THE Cub Report – 909 To The Bone

This week, oh yes, this week, promises to be short and sweet. First, a couple of quick observations.

1. Don’t ever, and by that I mean EVER, take the 15 from Vegas to Barstow on a Sunday. I normally fly, but this week I was delivering a very trick car to the 909. Seriously California??? A freak’n mandatory “agricultural checkpoint”??? Oooffahhh…

2. Check your local spot about watching the McGregor/Mayweather fight (by that I mean debacle). My local sports bar/pub isn’t going to be showing it because it’s a Showtime thing, so you may need to plan on inviting your rc buddies over to watch it.

And on to the rc part of this week’s Cub Report.

While I am going to keep this brief, a “pro driver” named Jörn Neumann had posted that he was leaving his chassis sponsor, Serpent. Here is the post from his FB page…

“Today I need to announce that my relationship with Serpent has come to an end. We archieved great success together, with taking the European Championship title in 4WD last year as the highlight. I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone at Serpent and 2-Speed for the support they gave me during that time.

At this point in my life things have recently changed. Let’s see how the future will be for me beside and on the racing track.”

A few days later, his chassis sponsor Serpent decided it was a good idea to post this…

“Serpent statement regarding Neumann case

Neumann made a post in his facebook pages that he leaves Team Serpent.

We are surprised and offended by this publication as his 3-year contract with Serpent ends only 1 februari 2018. We dont accept such inappropriate behavior and look for legal advice. In the meantime all rc racing activities of Neumann are suspended.

Serpent deals with these maters internally only normally, but Neumann’s Facebook post makes this statement necessary. We expect to deal with the remainder of this case internally.

Team Serpent Management
SPT – Serpent Performance Team”

OK, so it is another driver/sponsor dealio gone bad. However, like I have said many times before, when a company like Serpent decides to go and flame a former driver, it looks incredibly bad for the company. And perhaps even worse, the next big hot-shoe that they try to hire will know all about the sour grapes, and the last thing a factory driver needs is drama. So, it will hurt Serpent’s chance at landing more top talent.

I mean seriously, no matter what the problem was with Jörn, it looks incredibly unprofessional by Serpent to fire up the flame cannon after he was gone. Is there no common sense left? Do I really need to do PR for companies like Serpent that should have their act 100% together?

Of course companies will do whatever they feel like doing, but when doing something hurts their company in two different ways, you just have to wonder who is issuing the statements around there.

So seriously, back to vacation I go (again). Have a funtastic week and I hope you get a chance to support your local hobby shops and bash spots every chance ya get.

YOUR Cub Reporter