Team Associated are celebrating their maiden international victory with their newly released TC5 chassis. Not only were they celebrating the win, but also the fact that after qualifying, 3/5 cars were driven by Team Associated drivers.

However, Juho Levanen was the star of the show with his consistant times and results earning him TQ after qualifying, plus enabling him to lead the first two finals right to the flag. This put the title beyond doubt for Levanen with Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF415) and Ronald Volker (Hotbodies Cyclone) rounding out the podium finishers.

This race was that this one of the first major racemeets taking into effect the reduction in cells from 6 to 5 cell racing. Many manufacturers came up with new designs (Xray and Kyosho had big changes) but some had more minor changes, if any. What was perhaps the most interesting was the fact that the TRF not only didn't come with new parts for their drivers, they actually brought along the TRF415MS but with the original TA04 arms. This is due to the fact that this race was on carpet and the 415MSXX is designed with outdoor asphalt conditions in mind and therefore has too much flex to be competitive.

Also, with the event being run with only 5 cells in the cars, Brushless was the order of the day with all cars except 2 using the Brushless system. A few new manufacturers were out with Brushless Motors such as Checkpoint/MuchMore with their calaborated effort at creating a Brushless Motor. LRP had 3 core motors of choice for this event with a 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5 motor available but no one motor seemed to be dominant with all 3 types of motors making the A Final. While Motors varied across the field between LRP, Novak, Trinity, Checkpoint/MuchMore, Orion, Truespeed and GM, the ESC of choice was the LRP TC-Spec Speed Controller for most racers. Of the top 10 racers, 8 cars were using the LRP TC-Spec speed controller, with only Novak (Craig Drescher) and GM (Sake Ahoniemi) making an appearance.

What is always good to see however is that there is a very healthy battle of supremacy on the chassis front, at the top of the table at least. In the end, the top 4 cars were all from different manufacturers but when you look at the entire top 10, Xray and Associated seem to be very strong on carpet with rubber tyres. Of the A Final there were 4 XRays, 3 Associateds, 1 Hotbodies, 1 Tamiya and 1 Corally.

Results A Final LRP Masters:

1st - Juho Levanen (Associated TC5/LRP Brushless 3.5)
2nd - Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF415/LRP ESC/Orion Brushless)
3rd - Ronald Volker (Hotbodies Cyclone/LRP Brushless 4.0)
4th - Jilles Groskamp (XRay T2'007/LRP ESC/Trinity Brushless)
5th - Christer Anderson (Associated TC5/LRP Brushless 4.0)
6th - Craig Drescher (Associated TC5/Novak Brushless 3.5R)
7th - Paul Lemieux (XRay T2'007/LRP ESC/Truespeed Brushless)
8th - Alexander Hagberg (XRay T2'007/LRP Brushless 4.5)
9th - Dirk Wischnewski (XRay T2'007/LRP ESC/Orion Brushless)
10th - Sake Ahoniemi (Corally RDX Phi/GM Prototype Brushless)

For more information, check out the LRP Website.