Too easy...

Jpeasey: Take us through the life of JQ what does your day consist of.

JQ: I hate waking up early, so I normally wake up at about 9-10am. Then I immediately turn on the computer, and work with emails, planning stuff, talking with the manufacturer, my sales manager, my graphics guy, or some customers on skype or msn, and depending on the day, I either keep at it all day, or I pull the plug early afternoon, and head to the track. Then in the evening I usually check emails again, and take care of whatever the emails require me to do. Sometimes it means adding parts to the pricelist, uploading pictures, news items, modifying a design, or figuring out a solution for a problem. Normally I try to deal with each issue immediately. Maybe because if I don't I forget. I usually go to bed late around 1-4am. Every day is different, I go with the flow, but I have found that making a list of things that need to be done, is a good way of ensuring that I am not just wasting time and pretending to do stuff, or watching motocross, but that I actually am adding value.

JPeasey: We understand you have been staying in California how’s your stay here been?

JQ: Yes I was in LA for the whole month of January. Right now I am back in Europe. I had to come back for the Nurnberg Toyfair, and the Montpellier GP. Then I go back for 2 more months in LA. It has been very good, because I have a lot of new parts and some new products to test. I can't test anything in Finland, so I needed to go somewhere where I can work on the new stuff. The way I have set up my business, I am not tied to a location, all I need is a computer, and an internet connection, and I can work. This is not a coincidence, it is how I wanted it to be.

USA, it's just not fair!

JPease: Last week was the Reedy Race and the Airtronics winter nationals which you ran both races. How did that go for you?

JQ: The Reedy Race started off really well. Practice was very good, qualifying was ok, I qualified 2nd, and was the only driver to do 16 laps twice, but then for the mains, I broke in both mains and was last. The track got loose, and my car got a lot worse. I didn't quite figure out what happened there. But something went wrong. Also in the second main, I got a big lead, and already thought that I would win it, when it was stopped due to a computer problem. On the restart I crashed on the second corner and was collected by the pack, and was last. As for the Airtronics race, it was ok, I made the last qualifying round, but I was running a new car and new engine, so it didn't go well. I ended up in the B main, so I worked on THECar based on the qualifying round I did, and the problems I had, re-tuned THEEngine, and won the B. Then in the main I started 14th, I drove up to 4th place, then lost it due to a slight pit stop related issue, and finished 5th. It was fun to do both races though.

Electric!

JPeasey: We have heard and seen some updates to THE Car this year. Tell us about those changes.

JQ: At the end of last year, THECar was actually really solid. It is too bad we had those problems early on, because it will be hard to change the minds of the people who saw these issues first hand. But now that we have managed to get THECar strong, and durable in all areas, we have shifted our main efforts towards working on the handling. So during 2012 we will be working on improving the handling, and making THECar a true challenger for the Worlds in Argentina. Some of our competition have been making race cars for as long as I have been alive. Think about that for a minute. I feel like our learning curve is steep, and we need to work quickly in order to catch up and be truly competitive.

JPeasey: In your own words what sets JQ’s THE Car apart from the rest of the manufactures.

JQ: I think the main thing that sets JQ Products apart from the rest, is the company, the brand, and the way we work. That's the biggest difference, not the product itself. Yes THECar is different, in that it is easy to change the weight distribution, by moving the engine and centre diff forwards or back, or adding ballast weight, and the geometry is different, with short arms and such. But if you think about what is different, why someone should choose JQ Products over another brand, I think it is our honest approach, all the information we post about the products, about set ups, the fact that we aren't a corporation, but  racers, that want the best products for ourselves too, and our hard work to continually improve them, together with out customers, this is what sets us apart from most others. I feel we are in touch with our customers. Where else can a customer email, or talk on facebook with the designer, racer, and owner of a company? 

JPeasey:  Tell us your advice for someone who is just getting into racing.

JQ: Well, it depends on what you want. Some people just want to have fun, some are more serious and want to win. In either case, remember it is supposed to be fun, and don't be too serious. If you want to win, don't drive just for drivings sake. Practice with a purpose, take laptimes, make changes, take more laptimes, make notes (seriously), write everything down, and when you think you are working hard, work harder. RC is still small enough, that anyone can make it to the top, you don't need to be rich and you don't need to know the right people. Anyone can do it.

JPeasey: Its very admiral that someone young like yourself went out designed a car and company. Tell how the process went and how it feels to have people look up to for your achievements.

JQ: Well that's a long story, it took more than 4 years. But I will tell you the main points. 5 years ago or so I realised that I needed to find a real job at some stage of my life. I started RC racing late, when I was 17, but I really wanted to try to win some big races, so I thought, if I can get a job in the RC industry, maybe I will be able to race competitively until I am 35 or something like that, and that would give me good time to try and win. Also I knew I didn't want a normal 9-5 job. I wanted to do something I enjoyed, so I designed my own car. I then tried getting some RC companies to produce my car, starting with my long term sponsor HoBao, but nothing came of it. After 3 years of failures, I was faced with the reality, that either I needed to give up or do it myself, and since I'm not the type to give up on things I believe in, I managed to secure the needed loans, and I produced THECar through my own company. I started it together with a friend who did all the graphics, and website stuff, and I did everything else, or found people to do the stuff I couldn't do, like pictures and videos. From the time I made the decision to start, it took about 4 months for me to pay the manufacturer the first deposit, and for production to begin. Then it took one full year more until THECar was released. I had never studied any business or marketing, so I basically had to learn everything as it happened.
As for people looking up to me, it almost feels embarrassing in a way, like I don't deserve it, I have never thought of myself as anyone special and definitely not as someone to look up to. I just know what I want and I put in the work to get it. I don't care what other negative people think or say. It is my life, and I'm living it. I might as well enjoy it.  But when I look back on everything now, I realise that it is actually quite an achievement, starting your own car brand from nothing. Maybe it just takes time for me to see that. I am very happy that people can appreciate what I have done. 

JPeasey: As of now who do you sponsor?

JQ: My team is still pretty small. One day I want to run the best team in 1:8th offroad, but that will take some time. I need to have the car, and the support network to be able to provide a top racer with everything he needs to win. And of course I need to have the money to do it. So for now I have focused on getting good people, who are able to help fellow JQ racers and provide me with useful feedback, and also young promising drivers, eager to improve. In 2012 I will be supporting at least Robert Gustafsson in Sweden, the Medjoubi brothers in France, Tanner Stees, Chris Marrale and Matt Gosch in USA, Ed Kerry, Bradley Baird, and Ryan Donovan in the UK, and of course Adam Lewis in the UK.  My Biggest team driver, and probably my first.

Adam Lewis, our first team driver!

JPeasey: Any new drivers you plan to go after this year?

JQ: Robert Gustafsson is our main new signing for 2012. And since I am staying with Jay Smoker over in USA, it looks like he will get back into RC a bit more and starting testing some Electric 1:8th for us. Now we are running the Tekno conversion for THECar with good results.

JPeasey: What are THE goal’s for 2012?

JQ: On a company level, I want to be able to have 4 people working fulltime on this. This would mean that I would be able to focus more on developing and marketing our current products, and designing new ones. I would also like to unify and expand the JQ brand a bit, and give it a bit more of a professional image. I also have some marketing ideas I want to put into action. As for our products, there will be some new releases in 2012, and for THECar, our main focus will be developing the handling, in order for us to be able to be competitive at the World Championships in December. We also want to make THECar the number one choice for hobbyists.
On a personal level, I want to improve my driving, and racing. I want to start competing, instead of just being in the way of the fast guys.

Handling, thats where it is at! That's what we are working on now.

JPeasey: Are there any future plans for JQ that you can share.

JQ: This will be announced as it happens. All I can say is that we will try to move forward again. I feel like we started out really good, with a bang, doing stuff no one else did, with our much appreciated release texts explaining the thinking behind THECar, our videos, our clothing, slogans and packaging. Then when THECar was released we were swamped with work, and didn't really move forward, just maintained what we had. I really want to change this in 2012, and starting doing new stuff again. We did manage to start THE 60 second Show, which has proven to be popular, and we will be improving on this idea, but there is so much more that we want to do.

JPeasey: Lastly I want to thank you for your time I’m sure you’re a very busy guy.  What can we expect to see the this year from yourself?

Hopefully better results than the last few years. I will be racing all around the world in both 1:8th and 1:10th Offroad.

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