After racing/practicing my TB03 for several months in the competitive RCGT 17.5 class, it is safe to say that the TB-03 shaft drive has proven to be a great platform in this class of competition.  In fact, in the local RCGT series, the top two cars in contention for the overall series in are both shaft cars.  One piloted by the extremely fast TRF driver Jimmy Wright and one by Jeffrey Lin of OFNA (their new shaft car).  Upon close inspection of the expert class drivers, quite a few of them select the shaft cars to be their vehicle of choice in RCGT. One of the reason for shaft cars and their slight edge in 17.5 class have to do with the efficiency of the shaft drive, which in the 17.5 motor application it delivery the least amount of power loss to the wheels with the efficiency of the simple and smooth shaft drive.  Sometimes with my TB-03 I have to be careful if I set the car on a slightly angled table, it'll just roll off the table (even with the motor/pinion gear installed). 
In the recent round 4 of RCGT series at Speed Tech R/C's parking lot track, I decided to compete in the expert class with my TB-03.  While I definitely don't have the pace of the top 2 contender of the series, I was happy to qualify 4th into the A-main on a track that I have never raced on before.  And I was right on pace with 3rd qualifier (and 3rd place in the series) Paul Dabao, who put the only belt car in the top 4.  What I noticed throughout the qualifiers on this tight track is how quickly the TB-03 can accelerate out of the corner.  The burst of acceleration is incredible, and in comparison to some of the belt cars on the track coming out of the same corners, the TB-03 can easily pull 4-5 feet out of the turn.  The tricky part about shaft cars is usually in the setup in regards to approach into the turns as shaft cars often carries a lot more momentum and speed into the turn due to the smooth/simple drivetrain not causing much drag.  Especially now with brushless motors, the shaft cars really rolls free while running.  But a bit of drag brake and a bit more time with setup, I'm confident that I could have gotten my TB-03 more dialed in.
TRF driver Jimmy Wright's car ran awsome all day and he took the TQ position after two rounds of qualifying proving that he was the man to beat that day.  In the main event, 10 cars on a small tight track makes for some intense racing/passing/fender banging/and door rubbin.  I'm not sure what exactly happened, but Jeffrey Lin finished 1st just ahead of Jimmy.  But the shaft cars proved their worth as the top 2 cars were again shaft cars, in fact, 4 out of the top 6 cars were all shaft cars (with myself in 5th unfortunately after a really bad crash at the start). 
So the TB-03 definitely proving to be a solid platform for competition in 17.5/RCGT racing.   We'll see what happens next with just 2 more rounds of RCGT racing left in the series :)

Steve Wang