FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Team Associated's most dearly departed

0 July 3, 2014, 5:06 p.m.

7/4/2014
By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC.com

The RC world was surprised when Ryan Maifield departed Team Associated last week after over a decade of success, during which he earned 9 ROAR National titles and TQ’d the IFMAR Worlds twice. Those are just some of the highlights amid over 60 major titles he won in his time with the most successful team in RC racing history. Ryan began his serious racing career with Team Associated and grew with them to become one of the fastest racers on the planet before leaving for new opportunities.

Ryan’s tenure with Team Associated and Reedy was somewhat of an anomaly. For every driver you may find that sticks with his major sponsors year after year, you could list those who switch at the drop of a hat (or a more lucrative deal). Over the last 20 years, the RC industry’s top racers have played a game of musical chairs with many logging multiple stints with the same teams, only to leave again and sometimes return. Still, racers with the talent and résumé of Ryan Maifield don’t come along everyday - and while Team Associated has a history of finding diamonds in the rough, this isn’t the first time one of those diamonds has left for a different jewelry shop. In fact, many of them went on to shine even brighter than before.

Brian Kinwald - 1994

RC racing was a different world in the early 90s, as even those who raced for World Championships did so more for fun than a paycheck. The closest thing to an exception was Japan’s Masami Hirosaka, who swept both 2WD and 4WD IFMAR World Championships in 1989, and won 2WD again in 1991 with the 4WD title going to Team Associated engineer (and now VP) Cliff Lett. Hirosaka got the 4WD title back in 1993 in Basildon, England, but failed to repeat again as 2WD champ. A young racer from Southern California named Brian Kinwald, from third on the grid, beat TQ and 1987 champion Joel Johnson for the title.

The following season, Kinwald changed the RC racing world forever by leaving Team Associated and signing with Team Losi and Trinity - for a salary. The move paid off for all parties involved, with Brian going on to win dozens of national titles for his new employers, and after coming up short at the 1995 IFMAR Worlds in which he was the runner-up in both 2WD and 4WD, he earned Team Losi’s first world championship in 1997 in the 2WD class. Team Losi responded by releasing the first-ever “factory” kit that included most major hop-ups, calling the new version of the XX buggy the “Kinwald Edition.” They did the same for the hopped-up version of the XXX buggy years later. ‘The Dirtinator’ added many more national titles to his credit after that, but the hard-fought IFMAR win was Kinwald’s last to date.

Brian finished second again in both classes in 2003, and left Team Losi in 2006 when he joined upstart X-Factory. Essential in helping develop X-Factory’s vehicles, Brian enjoyed plenty of regional success while campaigning the industry’s first modern mid-motor 2WD buggy - a sign of things to come for the industry.

Brian’s career eventually came full circle in 2011 when he re-joined Team Associated, for which he continues to race to this day.

Matt Francis - 1996

Oddly enough, the driver that stopped Brian from repeating as 2WD IFMAR World Champion, Matt Francis, was the next driver to make the switch.

After winning the IFMAR Worlds in 1995, Francis famously went on to say that his championship “was not for sale” - commenting on Brian’s departure from Associated and Reedy for money.

Less than a year later, though, Matt forewent renewing his contract with Team Associated and instead set out as a privateer - choosing to drive a Team Losi buggy with Peak motors. Within a year, Matt joined Brian and Team Losi/Trinity (though he continued running for LRP Electronics, which was still imported from Germany by Team Associated). Like Kinwald, Francis went on to enjoy tons of success with his new team, earning many major titles and another IFMAR Worlds in 2002. As they did with Kinwald, Team Losi named their full-option XXX-T truck the “Matt Francis Edition,” and Matt earned a reputation as one of the most valuable and well-liked company representatives in RC history.

Matt officially retired from racing RC in 2006, joining the real estate market and starting a family.

Jared Tebo - 2008

Jared Tebo sprang onto the RC scene faster than anyone could’ve imagined. He started racing in 1999 at the age of 12, and picked up his first sponsor - O’Donnell - later that year with a strong showing at the Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout. In early 2000 he finished 4th in the 1/10-scale gas truck class at The Dirt Nitro Challenge and earned a sponsorship from Team Associated, who was eager to snap up the young talent. The very next event, Tebo surprised everyone by grabbing TQ honors at Silver State, and was offered a chance to drive for Thunder Tiger for 1/8-scale. Jared continued with Team Associated and Thunder Tiger while racking up nitro racing wins, and dabbling in the electric classes, until he switched from Thunder Tiger to Kyosho for 1/8-scale off-road in 2004. Tebo went on a tear, winning seemingly everything in nitro on U.S. soil except the ROAR Nationals.

Just one year later, Jared left Kyosho to join O’Donnell Racing’s 1/8-scale project, and continued racing Team Associated vehicles for 1/10-scale. Tebo’s results in 1/8-scale dwindled a bit as he tried to help develop the Z01B, and he dominated qualifying at the 2008 ROAR Nationals but never regaining the form he previously had with the Kyosho or Thunder Tiger vehicles.

Meanwhile, Tebo’s electric racing results improved - earning national championships to add to his four straight in 1/10-scale gas truck. At the 2007 IFMAR Worlds in Japan, Tebo outpaced his teammates Ryan Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield to win the 4WD IFMAR World Championship.

At the end of 2008, Tebo returned to Kyosho full-time, not only returning to the team where he had the best finishes in 1/8-scale nitro racing, but joining in the company’s efforts to reclaim their former glory in the 1/10-scale electric class. With the switch, Jared also separated from O'Donnell as well as Reedy and LRP, joining Team Orion for motors, engines, and electronics.

Tebo found success right away with Kyosho’s nitro cars, becoming the only driver ever to sweep Buggy and Truck at the ROAR Fuel Off-Road Nationals in 2010, and instantly made Kyosho a contender in electric racing as well.