Round 1 Of The 2017 TLR Cup [VIDEO]

Round 1 Of The 2017 TLR Cup [VIDEO]

 

Round 1 Of The 2017 TLR Cup (3)

This past weekend the HobbyTown USA HobbyPlex in Omaha, NE hosted the first round of the 2017 TLR Cup. This new race series is the result of a collaboration between Team Losi Racing (TLR) and Horizon Hobby, and consists of four individual races across the US. Each event in this series is aimed at giving back to the racing community and the first stop was at the HobbyPlex.

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The competition was stacked as we saw 202 entries spread out over 22 heats. There were 10 classes to compete in, and TLR had many fast national and regional level drivers in attendance.

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On Thursday racers got their first crack the new layout for this race with practice from 4-9pm.

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The track layout had a good mix of elevation changes, and overall it was very fast flowing.

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On Friday controlled practice started at 11am and then ran till 5:30pm. After practice had completed a seeding round was held for all classes. This seeding round was similar to qualifying since cars in each class would stager start like IFMAR qualifying, but they would only run for three minutes.

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When time would expire a driver’s best combined three laps were used to group them together with drivers of similar speed for official qualifying on Saturday. This was also a nice way to figure out personal transponder numbers and no shows for this race.

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Also on Friday drivers were able to check in and pick up their single raffle ticket for the numerous smaller door prizes courtesy of TLR and Horizon Hobby.

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And for the larger items like the new TLR 22 4.0 kit, racers could also purchase additional separate raffle tickets.

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Half of the money raised from these ticket sales went to the Dash For Cash event held later that weekend, while the rest went to the Hobbies for Good charity! More on this later on.

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Racers could also pick up their FREE official event t-shirt too!

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After seeding had completed the Plex crew went to work for some track maintenance and painted the infield TLR yellow.

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Saturday morning the doors opened at 7am for open practice till 9am. There was a brief driver’s meeting and then three rounds of qualifying began. With qualifying a driver’s best two rounds counted towards their overall qualifying position on Sunday.

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The top eight qualifiers were automatically locked into the AAA mains the next day, and the 9 and 10 qualifiers would come from the top two finishers of the lower mains. So this meant drivers in the lower mains had the opportunity to “bump up” into the A main event in case they had some bad luck during qualifying (think broken car or that turn marshal on his cellphone), but clearly had the speed and talent to compete in the A Main group.

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One unique class to compete in this weekend was the Mod SCT-SX class. This was essentially a Mod 2wd SCT class, but it used heads up starts instead of your traditional IFMAR qualifying. And for each qualifying round the order the trucks lined up in was either reversed or mixed up completely.

Round 1 Of The 2017 TLR Cup (2)

After qualifying had completed we then held the Dash For Cash races for the three classes with the most entries. Those classes were Stock 2wd Buggy (48), Mod 2wd Buggy (35), and 13.5 4wd Buggy (29). So the top four qualifiers in these classes lined up in reverse order (4, 3, 2, and 1) for an exciting 5 lap, no marshaling race. The total amount of money raised from raffle tickets sold for the larger items totaled up to $690 which meant $345 went to a great charity, and the other $345 was split among the three Dash For Cash winners so a cash payout of $115 each!

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After all the dash races were ran Kyle Gannon, Tom Rinderknecht, and Kaden Fuller were flashing the cash on the podium!!

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On Sunday the door opened up once again for open practice from 7-8:30am, and at 9am the lower mains started.

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When those mains had completed, the race program came to a halt for track maintenance, and the TLR/Horizon Hobby crew held all the prize raffles.

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Lucky drivers walked away with some great gear from Spektrum, Losi, Dynamite RC, Team Orion, Blade, and of course TLR!

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Once the prizes were all hand out it was on to the AAA mains! Each main ran for five minutes and a driver’s best two finishes were used to determine the overall class winner.

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The racing was very close and six out of the 10 classes came down to the third main to determine who finished in first place.

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So the 2017 TLR Cup is off to great start, and there are three more events coming up starting next with the TLR Cup East race at RC Excitement in Fitchburg, MA. For more details please visit https://www.tlracing.com/promotions and podium pictures and links to videos are all listed below. Till next time!

PlexSpec

PlexSpec

1. Ian Hansen (TQ)
2. Brayton Witkowski
3. Lilly Tannehil

13.5 4wd buggy
13.5 4wd Buggy

1. Kyle Gannon
2. Kaden Fuller (TQ)
3. Luis Martinez

Stock Buggy

Stock 2wd Buggy

1. Aidan Olson
2. Kaden Fuller
3. Kevin Gahan

TQ was Kyle Gannon.

Stock SCT

Stock 2wd SCT

1. Cole Henriksen (TQ)
2. Todd Brewer
3. Trevor “Chilly” Duncan

Stock Truck

Stock Stadium Truck

1. Chad Rubenking (TQ)
2. Scott Cramer
3. Todd Brewer

Pro 4 TLR

Photo credit: TLR

Mod 4wd SCT

1. Clayton Wittmayer (TQ)
2. Don Drozd
3. Chris Cattlett

Mod 2wd Buggy

Mod 2wd Buggy

1. Tanner Denney (TQ)
2. Tom Rinderknecht
3. Charlie Maiorana

Mod 4wd Buggy

Mod 4wd Buggy

1. Tanner Denney (TQ)
2. Tom Rinderknecht
3. Derek Wood

Mod Truck

Mod Truck

1. Charlie Maiorana (TQ)
2. Will Brinton
3. Mitchell Brown

Mod 2wd SCT

Mod SCT-SX

1. Cole Henriksen (TQ)
2. Andy Lachance
3. Craig Davis

Videos from this event:

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Updated: May 3, 2017 — 12:16 PM
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