Venue: Bashers RC Raceway, West Palm

Saturday evening was our banquet for the 2011 Spring and Fall Supercup series. Lots of food, trophies, friends and humor!

SUPERCUP SUNDAY

Sunday was our season opener for the 2012 Supercup season. Since we are headed to the Reedy Race of Champions Wednesday, and Zack’s cars are ready for that, he decided to bring his practice car and only run 2wd mod. He usually runs 3 classes, so it was long waits between qualifiers and the main, but it gave him time to wrench and me time to socialize. It was a very laid back day. The indoor track is high bite and mod lap times were around 12 second laps. When qualifying was done, Zack was sitting 4th overall. He ran an awesome main and finished on the podium in 3rd, with Jeremy Harris 2nd and Jason Rouna taking top spot.

Quote of the weekend from 2nd round of qualifying “I went by that same wreck 3 laps in a row and had to triple over the turnmarshal that fell down”. LOL!!!

Great weekend and ready for California!!!

 

For the sixth year in a row, JConcepts has put on The Clash, Florida’s premier event. Having been hosted at multiple venues across the “Sunshine State” in the past, the 2011 location next moved to the southern tip of the state to Coral Springs, near the tourist destinations of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Team Associated was well represented with lots of Florida locals including JR Mitch, Paul Wynn, Jason Ruona, Zack Genova, Daimon Borkowicz, Dave Duncan, Walter Cruz, John Piant, and Tim Kowal. Joining the mass contingent of Florida talent from other parts of the country were Tanner Denney, Renato Tradardi Jr. and Sr., Mike Wilder, and superstars Brian Kinwald and Ryan Maifield.

In what has become Clash fashion, the race wasn’t without some visits from Mother Nature. After sunshine for the first few days, she decided to open up on Saturday, turning the race track into a lake. Fast-acting work from the staff got the track back in to runable condition and the event continued on. Once all the mud had been cleaned off and shoes dried, it was Team Associated on top of a majority of the classes including 2WD Stock, Truck Stock with Zack Genova, 1:8 Sportsman Truggy with Walter Cruz, Pro2 with Ryan Maifield, 2WD Modified with Jason Ruona, and Truck Modified with Brian Kinwald.

As Sunday rolled around, the racing action began to heat up and the track continued to dry. First up was Zack Genova with his Factory Team B4.1 and T4.1. Starting on pole the young Floridian checked out from the field and delivered the first two championships for Team Associated at the Clash. Next up was the 17.5 2WD SCT category where Daimon Borkowicz fought his way from third on the grid to the top step of the podium with his Factory Team SC10. With three titles already in the bag, the attention turned to the modified classes. Ryan Maifield and JR Mitch were the stars of the 2WD and Pro2 classes with their Factory Team B4.1s and SC10s. Battling throughout the extended main event, Maifield got the better of Mitch in both classes, but not without a fight and setting the stage for the final showdown yet to come in 1:8 Expert Gas Buggy. Sandwiched in-between the Maifield victories was a wire-to-wire win for the “Dirtinator” Brian Kinwald in the Modified Truck with his Factory Team T4.1, and then before the finale Walter Cruz took home the victory with his RC8T in the 1:8 Sportsman Truggy class.

The grand finale race of the event was the 1:8 Expert Gas Buggy class where Team Associated had the majority of the cars with four RC8.2s in the 12-man final. Just after the tone sounded, Maifield pushed the pace and found himself with a 2-second cushion and the lead over Reedy/LRP teammate JR Mitch after just three laps. Never relinquishing their positions, Maifield and Mitch lead a top four sweep for Team Associated and the RC8.2, with Chad Phillips working his way in to third with just four laps left in the 30-minute final, and Tanner Denney following suit to secure fourth overall.

With eight total victories at the 2011 JConcepts Clash, Team Associated vehicles were well and above the class of the field. Thanks to the JConcepts organization staff, the Team Associated customers that participated in this great event and congratulations to the all the champions that earned their well-fought titles.

 

Zack and I headed to the final round of the JConcepts Supercup early Friday so he could get in a bunch of practice, then we crashed at a friends place on the beach…nice!!! I thought I was in MTV’s Cribs…….

Saturday we headed to the track nice and early, set up and got ready to rumble, which is a perfect phrase considering the track consistently blew out as the day progressed, making the smoothest of drivers to tumbling unexpectedly!

Round 1 of qualifying was our best round, but the Mains were much better. Round 2 was a struggle with lots of sand on the racing surface. Zack finished 2nd in Mod SC and won 4wd mod.

Quote of the weekend : “Something is wrong with this picture, the kid is eating a porter house and Dad is eating a burger” I said, “I’m not stupid, there is no way he will finish it, guess who gets the leftovers!” lol

Special thanks goes out to Cheryl Shiver for all the professional photos from the race!!!!!!!!

2011 Super Cup Championship Series round # 3 – NewRed Hobbies – Ocala, FL

NewRed Hobbies was the site for round 3 of the Super Cup Series, held on October 29th, in Ocala, Florida. A great weekend to be at an indoor track, as drizzle, and rain was coming down Friday evening, and Saturday morning. The NewRed crew had the new layout prepared, with a good variation of jumps, and a very consistent surface.

2wd Modified hit the track, with TQ Paul Wynn, followed by a host of Florida’s fastest. This race was pretty much a freight train from the start. Jason Ruona maintained his number two spot but a mistake allowed a small battle for second place. A mistake from Felix Law would drop him back a few spots and Leon McIntosh would now battle for 2nd and 3rd. Just past the half-way point, coming into traffic, Wynn had some issues with traffic, allowing Ruona to jump his way into the lead. Zack Genova worked his way from the bump up number ten position and past Leon into third. Crossing the line for the finish, it was Jason Ruona with the win, Paul Wynn 2nd, and Zack Genova in 3rd, making it a sweep, of JConcepts bodies, and Bar Codes in Gold compound.

4wd Modified had TQ Felix Law laying down the laps, with the rest of the field chasing him down. With everyone running their own pace, the only battle was to get to the finish. At the tone, it was Felix with the win, Mike Barone 2nd, and Zack Genova 3rd. Felix’s B44.1 was outfitted with Bar Codes tires in blue compound, Punisher body and 6.5” HD rear wing.

Pro 2 Mod was hotly contested and Paul Wynn with his second TQ of the day lined up at the front. At the tone, it was Wynn who led the entire race, with the guys in the middle of the pack in a battle, with many position changes throughout. In the end, Wynn took 1st place, Zack Genova moving his way into 2nd with a strong drive, and Ryan Eckert battling back and forth to end up in 3rd. Both Paul Wynn and Zack Genova relied on JConcepts to tackle the Short Course Class. Hi-Flow body, Bar Codes in gold compound mounted on Hazard +3mm wheels topped off the top 2 vehicles.

Zack’s Novak/JConcepts/Associated/Airtronics vehicles were strong all weekend, and we had a blast!

Kustomrcgraphics’ Ross Rhodes wins Short Course A Main and 2nd in Stock Buggy A Main.

 

Zack and I left Friday when school got out and headed south, we stopped in West Palm and raced Basher’s friday night club race. Zack ran mod SC and had a great night, winning the SC A Main. We crashed with Austin and Jason Venezia and headed to Coral Springs early Saturday morning. Arriving at the track, we immediatly realized it poured during the night and the track was once again a wet mess. The track crew did a great job getting the track race ready, but unfortunatly we only completed one round of qualifying. Zack had a great run in short course, qualifying 2nd and 4th in 2wd mod.

Looking forward to round 3 at our home track!

 

We headed up north to Shriverville for the Supercup Season opener. This track is pretty darn impressive considering it started out as one man’s back yard track for him and his buddies to play, and turned into a full blown race track able to host almost 150 entries. A couple classes went down to E mains! Zack ran Mod Buggy, Mod 4wd and Mod Short Course. To our surprise, 4wd mod did not have it’s usual turnout, typically there are at lease an A and B main. Short Course seems to be taking over….

After changing track conditions all day long, mainly chasing tire choice and small vehicle setups, Zack made the top of all 3 mod a mains, qualifying  4th in Mod Buggy, 2nd in Mod 4wd and 5th in Mod SC. When all the dust settled, he finished with 5th in Mod buggy, the win in 4wd mod, laying down a 16.5, the fastest lap of the event, and 6th in Mod SC. His Novak powered, Airtronics and  JConcepts equipped Associated vehicles were dialed in!

Little Austin Venezia put on an impressive show in 2wd stock, starting the mains deep in the C main, Austin managed to win and bump into the B main which was ran back to back to the C. Later, starting deep in the B main, Austin pulled off a 2nd place finish to bump to the A main. Congrats to Austin, way to go!!!

Hugh thanks go out to Ken Shriver and his track crew for a great venue to race. Special thanks to Team Novak. Thanks to JConcepts and Mike Applegate for putting on this event. Thanks to Jason Venezia for the great cook out after the race. Oh, and Tracy Carver, you are my hero……..

Zack Genova signs with Team Novak, and will be running Novak power in all his vehicles. Zack would like to thank Novak for this great opportunity, and looks forward to a long relationship. Zack states ” I appreciate the opportunity Novak has given me and I want to thank them for believing in me. I ran my new Novak equipment in my B4.1 and SC10 this past weekend and  I am very impressed with the smooth power band and the incredible power. Special thanks to Charlie and Bob.”