The People Behind Team Associated

Roger Curtis is responsible for the primeval beginnings of Associated (a slot car track in Lynwood, CA, called, believe it or not, "Associated Raceway") way back in 1965. Roger began his working career as an Engineer/Scientist at the Missiles and Space Systems Division of Douglas Aircraft Co. The experience gained from that job together with his experience racing 1:8 gas cars helped him guide the development of products at Associated.

Cliff Lett has been Team Associated’s Product Development Manager since 1988. If you’ve owned an Associated product in the past 12 years, Cliff's design team most likely designed it. Cliff’s background in motocross racing included nine years as an R&D technician for Team Yamaha before "changing gears" to the R/C industry.

We occasionally let Cliff out of the office to go racing, and here is what happened: He won 7 ROAR National Championships (he’s the only person to ever win 4 in one year), he won 3 NORRCA National Championships, he was an IFMAR World Champion in 1991, and has won back-to-back Reedy Race of Champions titles. To top it all off, he holds the Closed-Course "Insane Speed Run" World record at 94.3 MPH. He appears in the Guinness Book of Records 2002 for the world's fastest R/C car with his 111mph RC10L3 Oval car.

When he’s not working or racing, he enjoys spending time with his son Noah, his wife Sonya, mountain biking, and fly fishing.

Sean Cochran, successor to Mike Reedy, has been with Associated/Reedy for over 4 years, and Mike and Sean have built a great working relationship in this time. Mike is very confident in Sean's ability to run the Reedy division of Associated as well as manage the motors and batteries of the best racers in the world. With 26 World Championships behind him, the legacy that Mike leaves Sean is a tough act to follow.

Sean is a very well respected driver in his own right. He excels in 1:12 scale racing, which is certainly one of--if not the most--demanding segment of RC racing. Also, Sean built a strong reputation as a national caliber oval racer, and is well known and certainly well respected in the heartland of oval country.

Brent Thielke (TELL-key), of Gilbert, Arizona, assume the responsibilities of our Racing Team Manager.

He is a well-known off road specialist who has been racing for Team Associated for the past four years, with solid A-Main finishes in the truck and buggy classes at the past two Cactus Classis races, and has a NORRCA National Expert Mod title to his credit.

The 28-year-old Thielke graduated from Arizona State University with a BS in Management, and is enthusiastic about his new position at Team Associated. One of his goals is to shift the emphasis and focus on the Team toward more regional events, and to actively seek out and cultivate new regional talent.

Don Natale specializes in helping hobby shops with Team Associated products.

Don has been actively involved in R/C racing since the mid 80’s, and is heavily involved in quarter scale oval racing through QSAC West. He also has been a contributing writer to several R/C magazines.