Reedy Race Clean Sweep of Open classes

     Reedy International Race of Champions

     This years Reedy International Race of Champions was held at Steel City Raceway in Fontana, CA for the first time and Awesomatix came firing on all cylinders.  With drivers coming from around the globe this race is often considered one of the most prestigious events in RC.  The weather was probably the most unpredictable issue at Reedy in years, but great team chemistry of Awesomatix drivers helped quickly adapt to the ever changing track conditions.  Because of weather, the event was rearranged to maximize the amount of racing within the forecast good weather days.  With the talent level extremely high, most things in the open classes were not decided until the last mains on Sunday.

       In Sportsman Class after a win in A1, A2 would see Awesomatix driver Kevin Cole have some struggles and bring it home third.  A3 was not run until Sunday, but Kevin was ready, taking the win in A3 and the over all win in Sportsman.

     In Expert class Germany's Max Machler would dominated from beginning to end.  Max was on point in every qualifier (TQ) and won A1 and A2 leaving the rest of the field to fight for second.  Fortunately for fellow Awesomatix driver Clayton Young A3 was run on Sunday, because after A1 and A2 he was sitting forth.  With amazing advice from Machler, Young was able to take the win in A3 and move to second overall.

     In Modified Awesomatix driver EJ Evans was TQ and able to take the win in A1.  With a little bit of a bobble in A2 he was still sitting 1st overall after Saturday but would need to take the win in A3 to ensure the overall victory.  In A3 EJ did not disappoint.  He took his TQ and drove away from the field taking the overall win.  Fellow Awesomatix driver Armand DeForest also improved his position on Sunday moving up to third overall after taking 2nd in A2.

     The Reedy race showed what great teamwork was all about.  Sharing information and helping each other out proved critical to an amazing showing by the Awesomatix team.

New Wing Mount Supports

Layne Spec's New Wing Mount Supports

As touring car bodies get thinner and thinner Layne Spec has come up with a product to keep the wing supports strong.  These little jewels help keep the wing in place under load and in the (rare) occasion of rear impact.  These products come made to fit by body type and can be purchased through AwesomatixUSA.  The racer model fits both the racer and racer 2 bodies.

2019 Mile High Indoor Championships

The 2019 Mile High Indoor Championships were held at 5280 Raceway in Denver, Colorado April 12-14.  A blizzard leading up to the event caused a slightly lower turnout, but the competition was still tight across all TC classes.  Awesomatix took up TQ honors across the board -- and although the winners changed, Awesomatix swept the wins in all TC Classes.

In Modified Touring Sam Isaacs continues his dominance taking TQ over Keven Hébert (XRAY) 2nd and Kyle Klingforth.  In the main Sam, Keven and Kyle would break out into the lead followed by Ralph Burch (Serpent) and Art.  Sam would stretch the lead and Keven and Kyle would battle out for the next 4m straight to only end up where they started.

17.5 Touring would see Kyle Klingforth TQ by a lap over fellow Awesomatix drivers Sean Guthrie and Art Schrimo in third.   In the main Kyle would control the from the start driving a heads up race through traffic.  Behind Kyle, Sean was uncontested but Brent Klingforth and Art would mix it up for 1-2 minutes until Brent had some electrical troubles.  Qualifying order would hold onto the podium - Kyle 1st, Sean 2nd, and Art 3rd.

21.5 Touring would see the elder Klingforth take TQ over fellow Awesomatix drivers Bill Sydor and Layne.  In the main Brent, Billy and Dustin would lead out the field.  Billy and Brent would trade position and while passing lappers Billy would get caught up allowing Brent to pass.  Billy was determined to get by Brent and the two sadly collided.  As Brent fell out of the race as Layne took the lead and he would not give it up.  More stuff would happen, allowing Vinny Ringler to grab second and Jeff Flassig to capture the last step of the podium to continue the Awesomatix podium lock out.

In USGT it would be Awesomatix driver Dustin Layne taking TQ over fellow Awesomatix drivers Brent Klingforth and Jeff Flassig in third.  In the main Dustin and Brent would battle for the lead while working through traffic.  Brent would get by Dustin early on and Dustin would return the favor in the middle of the race but with just 1m30s to go Dustin would tap allowing Brent to cruise home for the win.  Dustin would finish 2nd and Jeff 3rd for an Awesomatix sweep of the podium.

Thanks again to all of the Awesomatix drivers and team for making it out to the event.  We really appreciate your continued support of racing around the country -- even if impeded by a blizzard!  Cannot wait again for next years Mile High Indoor Champs!!

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).