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.