Factory Team

Tanner Stees takes over Thunder By The Water 2013

I have recently gone to the Thunder By The Water race on March 30- 31 hosted by Havasu RC Raceway in Arizona.  I ran 1/8 Buggy and Truggy as well as mod 2wd short course and mod 2wd buggy.  I ran Pro-Line’s Bulldog bodies on my 1/8 Buggy, Truggy and mod 2wd buggy on the short course truck I ran Pro-Line’s Ford Raptor Flo-Tek.  All the bodies worked great, the bulldogs gave me great steering and plenty of down force.  The Flo-Tek was great too it gave my SC plenty of steering and was great in the air. I didn’t have any problems with it parachuting in the air even when there was a bit of wind.

In Qualifying my first race was mod 2wd buggy, I ran M3 Tazers in the rear with the Pro-Line blue inserts and in the front I ran M4 Holeshots with Pro-line blue inserts.  I really like the blue inserts. They feel like they make the car more stable.  With the mod 2wd drive buggy I ended up qualifying 4th in all three rounds which put me 4th in the main. I ran the same set of Tazers but switched to M3 4-ribs in the front.  My next race was 1/8 truggy, I ran M3 Holeshots for all 3 rounds of qualifying.  The tires were great having plenty of traction and still giving my truggy plenty of steering and getting the overall TQ.  In SC I ran safe tires that I knew always worked on this wet track (M4 Blockades in the rear and M4 Holeshots in the front).  The tires worked good and I put in a good solid qualifier with the tires.  In round 2 I decided to try out M4 Tazers in the rear and leave the Holeshots on the front.  The tires were great and I put in an even faster qualifier, the Holeshots gave good steering and kept the front end from sliding at all and the Tazers were hooking up in the rear which gave me awesome traction for my truck. For round 3 of qualifying I ran the exact same tires and put in another decent qualifier.  I ended up qualifying 2nd right behind TQ with my short course truck.  Last up was 1/8 buggy, where I knew Tazers worked good from when I was there last time so I went with M3 Tazers.  I don’t think I could have picked a better tire they were flawless, they had some much traction that it was not hard to clear the front quad where everyone else was spinning their tires and barely making it.  The Tazers also gave me the steering I needed to get around the tight track so I ran the tires for all three rounds.

The mains started and my first race was 2wd mod buggy, I ran M3 Tazers in the rear and M3 4-ribs in the front for both mains.  The tires felt really good but the other people were also really fast, we all battled for most of the race I ended up finishing 4th.  For the second main the car and tires felt really good but some bad luck with a ball cup got me.  Up next was 1/8 truggy where I started on the pole position, I ran a brand new set of M3 Holeshots for the first main where I got off to a good start and just kept pushing and pushing until I was far enough head  to just keep a nice pace.  In the second main I ran the same set of tires which were great in main one, but early on in the race I had a couple bobbles which put me to second and that started a battle which lasted the whole race. Even after 2- 20 minute mains the tires where still hooked up.  I ended up finishing second in main 2. Unfortunately the tie breaker didn’t go my way. I would take the #2 spot on the podium.  Next up was my mod 2wd short course truck where I started right behind TQ. I ran M4 Tazers in the rear and M4 Holeshots in the front.  The tires were hooked up once again. At the start I pushed as hard as I could to catch the leader and pass him to put time between us.  Through the whole race the tires were good on the wet and dry.  In the second main I ran the same tires and did the same as main 1 which gave me the overall win in mod 2wd short course.  1/8 buggy was my last race, in round one I ran a brand new set of M3 Tazers which had treated me good all weekend and where very fast.  I started third and right out of the box made the quad and was in second and for the rest of the race I battled with first, in the end of main 1 after all the battling I got second.  In the second main I started off with a pretty good start but I had some technical difficulty and ended up getting seventh.  Overall I got third which was still a good podium.

Thanks Pro-Line for supporting this race and my racing. All weekend my Pro-Line products worked great. Also congratulations to fellow Pro-Line driver, Jason Miller, who ran strong all weekend and took the 1st place cash in 1/8th Buggy. If you ever go to the Lake Havasu track, try these Pro-Line products!

See you at the track,
Tanner