Hosted by the Columbus RC Racing Club out of Columbus, OH the Winter Midwest Championship is the first major offroad race in the US of the new year. Racers from all across the Midwest and factory pros from across the country come to Columbus to brave the sub freezing temperatures in hopes of starting out the New Year right.

This year's event will again be a challenge as three 1/10th World Champions will be in attendance for the electric event and at least three of the 2008 IFMAR 1/8th World Championships "A" Main final will compete for the gas titles.

Stay tuned here for updates, pictures and videos brought to you by Team Associated.

CRCRC Website

CRCRC Web Video& Chat

LiveRC will also be broadcasting for the event.

Update: Apparently Ty Tessmann will only be competing in the electric portion of the event, so Maifield, Tebo, Robbers and King are the only scheduled IFMAR Finalists to attend.

This post has been edited by Brent Thielke: Jan 18 2009, 04:15 AM

Good luck to all the team associated drivers. Stay safe, keep warm, have fun & kick some rear.

Peace Aaron(W-W)

Good Luck AE!

Electric Practice



Welcome race fans. We arrived to the CRCRC facility Thursday evening with approximately 3 hours of practice remaining for the day. This time served well to learn the uneven layout and to get a feel for the awkward angles from driver’s stand. The layout is difficult to get a feel for with many off camber sections and a combination of small, yet very challenging jumps. The dirt is native to the stadium and took a few days to get worked in and by the end of the day Friday had dried out and established a preferred line.

A final tally of entries tops 380 and with 32 heats and four rounds of qualifying scheduled for Saturday, everyone is in store for a long day of qualifying.





The most challenging part of the track is the tricky off camber section on the opposite side of the track from the stand leading up to the ‘double-double’. Early on racers in all classes were attempting to triple single the four jumps, however lots of broken arms, wing mounts and other various parts later pretty much only the top 4wd mod drivers are consistently clearing the tricky section.



Those of you not familiar with indoor clay racing may not know how much effort and time goes in to preparing the perfect set of tires. With the water evaporating from the track throughout the day the preferred tire goes from a full slick to various levels of ‘worn-in’ treads to a brand new tire. The trick is knowing when to use what level of pin. The basic strategy is to use the least amount of pin as it makes the car much faster through the corners, however tends to slide more as the track dries out.













New in the pits for the Reedy/LRP team is the latest brushless motor from LRP. The X-12 is the most revolutionary brushless motor and with its ease of adjustment and versatility it’s sure to be a hit among the racers.



Throughout practice the top drivers found it challenging to navigate through the up to 16 other cars on the ~23 second lap track. LiveRC shows that Ryan Cavaleri set the fastest times in all three modified classes with his Orion powered Team Associated B4, B44 and T4.



In the 4wd class, Cavalier set the fastest lap with a 20.5 and multiple sub 21 second laps. The only other driver to dip in to the 20 second laps was reigning 4wd World Champion, Jared Tebo…now piloting the Kyosho 4wd buggy. Here are a few laps around the CRCRC track with 2x 4wd World Champion Ryan Cavalieri and his World Champion Team Associated B44.



Ohh yea…and yes, it’s cold here. When we landed it was 6 degrees, this morning it was -11 and tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 25. Luckily the pits are heated to at least 60 degrees.



Even the fountain in the entryway of the hotel is frozen.



Enjoy some other photos from Friday’s practice…

Great coverage Brent! Thanks it is appreciated.

Hey Brent,

Are you staying through gas too?

Are they using Points or fastest time for this race?

Is Cav running gas too? Why isn't Ryan M running electric?

Is the Gas race in a different building?

What rear hubs are you running on your car?

Good Luck Tomorrow

This post has been edited by Chamberlain: Jan 18 2009, 04:31 AM

BT--Hope you stay a little warmer than last year.Good luck to everyone. Also is that The Brian Dubar in the background!!! See you at Cactus

Rich

Yes, that's Dunbar in the pic with Robbers.

BT, see you Wed.

Awesome coverage!

Is Team Associated going to post Ryan's Setup's?

Hey guys...sorry I didn't have any updates from qualifying, but I forgot my camera at the hotel.

Cavalieri TQ'd both 2wd and Truck with Tebo taking TQ position in 4wd. Both drivers were able to win the classes that they TQ'd, but not without a challenge from the other one. I'll have more pictures and video to post in the next day or so.

Great coverage Brent. Congrats to RC and yourself in all the classes you guys ran.

Brent, are those Racers Edge rear hubs on your B4?
Also I notice you are using a ?4th? hole on the rear shock tower...?
Is this the "new" LiPo-without-weight setup?

Please share....

Thank you for the display of the various tire tread depth.
Were different foams used at different times as well?
What about tire sauces, which worked better when the track was dry vs wet.

I was at the event and had trouble adapting to the changing track surface. It was difficult for me to get consistent traction in my B4 and B44. Your help is much appreciated.

Thank you!

This post has been edited by MustGoFaster: Jan 19 2009, 05:48 PM

Hey BT...hope the new year is going good for you...I will be back in Tucson in March and am looking forward to getting back to racing, should be there for the next SIGP. Good Luck!

How ya likin' that weather, Brent?

Electric Highlights

As expected, qualifying for the electric event was tight, especially at the top positions. With two of four rounds counting towards the main events and random seeding for the first two rounds, getting a clean run was key. Once the re-seeded qualifying began the pace dropped substantially.

In 2wd and Truck, Ryan Cavalieri took his Team Associated B4 and T4 to the pole positions. In the 4wd class, Jared Tebo took his Lazer FS to the pole position just ahead of Ryan Cavalieri’s Team Associated B44. These two drivers were in a class of their own with other drivers able to run within a few tenths of their fast laps, but not as consistently. Rounding out the top three in 2wd and Truck was Losi’s Dustin Evans and Associated’s Brent Thielke in 4wd.





As the main events started, just as qualifying it was clear that the race for the titles would be a two horse race. With the track drying out and tire preparation becoming key the racers looked for every advantage they could to gain traction. Pretty much whatever tricks and tweaks were done, standard Buggy Grip2 was the best. No advantage would be gained from secret tire preparation.

Cavalieri took the excitement out of the truck mains with a last lap pass on Tebo to take the title by winning the first two “A” mains.



In 2wd Cavalieri walked away with the win in A1 and battled tightly with Tebo in A2, with Tebo just edging out Cavalieri to send it to a third main. In A3, Cavalieri pulled out a 3-4 second lead on Tebo and maintained this to the end, securing another victory for Team Associated/Orion.
A2 was a classic battle and luckily AssociatedLive.com was there to bring you the video coverage. Watch the race here.





In 4wd, Cavalieri shadowed Tebo waiting for a mistake, the two battled and as the laps wound down Cavalieri stretched a few second lead on Tebo. As the two came lap 3rd & 4th place, Thielke made a mistake collecting Chad Due. This caused Cavalieri to have to check-up and lose momentum. A perfect line by Tebo shot him past Cavalieri to take the win in A1. In A2 Cavalieri got by Tebo to take the easy win, setting up the showdown for A3. As the tone sounded forA3 Tebo and Cavalieri shot out to the lead with Thielke staying close. As Cavalieri followed Tebo waiting for an opportunity to pass, a horrific crash by Cavalieri over the triple single caused him to retire. Later diagnosis reveled that Cavalieri lost a center rear drive pin and the entire rear of his car locked up on the face of the high speed triple. This relieved the pressure from Tebo, Thielke was able to stay within striking distance if Tebo made a mistake, but the 4wd World Champion (with the B44…lol…sorry, couldn’t resist) again proved how to not lose a race.


(Yes, that’s an Arizona Cardinals hat…SUPER BOWL bound!)

Thanks to the CRCRC crew for another great Winter Midwest Championship..now it’s time to prepare for the gas event.

Wrenching Days

So what do you do when you’re in Columbus for a few days…wrench of course…lol. The down time between the two events allowed the people staying to prepare their vehicles in the heated rooms of the Comfort Suites.

Here are a few pics of the “r/c bomb” that was dropped in the Team Associated room.





Just hanging out…







This post has been edited by Brent Thielke: Jan 21 2009, 09:28 PM

Yep, I'm here for gas too..

Ryan Cavalieri raced the electric event and Ryan Maifield will be racing the gas event.

We used Rayspeed hubs, but they are similar to Racer's Edge.

We will have Ryan's winning setups posted shortly.

We're developing an "at weight" setup for be B4. What Cavalieri used is the latest version of that. I believe the rest of the questions were already answered.

Wednesday – 1st Day Of Gas Practice

And so begins the Winter Midwest Gas Championships. The track has been unchanged from the electric event except for a shift of the timing loop to ahead of pit lane and some water. The narrow track will be challenging not only to negotiate, but to race on as well. Side-by-side racing will be very limited as the groove is narrow and out of the groove is quite dusty and loose.

Starting out the day, Team Associated met up with a TV crew to participate in a live broadcast for a local news morning show. Ryan Maifield discussed life as a professional r/c racer and his recent success at the IFMAR World Championships. Driving a r/c car while being interviewed on live tv isn’t as easy as it sounds…lol. The shoot went well and there have already been spectators showing up to watch practice.



Here’s a video of a few laps from Maifield’s RC8


Racers are starting to get a feel for the layout and as the day goes on the track gets a bit rougher and more dried out. Seems like small pin tires like Holeshots, Gridirons, Sevens, etc. are working the best right now. With the tight track, fuel mileage shouldn’t be an issue as most racers think they can go at least 10 minutes.

That’s about all for now…I’ll post some more information throughout the day, but until then enjoy some more photos from the pits.


Cody King


Jared Tebo


Ryan Maifield


Brent Thielke



Chad Parks