Nor Cal Championship Series Rnd 2

Just dropping in and letting you guys know what's been going on in Nor Cal. We just had our Nor Cal Championship Series Rnd 2 at Rescue Mini Speedway and the track was high bite and lots of jumps. I ended up TQ and winning both Buggy and Truggy with my 8ight 2.0's and Novarossi power. By winning Rnd 2 that makes it a perfect series so far with 4 TQ's and 4 wins. Over the weekend I ended up running the Losi Smart Diff in the front of my buggy and truggy and I thought it worked really good giving me more steering in the 180 turns and switch backs, but when I got on the power it really pulled great out of the corners. I can't wait to try this set up at other tracks with lower bite. Be back soon to let you guys know whats going on!

Phillip Atondo

JBRL Round #1 at Thunder Alley in Beaumont, CA

Saturday: This past weekend was the start of the 2009 JBRL Gas Offroad Series. To my surprise the race was enormous. Dynomite and I met up with Losi Team Manager Kevin Gahan and team drivers Jerry Blodgett to get some good practice for Sunday's racing and I am glad we did. There were racers from all over the western states in attendance for the event. Racers from Las Vegas, Northern California, Arizona, and even Canada were all dialing in their cars for Sundays racing. After a few practice runs on the track we were confident in our setups and we went back home to prepare to Sunday.

Sunday: Once racing started it was announced there were 342 entries for the one day event. WOW!! Unfortunately due to the large turn out we were limited to one qualifer and then everyone was seated into their 10 minute main event. I was able to pull off TQ in Electric Buggy with my new Team Losi Racing 8IGHT-E 2.o by 10 seconds. In Pro Gas Buggy, I qualified 11th just missing the main event but with oppurtunity to bump in. During the B-Main, I had a great race with Kyosho's Mike Morales just edging him out to make the Pro Buggy Main in the 13th position. For the main event in electric I went on to win the 10 minute race by a large margin. I was a little concerned about run time however after the race I recharged my battery to find out I only used 3000mAh of its 5000mAh capacity. I geared my Xcelorin 1700KV 45/15 for the Thunder Alley track and it provided excellent power everywhere. In the Pro Gas Buggy main I was happy to join my team mates Mike Truhe, Kyle Johnson, Clint Wachter and Matt Castellano giving Team Losi Racing 5 of the 13 positions. Mike ended up 4th, Wachter 8th, Johnson 9th, Castellano 11th and I was 12th. Dynomite snagged the win in the Intermediate 1.8th Buggy class with his 8IGHT 2.0 edging out fellow team mate Don Vinkenmulder by a few seconds.

Congratulations to all the winners at round one and I am looking forward to round 2 at ARC in Temecula, CA.

Upcoming Events

Hello everybody! I just wanted to stop by and let you know of a few things going on over the next few weeks. This weekend at Thunder Alley in Beaumont, CA kicks off the 2009 JBRL Nitro Series. This is the facility that hosted the 2008 ROAR Fuel Buggy Nationals and the Sidewinder Nitro Explosion, so you know there will be some great action going on. Jimmy Babcock will be on the microphone as well, so stop by and check out the race this Sunday, April 26th.

Also coming up is the 2009 MDA Tri-State Off-Road Championships race at Hal's Hobbies in El Paso Texas. This was a great race last year and will hopefully continue getting bigger each year. Casey Peck and I will be attending for sure and we hope to have many more drivers join us May 8-10. So if you're in the El Paso area on the dates of the race, stop by and check out the action!

Jake Wright's Crawler update

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Southern Tennessee and compete with some of the best drivers in the country in the East Coast Championships. It was my first time competing in the East, and I was excited to see what the new rig could do against an amazingly talented field of drivers.

The rig performed great out there, and the courses were some of the most technical I've ever driven! Halfway into course #1 I lost all forward drive and proceeded to wedge the rig into a nasty spot. Turns out, I had lost the bolt that holds in the adjustable motor plate. When I grabbed full throttle, the motor torqued itself away from the spur gear and left me hopelessly stuck I took my repair and fixed the issue, but had a lot of ground to make up in a short time.

After that, I finished the next 3 courses with no issues at all. I was really getting in the groove by the end of the day, and the rig was planted! I worked my way all the way through the insane bonus on course #2, only to just graze the cone on my way out. I went into the course knowing I needed a big negative score to make the shootout, and I just missed my chance. I still finished 15th overall for the day, with a total of 72 points, half of which I racked up on course #1

After a quick flight home, and a week of college classes and a somewhat normal routine, I was back in action at the 4th round of SDRCRC’s Winter Series at Lake Wohlford in sunny Escondido, CA. Except this time it wasn’t very sunny… The weather was cool and a light rain made the courses very slick, and very challenging. I pulled off a score of -21, landing me in 2nd place for the day. I ran the new 2.2 Comp Claws and they hooked up great on the slick, damp rock. I managed one of the best scores on course #2, even though I ran it in the worst and slickest conditions of the day. Overall, it was a great comp, and another strong outing for the 2.2 Losi.

I would say that 2009 is off to a great start! I‘m happy to have put in solid finishes with the rig on back to back weekends 2500 miles apart… and its been a blast to meet everyone along the way. I have to thank LOSI for making it possible for me to travel and compete like this. I definitely wouldn't have been there without their support. I hope I was able to answer everyone’s questions about the rig, and hopefully it impressed a few of you.

Stop in and say hi and check out the new rig in the Losi booth at the RCX show next weekend in Pomona, CA. Until then… I’ll be on the rocks

-Jake

Silver State

So now that the dust has settled literally from the 2009 silver state we are happy that its over and of the results that everyone running Team Losi cars has put up. Of the 15 podium spots available for the weekend Team Losi vehicles occupied 12 of the 15 podium spots missing out on a perfect sweep by one win a 2nd and a 3rd. pretty dominating in the eyes of most. the weekend was a lil bit of a rough one with different formats and the always famous dust and wind that the silver state is known for. a couple of the days the wind was so bad that anytime i stepped foot out of the trailer i had the motocross goggles on :) it also made it very interesting on track making your car very hard to see. the buggy final was veyr bad for the first ten minutes with the dust and also the sun going down along the horizon causing bad glares. I just wanna thank all those who helped me out this past weekend. Randy Nolen(awesome job in truggy, 2009 silver state champ) shane and kyle hunter for the pitwork and all the others. also special thanks to dyno for the prerace wrenching help. look forward to seeing everyone at the next one :)

April Fools Classic

While the rest of the Losi team was off battling dust and wind at the Silverstate race, myself and Dustin were racing hard at the April Fools Classic in Magna, Utah. This years track was very smooth and fast. I felt very good in all classes and especially 2wd. Traction was very good and the Losi cars seemed to have an advantage on the IR/CR track. Dustin ended up TQ in 2wd and truck. In Modified truck Dustin won A1 and A2 to take the overall win and I won A3 to finish 2nd overall. In 2wd modified I made a daring pass on Dustin to take the win in A1 and he proved his consistency by winning A2 and A3 to take the overall win, I again finished 2nd. In 4wd modified we both felt very confident with our XXX-4's but a difficult jump section proved to be the downfall for the both of us as we suffered from breaks in the mains. Luckily, IR/CR local and Losi team driver Joel Eaton was on fire in the main events winning A2 and A3 mains to clench the victory!

Congrats to Joel and Dustin for making it a Losi sweep of the modified classes at this years April Fools Classic!

Silver State

Through the terrible wind, dust, some rain and a super blown out track, Team Losi's Adam Drake was able to take the win in the invite Truggy class with his Novarossi powered 8T 2.0. In the Truggy class Drake was joined by Losi Matt Castelano, Mike Truhe, and Yannik Angoin. Awesome job guys!

The Invite Buggy main saw 4 more Losi's equipped with smart diffs, battle the blown out, dusty, and slick Silver State track. When the dust finally settled Billy Fischer raced hard with Tebo for the win and fell just a few feet short of the win. Adam Drake finished 3rd, Truhe 4th, and I was able to hang in for 7th after the 30 min main.

After such a close finish in the Invite class Fischer was on a mission and took the over all win for the electric buggy class. Great Job Fischdaddy!

Continuing the Losi success was a 1-2-3 punch in the Open Buggy class. Jacque Ballow, Chris Wheeler (who bumped his way into the dance) and recent Nitro Challenge Open class winner Ricky Gayor had an awesome battle for 30 minutes and put 3 losi 8 2.0's on the podium.

Team Losi's Randy Nolen was the super star with the 8T 2.0 in the Open Truggy class with Kyle Hunter and Mikey Bustamante rounding out the top three.

I was also excited to see former Team Losi ace Brian Kinwald racing it up and getting back to speed with his losi buggy 8B. Brian was a huge help to myself and others this weekend so a big thanks to him!

Overall it was a great showing for Team Losi I am proud off all involved with the company from the engineers in the office to the drivers out in the trenches...Well done!

On to the next one.