying saw speeds pick up a couple tenths. Because of the Can-Am fixed gears and rotating hand out motors things were tight across the board.  At the end of the day it was Awesomatix drivers Mike Gee (TQ) and Sam Isaacs (3rd) surrounding Xray driver Robbie Dodge (2nd) in Pro Touring.   In Open Touring it would be Awesomatix drivers Arvin Nano taking TQ with Basil Stylianuo 2nd, and Xray driver Dan Pawling 3rd.  USGT would see a clean sweep of the top 5 spots during qualifying with Danny Jenkins taking TQ over Clayton Young (2nd) and Manny Flores (3rd).

     Sunday was main day bringing triple mains across the board.  With qualifying times tight it was definitely no picnic for most drivers.  

Photos by Greg Halstead

     In Pro Touring, A1 would go to Awesomatix Mike Gee leading from beginning to end, but Sam Isaacs would be able to get around Robbie Dodge to take 2nd leaving Robbie to bring home third.  In A2 calamity would happen and the field would be completely unraveled when Mike tapped in the sweeper and caught a dot at sweeper exit starting a chain reaction of events.  A2 would see Robbie take the win with Awesomatix Craig Xaiver 2nd and Mike drive back up to 3rd.  It all came down to A3.  Both Mike and Robbie had one win a piece, so it was still anyone's title to win.  A3 went down much more calmly as Robbie was able to hold on the first minute to Mike's bumper, but then Mike slowly pulled away to the win.  Robbie ended up rolling late, giving 2nd to Sam, and coming home 3rd.  That would be the final result as well after tie breakers were sorted out.

     In Open Touring every race was an adventure.  A1 saw many mistakes with Awesomatix Basil Stylianuo capitalizing to take the win.  Jameson Reichard would come home 2nd with Awesomatix  Bryan Thomas 3rd.  A mains 2 and 3 were pretty much carbon copies of each other with the top three being Awesomatix Arvin Nano taking home the over all follow by Tom Kieser 2nd and Bryan 3rd. 

     USGT would be the most calm of the touring car style mains.  Awesomatix Clayton Young was able to capitalize and take wins in A-mains 1 and 2 when things happened to TQ holder and fellow Awesomatix driver Danny Jenkins, at points waiting almost a full lap to be marshaled.  A1 would see Danny come home 2nd and, yes another Awesomatix driver, Dustin Layne of Layne Spec bring home 3rd.  A2 would see Dustin bring home second and Al Sadono bring home 3rd.  So Danny and Dustin, both with seconds would be battling it out in A3 for second overall as Clayton was able to spectate.  A3 saw Danny get away clean and Dustin battling to get around Manny.  Danny was able to lead most of the race, but Dustin was able to work his way around and take the win in A3.  Final results would have Clayton taking the win, Dustin 2nd, and Danny 3rd. 

U.S. Indoor 39th Annual Championships

Awesomatix behind Sam Isaacs and Mike Gee continues to dominate.

     After dominating the Halloween Classic at the Gate in their respective classes, Isaacs and Gee put on an amazing show at the U.S. Indoor Champs to lead an impressive group of Awesomatix drivers.  This years indoor champs drew drivers in from the United States, Canada, and Japan.  In modified turning car, fastest of the touring car classes, Isaacs took TQ by two seconds over fellow Awesomatix driver Gee. Xray driver Drew Ellis rounded out the top three.  In super stock touring it was Gee with a 3 second advantage in qualifying over Ellis and Awesomatix driver Eric Anderson qualified third.  In USGT and VTA TQ honors would go to Awesomatix drivers Dave Johnson and Wayne Gerber.  

 

     Modified Touring car would see Isaacs tap at the end of the sweeper and go wide, then cut back in sending Gee across the track to start his lap all over.  With Ellis in the lead for a lap he soon tapped out in the chicane giving the lead back to Isaacs, which he would never relinquish.  Canada's Keven Hebert would come home second for Associated, with Japan's Yugo Nagashima finishing on the podium in third for Destiny.

 

     Super Stock touring saw Gee put on a show.  With a bobble half way through the race he gave the lead up, but would battle back strong to take the win over Ellis.  The surprise of the event would see Kemp Anderson take his 9th qualifying spot, even battling it out with his father, to another podium finish for Awesomatix.

     USGT would see another Awesomatix win come from TQ Dave Johnson by a mere 2 seconds over Xray driver Alex Fournier and Destiny's Martin Lecuyer.

     In VTA Gerber would take his TQ to the win over fellow Awesomatix driver Justin Lyons by three seconds.  Destiny driver Paul Doyle would come home in third to round out the podium.

Know your balls! (2018 edition)

New for the A800X Evo generation of cars are have more ball options and more new racers than ever -- so it felt like a good time to revisit this topic.

First - balls that haven't changed!

Back in 2015 with the inclusion of the ST24, ST24M and ST24L (replacing AT21 on the top of the car) within the A700 Evo II, A700 Evo IIC and A700L2 kits there has been some confusion at build time about the proper ball studs to use. Without a caliper, the picture below will explain everything you need to know by analyzing the ball stud shoulder.

From left to right - ST24L, ST24 and ST03

Note the angle and thickness of the ball on the stud.

Second - bring out the new pivot balls!

During 2017 and 2018 a lot of variety of lower arm pivot balls have been created.  Most of them are designed to either increase arm width or provide arm sweep.  All in all -- this is still confusing to folks, so hopefully this clears things up.  

• AT21 - the original pivot ball - now the "in kit" default for lower arms
• AT21S - the 0.5mm lower pivot ball - every useful in high grip, black carpet environments
• AT21S0.5 - a offset 0.5mm lower pivot ball - allows for 1) arm sweep; 2) width increase; 3) wheelbase adjustment - the tricky part is getting the balls aligned correctly
• AT21ST-A- steel version of AT21S that also includes a 2mm driver hole on top.  this part will replace AT21S in the near future

A800X Evo Back Orders Open Up August 29th 4pm Eastern

The back orders / official listing of new A800X Evo kits starts on Wednesday, August 29th at -

4pm eastern

3pm central

2pm mountain

1pm pacific time

Kits back orders will be fulfilled in the order they are received.

All kit back orders are paid in full and are bound by the store's terms & conditions (aka, read that check box).  

Isaacs, Gee, Sydor and Scrimo of Awesomatix USA sweep all Touring classes at 2018 ROAR Carpet On-Road Nationals

As racers started to arrive at Apex RC and Hobbies in Murfreesboro Tennessee you could feel the energy in the air. Racers from all around North America packed into this fantastic RC racing facility with their focus on the prize. In this case the prize is the ever-coveted ROAR National Championship. Awesomatix brought a solid team of drivers to compete in all four of the classes at the Nationals. The team work and dedication by the team really paid off in the end and now the Awesomatix team in 5 short years has 18 ROAR National titles with four of them coming in 2018.

In the Modified Sedan Class, we saw Sam Isaacs and Mike Gee battling the entire weekend for the top spot leaving many of the other team scrambling to find the pace these two had. After four rounds of qualifying Awesomatix was able to put five cars in the top ten. Sam Isaacs would retain the TQ with Mike Gee in 2nd, Kyle Klingforth in 6th, Matt Lyons in 9th and Donny Lia in 10th. Sam was able to put down two dominating runs in the first two mains to secure the overall title with Mike Gee finishing second overall. Kyle, Donny and Matt finished 8th, 9th and 10th respectively.

17.5 sedan is always a popular class which brings in some serious competition and this year was no different. Many of the team posted some of their best modified drivers to try and compete for the top of the top in the super stock class as well. Mike Gee from Awesomatix USA was the man to beat all weekend. His A800XA was super quick and was setting the pace through qualifying. A couple of close battles with fellow Awesomatix driver Eric Anderson meant those two would start 1st and 2nd on the grid. Once again Awesomatix was able to drive five cars into the top 10 with Mike Gee as TQ, Eric Anderson 2nd, Matt Lyons 3rd, Kyle Klingforth 4th and Ray Darroch 5th. That’s right the top five cars in the 17.5 class were all Awesomatix. In the End Mike Gee was able to win both A1 and A2 to take the overall National Championship in the 17.5 Sedan class with Eric Anderson finishing 2nd overall followed by Matt Lyons 3rd, Kyle Klingforth 4th and Ray Darroch 5th. Top five drivers were piloting Awesomatix car after all was said and done.

21.5 Sedan was very close and competitive all week. Awesomtix had their work cut out for them as they tried to capture a National Championship. This class was ablsolulty dominated by Awesomatix cars with the team able to fill 8 of the 10 spots in the main. Qualifying was very close and saw multiple drivers vying for the top spot. In the end Cory Parsons was the man on top. He put together a great run in the 3rd round of qualifying to take the TQ position.  Bill Sydor Qualified 3rd, Dustin Layne 4th, Art Scrimo 5th, Justin Lyons 6th, Michael Skeen 8th, Brent Klingforth 9th and Furman Walker 10th. The mains saw a couple of different winners with Bill Sydor taking A1 after a great drive from 3rd on the grid and A2 going to Team Xray’s Luke Pittman. A3 was a battle to the end in which Bill Sydor was able to capture the overall title and secures the ROAR National Championship in 21.5 Sedan. Art Scrimo from 5th on the grid was able to put in a couple of great runs in the mains to capture 2nd place overall. Cory Parsons ended up 4th overall, Dustin Layne 6th, Justin Lyons 7th, Brent Klingforth 8th, Furman Walker 9th and Michael Skeen 10th.

USGT is always a popular class and this event was no different with some great racing all week at the 2018 ROAR Carpet Nationals. Team Awesomatix was able to secure the top three spots in the top 10 with Art Scrimo TQ, Dustin Layne 2nd and Chris Kemper 3rd. After a rough start for the field Team Destiny’s Johnny Carey put in a great drive to capture A1. That meant that team Awesomatix had to buckle down to work to capture the overall title. A2 and A3 went solidly for Team Awesomatix as Art Scrimo put in two great runs to capture the overall title and crowning him as the ROAR National Champion. Dustin Layne finished 2nd overall with a couple of solid runs and Chris Kemper ended up 4th overall.

In the end it was a great week for the team and the results seem to speak for themselves. Look for Team Awesomatix in April at two major events - Mile High Indoor Championship and ROAR Paved On-Road Nationals.

Isaacs, Parsons and Sydor Win at 2018 Snowbird Nationals

The 2018 Snowbird Nationals proved to be a big success for Awesomatix USA. The largest of any team there, Awesomatix was well represented in all TC classes. Several drivers had their debut with the Awesomatix platform at the Snowbirds, including Cory Parson and Eric Anderson, with great results to show for it.

USGT

In USGT, it was TQ holder Billy Sydor who would win from the tone.  Bill would be pressured for the first 1/2 of the race as a 4 car freight train with Art Scrimo (Awesomatix), Andrew Mowery and Chris Vogan all looked in contention for the win.  By the mid way point after a few taps and check ups, it was Bill Sydor in cruise control maintaining a 4 second lead until the finish.  Chris Vogan would finish second, with three Awesomatix cars of Art Scrimo, Mike Molina and Brian Busse rounding out the top 5.  Arvin Nano would come home 8th and JD Ramsey 10th both in an Awesomatix.  

21.5 TC

In 21.5 TC, it was TQ holder Cory Parsons who would win from the tone, having a Sunday drive as the field would pile up behind him. Cory went on to win by almost a three second margin in front of Art Scrimo’s Awesomatix A800XA. The end result was an Awesomatix 1-2-3-4 finish with a total of 7 cars in the A main final! Monti Panzica would finish 3rd, Brian Card 4th, Furman Walker 6th, Arvin Nano 9th , and Bill Sydor 10th, rounding out the A main grid.

17.5 TC

The 17.5 TC class was stacked with several top drivers and multiple national champions. At the end of 4 rounds of rocket round qualifying, Sam Isaacs would hold the TQ spot with Ray Darroch and Matt Lyons, both Awesomatix, holding down the 2nd and 3rd spot respectively. New Awesomatix convert Eric Anderson would qualify 5th , with a car that was capable for a higher position. Cory Parsons would go 7th on his first weekend with the Awesomatix A800XA, and Bill Sydor would qualify 8th. Mike Hanulec was awarded the BQ-screw, and won the B main tone-to- tone to bump up into the A final.

The 17.5 main proved to be more eventful than qualifying. At the tone, Sam would lead the field around for the first lap before tapping the sweeper and getting pushed into the outside board. He would recover to take back over third, with Matt Lyons now in the lead followed closely by Drew Ellis.  Drew would try to make a clean pass on Matt, but a few laps later got into the side of him, putting Sam back to the lead, followed by Eric Anderson and Robbie Dodge now in 3rd . Eric would try to make a run on Sam, but Sam was able to maintain his position for the rest of the race to take the victory! Eric Anderson had a great run from 5th on the grid to end second, making it an Awesomatix 1-2 finish! Matt Lyons would do his best to recover from an early race incident to finish 4th overall.  17.5 was also an excellent showing for Awesomatix, with 7 cars in the main!

Modified TC

Modified TC proved to be the most competitive class, with several drivers making their way over from Asia for the race.  In early practice, Team Associated’s Keven Hebert would set the pace, with several drivers closely behind him, including Yugo Nagashima, Jin Sawada, Sam Isaacs and Matt Lyons.  Qualifying was to begin and the playing field looked very even going into round 1. The Japanese driver Yugo Nagashima was able figure out the high traction of the CRC black carpet to ultimately take the pole position over Sam Isaacs, just 1.3 seconds back after 4 rounds. Third on the grid would be AE’s Keven Hebert followed by the Destiny of Jin Sawada.  Awesomatix would have a total of 3 cars in the main final, more than any other brand, with Sam 2nd , Matt Lyons 7th, and Donny Lia in 9th starting position.

The mod TC main proved rather uneventful, with Yugo taking a 1.3 second win over Sam in first and Keven in third.  Sam would work to keep Yugo honest, who made a few small taps during the race, but ultimately fell a little short of catching him. Keven and Sam would have a good race, with the two drivers finishing just half a second apart. Matt Lyons would end up in 7th with Donny Lia in 8th at the end of it all.

Amateur TC

We'd like to congratulate Michael Kamali on his TQ + Win with is Awesomatix A800.

Big Thanks

After an amazing week of competition it was truly great to see how well both our team drivers and customers had done with the Awesomatix platform.  We just love the Snowbird Nationals as it is such a unique event featuring nearly 24 hours of racing in road and oval.  Full results and pictures below!

• http://snowbirdsroad.liverc.com/results/
• http://rcactionpics.com/gallery/2018/snowbirds/SUNDAY-ROAD/ 
• Snowbirds 2018 Race Setups

Currency Markets Drive October 2017 AwesomatixUSA Price Increases

It's sad to post this but after a post-election strong USD currency we have had our dollar devalue by about 14% as compared to the Euro over the last 9 months (Euro-Dollar moved from 1.05 to 1.20 just last month).  The weakness in USD vs Euro is forcing a price change for AwesomatixUSA as we must pay Awesomatix in Euro.

Price change will go into effect on Oct 1st for all Awesomatix kits and on October 15th for all Awesomatix parts.  The rationale to split the price change dates is totally driven by the fact the team will be in Las Vegas, NV competing at Scotty Ernst's IIC event, and looking to bring home more wins.

We hope our customers understand that our aggressive price adjustment on the 2017 A800X series of kits, down from the 2016 A800 series was driven entirely via changes in the strength of the USD.

Looking forward to seeing many customers, racers and friends at the end of the Month in Vegas, baby!

Finally, with the upcoming price change, there is no better time than now to pick up a new A800X series kit.  Kit back orders will be accepted at the current low prices....