Adrenaline RC Racing rolled back into LCRC for the 2026 Mugen Challenge — and this time, Jacob Hardison showed up with two Sparko buggies in tow instead of one. After a rained-out Thursday and a fog-soaked Friday practice, the weekend turned into a tire-strategy chess match that came down to the final laps of a 45-minute Nitro Buggy main. Here's the full breakdown, straight from the pits.
A Slow, Soggy Start to Race Weekend
Day one of the Mugen Challenge technically started on Thursday, but a full day of rain meant nobody turned a wheel. By Friday morning, LCRC was blanketed in a thick haze that didn't burn off until mid-morning, and unseasonably cool temperatures (highs in the mid-70s) made for a hoodie-in-August kind of day. Track conditions were the real story early on — with two straight days of moisture baked into the dirt, traction was a moving target from the first practice session.
The layout itself drew praise for being fast and flowy, with one exception: a whoop section that chewed up plenty of drivers throughout the weekend, echoing Jacob's kryptonite from last year's event.
Practice: Dialing In Two Cars at Once
Running both a Nitro Buggy and an E-Buggy meant double the setup work and half the track time, since practice ran in blocked sessions. Jacob leaned on his go-to JConcepts Reflex and Relapse tire compounds, working from green compounds early in the damp morning conditions before transitioning to blues as the track dried and temperatures held steady.
Fellow Adrenaline racer Uriel Tolentino also put in solid practice mileage in the Intermediate class, working through a bent shock shaft and a car that — despite input from Jacob, Lee Setser, and several other drivers in the pits — kept everyone guessing on setup. More on that below.
Qualifying: A Tire Gamble That Almost Paid Off
Qualifying opened strong. Running fresh blue Relapses in both cars, Jacob turned in a clean Round 1 — a P3 finish in Nitro Buggy and a P4 in E-Buggy, with lap times that improved noticeably once he adopted a wider entry line into the whoop section (a change borrowed from watching Ethan Macknick's line through that section).
Round 2 didn't go as smoothly. With overcast skies rolling in, Jacob made the call to run a scrubbed-in set of blue Relapses on the Nitro Buggy — a gamble that backfired when the tires overheated within the first couple of laps, turning the run into a throwaway. E-Buggy told a similar story: pinned against competitors running bar tires, Jacob tried to make up ground and overdrove the car late in the run.
The result: both cars locked in a P6 grid slot heading into Sunday's mains — respectable, but with room the team knew they'd left on the table.
Main Day: A 45-Minute Grind in Nitro Buggy
With more rain threatening overnight, prep work shifted to durability. Diffs were rebuilt and stepped up to 20/20/6k oil in both cars, anticipating the punishment a 45-minute Nitro Buggy main would put on the drivetrain. Tire choice came down to the wire — no bar tires on hand meant a new set of A2 Relapse would have to do the job.
The Nitro Buggy main got off to a rocky start. Coming through the whoop section early, Jacob's car got sideways and was headed off-line before a passing driver nudged him back on course. That moment cost enough time that the leaders eventually caught up to lap traffic — with Jacob still in the mix. He clawed back through the field for a P5 finish, a result that left the team wondering what might have been possible with a cleaner start.
E-Buggy followed a similar arc: a strong start pushed Jacob up to P5, but running pin tires against a field largely on bar compounds made holding position a losing battle on raw pace. A late-race incident ahead briefly opened the door back to a podium run, but the tire disadvantage settled the result at P6.
Uriel's Weekend: Speed to Spare, Consistency to Chase
Uriel Tolentino's weekend was a study in raw pace without the results to match. After struggling early with a car that "wouldn't turn" without being overdriven, a late diff-oil change (with an assist from Jason Schreffler) helped — but a mysterious excess of steering throw in the E-Buggy kept the team guessing all weekend, with theories ranging from arm wear to tire rub against the suspension arm.
In the main, Uriel showed flashes of being one of the fastest cars on track, climbing from dead last into bump-up contention with a string of quick laps — before a string of late crashes, several in sections he'd already proven he could clear cleanly, ended the charge early. The takeaway heading into the next event: dial back the aggression and let the consistency catch up to the speed.
Gear Check: What Powered the Weekend
Both Adrenaline buggies ran on Jacob's go-to Sparko F8 and F8 SE platform, backed by AR 2026 servos across the board. Uriel put that servo durability to the test in the most literal way possible — after a pre-event crash took out his motor and speed control, the AR 2026 servo was the only piece of electronics left standing.
Up Next: VCS at Tiltyard
With Mugen Challenge in the books, the Adrenaline crew is turning its attention to VCS at Tiltyard — widely considered one of the toughest, most elevation-heavy tracks on the East Coast. Neither driver has raced the layout before, so expect a steep learning curve heading into the next event recap.
Catch the full race weekend, tire changes, and pit chaos in the video above, and check out the gear that got both buggies to the line at Adrenaline RC Racing.