Keel crushed the Red River Spring Fling

0 May 2, 2016, 11:54 a.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Tyler Keel, via Team Associated:
www.teamassociated.com

2016 Red River Spring Fling

T&T Speedway in Shreveport, LA was host of the Red River Spring Fling. This facility boasts a huge, fully stocked hobby shop an on-road track and a high grip clay off-road track. This 3 day race brought together some of the best talent from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

In Qualifying, the high grip clay provided fast and extremely close qualifying in all classes. In Mod 4wd, Team Associated driver Tyler Keel was able to take overall TQ honors by setting the fastest time in both Round 1 and Round 2. The top 3 in Mod 4wd was rounded out by Marcus Williams and Kaleb Hamby. In Mod Truck, it was a back and forth battle over the 3 rounds between Team Associated drivers Cody Avant and Tyler Keel. Avant made 2 consistent runs to Keel’s 1 and took the overall TQ honors followed by Keel and Brian Hearn. The closest qualifying took place in Mod 2wd with Team Associated driver Brian “Smiley” Henn taking the Round 1 TQ followed closely by Tyler Keel and AE’s Andrew Clark. In round 2 Tyler Keel laid down the only 15 lap run in qualifying taking the TQ in that round followed by Mike Stoll and Drew Spurgeon. In Round 3, with Keel and Henn having 1 TQ each, they would battle it out for the entire 5 minute qualifier. Swapping back and forth throughout the race it came down to the final lap where Keel edged out Henn by a few seconds to take the overall TQ honors in Mod 2wd.

In the mains, it was set up to be great racing in all 3 classes after the close qualifying the day before. In Mod Truck, after some early battles between Associated teammates Keel and Avant, Keel would take advantage of a few bobbles by Avant and take the wins in both A1 and A2 securing the overall. The podium was rounded out by Cody Avant, Brian Hearn, Louis Boucher, and John Brumley. In Mod 4wd, the racing was close between Keel and Marcus Williams in A1, Keel was able to take the win after a few mistakes by Williams. In A2, after making early mistakes, Keel put the power down to catch Williams and eventually pass him with less than a minute remaining taking the win and the overall victory. The podium was rounded out by Marcus Williams, Brian Hearn, Christopher Acosta, and Kaleb Hamby. In Mod 2wd, A1 was a 6 minute battle between Keel and Henn. They swapped the 1 and 2 position throughout the race, but, Henn was able to make 1 less mistake and took the win in A1. In A2, Keel took off to a small lead before a mistake would let Andrew Clark pass for the lead. Keel would eventually put his head down and catch Clark, making the pass and not looking back taking the A2 victory. In A3, it was all Keel taking advantage of his TQ position leading tone to tone and winning by over 10 seconds securing his 3rd overall victory of the weekend. The podium was rounded out by Brian “Smiley” Henn, Drew Spurgeon, Andrew Clark, and Mike Stoll.

My Team Associated B5m, T5m, and B44.3 were amazing all weekend being powered by Reedy Electronics. The cars were putting down all the power my JConcepts Gold Smoothies could handle throughout qualifying and the mains.