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
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.
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!
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....
The 2017 ROAR Carpet Nationals held at 360V2 RC Raceway in New Rochelle, New York was a major success! The track crew, including Donny Lia, Sal Amato, and Alex Valdes, among others, did an incredible job to prepare the track and facility in what was one of the best ROAR Nationals in recent memory.
For Team Awesomatix USA, the racing went as well as we could have ever asked for—taking down wins in 17.5 Touring car, Modified touring car, as well as USGT, and 2 TQ’s to go along with it!
Modified TC
Modified TC was the most exciting class of the weekend, with several National Champions in the building locked and loaded for some close racing. After four rounds of Rocket Round qualifying, it was the XRay of Paul Lemieux with a perfect drive to take the pole, followed closely by the Team Associated ride of Keven Hebert and the Awesomatix of Sam Isaacs rounding out the top 3 starting spots. For Awesomatix USA, we would have a total of 4 cars in the A-main: Sam Isaacs 3rd, Mike Gee starting 8th, Kyle Klingforth in 9th, and Donny Lia in 10th, rounding out the grid, filling nearly half the A main lineup!
Qualifying order for the A-main:
1 Paul Lemieux
2 Keven Hebert
3 Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
4 Ralph Burch
5 Chris Tosolini (Mon-Tech)
6 Chris Adams
7 Andrew Ellis (Mon-Tech)
8 Mike Gee (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
9 Kyle Klingforth (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
10 Donny Lia (Awesomatix)
The set of triple A mains for modified touring was sure to be interesting, with the best 2 of three races to count in typical ROAR Racing format. A1 would start in grid order, with a perfect start for Paul, Keven, and Sam pulling away from the rest of the field. The trio would remain in grid order until a mistake by leader Paul Lemieux flipping his car. Keven would assume the lead, which he would hold until the finish line to claim A1 in a close battle with Sam only 3/10th of a second behind at the buzzer. Surely, A2 would be even more interesting!
Modified touring leg 2 began in a similar fashion, with a perfect start for nearly the entire field, with the top three having some room to do battle! Paul would tap the carousel onto the straight away allowing Keven to assume the lead, followed closely by Paul and Sam. Paul and Sam began to close on the leader, and an incident between Keven and Paul on the left side of the track gave Sam plenty of space to go through and cruise to an A2 victory. The overall title would come down to A main number 3, with both Keven and Sam having one victory apiece.
After an intense leg 2, A3 proved to be just as entertaining and action packed. As in the previous 2 mains, the top three quickly broke away from the rest of the field to race for the title. After two races, Sam led in points with a first and a second place finish, with Keven the only one who could challenge Sam for the overall title, having a first place result already to his credit. As the race ensued, Keven was able to make a nice pass on the inside of Lemieux at the early stages of the race. Sam continued to apply serious pressure to the back of Lemieux for the second position. Slightly over halfway through the race, Paul and Sam put on a charge to catch the leader, Keven, and began to close on him. With less than 2 minutes to go, Keven would put his car on 2 wheels through the carousel, throwing his car off the racing line, allowing Paul to take the inside line. Keven, attempting to regain his first position, would run into the back of Paul, causing his car to flip and Paul’s body to tuck. Sam, just half a turn back, was able to drive through the commotion and cruise for the last minute and a half to take A3 and the Modified National Championship Title! In the end, Awesomatix USA had 4 cars in the A main final, with Sam taking the W, Mike Gee in 8th, Donny Lia in 9th, and Kyle Klingforth rounding out the main in 10th.
Finishing order and points:
1 Sam Isaacs 2pts
2 Keven Hebert 4pts
3 Ralph Burch 6pts
4 Chris Tosolini 7pts
5 Paul Lemieux 8pts
6 Andrew Ellis 9pts
7 Chris Adams 9pts
8 Mike Gee 11pts
9 Donny Lia 15pts
10 Kyle Klingforth 20pts
17.5 TC
The 17.5 TC division once again proved to be the largest class with over 50 participants. After 4 rounds of close and intense qualifying, Sam Isaacs was able to take top TQ honors with teammate Mike Gee keeping him honest, only about a second behind. Kyle Klingforth would put his name out there to qualify 4th on the grid, running the A800X behind Xray’s Eric Anderson. Bill Sydor qualified 7th and Sal Amato would round out the A main grid in 10th for a total of 5 Awesomatix cars in the show—more than any other brand!
Qualifying order for the A-main:
1 Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
2 Mike Gee (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
3 Eric Anderson (Mon-Tech)
4 Kyle Klingforth (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
5 Mike Haynes
6 Martin Crisp
7 Bill Sydor (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
8 Andrew Ellis (Mon-Tech)
9 John Themelis
10 Sal Amato (Awesomatix/Mon-Tech)
The triple A mains in 17.5 TC played out as they started. Sam was able to take tone-to-tone victories in A1 and A2 to take the overall National Champion title! Mike Gee proved victorious in A3, taking a tone-to-tone win to finish in the second spot overall! Kyle Klingforth, racing closely with Eric Anderson, was able to take third on the podium after some excellent drives. All in all, 17.5 TC was an Awesomatix and Mon-Tech Racing USA podium sweep, with Billy Sydor finishing 6th overall and Sal Amato in 7th.
Finishing order and points:
1 Sam Isaacs 2pts
2 Mike Gee 3pts
3 Kyle Klingforth 5pts
4 Eric Anderson 7pts
5 Mike Haynes 7pts
6 Bill Sydor 11pts
7 Sal Amato 12pts
8 Martin Crisp 13pts
9 John Themelis 17pts
10 Andrew Ellis 17pts
USGT
Awesomatix USA drivers showed great pace in USGT, with Billy Sydor taking the TQ honors by a few second over Jared Mowery and Awesomatix driver Brandon Hughes. Courtney Townend would qualify 8th with Ralph Morella in 9th to add two more Awesomatix cars to the A main grid. The main event was shaping up to be a great show, and an excellent chance for an Awesomatix victory with 4 cars in the A final!
Qualifying order for the A-main:
1 Bill Sydor (Awesomatix)
2 Jared Mowery
3 Brandon Hughes (Awesomatix)
4 Scott Jakes
5 Joachim Bruneau
6 Clayton Young
7 Jose Almonte
8 Courtney Townend (Awesomatix)
9 Ralph Morella (Awesomatix)
10 Walo Walker
Bill Sydor would lead tone to tone in A1 to take a commanding victory. An early mistake in A2 by Sydor would put Brandon Hughes, running the A800A, to the top spot, which he would hold for the majority of the race until an incident in the chicane with traffic, causing him to drop down the order. This allowed Sydor to again take over that top spot and claim the USGT National Championship with an A2 win! A great A3 win earned Brandon Hughes 2nd overall, a great result for the young up and coming racer. Ralph Morella would move from 9th on the grid to finish 6th, and Courtney Townend would wind up 8th overall.
Finishing order and points:
1 Bill Sydor 2pts
2 Brandon Hughes 3pts
3 Joachim Bruneau 5pts
4 Scott Jakes 5pts
5 Clayton Young 8pts
6 Ralph Morella 11pts
7 Jose Almonte 12pts
8 Courtney Townend 12pts
9 Jared Mowery 15pts
10 Walo Walker 16pts
The Team
The Awesomatix team showed great teamwork, paying off in three race victories and National Titles! Next up is the 2017 Mile High Indoor Championships at 5280 Raceway, in Denver, Colorado!
The 2017 Snowbird Nationals was held January 31st to February 5th featuring 24 hours of On-Road and Oval racing excitement. AwesomatixUSA drivers were competing in four TC classes - Modified, 17.5, 21.5 and USGT. When it was all said and done, the team would walk away with three TQs, two wins and nearly two other wins in the fastest classes. An additional shout out goes to our friend Victor Kao, a privateer, who took the TQ + Win in Touring Amateur 25.5.
Stock Touring 21.5
21.5 TC was positioned as the new Stock Touring class for 2017 due to the ever increasing speeds of 17.5 TC. This adjusted class for 2017 featured some of the closest qualifying and racing we would see all weekend. When the dust was settled, the top 3 positions were taken by Awesomatix drivers and a total of 6 Awesomatix touring cars were in the big show. Bill Sydor would capture two TQs for the weekend, followed closely by Mark Burt, Monti Panzica, Austin Wolfe, Luke Pitman and Cory Parsons. Only 2 seconds separating the top 6.
Qualifying order for the A-main:
1 Bill Sydor (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
2 Mark Burt (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
3 Monti Panzica (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
4 Austin Wolfe (Mon-Tech)
5 Luke Pittman
6 Cory Parsons
7 Brent Klingforth (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
8 Brian Card (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
9 Justin Lyons (Awesomatix)
10 Diatta Collymore
In the main, the battle up front would be the top three Awesomatix drivers - Sydor, Burt and Panzica. Brent Klingforth would charge up from 7th at the beginning to slot in 4th overall in the early minutes. Mark Burt would recovery from an early bobble and put a sweet pass on Bill with just a 1m 15s left on the clock. Mark would hold off Panzica and Luke Pittman would finish 3rd overall.
Finishing order:
1 Mark Burt
2 Monti Panzica
3 Luke Pittman
4 Bill Sydor
6 Brent Klingforth
7 Diatta Collymore
8 Brian Card
9 Justin Lyons
10 Cory Parsons
After the race Mark had to say "I need to thank Trinity for helping me power my racing addiction for the past 8 years and Awesomatix USA for the innovative chassis for the past 4 years. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys."
USGT
AwesomatixUSA's own Bill Sydor would prove to be a dominant force in USGT, much as he has done throughout the past few seasons, by taking TQ by 2 seconds of Jared Mowery. 3 seconds behind Mowery would be Jeremiah Ward.
Qualifying order for the A-main:
1 Bill Sydor (Awesomatix)
2 Jared Mowery
3 Jeremiah Ward
4 Scott Jakes
5 Justin Lyons (Awesomatix)
6 Brian Lettrich
7 John Cravotta
8 Jimbo Dove
9 John Barron II
10 Steve Kuithe
In the A-main Bill would control the pace and stretch his lead to 2 seconds over a hard charging Jeremiah Ward, with Jared Mowery taking 3rd after an early race tap out.
Finishing order:
1 Bill Sydor
2 Jeremiah Ward
3 Jared Mowery
4 Scott Jakes
5 John Cravotta
6 Jimbo Dove
7 John Barron II
8 Steve Kuithe
9 Brian Lettrich
10 Justin Lyons
Super Stock Touring 17.5
17.5 TC was the largest touring class at Snowbirds this year. In the highly competitive class we saw many favorites miss the A-main due to the high level of competition. Three drivers set themselves apart from the rest of the field by obtaining 30 laps in qualifying - Sam Isaacs, Robbie Dodge - last year's winner, and Jan Ratheisky.
Qualifying order for the A-main:
1 Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
2 Robbie Dodge
3 Jan Ratheisky
4 Martin Crisp
5 Craig Xavier
6 Austin Wolfe
7 Drew Ellis
8 Cory Parsons
9 Matt Lyons (Awesomatix)
10 Mark Burt (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
At the tone, Sam and Jan walked away from the pack as Robbie rolled on the first lap. Sam looked to have the race in the bag until a last minute incident with traffic caused him to get caught up allowing Jan by. Sam pushed hard to get back to Jan but would crash out of second allowing Jan to cruise to the win and Robbie to move up to 2nd on the last lap.
Finishing order:
1 Jan Ratheisky (Mon-Tech)
2 Robbie Dodge
3 Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
4 Cory Parsons
5 Martin Crisp
6 Craig Xavier
7 Austin Wolfe (Mon-Tech)
8 Matt Lyons (Awesomatix)
9 Drew Ellis
10 Mark Burt (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
Mod TC
From the beginning of practice, Alex Hagberg set the pace for everyone to follow. Hayato Ishioka hung with Alex on the same lap in qualifying and our Sam Isaacs was the best of the rest on 31 laps with a strong Q4 qualification just edging out Keven Hebert.
Qualifying order for the A-main:
1 Alexander Hagberg
2 Hayato Ishioka (Mon-Tech)
3 Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
4 Keven Hebert
5 Paul Lemieux
6 Dominic Vogl (Mon-Tech)
7 Jan Ratheisky (Mon-Tech)
8 Chris Tosolini
9 Josh Cyrul
10 Drew Ellis
At the tone, Alex stretched out his lead and Hayato flipped on lap one promoting Sam to 2nd. Once Sam got into a groove he pulled away from Keven and Paul who would then get entangled in their own battle. Paul and Keven would come together on the 2nd to last lap by start/finish but Paul was a true champion asking Keven to be promoted to 3rd overall. Sam was disappointed about the 17.5 result, but the Modified TC finish made him forget about any of that prior trouble.
Finishing order:
1 Alexander Hagberg
2 Sam Isaacs (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
3 Keven Hebert
4 Paul Lemieux
5 Dominic Vogl (Mon-Tech)
6 Hayato Ishioka (Mon-Tech)
7 Drew Ellis
8 Jan Ratheisky (Mon-Tech)
9 Josh Cyrul
10 Chris Tosolini
Touring Amateur 25.5
Maryland/Virgina driver, Victor Kao, took down the TQ + Win in Amateur with his Awesomatix A800A.
Finishing order:
1 Victor Kao (Awesomatix / Mon-Tech)
2 Gilbert Santos
3 Jordan Singletary
4 Tim Moore
5 Joseph McMackin (Mon-Tech)
6 Jason Stump
7 Jeff Kaplan (Mon-Tech)
8 Chad Outlaw (Mon-Tech)
9 Starling Gibson
10 Gabriel Shappell
The Team
All of the success couldn't of been accomplished without this cast of characters. With 4 overall TQs, and 3 wins its impossible to call it a bad weekend. Another great accomplishment was the 3 of 4 TQ + Wins for Mon-Tech body shells in 21.5, 17.5 and 25.5 Amateur.
Big thanks again to everyone for putting forth their best effort always!
