Ray Darroch who won the Novak race was using both Kintetix motors and batteries. You can buy the exact same stuff he was running from Kinetix. Ron Atomic, the owner, sells 99% of batteries he matches. The other 1% are for him. You can buy the 1.18+ volt cells from Kinetix. He doesn't list them on the web site since there are so few but if you call him you can buy them. Also, the motors he sells are same stuff Ray used to win.
Yes, the very large battery manufacturers keep the cream of the crop for large events but they also go through thousands of cells a month so they still sell very good quality high voltage/runtime cells. You don't have to be sponsored to get some of the best equipment out there but you do have to pay.
