This past weekend the 15th Annual JConcepts Winter Indoor Shootout & Invitational took place at Fastlane Raceway in Blue Springs, MO. For 15 years JConcepts has been a proud sponsor of this event that is actual two races at one time.
One event is a special Invitational race consisting of 21 of the fastest drivers in the Midwest. These drivers are invited to compete in Mod 2wd and 4wd Buggy classes that use a ‘Reedy Race’ format. Traditionally most races use IFMAR style qualifying where drivers have a staggered start and compete against the clock and not each other. Instead the Invitational drivers line up in a specific order that was determined earlier from a random draw, and when the tone sounds they take off since they are racing each other for the entire five minutes.
This format leads to exciting racing right from the start with some close finishes, major crashes and the occasional controversies over ‘racing incidents’ out on the track. All the Invite drivers are competing for a $1000 purse paying $500 to the overall winner, $250 for 2nd place, $125 for 3rd, $75 for 4th and $50 for 5th.
The top five also received plaques and this year’s overall winner also received a special ‘Champion’s Chain’ to proudly wear home. On Saturday the drivers would run five heats for the Mod 2wd Buggy class only. Their best four finishes would count towards their final score so essentially every driver could drop their worst finish. On Sunday they would switch gears to run their Mod 4wd Buggies. Again, they would compete for five rounds and also dropped their worst finish. The tie breaker was a driver’s best finish for the entire event (most laps and the best time in five minutes).
The other race within the race was the Winter Indoor Shootout. This race saw 130 entries with 11 classes to compete in. This event did use a traditional IFMAR qualifying start and there were four qualifiers in total. Only a driver’s best two finishes would count for qualifying so if a driver could TQ three rounds they would lock up the top qualifying position for their respective class. The top six drivers were locked into the A Main based on qualifying results, and two drivers would bump into the A Main from the lower mains for a total of eight cars in every final. The qualifiers ran for five minutes each, the lower mains ran for six minutes and each single A Main would be eight minutes long.
Each class would award hardware to the top five finishers along with the TQ.
On Thursday the doors opened at 4pm for drivers to get their pit area setup for the entire weekend. On Friday the doors opened once again at 10am with open practice running from 11am to 1pm. After that controlled practice would run from 1pm to 9pm that night. The only exception were brief breaks for track maintenance and a few Invite only practice sessions.
This year’s layout was slightly technical with some high speed sections. Drivers would cross the loop right past the scoring booth to head down a medium sized straight.
Then they would hit a left turn into a small sweeper that led to a double jump section. Then it was a hard left again into a back triple jump section.
The Mod classes had no problem clearing this section and some of the Spec racers (17.5 and 13.5) could make the jumps too if they had enough grip, power and speed coming into it.
At the end of the triple was a tabletop section and then a driver would turn left again to go down a staircase feature.
That led to a small chicane section then a driver would turn right, go over a small roller, and then it was a sharp right into a front triple section.
Again the Mod classes could deliver the power to clear all the jumps, but this section was very tricky to make for the slower Spec classes since there was less space to get a run at the jumps.
Then a driver would make another right to hit a jump leading up to the back corner which acted like another larger tabletop landing.
Next, you would head down from the corner to hit a small jump and try to land slightly before the scoring booth to make another left hand turn to go back to the straightaway.
Also taking place on Friday was the Invite drivers prepping their tires for the weekend. Each Invite participant received a full new set of JConcepts Silver compound Smoothie 2 tires for both buggy classes.
They had to glue them in a designated area and once they were complete they were officially marked for later identification. Before a driver could compete in their Invite heat they had to go through tech to show they are using their designated tires each time.
To even the playing field even more a control tire sauce was used and they could only clean their tires using a special wash area. Only natural tire wear was allowed and at the end of each day the drivers had to check their tires back into the tech area so that the tires couldn’t be tampered with. For practice a driver could use any tire they wanted to so competitors did have to come up with a strategy to get their tires broken in and find that sweet spot when the heads up racing began.
All drivers who were competing in either race event also received a free commemorative JConcepts pit stand and custom wrap along with special event t-shirt!
On Saturday the facility was open again at 7:30am, and drivers who couldn’t practice on Friday were allowed to run practice laps from 8 – 8:30am. Then a brief driver’s meeting was held at 8:45am followed by qualifying starting at 9am.
Up first was the opening round of the Invite Mod 2wd Buggy class. It was a clean sweep for the JConcepts team as team drivers Mason Herrick, Nick Gibson and Alex Vanderbeek all picked up wins in their respective heats! Mason won this event back in 2023, Nick took the crown in 2022 and last year Alex was the overall winner. Alex also won this event in 2021 so for this year’s race he was trying to become the first back to back winner since Mason Fuller who accomplished this feat for the 2018 and 2019 races.
After another round of the Mod 2wd Invite teammates Nick and Alex each picked up another heat win!
In the Shootout race team driver Mack Vanderbeek would get things rolling for the JC team with Round 2 TQs in 13.5 Stadium Truck and 40+ Mod 2wd Buggy!
For Round 3 of the Mod 2wd Invite both Nick and Alex picked up their 3rd win as they started to pull away from the other competitors. Also picking up his 1st heat win of the program was fellow JC pilot Drew Rubenking!
The 4th round of the Invite was another sweep for the JConcepts team as Alex picked up his 4th win, Drew notched his 2nd W and collecting his 1st heat win of the race was team driver Noah Hicklin!
In the Shootout race team driver Mack backs up his 2nd round performance with two more TQ runs in 13.5 Stadium Truck and 40+ Mod 2wd Buggy in round 3 of qualifying!
For the final round of the Mod 2wd Invite Alex would go a perfect five for five that day as he netted another victory! Right behind him was his tire teammate Nick as he grabbed his 4th win, and Noah got on the board again with his second 1st place finish! Since both Alex and Nick could drop their worst finish they were both tied at the end of the night with four points, but Alex had the tie breaker on his side as he had the best result of the day between them in the 5th and final round of the 2wd program.
In the Shootout event Mack would lock up the TQ spot for both the 13.5 Stadium Truck and 40+ Mod 2wd Buggy classes by laying down his third consecutive TQ run in both classes!
On Sunday the doors opened once again at 7:30am. Since the Invite drivers hadn’t ran their 4wd vehicles since Friday they were allowed to practice from 8am to 8:20am. After that the lower mains for the Shootout would begin!
Between heats three and four the opening round of the Mod 4wd Buggy Invite took place. After the dust had settled Alex would continue his hot streak with another W and Drew would grab his 1st win in the 4wd program!
In the 2nd round of the 4wd Invite Drew would grab another win and Nick would also collect his first wheeler victory!
After the 2nd round of the Invite the race program was stopped so we could hand out the door prizes courtesy of JConcepts and other great event sponsors!
Once again the drivers were treated to some great giveaways!
After some more Shootout mains it was time for the 3rd round of the 4wd Invite, and for this round Alex would grab his 7th win for the weekend and Noah would grab his first 4wd heat win!
In the 4th round team driver Braxten Culley would get on the board with a win, while Alex and Noah backed up their Round 3 finish with two more wins!
In the 5th and final round team driver Joe Duffy would pick up his 1st heat win of the weekend, Nick would grab another 4wd win and Alex would grab his 9th win of the weekend! By winning 9 out of a possible 10 heats Alex put down a dominating performance! Not only would he become the event’s overall winner, but with his third Invitational title he ties former IFMAR Worlds champion Jared Tebo for the most Invite titles in the past 15 years this event has taken place!
After the rest of the points were tallied up JConcepts was able to grab another three podium spots with Nick finishing in 2nd, Drew in 3rd and Noah in 4th!
In the Winter Indoor Shootout Mack was able to take the tone to tone win in 13.5 Stadium Truck!
It was a rinse and repeat in the 40+ Mod 2wd Buggy class for Mack too!
In the Expert 13.5 4wd Buggy class team driver Matthew Pyle was able to lock up 2nd place and he was joined on the podium by fellow JC driver Orlando Martinez (5th)!
Orlando would also make another podium finish (3rd) in the Expert 17.5 2wd Buggy class!
Team driver Chilly Duncan would lock up 2nd place in the 13.5 Short Course Truck class!
JConcepts driver Conner Herrick would secure 4th overall in the Mod 2wd Buggy class!
Team products used:
- 3131 – Silver compound Smoothie SCT tire
- 4017 – Silver compound Smoothie 2 2wd/4wd rear buggy tire
- 4018 – Silver compound Smoothie 2 2wd front buggy tire
- 4019 – Silver compound Smoothie 2 4wd front buggy tire
- 4049 – Silver compound Smoothie 2 LP truck tire
- 0282 – HF2 SCT body
- 0355 – F2 truck body for the T7 & T6.x
- 0614 – F2 body for the AE B7
- 0634 – S15 body for the AE B7
- 0715 – F2 body for the AE B84
- 2416 – 3.5mm Fin Titanium Turnbuckle Set for the T6.4 & SC6.4
- 2298 – B6.3 Carbon Logo / Cargo Net Battery Brace
- 2599T – Short Fin Titanium Shock Stand-Offs
- 2983T – 10mm Fin Titanium Shock Stand-Offs with bushing
- 5216 – M4 Low-Profile Aluminum Wheel Nut
- 2492 – Fin VCS3 Shock Bottom Cap
- 2701 – Fin 13mm Shock Cap
- 2702 – Fin 13mm Shock Collar
- 2703 – Fin, 13mm Spring Cup, 5mm Off-Set
- 2721 – Fin, 13mm Spring Cup, 0mm Off-Set
- 5203 – RC10B7 Aluminum 1-Piece Rear Wing Button
- 5214 – RC10B7 -2mm Carbon Fiber Front Shock Tower
- 5215 – RC10B7 -2mm Carbon Fiber Rear Shock Tower
- 5181 – RC10B7 Chassis, -4mm, Hard Anodized
- 5136 – 3.5mm Fin Titanium Turnbuckle Set RC10B7 | RC10B7D
- 3344 – Hazard SCT wheels
- 3347 – Mono 2wd front buggy wheels
- 3348 – Mono 2wd/4wd rear buggy wheels
- 3353 – Mono 4wd front buggy wheels
- 3354 – Mono stadium truck wheels
- 0501 – Carpet | Astro High-Clearance 7″ Rear Wing
That brings an end to this year’s Winter Indoor Shootout & Invitational! It was another awesome event full of great memories and racing and we can’t wait to see what the 2026 event brings to the table! We would like to thank track owner Chuck Kleinhagen and the entire Fastlane crew for their dedication and hospitality for hosting this race again this year!
For more photos from this event please visit our photo gallery over on our Facebook page.
For full results from this race please visit Fastlane’s LiveRC.com page.
Videos from this event can be found over on this YouTube playlist courtesy of IowaRCTracks.