This past weekend Hannah Hardison traveled to the 2020 Mugen Challenge with the JConcepts Team! It was gorgeous out at LCRC Raceway and a weekend filled with good people and great battles! It was so awesome to meet and see so many new faces! Read the race report below and check out the results! Jason Ruona made an amazing vlog that’s attached! Stay Tuned for our series of video montage's! The Wicked Weekend one will be released soon! It’s been so fun traveling back to back weekends enjoying some epic racing!

This past weekend the JConcepts Team traveled to LCRC Raceway in Oakland Mills, PA for the 2020 Mugen Challenge! LCRC Raceway is a beautiful facility with a fully stocked hobby shop, dirt oval track, 1:8 off road dirt track, RV hookups, and plenty of pit space. The entire team appreciated the beautiful change of scenery between the mountains, the river, and the gorgeous sunsets every evening! We arrived Thursday evening to set up the pits and got straight into practice early Friday morning. The weather was consistent all weekend being sunny and 90 degrees. In fact, the moment podium pictures were over it completely downpoured. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. This was LCRC’s biggest Mugen Challenge to date with 483 entries and 232 unique drivers!

The track conditions were primarily dry and dusty, but the facility crew did perform track maintenance periodically and watered it down. That being said, the team experimented with Stalkers, Reflexes, and Detoxes throughout the weekend. The aqua compound particularly was quite popular. For the mains, Ryan Maifield used Detoxes on his nitro buggy and Reflexes on his nitro truck. The track was a combination of fast and technical features, making for a fun layout.

Expert 1:8 Nitro Buggy A-Main

Maifield started in the 1 position after TQing both qualifiers. The race started with Vandalen second and Rivkin third. Rivkin had a bobble with Ogden on his tail. VanDalen blew the corner and dropped back to 4th. Ogden got together with Rivkin and Spencer received the worst of it because the marshal did not see him. It was now Maifield in the lead, Ogden in the 2nd and VanDalen in the 3rd. VanDalen was picking up the pace, moving into the 2nd position around the 5 minute mark. VanDalen couldn’t get too comfortable because within the next minute Ogden took back the second position. It was in this moment the intensity of the race picked up for the next 39 minutes. Maifield had formed a bigger gap and blazed through the pit stop keeping his 1st place position. VanDalen had a bobble, Mackanick took over the 4th spot. Meanwhile, Lutz and Heckert move up and battle for the 3rd position. At this point Maifield and Ogden are 1.5 seconds apart. Lutz flamed out at 15:15 elapsed, giving Heckert the 3rd spot. Ogden got in front of Maifield. Maifield was hunting him down to take back the #1 spot, 16 minutes had elapsed. They were 1 second apart. Ogden blew the corner, Maifield regaining his spot! The chase was on! There was 18 minutes to go and they were neck in neck. Ogden hit the pipe on the back straightaway allowing Maifield to pull away a little more. 22:16 had elapsed, Ogden had caught up to Maifield. VanDalen flamed out losing the #4 spot. Maifield got it wrong, Ogden took over again. They both went in to pit at the same time, who could make it out faster? Ogden got out first hanging on to the #1 spot a little longer. At 25 minutes gone, Ogden and Maifield had a lap on the entire field. Ogden got caught on two wheels, Maifield passed him in the straight before the double! Ogden eeked out in front of Maifield down the front straight away. Ogden got turned around but he managed to close the gap on Maifield once again, staying in the fight. Maifield had a bobble and Ogden took back over the #1 spot. With 10.5 minutes left in the race, Ogden got it wrong in the single double. Ogden still managed to get back out in front. Ogden took his final pit stop and Maifield stretched it longer taking his pit the lap after. After the pit stops, Ogden got out quick, regaining the lead but Maifield was still on his tail. The crowd was on the edge of their seats. Ogden flipped on his lid, and Maifield managed to take #1 position and created a relatively large lead. 2.5 minutes to go Ogden was hunting Maifield down, closing the gap. Ogden had one final bobble and Maifield managed to keep a 5.8 second lead as he blazed through the finish. An insane race to witness!

Read the complete breakdown and stories for each main (Like the A-Main above) over on the JConcepts Blog!

Expert 1:8 Scale Electric Buggy

1:8 Scale Nitro Truck A-Main Results: