O'DONNELL NEWS

Just as they did last year, the O'Donnell Team came into Motorama with something to prove. This time it was with three new cars, the Z01-B SG, Z01-T SG and the Z01-E. On-road legend and team driver Barry Baker was also out to prove that he could run with some of the best off-road drivers in the country.

Electric 1/8 Buggy
Baker went out in the first round and set a blistering pace, taking the TQ for the round. When all the rounds were finished and the qual points were tallied, Baker ended up second overall. In the main, however, Baker had other plans - he took the early lead and never looked back. The brand new Z01-E never missed a beat either, proving that it will be a car to reckon with. Baker also used the Team Checkpoint 5000 / 40c LiPo racing packs to provide the juice needed to take the win.

Nitro 1/8 Pro Buggy
Disappointed with his second qualifying spot in electric buggy, Baker laid the smack down and proved to everyone that on-road drivers CAN drive off-road! Besides the excellent drive by the "Fabulous One", the Z01-B SG was extremely impressive in its national debut, taking the overall TQ in the premiere class. Unfortunately, a few miscues in the main event dropped Baker back to a sixth place finish.

Nitro 1/8 Pro Truggy
If other drivers don't know this by now, the last thing you want to do is motivate Baker...all it does is make him drive harder and faster...and that's what he did in the truggy main event. The first half of the race saw an epic battle between Baker and Jason Ashton...some people even stated it was one of the best races they ever saw. After Ashton had a slight issue, Phillip Atondo was there to pick up the slack and another epic chase began. In the end, the "Fabulous One" took the win in pro truggy.

Once again, O'Donnell proved that you don't want to mess with the underdog, because you might get bitten!

He may be small in stature, but he was walking tall this past weekend as O'Donnell team driver Trevor Davis took the overall title in buggy and truggy at the final round of the Midwest Nitrocross Series.

At each round of the series, Davis drove his O'Donnell-powered vehicles to podium finishes. These mark the first official championship titles for the brand new O'Donnell SS .21 engine.

When asked about the motors, Davis had this to say: "These motors are sooo fast...they're awesome!" Look out for Davis in the future. He is definitely one of the rising stars!

One of the fastest growing classes in the oval scene is 1/8 late models. Race after race, it is producing some of the most competitive racing out there. Team driver Andy "KSG" McClellan has been working hard on getting a prototype O'Donnell Z01-LM set up for this class.

This past weekend, it all paid off at the annual Blue/Gray Shoot Out. At the start of the race, McClellan got knocked to the back of the pack. Now with something to prove, he wheeled his Z01-LM all the way to the front of the pack. He made the pass for the lead with less than 30 seconds left and never looked back, taking the win!

If that wasn't enough, McClellan went out and led the Dash for Cash from wire to wire and completed the sweep. Looks like there is a new kid on the block and it's the O'Donnell Z01-LM Prototype.

The "Team" Takes It!

Just a mere two days after the release of the brand new O'Donnell Z01-B Team Edition, Taylor Peterson took the win at Motorama in the 1/8 Pro buggy class. Peterson was running in the top three until the first pit stop. Then, after a blistering pit stop by Steve O'Donnell, he took the lead from former World Champion Mark Pavidis and never looked back. And the new Z01-B Team Edition, powered by the O'Donnell SS .21, never faltered!

Peterson wasn't the only O'Donnell driver to impress in the A main. Young superstar Levi Jackson made a very impressive run to take the third spot on the podium with his O'Donnell SS .21 powered Z01-B Team edition. In the end the O'Donnell racing team had a total of five Z01-B Team Editions in the A main, with Peterson and Jackson joined by Derek Guidry, Dylan Rodriguez, and Sonny Ochoa.

In the pro truggy class, O'Donnell put a total of six Z01-T's in the big show. Taylor Peterson came up a little short in this main, but still pulled off a podium finish in third place. All of the O'Donnell team drivers had great runs in the main as well, such as Levi Jackson, Derek Guidry, Sonny Ochoa, Jimbo Kvidera, and Dylan Rodriguez.

When asked his thoughts, Steve O'Donnell said, "Wow...with over 400 entries and over 40,000 spectators at this event, I don't think we could have written a better script!" Needless to say, the O'Donnell team will be a force to reckon with at all the events they attend.

All of the O'Donnell team drivers use Futaba equipment, including the new 4PK FASST radio system, 3PK FASST radio system, and Futaba servos.