From a B3 back in the early 2000s to a B6D in 2017!
When I first started racing there were a few brands that stood out thanks to their great products and race success. Team Associated was one of them. The first 1:10th scale buggy I owned was an AE B3, and I have actually always really enjoyed 1:10th scale offroad, but it has just never been my focus.
However, as I only have a few years left in racing, I wanted to take full advantage of them, and have fun, and hopefully some success, racing the best 10th scales on the market. Naturally I contacted Brent Thielke, the Team Manager at AE. I announced that I am available and willing to join the AE team for 10th scale, and sent him my bank info for my paychecks. Brent responded by sending me a Richard Saxton “How To” dvd, and a link to amain.com. He also told me that if I do run AE I should under no circumstances ever wear an AE shirt. He said something about that being bad for AE’s image. I didn’t quite understand what he meant. Strange guy.
Richard Saxton has become a living meme in Finland. A term was coined after him, a translation being “Saxtoning”, or “to Saxton”. It basically means leaning forward in an approximately 30 degree angle, and clapping slowly with exaggerated hand movements, as a car goes by. It also includes towel waving. After discovering this dvd, it is clear that Saxton has been a living meme for a long time.
Anyway, I got myself some AE cars, and was so stoked. Now I would be just as fast as my heroes Ryan Cavalieri and Neil Cragg. Actually one other reason I wanted to run AE was that I wanted to be team mates with the Craggs, as they are good people. The only way to do that is to run AE, as that’s all Neil has ever, and will ever run.
After watching Saxton’s how to video I was quite confident going into my first race with my AE buggies, the Euros warm up. Both cars were fresh, never been run. In the end I managed to make both mains, and actually finished top Associated in 2wd! How you like them apples Brent?
All joking aside, I’m looking forward to the Euros that start tomorrow, and I’ll be keeping you up to date with daily reports of some sort. Let’s see how inspired I feel, and if we can figure out the wifi.
Brent didn’t say anything about stickers! Btw Brent, paypal works too.
THEQuagraine 