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The 1st Annual Top Gear Hobbies Spring Shootout was held this past weekend in Clackamas, OR. This is the home track of Team Orion USA Team Manager Joe Pillars. Making the trip out for this event was Team Orion's current 2wd & 4wd IFMAR World Champion Ryan Cavalieri! The North-West's fastest racers would all be in attendance to test their skills against the 4-Time World Champ!

Friday, May 17th: Open Practice
Saturday, May 18th: 4 Rounds of Invitational 2wd Modified Buggy / 3 Rounds of Qualifying
Sunday, May 19th: 4 Rounds of Invitational 2wd Modified Buggy / 1 Round of Qualifying & Triple A-Mains

The Invitational Class would consist of 30 racers that were divided up into 4 heats of 8 in random order. All drivers would use 2wd Modified Buggies for all 8 rounds. 4 rounds of heads up racing were ran on Saturday and another 4 rounds on Sunday. Each driver was given 2 throw-outs, using their best 6 finishes. Tie-breakers were determined by the number of 1st place finishes, 2nd place finishes, and on using the 6 counted points. If still a tie, each drivers 2 fastest runs would be combined by laps and times to decide the higher finisher.

For all other classes, 3 rounds of qualifying were ran on Saturday and 1 last chance qualifier on Sunday. The rocket round format was used to determine the overall qualifying order by taking each drivers single fastest run. Then triple A-Mains were ran to determine the champion in each class.

Team Orion/AE Factory Driver Ryan Cavalieri took the overall Win by finishing 1st in all 8 heats earning him a perfect score of 6pts!

Finishing 2nd overall was Team Orion USA Team Manager Joe Pillars with four 1st place finishes and two 2nd place finishes with a score of 8! 3rd overall went to Washington's Mike Brown. Mike ran fast and consistant all weekend and earned the 3rd spot on the podium.

Invitational 2wd Modified Buggy Top 10 Overall
	Driver	ESC	Motor	Battery
1	Ryan Cavalieri
2	Joe Pillars
3	Mike Brown
4	Shaun Dunlap
5	Chris Nealeigh
6	Ryan Matesa
7	Tanner Day
8	Austin Seim
9	Chris Gould
10	Roger Seim

Team Orion/AE's Ryan Cavalieri went on to TQ all 4 rounds of Qualifying to take the overall TQ for the class. Cavalieri then went on to Win A-Mains #1 & #2 in convincing fashion to take the overall Win!

Team Orion/X-Factory's Chris Gould went onto Qualify 2nd overall only 1 second behind the TQ. Gould made it happen by Winning A-Mains #1 & #3 to take the overall Win!

Team Orion is very happy to announce that World Championship finalist, ETS winner and national champion Christopher Krapp extended his contract with Team Orion!

The German talent will continue using VST2 Pro brushless motors, R10 Pro speed controllers and Carbon Pro LiPo batteries in all his cars.

Read what Chrissi has to say about his contract extension: 
"I am super happy to have the opportunity to extend my contract for another year with Team Orion! I am using Orion electronics since I started my racing career and they always gave me the best products. I am happy to work with all the guys from Team Orion and to help making the products even better. Thanks for thrusting in me!"

Zebraworkz is well known for their thrilling videos including breathtaking aerial shots. In their high-end multicopters they use no other than Team Orion's World Championship winning Carbon Pro 90C LiPo batteries!

The German company who just recently filmed in the world famous Porsche museum (see video) uses Team Orion's Carbon Pro 90C 6400mAh 4S LiPo batteries (ORI14050) in their multicopters. Only with those packs they had the long run-time, high power and reliability they need to produce professional aerial videos.

Read what Zebraworkz owner Marcus Gelhard has to say:
"Zebraworkz chose Team Orion Carbon Pro LiPo batteries because they are lighter than similar batteries at a given capacity. This results in longer run times. Even though the hard case is especially made for cars it also helps in the multicopter. It protects the battery from sharp objects. At a hard and stressful day of work, with a lot of time pressure in the filming business, the robustness of the material is very important."

Their aerial showreel video includes shots from different places and jobs. Places in Taiwan and Germany are shown; you can even find scenes made in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.

Gelhard says: "For such a job you need to count on your equipment. If there is any malfunction of the multicopter on top of a museum piece you have a big problem. That's why we need high quality products like the Team Orion batteries. We also flew with the packs at many different temperatures and the batteries always performed to our satisfaction. Our next showreel will include shots made in the snow!

- Visit our YouTube channel for more videos!
- Find more batteries here!

The 2013 Silver State Nitro Challenge was once again held 30 minutes outside of Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada in Boulder City. This years event was held April 19th-21st with perfect weather conditions all week long with temperatures in the mid 80's. Team Orion would bring a strong team to this years event that included: Jared Tebo, Ryan Cavalieri, Yuichi Kanai, Drew Moller, and Cody Turner.

Thursday, April 18th: 2 Rounds of Controlled Practice
Friday, April 19th: 2 Rounds of Qualifying
Saturday, April 20th: 1 Round of Qualifying & Lower Main Bump-Ups to B-Mains
Sunday, April 21st: B-Main Bump-Ups & A-Main Events

After quaifying was complete, Team Orion's Jared Tebo would start 2nd on the grid, Ryan Cavalieri would start 5th, and Cody Turner 8th.

The 1/8 Pro Electric Buggy A-Main Event was set for 10-Minutes. Tebo got a great jump off the line with his Team Orion powered Kyosho MP9E and closely followed Lutz for lap 1. Tebo was then able to make his way by for the lead and began to pull away. Halfway through the main, Tebo made a small bobble and would fall back to 2nd with a hard charging Lutz taking back over the lead. A few laps later Tebo would motor past Lutz on the back straight to regain the lead and would pull away once again to be the only driver to get by for the 18th lap. Lutz went on to finish 2nd and Rodriguez would round out the podium in 3rd.

1/8 Pro Electric Buggy Top 10 Overall:
	Driver	ESC	Motor	Battery
1	Jared Tebo
2	Ryan Lutz
3	Dylan Rodriguez
4	Adam Drake			Thunder Power
5	Mike Truhe			Thunder Power
6	Ryan Cavalieri
7	Richard Saxton
8	Cody Turner
9	Billy Fischer			CRC
10	Renato Tradardi Jr.

Tebo's Winning Team Orion R8 Pro ESC Settings:
1. Running Mode: Forward/Brake
2. Drag Brake: 0%
3. Voltage Protection: None
4. DRRS Punch: 4
5. Brake Force: 50%
6. Reverse Force: 25%
7. Initial Brake: 0%
8. Neutral Range: 9%
9. AMTS Timing: 5
10. Motor Rotate: CCW
11. Lipe Cells: Auto Calculate
Gearing: 15/46

After qualifying was complete, Team Orion's Jared Tebo would start 3rd on the grid, Ryan Cavalieri would start 5th, and Drew Moller 7th.

The 1/8 Pro Nitro Bruggy A-Main Event was set for 45-Minutes. As the tone went off, Lutz would lead the field by for lap 1. A small mistake by Tebo would drop him back in the pack which allowed Drake up to 2nd and Cavalieri in 3rd. After the 1st round of pit stops, Drake was now leading with Cavalieri in 2nd. Lutz and Tebo had a good battle going on for the 3rd spot. At the 2nd round of pit stops, Tebo's fast pace allowed him to catch up to Drake and Cavalieri for a 3 way battle for the lead! Tebo would eventually get by both on the track within the next few minutes and began to pull away. Cavalieri made his way into 2nd and set his sights on Tebo. At the 3rd round of pit stops, Tebo was leading with Cavalieri by 7-seconds. Cavalieri would keep it close for the next 9-minutes up to the last round of pit stops. Tebo got in and out of pit lane during his final stop with a lightning fast pit from Team Manager Joe Pillars. Cavalieri put on an impressive charge to try and catch Tebo but ran out of time. Tebo would hold on to take the Win over Cavalieri by 5-seconds. Lutz would just edge out Drake to finish 3rd. Team Orion would take the top 2 spots on the podium! Young up and coming talent Drew Moller put in a great drive to finish 6th overall!

1/8 Pro Nitro Buggy Top 10 Overall:
	Driver	Engine
1	Jared Tebo
2	Ryan Cavalieri
3	Ryan Lutz (TQ)
4	Adam Drake
5	Josh Wheeler
6	Drew Moller
7	Dylan Rodriguez
8	Cody King	Reds
9	Billy Fischer
10	Mike Truhe	TOP

• Congrats to Jared Tebo for an impressive weekend by Winning 1/8 Pro Electric Buggy, 1/8 Pro Nitro Buggy, and finishing 2nd overall in 1/8 Pro Nitro Truggy!
• Congrats to Ryan Cavalieri for finishing a very close 2nd overall in 1/8 Pro Nitro Buggy, 3rd overall in 1/8 Pro Nitro Truggy, and 6th overall in 1/8 Pro Electric Buggy!
• Congrats to rising star Drew Moller for finishing 5th overall in 1/8 Pro Nitro Truggy and 6th overall in Pro Nitro Buggy!
• Congrats to Yuichi Kanai for finishing 3rd overall in the 1/8 Buggy 40+ Class!

Reigning IFMAR Touring Car World Champion Jilles Groskamp renewed his contract with Team Orion for 2013/2014! The Dutch super star will continue using Team Orion VST2 Pro brushless motors, R10 Pro speed controllers, Carbon Pro LiPo batteries and Advantage Touch chargers.

Groskamp is not "only" winning races with Team Orion products but he is also involved in the product development: his extensive testing and precise feedback is a great help to bringing our products to perfection. Jilles is furthermore an excellent ambassador for our brand and the R/C hobby.

We are looking forward to the continuation of our successful collaboration with the current World Champion and friend Jilles Groskamp!

The Thailand International Touring car race 2013 was held at the very fine facility of RC Addict in Bangkok, Thailand. Most teams were well presented and testing two weeks prior to the event.

During the last days of free practice it got really busy and it was almost impossible to practice with sometimes 20 cars at the track! In Qualifiying it was Atsushi Hara setting the pace followed by current Ifmar World Champion Jilles Groskamp and 1/12 World Champ Naoto Matsukura in third. After 5 rounds of qualifying it was Atsushi taking the TQ with 3 wins followed by Jilles with 1 TQ round and Naoto as well with 1 TQ round. Further down the ranking it was current WC nitro Meen V in fourth, Viktor Wilck with his Tamiya in 5th and 3 times World Champion Marc Rheinard in 6th. Andy Moore, Ronald Volker, local Thai Charlee P and EC Kim filled the other spots for this "big" A-main with 6 World Champions in it!

Going into the mains on Sunday it was Jilles who overtook Atsushi in the first lap, then was chased by Naoto the whole race but never opened the door to take the first A-main, Atsushi pulled in after three laps to save tyres for the next two A-mains. In the second final it was Atsushi who dominated ahead of Naoto and Jilles now in third. The overall win was still open between Atsushi, Jilles and Naoto. At the tone of the third A-main Atsushi made a good start and Jilles was unable to attack Atsushi in the first lap. Due the tyre rule Jilles ran already both sets of tyres but Atsushi still had fresh rubber for the third main. Jilles tried to push hard to follow Atsushi but in lap 5 Jilles rolled the car and his chance for the win was over. Atsushi again cruised to the win to take the TITC title 2013 followed by a strong second place for Jilles and Naoto in third.

ORI65102 Vortex R10 Pro (2-3S) Click here		VST2 Pro Modified Motors Coming Soon
ORI30205 Advantage Touch Pro Click here		ORI14057 Carbon Pro 90C 8000mAh Dual Output Click here

 

Pictures Courtesy of Jilles and TITC

The 27th Annual Cactus Classic was held at HobbyTown USA SRS March 14-17 in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. The Cactus is one of the longest on-going electric off-road races to date that brings in the best drivers from all over the United States as well as drawing an International field. The intense competition along with great weather has made this event so successful over the years. This years event reached an amazing 500 entries! New for this year was the addition of sugar coating the track which provided instant hi-traction conditions. Temperatures in the upper 90's all week long would put every drivers equipment to the ultimate test.

Thursday, March 14th: 2 Controlled Practice Rounds with Timed Seeding
Friday, March 15th: 2 Rounds of Qualifying
Saturday, March 16th: 2 Rounds of Qualifying
Sunday, March 17th: Triple A-Main Events

After qualifying was complete, Team Orion would have 4 drivers in the A-Main Event. Jared Tebo would start 2nd, Ryan Cavalieri 4th, Dustin Evans 6th, and Cody Turner 9th. In A-Main #1, Tebo would put in impressive drive to take the Win! Dustin Evans would charge from 6th to finish 2nd and AE's Ryan Maifield 3rd. In A-Main #2, Tebo put in one of the best drives seen all year to take the Win and claim the 2wd Modified Buggy Championship with his Team Orion powered Kyosho RB6 Mid-Motor Buggy! AE's Ryan Maifield finished 2nd and Yokomo's Matsukura 3rd.

2wd Modified Buggy Overall Finishing Order:
	Driver	ESC	Motor	Battery
1	Jared Tebo
2	Ryan Maifield
3	Dustin Evans
4	Naoto Matsukura
5	Lee Martin
6	Ryan Cavalieri
7	Steven Hartson
8	Travis Amezcua
9	Cody Turner
10	Jorn Neumann

After qualifying, Team Orion drivers would consist of half the field. Ryan Cavalieri would start 2nd, Dustin Evans 4th, Cody Turner 5th, Matt Castellano 6th, and Frank Root 10th. In A-Main #1, AE's Ryan Maifield would just edge out Cavalieri for the Win. Ryan Lutz finished 3rd. In A-Main #2, Cavalieri would take the Win with Maifield finishing 2nd only 1 second behind. Lutz would finish 3rd again. In A-Main #3, After a great battle throughout the entire main, it was Cavalieri crossing the finish line 1st to take home the 2wd Modified Short Course Championship with his Team Orion powered AE SC10! Dustin Evans would make a last lap pass to finish in 2nd and Maifield 3rd.

2wd Modified Short Course Overall Finishing Order:
	Driver	ESC	Motor	Battery
1	Ryan Cavalieri
2	Ryan Maifield
3	Ryan Lutz
4	Dustin Evans
5	Brian Kinwald		Icon
6	Chris Wheeler			CRC
7	Matt Castellano
8	Jason Corl
9	Frank Root
10	Cody Turner

After qualifying came to an end, Dakotah put himself in great position to battle for the overall win by starting 2nd. In A-Main #1, Dakotah came back from a rough start to chase down the lead pack and a few laps later making a pass for the lead and took the Win! TLR's Billy Fischer finished 2nd and Durango's Hupo Honigl 3rd. In A-Main #2, Dakotah got off to a great start and paced Fischer who was leading. Phend made a pass for the lead halfway through the main event and held on for the Win to take the overall 4x4 Modified Short Course Championship with his Team Orion powered TLR 4x4 SC! Fisher finished a close 2nd with Durango's Jorn Neumann 3rd.

4x4 Modified Short Course Overall Finishing Order
	Driver	ESC	Motor	Battery
1	Dakotah Phend
2	Billy Fischer			CRC
3	Jorn Neumann
4	Hupo Honigl	Dual Sky		H-Speed
5	Ryan Lutz
6	Travis Amezcua
7	Trevor Clement
8	David Jenson
9	Brian Kinwald		Icon
10	Charles Hicks

Thanks for the great report, Joe!

Last weekend the final round of the Swedish VBC-cup organized by Borås MRK took place. The main classes were 1/10 2WD and 4WD which were driven on indoor carpet. The cup consisted of 6 rounds with 4 rounds counted. David had participated in 3 rounds and desired to drive the final as he still had the chance to take the total win in both classes.

Saturday it was time for the 2WD class and David used his EOS setup on his Team Orion powered Kyosho RB6. The only change he made was the ride height. With a qualifying which was not really clean he ended up on 5th position in the A-main grid.

After some traffic crashes in A1 he didn't care to drive the whole final as he was too far from the top positions. David knew that he normally drives better under pressure. With the obligation to win A2 and A3 to be victorious the pressure was obviously there! David drove two incredible finals to take overall win!

Winning Equipment 2WD:
Team Orion Vortex R10 Pro Speed Controller
Team Orion VST2 7.5 Motor
Team Orion Carbon Pro XS400 LiPo Battery
Team Orion Advantage Touch Charger

When the time keeper counted down the cup points David had equal points as Niclas Månsson and they decided to run a “death race” to separate the two drivers. The race started and after a couple of laps David took total control over the race. After 5 minutes he crossed the line by a “kimi lap” that killed the earlier lap times of the day and took the total win of the 2WD class.

Watch the Death Race David vs Nille

Sunday it was time for 4WD and David tested his setup from EOS. Unfortunately it didn't work good on the smaller track. So the qualification was similar to 2WD: not really top driving which led to 4th spot on the starting grid in the A-main finals.

David ended 2nd in all of the A-mains and that was also the final result of the race. The second place was enough to also secure the victory in the 4WD class of the cup! David Ronnefalk managed to achieve his goal to win both classes even if he only drove 4 races and had to count all 4. Winning both classes he also become “Superchamp” of VBC 2012/2013.

Winning Equipment 4WD:
Team Orion Vortex R10 Pro Speed Controller
Team Orion VST2 5.5 Motor
Team Orion Carbon Pro 5500 Saddle Pack
Team Orion Advantage Touch Charger

2WD Buggy
1. David Ronnefalk - Team Orion
2. Niclas Månsson
3. Otto Ausfelt

4WD Buggy
1. David Ronnefalk - Team Orion
2. Niclas Månsson
3. Marcus Sandberg

Thanks, Pierre, for the great report!

The 1/12 Stock and 1/12 Modified Euros were held at the beautiful facility in Finland/Oulu on the week-end of March 9/10. Team Orion's Markus Mobers dominated the Stock Class in style. He won every qualifying round and secured the TQ spot for the mains. In the finals he never looked back and won all three A-mains with a big margin. The new Team Orion VST2 10.5 motor gave him the edge. Together with Team Orion's Carbon Pro 90C 1S batteries and Vortex R10 Pro 1-2S speed controller this was the combination to beat!! Also in Modified Markus showed a great performance. He ended up 4th on the grid and finished 4th overall. Congratulations!

Team Orion super stars David Ronnefalk and Renaud Savoya showed a convincing performance at EOS Round 3 in Loeben. In 4WD buggy it was Ronnefalk who took 3rd place overall. After his 9th place in qualifying the Swedish driver showed impressive driving in all three finals with his Team Orion powered Kyosho buggy. In 2WD the Swedish National Champion finished on 7th place while German Team Orion driver Oliver Scholz finished on a great 4th place and Austrian team driver Dominic Bauer on 10th position. Congratulations!

Three time 1/8 Off-Road European Champion Renaud Savoya just recently switched to Team Orion to get best power and technology for his nitro vehicles. While he was a pure nitro driver so far the move to Team Orion also opened the doors to World Championship winning electric products.

With that said it was clear that Savoya would equip his Xray cars with Team Orion batteries, speed controllers and motors. The EOS in Loeben was Savoya's first electric race - and the French driver surprised everyone: In the first round of qualifying Savoya placed his Team Orion powered buggy on top of the time sheet in front of Martin Bayer and Hupo Honigl! Thanks to another blistering performance in round 4 Savoya was on equal points with Joern Neumann at the end of qualification! Although being 1/8 European Champion even Reno himself didn't expected such a great start in the highly competitive electric off-road class.

Starting from second place into the finals losing TQ honors to Joern on tie brake, Reno Savoya experienced some difficult finals finishing on seventh position overall - but still impressing the R/C world with an amazing start into electric racing!

Two outstanding drivers chose Team Orion World Champion products for their electric and nitro cars. Both with big success. Congratulations to Renaud and David for their great performance using Team Orion motors, batteries, speed controllers and chargers.

Overall Result 4WD Buggy 1. Joern Neumann (DE) 2. Martin Bayer (CZ) 3. David Ronnefalk (SE) - Team Orion 4. Hupo Honigl (AT) 5. Peter Pinisch (AT) 6. Michal Orlowski (PL) 7. Renaud Savoya (FR) - Team Orion 8. Martin Kreil (AT) 9. Jiri Mara (CZ) 10.Oliver Scholz (DE) - Team Orion Source: redrc.net

Overall Result 2WD Buggy 1. Joern Neumann (DE) 2. Hupo Honigl (AT) 3. Martin Bayer (CZ) 4. Oliver Scholz (DE) - Team Orion 5. Peter Pinisch (AT) 6. Robert Batlle (ES) 7. David Ronnefalk (SE) - Team Orion 8. Oskar Levin (SE) 9. Jiri Mara (CZ) 10.Dominic Bauer (AT) - Team Orion Source: redrc.net

Congratulations also go to Oliver Scholz and Dominic Bauer for their great result!

Pictures courtesy of redrc.net