We just got this news direct from Gene Hickerson about this new CEN Matrix R2 Nitro Buggy in our inbox and what a great news to all CEN Matrix Buggy Fans.

CEN Racing’s Matrix R2 RTR brings the speed and durability that 1/8th scale buggies offer in a package that is Ready To Rock!! The Matrix is built for you to backyard bash during the week and take out to the racetrack on Sunday and ANNIHILATE the competition.

The Matrix R2 1/8th RTR was designed with the consumer in mind. This Matrix buggy will out perform and outlast any buggy in its class without draining your bank account. The Matrix has been race proven and remains one of the choice 1/8th RTR buggies in the nation by consumers that want to both compete and / or bash. This RTR Matrix buggy comes complete with an all new powerful 4.6 engine! You wanted more power we provided it! The all new Matrix C2 has a new look and new attitude while maintaining the same durability and design that has made the Matrix product line world famous!

With a thick 3mm 7075 T-6 chassis the Matrix can handle the abuse dished out by the rigors of 1/8th scale bashing. Don’t worry about the chassis flexing, the 7075 chassis can take more abuse than the wimpy 6061 aluminum used by the other buggy RTR out there. Just mash the throttle and drive the Matrix! Let your competitors know what 1/8th scale buggies are really about!

CEN has equipped the Matrix with parts that strengthen and lighten the Matrix. CEN has extensively used 7075 aluminum in the design of the Matrix. The radio tray, shock towers, center diff plate are all made of 7075, other companies feel that 6061 is all you need, yet they recommended the 7075 parts that are options for their cars!! CEN doesn’t cut corners with the Matrix. When we say Ready To Rock, we mean it!!!

Check out the front, center, and rear diffs of the Matrix. Each diff is a 6 gear bevel diff that are fully sealed and can be tuned with silicone diff oil. After you’re done checking out the diffs, notice the center driveshafts, both front and rear are universals! Other cars are still using dogbones.

Not only is the CEN Matrix chassis dialed! An Digital Skyion DX-Pro FM 3 channel radio is included as well. And we didn’t stop there, knowing that 1/8th scale buggies need servos with some power, high torque METAL gear servos are installed for the steering and throttle!

Here’s a little bit of him. Get ready to keep scrolling right down down there. Gene Hickerson and his wife Rysann gave birth to their 1st child, Rayanna Ruth Hickerson, on December 22, 2007. Despite now being a daddy, Hickerson continues to be a factor on the track.

4-27-08
CEN Racing’s Gene ‘the machine’ Hickerson takes 5th place in the monster truck class at the 2008 ROAR Nitro Truck Nationals with the CEN Nemesis. Hickerson was in the semi Final in 1/8 Truck.

2008_ROAR_Truck_Fuel_Offroad_Nationals.pdf

4-13-08
CEN Racing’s Gene ‘the machine’ Hickerson wins round 4 of the FSORS with the CEN Matrix FRE. There was 184 entries with the best driver’s in FL competing including IFMAR World Champion Billy Easton. Hickerson battled Team Associated’s JR Mitch for the lead the entire race until taking the lead with 5 minutes left and never looked back.

1/8th scale A-main

1. Gene Hickerson CEN/Maxy’s/OS
2. JR Mitch
3. Ryan Eckert
4. Juan Mendez
5. AJ Johnson
6. Luis Perez
7. Ralph Walters
8. Travis Scrambling CEN/Maxy’s
9. Billy Easton
10. Nathan Wincek
11. Travis Phillips
12. Jason Rouna

3-30-08
CEN Racing’s Gene ‘the machine’ Hickerson takes 2nd place in 1/8 Arena Truck and 2nd place in Expert 1/8 Buggy at round 1 of the RC Pro East Series. Hickerson kept his Matrix buggy and truggy in the top 3 for the entire 45 minute A-mains.

http://nitrooffroad.rcprosites.com/files/11046.pdf

http://nitrooffroad.rcprosites.com/files/11044.pdf

3-9-08
At the 2008 Silverstate Nitro Challenge, Hickerson had some really bad luck at the tables and in qualifying. In 1/8 Truck, he managed a B-main finish. In 1/8 Buggy, Hickerson put on a bump up show by bumping from the G-main to the C-main before his luck ran out.

2-23-08
CEN Racing’s Gene ‘the machine’ Hickerson takes 2nd place with his Matrix at round 3 of the FSORS with a record breaking 254 entries. The 2nd round of qualifying was rained out and Hickerson broke a shock shaft in round 1. But Hickerson easily won the D-main, the C-main, and the B-main to bump to the 30 minute A-main. At the start, Hickerson passed the whole field and took a commanding lead. But with less then 2 minutes left, a bolt broke in his ackerman plate causing a crash which handed the lead to Mitch. Mitch had flamed out earlier while in 2nd, but when the turnmarshall carried him to pit lane, he did not loose the lap. After a protest by Hickerson, they decided to not dock Mitch a lap and give him the win anyway.

– 1/8TH SCALE – A Main –

Pos Car Laps time name id avg.mph
1 1 54 30:16.29 JR Mitch 255 13.58
2 11 54 30:22.52 Gene Hickerson 291 13.54
3 2 54 30:34.50 Ryan Eckert 121 13.45
4 12 51 30:32.39 Ralph Walters 292 12.71
5 6 50 30:09.72 Lucas Mardis 134 12.62
6 3 49 28:57.14 Travis Phillips 29 12.89
7 7 49 30:13.52 JP Tirronen 1 12.34
8 8 45 28:03.37 Maxy Velazco 73 12.21
9 10 44 30:00.30 Mike Jones 93 11.16
10 9 42 25:23.34 Anton Watson 229 12.59
11 5 31 21:16.63 AJ Johnson 46 11.09
12 4 24 14:04.47 Bobby Moore 82 12.98

2-3-08
At the 1st annual Psycho Nitro Challenge, Gene Hickerson put his CEN Matrix buggy and truggy in both A-mains. In buggy a cut fuel line took him out of contention and in truggy a blown center diff ended his race while in 2nd place during the 1 hour main event.

Pos. Car Driver’s Name Total Laps Total Time Fastest Lap On Lap Avg. Lap Time Status
1 2 Chad Phillips 56 01:00:20.639 00:59.306 4 01:04.6 Done!
2 12 Travis Phillips 55 01:00:26.262 00:57.836 20 01:05.9 Done!
3 9 Chris Crews 54 01:00:31.237 00:59.884 15 01:07.2 Done!
4 18 Andrew Smolnik 54 01:00:45.724 00:59.414 45 01:07.5 Done!
5 10 Barry Pettit 54 01:01:00.037 00:59.860 19 01:07.7 Done!
6 6 Travis Dupree 52 01:01:31.015 00:58.071 8 01:10.9 Done!
7 14 Scott Stahl 46 00:52:48.702 01:00.491 19 01:08.8 DNF
8 7 Gene Hickerson 46 01:00:51.064 00:57.722 11 01:19.3 Done!
9 1 Ryan Lutz 42 00:51:09.282 00:55.874 27 01:13.7 DNF
10 3 Ryan Lopez 38 01:00:03.801 00:59.981 38 01:34.8 Done!
11 11 David Lindbert 35 01:00:07.410 01:00.155 27 01:43.6 Done!
12 16 Bobby Moore 34 00:38:20.023 00:58.759 30 01:07.6 DNF
13 4 Jason Smith 31 00:34:37.547 01:00.022 30 01:07.1 DNF
14 13 Patrick Rossiter 22 00:43:48.874 01:01.935 18 01:59.4 DNF
15 8 Micheal Sharwin 21 00:25:07.947 01:00.598 4 01:11.8 DNF
16 17 Robin Nelson 12 00:14:13.829 01:00.590 3 01:11.1 DNF
17 5 Keith Manton 7 00:08:44.467 01:02.304 7 01:14.9 DNF
18 15 Chris Pace 3 00:04:16.370 01:04.856 2 01:25.4 DNF

1-12-08
At round 2 of the FSORS, Hickerson showed up for qualifying with no practice. Qualifying in the A-main, Hickerson was leading the 30 minute main with 7 minutes left when electrical problems took him out of the race.

1/8TH SCALE

Best 6 out of 8
Position ActualPoints PossiblePoints Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 395 603 Ryan Eckert 99 100 98 98 0 0 0 0
2 382 603 Gene Hickerson 90 93 99 100 0 0 0 0
3 374 597 AJ Johnson 91 97 90 96 0 0 0 0
4 362 590 Luis Perez 89 91 87 95 0 0 0 0
5 358 592 JP Tirronen 82 94 94 88 0 0 0 0
6 343 600 Juan Mendez 77 99 70 97 0 0 0 0
7 338 596 Chris Swauger 97 95 62 84 0 0 0 0
8 335 581 Bart Collins 85 92 75 83 0 0 0 0
9 322 573 Randy Deppen 80 89 76 77 0 0 0 0
10 316 578 Johnny Sanchez 92 73 82 69 0 0 0 0

Check that accomplishment! As we like to say here, you do not need certain diet pills to be on top, you just need RC aka Radio Control in your diet and life will be much better. LOL

Congrats Gene Hickerson. For being our RC Mentor, Driver Champions of the Month and most of all, as our friend. He owns the Machinesrchobbies.com. Please visit him for more of him and CEN.

MRH01 -
Hardened tool steel cross pins for the Matrix, TR Arena, and GST 7.7 differentials.

MRH02-
CNC 7075 blue anodized front upper turnbuckles for the Matrix TR Arena

MRH03-
CNC 7075 blue anodized front upper turnbuckles for the Matrix Buggy

MRH04-
CNC 7075 blue anodized ackerman steering plate for Matrix & TR Arena

MRH05-
CNC 7075 blue anodized front suspension holder plate for Matrix & TR Arena

source: Gene Hickerson from Machine’s RC Hobbies

The 2008 Florida State Off-road Series decided to start the season early so that we will not have to race during the holidays or the hot summer months. Round #1 was held at 555 Raceway in Bartow. With 190 entries, the series continues to be one of the largest in the USA.

1/8 Truck

In truck, I decided not to race 1/8 Truck this year after winning the series championships for the last 2 years. 2nd place in the RC Pro East Series, Leon McIntosh, decided not to race truck either. That opened the door to many other fast truggy drivers to battle for the title this year. In round 1, Mike Jones set the early TQ. In round 2, no one was able to beat his rocket round TQ time.

In the A-main, Jones took the early lead, but it was Tony Pattishall who had the fastest truck in the main. Pattishall quickly worked his way up from 4th to 2nd. By the end of the 1st pit stops, Pattishall took over the lead from Jones and stretched out a big lead. Kyosho’s Ryan Eckert and Jeff Keeton worked up to 2nd and 3rd but were not able to catch Pattishall.

– 1/8 Scale Truck – A Main —

Pos Car Laps time name
1 4 43 20:25.97 Tony Pattishall Mugen
2 3 42 20:11.91 Ryan Eckert Kyosho
3 7 42 20:13.00 Jeff Keeton Mugen
4 5 42 20:26.99 Chris Shadron
5 2 42 20:28.27 JJ Turk
6 10 41 20:00.48 Aaron Sikes
7 1 41 20:09.66 Michael Jones
8 11 40 20:06.89 Steve Szykulski
9 9 40 20:19.81 Randy Deppen
10 6 40 20:31.00 John Renshaw
11 8 40 20:33.34 Glenn Napurski
12 12 35 20:31.72 Chad Olcott

1/8 Expert Buggy

In buggy, I had to miss the 1st round due to work, and Xray’s Leon McIntosh missed the 1st round to attend a Football game I believe. J-Concepts’ Jason Ruona was there also but did not have his new RC8 built yet. In round 1, Team Associated’s JR Mitch took the early TQ. The top 10 was less then 10 seconds apart. CEN Racing’s newest driver, JP Tirronen, had an impressive run to qualify 8th, his 1st time ever driving the Matrix buggy. In round 2, I showed up and so did McIntosh. Ruona even decided to race with another drivers RC8. Xray’s Jim Larrimore set a fast run and just missed TQ. Ruona had a fast run to bump into the top 10, as did I with my CEN Matrix. But the man of the day was Jeff Keeton. Keeton put in a text book run and set a new TQ by 6 seconds.

The B-main was a good one. Many fast drivers were ready to battle for the 2 bump ups, including Leon McIntosh. But the break out driver and winner of the B-main was Machine’s R/C Hobbies driver, Johnny Sanchez. This was Sanchez’s 1st time ever racing 1/8 Expert Buggy with his new CEN Matrix. Sanchez lead the whole race and easily won even with a front tire coming off the rim. Michael Jones took the last bump up spot with a nice run.

The A-main event was cut to 20 minutes due to the number of entries, but it was a great race also. At the start, Keeton took the lead, followed by Mitch and Eckert. Mitch flamed out early on ending his chance at winning. Now with a commanding lead, Eckert started to catch Keeton. After a bad start, I managed to get into a groove and moved from 12th up to 5th. But just when I felt comfortable with the car, I broke a titanium CVD and dropped out. On the last few laps, 1st and 2nd were bumper to bumper. With just 2 turns left, Eckert got by Keeton, but in the next turn, Keeton tried to pass him back for the win but they tangled. Keeton got the best of it and took the win, leaving Eckert in the pipe.

– 1/8TH SCALE – A Main –

Pos Car Laps time name
1 1 43 20:26.74 Jeff Keeton Mugen
2 5 43 20:29.06 Ryan Eckert Kyosho
3 7 42 20:04.08 Jason Ruona ASC
4 8 42 20:14.12 Chris Swauger
5 12 41 20:01.89 Michael Jones Mugen
6 3 41 20:09.16 JR Mitch ASC
7 4 40 20:00.60 Jim Larrimore Xray
8 9 40 20:08.41 Michael Delay Jammin
9 11 39 20:06.08 Johnny Sanchez CEN
10 2 39 20:27.81 AJ Johnson Losi
11 10 32 15:40.51 Gene Hickerson CEN
12 6 10 4:53.20 Luis Perez Mugen

Source: Gene Hickerson of http://www.machinesrchobbies.com | http://www.fsors.com

The 3rd and final round of the [tag]2007 RC Pro East Series[/tag] was held last weekend in Savannah Georgia at [tag]Phil Hurd Raceway[/tag]. It was a good turnout of about 140 entries as the best of the East battle for the title of RC Pro East Champion. The track was a good combination of fast sections and really slow sections with tons of small double jumps and 1 huge double jump in the middle. There was no place to make up any time on the layout, but many places where you could easily loose time; so the racing was very close as everyone had about the same lap times.

1/8 Expert Arena Truck qualifying:

Going into this final round, the battle was between Xray’s Leon McIntosh and myself as we both had a win in a previous round. In round 1, I put my [tag]CEN Matrix Tr Arena[/tag] on the pole, while McIntosh took 2nd. In round 2, McIntosh put his XB8T on the pole. In round 3, Xray’s Chris Crews took the TQ. In round 4, the overall TQ was still up for grabs, but it was Jammin’s Brandon Cutchins CRT that won the round. That gave Leon the TQ, followed by Brandon and myself in 3rd. The 5 bonus points for TQ gave Leon the edge going into the A-main.

[tag]1/8 Arena Truck A-main[/tag]:

The A-main was a grueling 45 minutes. Bad luck struck right from the start as McIntosh had his engine come loose and missed the start and had to start 1 lap back. At the start, I passed for the lead but then was hit from behind half way through the 1st lap, giving Crews the lead. I worked my way back through the pack into 2nd and set sites on the leader. All I had to do to guarantee the Championship was to finish ahead of Leon, so I took it easy.

At about the 12 minute mark, my brakes went out right as I caught Crews. On my 2nd pit stop, I adjusted the brakes on my Futaba radio but I still had no brakes. As I started to drop back, Cutchins and OCM’s Alan Burton got by for 2nd and 3rd. Then my steering started to get slow. I then realized that it was my receiver pack that was dying. I yelled to my pit man to get another RX pack ready for my next stop. Soon after, my battery was almost dead and I had to pit early to change it. I rejoined the race 4 laps down and in 8th place. Meanwhile Chris Crews had stretched out a big lead and McIntosh was in 5th and moving up. As the hard packed track started to claim its victims, Leon and I continued to move up. Near the end, McIntosh moved into 3rd place while I was up to 4th place 1 lap back. That was how we finished with Crews taking the win and Cutchins taking 2nd. I thought I had lost the Championship by 1 spot since Leon had a 1st and a 3rd, and I had a 1st, 4th, and a 5th. But after the points were tallied up including bonus points for most laps lead, I was the Champion by only 1 point over McIntosh. Crews finished 3rd overall.

RC Pro East 1/8 Expert Arena Truck Final Standings:

1. Gene Hickerson CEN/Maxy’s
2. Leon McIntosh Xray/Werks
3. Chris Crews Xray/Rocket Science

1/8 Expert Buggy qualifying:

In Buggy, it was a battle between [tag]Leon McIntosh[/tag] and myself again. McIntosh had a 1st and a 2nd, while I had a 1st and a 7th. In round 1, Kyosho’s Robin Nelson took the TQ. In round 2, Chris Crews took the TQ. In round 3 and 4, it was Team Associated’s JR Mitch who put his new RC8 into the TQ and overall TQ position. McIntosh had bad luck and was 1st in the B-main. I had not much better luck, qualifying 10th in the A-main, but my buggy was good and ready for the main event. In the B-main, Leon was way in the lead when his engine flamed out, ending his day. He would have to watch the A-main from the sidelines to see if I over took him in the points chase.

[tag]1/8 Expert Buggy A-main[/tag]:

In the 45 minute A-main, Mitch got a clean start and started to pull away. I worked my way up to 4th place very quickly as there was a lot of hacking going on in the pack. Just as quick as I moved up, I was taken out 3 times and dropped back to dead last in 12th place. Soon after, Mitch came up on me and lapped me. By now, the field was spread out some and I was able to get by slower traffic without being taken out much easier. As I worked my way back through the pack, Mitch flamed out and lost his huge lead. He later dropped out with a mechanical problem to end his day. That gave the lead to Robin Nelson. On lap 56, I moved into 3rd and started to run down the leaders. On lap 61, local Patrick Rossiter took over the lead from Nelson. With less then 5 minutes to go, I caught Nelson and was just 16 seconds behind Rossiter. I was going to take my time as I tried to pass Nelson because all I needed to do to win the Championship was finish 2nd. But just then, the high winds caught my buggy over the huge double jump and when it landed, it snapped rolled and broke a steering screw off in the knuckle.

That ended my day and my chance at the title. Chris Crews moved to 3rd and that was how they finished. That gave McIntosh the overall Championship, followed by Nelson, and myself.

RC Pro East 1/8 Expert Buggy Final Standings:

1. Leon McIntosh Xray/Werks
2. Robin Nelson Kyosho/Sidewinder
3. Gene Hickerson CEN/Maxy’s

Your Bonus shot here: Lady RC Driver??

More info @:

http://www.machinesrchobbies.com
Phil Hurd Raceway.com final result in PDF

Congratulation to our friend, Gene Hickerson and also Leon Mcintosh for their respective podium finish. :nod: