Home > 2004 Tamiya End of Summer Enduro Race Results
2004 Tamiya End of Summer Enduro Race Results
Enduro Final Results
On Saturday September 18th Tamiya America once again held a fun race known as the Tamiya Enduro. For the past few years Tamiya America has been putting on this fun race to mix things up a bit in the world of R/C racing. Teams such as Peak Performance, Team Tamiya and Team Novak have all been endurance team winners. The first few races saw many different approaches to car setup as well as motor choices. Brushed motors from 27 turn armatures to 11 turn armatures have all been tried as different teams had their unique theories as to what would be best. Peak Performance won the inaugural enduro with a 14 turn motor wind. As advancements in motor technology have come to pass so has the introduction of reliable brushless motors produced by Novak Electronics and Hacker USA. The Tamiya End of Summer Enduro witnessed the use of brushless motor systems as the sole choice to power all enduro teams.
This year teams were split into two groups, Sportsman and Pro. Sportsman teams were made up of customer teams and the pro group comprised of teams backed by manufactures. This time around the two Pro Teams consisted of Team Novak Electronics and Hacker Brushless USA.
The race format for this enduro was straightforward. The race length was four hours and the team with the most laps after 4 hours wins. Since this was a long race one would think that the start would dictate caution. Every team was cautioned that the race would not be won in the first turn. Unlike 5 minute races were drivers get a little trigger happy and we see some bumping and crashing, it was assumed that every team would take it easy. This was not to be. There was indeed some crashes and bumping as every team wanted to get out front despite the long road ahead. In the end after the first few laps it was Team TRESD Dr. (customer team) that had the lead. After lap 3 it was Team Meemo (customer team) that passed Team TRESD Dr. for the lead, but that turned out to be short lived as Team Novak made its way through traffic and took the lead from both privateer teams. Team Novak held on to this lead until its first pit stop where they gave it up to Team Meemo. Team Hacker USA had a very good car and perhaps the best handling. Unfortunately, they suffered some radio problems very early on which prevented them from exploiting their car. Team Hacker was very consistent despite this setback as they maintained 3rd spot for most of the race.
In the end it was Team Factory Bitter (privateer team) that took the lead after lap 68 and really never looked back as Team Novak and Team Hacker suffered some mechanical and driver incidents that took them out of the top spots. Team Factory Bitter only relinquished the lead during pit stops as their Evo 3 proved to be the most consistent handling car of the field. Team Motion RC proved to have an equally good car, but lacked the top speed of Team Factory Bitter.
This event proved to be a fun change of pace in the RC racing world and it has also proven that the team aspect of it proves to be a lot of fun. In 2005 Tamiya America, Inc. will host one big Enduro for the year where things will be taken to the next level in terms of fun and excitement. Stay tuned as those race dates will be announced in the near future as well as the all new format.
Congratulations to all those teams that participated and a big thanks to Hacker Brushless for making the long drive to California.