Reedy Truck Race Of Champions

The 2008 Reedy Truck Race of Champions was held at Southern California promoter Jimmy Babcock's Hot Rod Hobbies facility in Saugus, CA. Usually a temperate event, Mother Nature greeted the 200+ entries to upper 80 degree weather and a perfect weekend for racing.

Over the past few years a distinct trend has developed among the SoCal electric racing scene. A quick survey of any race showed that well over 50% of all the trucks in competition were Team Associated T4s. In the Factory Modified Truck Class this was no different. Team Associated drivers Jared Tebo, Ryan Cavalieri, Steven Hartson, Ryan Maifield, Frank Root all made the A Nain with these four drivers occupying the top 4 gird positions.

In the Factory 1/8 Truggy class, fresh off their separate victories from the weeks before, Associated teammates Ryan Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield put their Factory Team RC8Ts to first and second on the grid. The unique Hot Rod facility challenged the teams to adapt their setups from the standard, wide open, big air-time tracks to a tight, rhythm-based track where maintaining momentum was more critical than sheer speed. Between Cavalier and Maifield, they took the TQ in all four rounds of qualifying, showing the versatility of the just released RC8T.

In the main events, it was all Team Associated. Out of a possible nine classes, Team Associated vehicles took the victory in eight of them, highlighted by Tebo's win in Factory Modified Truck and Cavalieri's win in Factory 1/8 Truggy. As alluded to earlier, even more impressive than the victories was the sheer domination of the Associated T4. Easily the choice of most A Main finalists, it wasn't unusual to see eight out of ten cars flying the AE flag.

As uncertainty about the future of the Reedy Truck Race circulates, the popularity of the event continues to expand and change. Even at this event, the Team had multiple demonstrations of the just-released SC8. Spectators lined the fences to watch Maifield and Cavalieri dice it out with slide and block passes around the bull ring Hot Rod track. If the reaction of the crowd is any indication as to how popular this category of R/C will become, don't be surprised to again read about the SC8 at the Reedy Truck Race of Champions.