Yesterday I talked about TLR today let’s talk about their biggest Rivals Team Associated!

Team Associated

When you think of Team Associated or AE for short, the words like greatness, legendary, heritage, innovation and prestige. AE changed RC racing as we know it with the release of the RC10 back in 1984, AE has rooted itself infamy when you think RC racing you think AE. They also go into Spain as the World Champion and have a good chance to win it again !

Cole ‘CFT” Tollard

Cole F**king Tollard!!!! The mild mannered and quiet, almost 22 year old from Wisconsin has a maturity well above his young age. CFT has been putting in the work over the years and has become quite an accomplished 1/10 racer. After finishing school last year Cole is now doing RC racing full time I believe, he also has made the transition to ⅛ scale nitro racing. As we know Nitro racing is a steep learning curve but CFT is putting his head down taking his lumps and bumps that most do at the beginning.

At RCGP USA Cole would do well on the high grip track with 2 second place finishes. But this is the Worlds and things are very different, Redovan and level of competition are two big hurdles to overcome for CFT!

Raging Aydin Horne

Aydin has been a breath of fresh air ! In an industry where dialed, character and awesome are the three favorite words said in most interviews by Pro Rc Drivers, Aydin is up beat, funny, witty and I always see him smiling even when things are bad!!! It is great to see this in a young racer. This gives me hope that we might actually develop some interesting personalities in this somewhat stale environment we currently are in.

Aydin is a product of the AE 1/10 youth program that was started with Factory Track and has burst on the scene as a very fast 1/10th driver. He started focusing on 1/8th in 2021 and saw some early success which was backed up with a solid 2nd place at the ROAR Nats in 2021.

2022 has not been as kind to Aydin in ⅛ he has had his struggles but still manages a positive attitude and looks to the future. I have him in the same spot as Cole. They go to this race to get experience and plan for the next Worlds. With that said it would not surprise me to see either of these two racers do better than I think. It is kinda funny how we see AE developing 1/10th Racers into Nitro racers making them All Rounders. Both Cole and Aydin are poised to have great careers in RC and will have many opportunities at a World Championship.

Spencer Rivkin

Rivkin has been the flag bearer for AE over the last few years in both 1/10 and in the USA ⅛. Spencer is another product of AE developing a 1/10th driver into a nitro racer. Spencer has had ear;y success, he won the 2wd 1/10th Worlds in 2015 and 2019 also he is 2X Roar 1/8th Nitro Buggy National Champion and he just won the 4wd Leg of the 10th Scale Roar Dirt Nats a couple weeks ago. He is also one of the 3 North American drivers that made the trip to Spain for the warm up.

The warm up was not kind to Spencer. It started bad with JConcepts not being able to get the tires they had shipped out of customs and this would put Rivkin on the back foot. His troubles would continue and Rivkin would not make it out of the ¼ finals, but all was not lost. This is a warm up and Spencer goes into this race with more experience than all but 2 of his fellow Americans and I expect him to use that to get him into the A final.

As I have said on the podcast lately Spencer has been a lot less PC in his interviews this year. If it's not going well or things are wrong he has been very vocal about it. It is good to see drivers being allowed to express themselves and we should encourage this then everything being fine and dandy. IMHO Spencer seems a bit frustrated with his ⅛ results; he has had an up and down battle with this category this year.

IMHO Spencer needs to make the A final this year he doesn't have to win but definitely has to make the final. With racers like Cole and Aydin nipping at his heels as well as the plethora of talent in the USA and Europe staying on top at AE must be difficult. With this in mind Spencer will have to deal with this pressure and push forward. He's good enough to fight for the win at any race and I believe the warm up will benefit him, but to win this race you can't be just good enough. Will we see Rivkin go next level and add a 1/8th WC to his list of accomplishments?

Davide Ongaro

The Italian Stallion !!! Davide Ongaro has wowed the RC Racing world and due to Covid he has become the longest reigning World Champion and also gave Team Associated their first ⅛ WC.

The young Italian has wowed the world with his impressive skills to the point that he was accused of using a gyro, this all came to a boiling point at the 2018 World’s in Australia where a protest was filed against him and his car was completely stripped in search of a gyro. Ongaro was crowned WC and has enjoyed 4 years at the top of the RC Totem Pole. In those 4 years he has transformed from a pudgy young boy that was nervous to talk to a confident young man who doesn’t seem to get phased at anything you throw at him.

Ongaro is confident and goes in as a big favorite to win this race especially after winning the warm up. Ongaro

seems to have this aura about him that no matter what he will find a way to win. Rightfully so as he has some impressive victories under his belt.

This year has seen the first real signs of weakness for Ongaro or maybe his competitors have just caught up to him.

The coveted Euro Championship still eludes Ongaro as well as getting a big win at a USA Race. This year has seen Ongaro suffer defeats to Canas and Ronnefalk. RCGP Italy saw Canas beat Ongaro on home turf and at the UK round Ronnefalk, Canas and Pekko were faster …… but still Ongaro found a way to win.

It’s hard not to get against Davide. He is on trajectory to become the first Back to Back World Champ. Will this be the year we see this amazing feat happen?

If anyone can do it it’s Davide Ongaro !

The Finns

I know I missed some SWORKz Drivers and I’ll fix that later and I’m sure I’ll miss some Associated Drivers as well but I have to talk about Joona Haatanen and Pekko Iivonen.

Joona is Factory AE due to his 1/10 skills but at the Euros showed speed and just missed out on a A final spot. Joona is talented and good. He will show some speed and pace but this isn't really his first class so expectations are not that high.

Pekko the Ringer!! While Pekko isn't on the AE team per se he will drive the AE car at this race because his main sponsor is his local hobby shop. After making the a final at the Euros with the AE and then being extremely fast at RCGP UK with the Mayako you cannot count the young Finn out. Pekko is fast in all classes and can race anything. He was very impressive and the world got a taste of him at RCGP. I expect Pekko to be a thorn in the sides of many racers next week and if he can make the semis I don't see why he cannot make the A final . Pekko is one of my Dark Horses for this race. Pekko has a future in RC but in what classes it is yet to be determined.

All eyes will be on Ongaro next week and AE is looking to get that second ⅛ WC so the pressure is on. Will we see Ongaro do what no driver has been able to do and go back to back?

We will find out soon !