Over the holiday weekend the JConcepts race team was back in action at the 2023 Hobby Haven Shootout in Urbandale, IA. This annual event ran from 1999-2014, then took several years off before emerging once again in 2022.
For the race there were 10 classes to compete in:
- Novice
- 17.5 2wd Buggy
- Mod 2wd Buggy
- Spec Slash
- 13.5 4wd Buggy
- Mod 4wd Buggy
- 13.5 Stadium Truck
- 40+ Mod 2wd Buggy
- 13.5 Short Course Truck
- Mini Truggy
The biggest class of the race was 17.5 2wd Buggy with 17 entries, and for the event it brought out over 100 entries.
Friday was the day drivers could arrive to setup their pits for the weekend as controlled practice was held from 6-9pm that night. Drivers could only run practice laps when their class heat was up and each practice session ran for three minutes.
With 10 classes to compete in that basically meant a driver could run one of their cars once in an hour so that made this event even more of a challenge as you had to quickly learn the current layout with limited track time.
This year’s layout was designed by local Team Associated/JConcepts driver Mack Vanderbeek and it was a fun and challenging course.
Starting at the tree corner that led over a medium sized jump that flat landed you onto the large straightaway.
Then you would turn left into a larger sweeper that went about halfway up the back side of the track.
Then drivers had to turn into a “Switta bowl” section. The inside line had two small rollers that would tip your car over if you drove over them too fast.
The second racing line was a berm around the outside that came in handy if there was a pile up on the inside and you needed to get around traffic quickly.
Then there was a small roller that led you to a jump face that you would land flat right before a large “kicker” jump.
You could either roll over the kicker or leap up and try to flat land it on all four tires. If you overshot this jump you would land too wide into the pipe, or if you tried to jump it with a little bit of power you would flip your car over and land on your lid.
Then drivers had to turn right and head up a large table top before coming down on the other side into a tricky chicane section that led into the tree corner. If you could get hit that chicane section just right you could easily take about half a second off each lap. Then after going around the tree that would bring back to the first jump section to the straightaway.
On Saturday morning the track was open to any driver that couldn’t make practice on Friday night.
Then around 9:30am practice ended so some maintenance could be done on the track followed by a quick driver’s meeting. Originally on Saturday the program was going to run a three minute seeding round followed by three rounds of qualifying. During the driver’s meeting it was decided by the drivers to drop the seeing round and instead run a fourth round of qualifying!
Only a driver’s best three rounds would count, and qualifier points were used to determine who was the TQ for each class. Each qualifier ran for five minutes each, and the top eight positions in each class were locked into the single seven minute A Mains on Sunday.
Two cars from the next lowest main would bump up into the A Main for a total of 10 cars each, and the JConcepts race team was able to grab five class TQs!
17.5 2wd Buggy = Chad Rubenking
13.5 4wd Buggy = Bradley Peterson
Mod 4wd Buggy = Alex Vanderbeek
40+ Mod 2wd Buggy = Mack Vanderbeek
13.5 Short Course Truck = Mack Vanderbeek
On Sunday the lower mains began a little bit past 9am. Then the track was closed for some quick maintenance followed by handing out door prizes courtesy of the numerous event sponsors!
Each driver received one ticket, and it took nearly an hour for all the prizes to be handed out to all of the participants!
Then it was onto the A Mains as the crowds started to gather around. There were plenty of close battles out on the track so let’s see how the team finished up.
In the 17.5 2wd Buggy class JConcepts driver Chad Rubenking got off to a great start and would lead the field for the opening six laps before he got caught up with some lap traffic. That dropped him to second place by the time he went around the tree corner, and he would continue to chase down the leader before falling short and settling for second place overall.
Team products used:
- 3159 – Green compound Double Dees V2 2wd/4wd rear buggy tire
- 3160 – Green compound Double Dees V2 2wd front buggy tire
In the 13.5 4wd Buggy class team driver Bradley Peterson would TQ the first two rounds of qualifying before his tire mate Chad TQed the final two rounds. Bradley would win the tie breaker and start on the one spot for the A Main. He would lead the entire race and take the tone to tone victory with his teammate Chad finishing second overall!
Team products used:
- 3133 – Blue compound Sprinter 2wd/4wd rear buggy tire
- 3135 – Blue compound Sprinter 4wd front buggy tire
- 0397 – F2 body for the AE B74.1
- 0501 – Carpet | Astro High-Clearance 7″ Rear Wing
In the Mod 4wd Buggy class JConcepts driver Alex Vanderbeek would lead the pack around for one lap before a mistake in the chicane left his car upside down. His teammate Drew Rubenking would take over the lead from him and Alex would get flipped back over and only fall back to second place. The two drivers would put down some fast laps as they held their positions and Alex would get caught at the line to give Drew the win! Alex would finish in second and joining them on the podium in 3rd place was fellow JConcepts driver Brandon Kearney to complete the JConcepts podium sweep!
Team products used:
- 3133 – Green compound Sprinter 2wd/4wd rear buggy tire
- 3135 – Green compound Sprinter 4wd front buggy tire
- 3133 – Green compound Sprinter 2wd/4wd rear buggy tire
- 3135 – Green compound Sprinter 4wd front buggy tire
- 3159 – Green compound Double Dees V2 2wd/4wd rear buggy tire
- 3161 – Green compound Double Dees V2 4wd front buggy tire
- 0397 – F2 body for the AE B74.1
- 3348 – Mono 2wd/4wd rear buggy wheels
- 3353 – Mono 4wd front buggy wheels
- 0501 – Carpet | Astro High-Clearance 7″ Rear Wing
In the 40+ Mod 2wd Buggy class team driver Mack Vanderbeek would TQ all four rounds of qualifying on Saturday! However, in the single A Main he lead for six laps before he had some tough time with some lappers which dropped him to 2nd place. Then he would make a small mistake to drop down to 3rd place while fellow JConcepts driver David Fast leaped ahead of him. Mack would continue to put down clean laps and would take back the lead for good on lap 13 with David finishing right behind him in second place!
Team products used:
- 3159 – Green compound Double Dees V2 2wd/4wd rear buggy tire
- 3004 – Green compound Groovy 2wd front buggy tire
In the 13.5 Short Course Truck class Mack would grab his 2nd overall TQ of the weekend by putting down the fastest laps in three out of the four rounds! In the A Main he would lead the field from start to finish in a close battle with second place, and joining him on the podium in 3rd was fellow JConcepts driver Chilly Duncan!
Team products used:
- 3061 – Green compound 3Ds SCT tire
- 3043 – Green compound Double Dees V1 SCT tire
- 0222 – Illuzion Hi-Flow SCT body
- 0282 – HF2 SCT Body
- 3344 – Hazard SCT wheels
That wraps up another chapter in this long standing race, and rumor has it a new format will be used next year to switch things up and create more traction and raise the competition up another level. JConcepts has been a proud sponsor of this event dating back to 2008 so we can’t wait to see what this new race format means for next year’s event!
Bradley Peterson Tire Guide:
