The 1st Annual Team Orion Revolution Race was held over March 24th – 26th in Rockford, Illinois hosted by Race Em R/C. Attracting some of the best drivers in the region, including the likes of TLR/JConcepts Spencer Heckert and Alejandro Vegas, AE/JConcepts Cole Tollard and Brad Shearer, along with Team Orion/Kyosho America’s team manager Joe Pillars, who was onsite to assist with product support; made this race one to remember.
Overall the event was a complete success attracting over 230 entries to do battle on this supercross style track that made for an awesome weekend of racing on all levels. Thanks to the fantastic crew at Race Em R/C for all of their hard work in making this a great event for all that attended.
Modified Stadium Truck
AE/JConcepts’ Cole Tollard would lead the way after an excellent qualifying effort to earn himself the overall TQ. From the tone, it was Tollard and JConcepts teammate, Alejandro Vegas breaking away early in the race. Unfortunately for Tollard, he would have an incident with a crashed back marker giving the lead to Vegas. The two would battle back and forth trading places multiple times before Tollard would regain control and take the win. Vegas would finish 2nd with Kyosho/Team Orion’s Joe Pillars moving up to 3rd on the 4th lap to take the last spot on the podium.
4×4 Short Course
TLR/JConcepts Spencer Heckert was in a league of his own in the 4×4 Modified Short Course class having TQ’d and taking the wire to wire win. Jeremy Zucker and Eugene Ryder would finish 2nd and 3rd behind Heckert.
4wd Modified
It was another outstanding performance by AE/JConcepts’ Cole Tollard during qualifying, but this time it was in 4wd modified. Having the luxury to start on pole, Tollard led the field out, but made an uncharacteristic error on the first lap. Tollard would give up the lead and drop back to 3rd early in the race. AE/JConcepts’ Brad Shearer would take over the lead spot and just as Tollard made the move for 2nd, he would make another jump mistake giving Shearer an even bigger gap. TLR/JConcepts’ Alejandro Vegas would start to close the distance to Shearer, but Shearer himself would make a mistake handing over the lead to Vegas with Tollard now moving up to 2nd. Pushing hard with time running out, Tollard would close the distance to Vegas and make the pass in the 6-pack landing on the inside and Vegas to take over the position. Once in command, Tollard would cruise to a comfortable win with Shearer in 2nd and Vegas 3rd making it a JConcepts podium sweep!
2wd Modified
Making it 3 for 3 in qualifying TQ’s, AE/JConcepts Cole Tollard would start field off at the sound of the tone, however, another early mistake in the triple saw Tollard give up the lead to JConcepts teammate Alejandro Vegas. It was a great 3-way race between Shearer, Heckert, and Vegas for the win late in the race. With a minute left, Shearer would come up short on the triple that dropped him from 1st to 3rd. Finally in control, Vegas would go on to lead the final 4 laps to take the win with Heckert 2nd and Shearer 3rd giving JConcepts another podium sweep. Unfortunately for Tollard, after his race he commented that he mistakenly put on his rear tires on backwards making his car hard to drive and without traction…. a lesson now learned.
