Jared Tebo describes a "great weekend" at the Hot Rod Shootout

7/21/2014
By LiveRC Staff
LiveRC.com

GREAT WEEKEND AT THE HOTROD SHOOTOUT 2014

Racing is all over here in California. It’s 5:30am and I’m waiting for my flight home. I’m pretty pooped as I turn marshaled and raced 24 races each in the past two days. What a great trip though.

My trip started out with a day and a half with my Dad. He picked me up at LAX on Tuesday and we headed up to big bear again.

 

 

 

We did the luge which was pretty cool, then we checked out the town and the lake. It is really beautiful up there. We stayed the night and again rented downhill mountain bikes Wednesday. We got a full day on the bikes. On the chair lift right at 9am when it opened and went up for our last run just before 4pm when they closed. Got a total of 13 runs down the hill. Again, my Dad was a total trooper, making all 13 runs and shredding up the mountain, this time hitting all the jumps. He had two crashes, but was ok in both, I saw one of them, so that was awesome.

 

 

A couple cool shots my Dad got of me over one of the sweet doubles they have built. A little old school MC style Nac Nac, and your typical BMX style table top. 

 

 

 

After all that fun, it was time for work on Thursday. The race weekend schedule had practice Thursday, Friday, qualifying Saturday, and mains on Sunday.

 

Qualifying went pretty good. I raced all 4 modified classes, 2wd SC, Stadium Truck, 2wd Buggy, and 4wd buggy. Started off qualifying with a good SC run to take the TQ. Also got a TQ in Q1 with my 2wd. Round two I secured the TQ in SC, but I didn’t get it done in 2wd. With only three qualifiers, it was your best two out of three runs. Truck I took second in Q1 and Q2, 4wd wasn’t as good, as I went 6th in both. In the final round of qualifying I really wanted to lock up 2wd. Track conditions were really tricky as the sun went down, lights were tough to drive in, and the track cooled down and changed a lot. I had a super clean run and easily took the round and the overall TQ.

 

Main day was here and I was ready to bring home some wins. I felt like I had a good shot at winning SC, Truck, and 2wd, as I was starting TQ, 2nd, and TQ. 4wd wasn’t where I wanted to be as I qualified 6th.

 

I was really happy with my effort in SC as this was my first race with our new Kyosho SC6. This was the first main and it was a tough race. I held the lead for the whole race, but I had lots of pressure. I held everyone off and took the A1 win. In 2wd I pulled a good start and gapped a small lead after a few laps. Ty made a mistake and I was able to just drive away to a 4 second lead and just cruise around to take the A1 win. A2 of SC was a really close race again. I got away clean on the start, but this time Cavalieri stayed right on me the whole race. I held him off until a minute to go. I came down the center hill a little too fast, when I made the 90 and hit the double, my suspension unloaded weird and I crashed, giving up the win. In 2wd, I was really wanting the win to lock up the overall. My car felt great, and I was confident. Got off to a good start again, but just like SC, I didn’t pull away from 2nd. Me and Ty pulled away from the rest of the field and we were both pushing the pace pretty hard. He stayed right on my wing until he crashed with two laps to go. I was able to back it down and just drive around the last two laps to take the overall win. That win felt really good. A3 of SC was gonna be a battle for the win. I really wanted this win too. It was a total copy of A2, with Cav staying right on my bumper the whole race, but one thing changed, I held my lines and didn’t bobble at all for the six minutes and took the win.

 

Truck mains went ok. Second in A1 and A2, and took a very easy win in A3 to lock up 2nd overall. 4wd was rough. I started 6th and finished 7th, which was a disappointment.

 

This race is unique with a Pro Am feature. The rookie drivers get paired up with a pro driver. This year I got teamed up with a kid named Tristan Campbell. He was an awesome kid and we had fun working together. I helped him out a little, but he was pretty dialed in already. They take our qualifying, mine in 2wd buggy, his from rookie, and our overall finish, add up the points, and the lowest team wins. We both TQed, he finished 3rd and I won, so we won the Pro Am overall. That was awesome, and it was my 3rd Pro Am win, which is pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, a pretty awesome weekend. Felt good to take two wins and I was really happy with my driving. Thanks to Joe Pillars and all my sponsors for the support. See you all at the next race. Thanks for reading and God Bless.
 

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