Yal ever get to race with ryan mayfield ? he was factory driver for associated one of the fastest ive seen
I haven't Adam may have one of two big names that I know of that has come down to my local track is someone I watched race as a kid they were teenage themselves is Brian Kinwald aka The Dirtinator. He has Kinwald edition buggies, tires named after him the BK Bars and i'm sure other products. I came across a video of Dirt he was racing his vintage buggy with brushed motor and nimh or nicad batteries and spanked a person running brushless and IIRC he had a LIPO battery as well it's all about the driver and setup.
The other is Adam Drake great racer he attends nitro psycho blast in Georgia as well.
Another real good driver lessor know from St. Petersburg Florida is Ryan Harris he has videos on youtube he raced as a kid with his dad. He is one of the down to earth youtubers I was at the JConcepts cup with him. It was surreal to see him in the pits.
When your on Mayfield, Drake, Phend etc's level you eat sleep and breath R/C some of them run more classes than I could ever keep up with but they also get paid quite hefty and don't have to come out of pocket for equipment.