Cavalieri's two truck titles led Team Associated's four wins at Shootout

0 July 24, 2015, 12:46 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Team Associated:
www.teamassociated.com

One of the few remaining outdoor races, the 18th Annual Hot Rod Hobbies Off-Road Shootout in Saugus, CA is a staple of the 1:10 summer race schedule. Drivers from around the world are in attendance to enjoy the SoCal sunshine. Team Associated was on hand with racers from all over the Southwest to compete for the titles; however, it wasn’t always sunshine that greeted them. With dry and hard packed conditions on Thursday and Friday, the grip was high and then for Saturday’s qualifying, the rain came, forcing rounds 3 and 4 of qualifying to be canceled.

As the main events got underway on Sunday, the track was still very damp and the overcast skies kept it that way for most of the day. Racers were faced with difficult tire and setup choices to best suit the evolving track conditions. Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri started on pole for the 2WD Modified Short Course and 2WD Truck Modified classes with his soon-to-be-released RC10SC5M Team Kit and recently released RC10T5M Team Kit.

In 2WD Modified Short Course, Cavalieri’s SC5M was the class of the field. The only racer to match Cavalieri’s speed was the Reedy-powered SC5M of Spencer Rivkin, who qualified second. With wins in A1 and A2, Cavalieri cruised to the overall victory while teammate Rivkin won A3 to secure the second step on the podium. In only its second race, the SC5M put on a dominant performance that turned heads from the competition and customers.

In the 2WD Truck Modified class, Cavalier’s only challenge came from the T5M of teammate Steven Hartson. An uncharacteristically bad A2 from Cavalieri saw Hartson cruise to an easy victory after Cavalieri dominated the field in A1 - setting up the showdown for the title in A3. With his game face on, Cavalieri got a great start and never looked back while Hartson battled to a strong second place to secure the runner-up spot on the podium.

Also taking victories with Team Associated vehicles were Jeff Nicol in 17.5 Sportsman Stock Buggy and Anthony Lazola in 17.5 2WD Short Course.

Thanks to the Hot Rod Hobbies and JBRL crew for their great efforts in getting the track prepared during the challenging conditions, and congratulations to all the winners.