Lutz departs Durango as pro race team dissolves

Yesterday, Ryan Lutz published a statement on his personal site indicating that his contract with Team Durango was not only finished, but ended early.

 

“In recent months I have been contemplating my career trajectory and what I want to accomplish by the end of my racing career. I have looked at what pieces of the puzzle I feel are some of the missing links, and a big one for me is the consistent support system at races (mechanic / engineer / pit man / ext.). As a primary catalyst, this has resulted in my decision to leave Team Durango. This was not a decision that I took lightly. As many are aware, 4 years ago I agreed to a ’10 year deal’ with Team Durango. Of course over those 4 years Durango ownership has changed to Hobbico. In that change, was a change to my contract as evidence by the “Ryan Lutz resigns with Durango for another year” press release early this year. Obviously we are not quite at that year but Durango has been gracious in their understanding, and is allowing me to begin with my new company sooner to prepare for the upcoming season.

 

It was an extremely hard decision as I’m very happy with the performance of the new DNX8 buggy. I’ve had some great results with the buggy including 3rd at the ROAR Nationals, starting 4th on the grid for the IFMAR Worlds A-main, and most recently a win at the Byron Challenge. I’ve seen the project through almost to its entirety, and I was very excited to see it coming to fruition. But I feel like the next step for me and my career involves having the support package that I witness with the likes of Tessmann, Cavalieri, and others who are constantly at the top. That opportunity has presented itself to me and I’ve decided to take it.

 

I must give Durango and those I’ve worked with a huge thank you for the 4 years of support and camaraderie. I want to wish them the absolute best of luck with the new platforms as I’m sure they will be very successful with them.”

 

Ryan's announcement indicates that he already knows where he's going for 2015, but until we hear an official announcement one can only speculate. Aside from Ryan's online store through which he sells Alpha engines and parts, along with other LutzRC accessories, racing is his career - which means that he could only realistically go to a large manufacturer prepared for a full-time racer and one that doesn't conflict with his Alpha arrangement.

 

His emphasis on the whole package - pairing a driver with a mechanic/engineer/pit man - hints toward a few companies specifically that have a history of creating a close team environment. Team Associated, which perhaps is most famous for creating a closely-knit atmosphere and has yet to spend the salary it was previously paying Ryan Maifield prior to his departure for TLR, seems like an early favorite. HB has done famously well with the team aspect as well, with designer Torrance DeGuzman working hand-in-hand with Ty Tessmann and his father, Gord. TLR has taken huge strides in that direction over the past few seasons, but it seems like they'd be out - after all, they just signed Maifield. Mugen Seiki hasn't spent money to acquire a top-name driver in several years, and are already doing well with young guns Carson Wernimont, Drew Moller, and Cody Smith. Ryan previously raced for Kyosho from 2006-2008 and while they could certainly provide the team atmosphere Lutz is looking for, it would be difficult to imagine they'd commit to another top-level pro to join Jared Tebo and Cody King.

 

The surprise post from the 2014 ROAR Nationals podium finisher came less than a day ahead of another striking post, this time from Team Durango themselves - who will be dissolving their “pro” race team.

 

“It’s the time of year where we review the season and plan for the future, so we would like to share with you our strategy for 2015 and beyond.

 

2015 will be a massive year for Team Durango; we have several important and exciting product launches on the way. So it’s more important than ever to make sure we support our racers and our fans.

 

The race scene is changing and that requires a change of strategy to best meet the needs of our hugely valued customers.

Local racers are getting more sophisticated, more knowledgeable, local racing is getting tougher, the thirst for knowledge at this level has never been higher; social media and information sharing between our customers is now the norm. At the same time the big national and international events are often becoming less relevant to our customers.  We all love to watch the Pros battle it out at the big events, but do these one off races help us make a good product for you?  Upon reflection we don’t think so; testing, analysis and hard work do.

 

With the World Championships behind us, the new season and exciting product ahead, it’s time for Team Durango to re-focus on product development and helping you win at your local track, rather than having paid Pro racers competing for national and International titles.

 

The following plans will take us all into an exciting future.

Stay tuned for more news, the future for Team Durango is going to be more exciting than ever.”

 

As Lutz indicated in his post, Team Durango’s racing plans changed when the brand was acquired by Hobbico - a distributor who, despite many of its brands like dBoots, Futaba, HB/HPI Racing, Muchmore Racing, O.S., and Trakpower being directly aimed at racers, has distanced themselves from the “pro” side of racing. It bears resemblance to what happened with O’Donnell racing fuels and their Z01B buggy, both of which were heavily entrenched in racing but slowly faded from the limelight under Hobbico rule.

 

Until we learn more about how this situation will evolve, one can only imagine what this will mean for Team Durango’s racing efforts overseas for drivers like 2014 2WD and 4WD European Champion Jörn Neumann, as well as U.S. driver Travis Amezcua - who just a few weeks ago attended the International Indoor Championships accompanied by a booth-full of Hobbico representatives.