Florida Off Road State Series Rd1

We received this report from the first round of the Florida Off Road State Series that saw Florida’s best gather in Bartow, FL. With just under 190 entries, Mugen/OS/JConcepts dominates the race with a TQ and win in both 1/8 Scale Buggy and 1/8 Scale Truck.

Read the full report here…

Qualifying 1/8 Buggy:
Round 1 came between two drivers, Associated driver JR Mitch, and Mugen driver Jeff Keeton. JR Mitch took the earlier TQ with his RC8 running 11 laps 5:18. When it looked like no one was going to break his TQ run, Jeff Keeton and his MBX5R broke out on a very fast pace. With just less than a minute left to go, Keeton was on his way to set a new TQ run; however, a bad rut caused him to spin out feet before the timing loop which caused him to lose the TQ run by a second.

Round 2 as the track started to get blown out and more ruts began to show up, the track seemed to be a lot slower until Keeton put his MBX5R on the track. He once again set out on a very fast pace; however, this time he crushed the overall TQ by 6 second, turning an amazing run of 11 laps in 5:12. Keeton took the overall TQ in 1/8 Buggy with his OS powered Mugen MBX5R, Keeton was also sporting the soon to be released JConcepts “Hit Men” tires and JConcepts wheels.

Qualifying 1/8 Truck:
Round 1 went to new comer, Mike Jones. Jones was running his brand new Mugen MBX5T. This was Jones first time racing 1/8 Truck, and he proved to everyone that he is someone to contend with. Jones set an early TQ with an 11 lap 5:10 run.

Round 2 showed that the track was a lot slower with no one coming close to Jones’ TQ run set in the first round. Mugen driver, Jeff Keeton, was on a TQ pace, but with less than a minute to go, he flipped upside down and the engine shut off, which killed any chance of breaking Jones’ TQ. After it was all said and done, Jones ended up taking the overall TQ driving his MBX5T.

Main Event 1/8 Buggy:
The start of the 20 minute main was all Keeton. After a huge pile up at the start, Mugen’s Jeff Keeton, Associated’s JR Mitch, and Kyosho’s Ryan Eckert broke out to a huge lead. Keeton leading, he was able to hold off Mitch and Eckert lap after lap. Mitch flamed out at around the 7 minute mark allowing Eckert to take over second. Meanwhile, Keeton began to stretch his lead to 12 seconds over Eckert. After the second fuel stop, Eckert began to step up the pace and catch Keeton. With less than a minute left, Eckert had caught up to Keeton and was less than a second behind him. Keeton and Eckert crossed the timing loop with 4 seconds left of the race, so it came down to the final lap. Keeton tried everything he had to hold off Eckert. Keeton drifted wide with 3 turns left, and Eckert ducked inside taking the lead. Keeton passed Eckert with one turn left when both cars hit and Eckert got hung up on a pipe and Keeton went on to take the win. Keeton’s OS Powered MBX5R ran flawless all weekend, and proved to be the best on this race day. The soon to be released JConcepts wheels and Tires also showed their durability with little to no ware on the tires after the 20 minute main event.

Best Heat Lap/Time for 1/8th scale: Jeff Keeton with 11/5:12.98

1/8th Scale – A Main
1. Jeff Keeton – Mugen/OS/Futaba – 43 Laps 20:26.74
2. Ryan Eckert – Kyosho/OS/ Futaba – 43 Laps 20: 29.06
3. Jason Ruona – Associated – 42 Laps 20:04.08
4. Chris Swauger – 42 Laps 20:14.12
5. Michael Jones – Mugen – 41 Laps 20:01.89
6. JR Mitch – Associated – 41 Laps 20:09.16
7. Jim Larrimore – Xray – 40 Laps 20:00.60
8. Michael Delay – 40 Laps 20:08.41
9. Johnny Sanchez – 39 Laps 20:06.08
10. AJ Johnson – Losi – 39 Laps 20:27.81
11. Gene Hickerson – CEN – 32 Laps 15:40.51
12. Luis Perez – Mugen – 10 Laps 4:53.20

Main Event 1/8 Truck:
The start of the 20 minute main was Mike Jones, Tony Pattishall, and Ryan Eckert breaking out to a huge lead over the rest of the field. A huge pile up caused the rest of the field to get tangled up. Mugen’s Jeff Keeton who qualified 7th over all ended up dead least and well over 20 seconds behind the leaders. Just before the first Pit Stops Pattishall takes the lead and never looks back. Pattishall driving his Mugen MBX5T was on a very fast pace while Kyosho’s Ryan Eckert was trying everything he could do to catch Pattishall. After the second set of fuel stops, Keeton had worked his way all the way up into third place and less then 5 seconds behind second place Ryan Eckert and 14 seconds behind Pattishall. With less then a minute left to go Keeton was less then 2 seconds from Eckert and 7 seconds back from Pattishall. However at the end of the race Pattishall driving his Mugen MBX5T took the win followed by Ryan Eckert and Jeff Keeton.

Best Heat Lap/Time for 1/8 Scale Truck: Michael Jones with 11/5:10.00

1/8 Scale Truck – A Main
1. Tony Pattishall – Mugen – 43 Laps 20:25.97
2. Ryan Eckert – Kyosho/OS – 42 Laps 20: 11.91
3. Jeff Keeton – Mugen/OS/Futaba – 42 Laps 20:13.00
4. Chris Shadron – 42 Laps 20:26.99
5. JJ Turk – Mugen – 42 Laps 20:28.27
6. Aaron Sikes – Mugen – 41 Laps 20:00.48
7. Michael Jones – Mugen – 41 Laps 20:09.66
8. Steve Szykulski – 40 Laps 20:06.89
9. Randy Deppen – Mugen – 40 Laps 20:19.81
10. John Renshaw – 40 Laps 20:31.00
11. Glenn Napurski – Mugen – 40 Laps 20:33.34
12. Chad Olcott – 35 Laps 20:31.72

Thanks to Jeff Keeton for the report.