I have one that I run in RCGT with a 17.5 Ballistic.

It is coming out of the car today. It is 'working', but I find the way it 'works' is annoying:

-- The colored LEDs to program are nearly impossible to see at the track (especially the amber and blue in the bright light).

-- Novak is not temperature tolerant. I struggle and worry about temps on hot days. So far, so good on temps, but I am not as fast as others cars due to the size of the pinion I am limited to (35/70 and would like to bump to 37/70)

-- The ESC seems to 'forget' sometimes. I have had to reprogram it 5 times (not at the track due to the bright light) to provide 'reverse'. I am reprograming it again to work in reverse before I leave the house for the track later this morning.

-- There are plenty of racers at the track that are NOT running Novak. Many of them had Novak and experienced a burnt out system due to heat. I have personally seen one guy burn out 2 of them since May. He is running normal equipment in a normal way. All related to heat.

I picked up a Tekin RS and Hotwire two days ago. Plugged it in to my computer last night and updated the software to the latest version, programmed the ESC via the Hotwire and updated the ESC in a matter of 10 mins. I am impressed.

As I look around our group of racers, all the fastest and most consistent racers are running non-Novak systems. Novak has a good marketing approach and they are reasonably priced. That does not make them viable solutions for racers that are looking for consistent and solid performance.

I am not knocking Novak and have not had a really negative experience (other than the ESC 'forgetting settings'), but I think for serious racing where heat is a concern, you might be better off with another brand. I understand brand loyalty, but it seems to be that after having to replace a product a few times, the typical racer would move on to something else.

Good luck! Great racing!