12hr Tamiya Marathon Hungary

Last weekend saw the 12 hours Tamiya Marathon held in Nagydorog, Hungary, organised by the Hungarian Tamiya Dealer. The endurance race was held for the second time, after a very successful first event last winter. The race also was the 1st Round of the Hungarian Endurance Championship and started 08:00 with the kit cars handed to the teams for building which was also included to the race time. Just like at the old Le-Mans races where the racers had to run across the track to jump into their cars with the exception that their cars were already built. The rules were not changed from the previous year, each team this year got a 2007 Subaru Impreza TT-01 kit, which had to be assembled, painted and stickered. The only difference was the colour of the bodies. Two Mabuchi 540 motor and two sets of Take-Off tires were allowed to use, in case of broken parts only one of each could be changed without extra penalty (certain percentage from the total laps were subtracted at the end).

Continue reading the report here

KO Propo America 6th annual EP GP

The 6th annual KO Propo America Grand Prix will be making its return to Southern California. West Coast R/C Raceway (WCRC) in La Mirada, CA will host this year’s event on December 12th-13th. Located at 15095 Canary Avenue, La Mirada, CA 90638, WCRC is about 15 minutes from Disneyland, 10 minutes from Knott’s Berry Farm and other popular southern California attractions. Classes offered will be Touring Car (Modified, 13.5 & 17.5), F1 (Silver Can), RCGT (17.5) and mini RCGT (Silver Can). This will be a controlled tire race and tires will be available for sale at the event.

Further information can be found on the KO Propo website here.

LRP Islikon Masters – Stock report

The LRP Islikon Masters took place last weekend in Switzerland. The stock class saw TOP Photon driver Stephan Helbach take the TQ spot ahead of Xray racer Michael Koch in 2nd and another TOP, that of Florian Hauser, taking 3rd spot. The first final saw a good start for the pole man but he made a mistake further into the race and this allowed Michael to pass him and take the win. Making up for the mistake in the first leg, Stephan led from pole position and with no mistakes could take the win. This set up a showdown for the overall win in the 3rd leg and while Stephan got away cleanly, Michael was able to make the pass and could take the win and along with it the overall victory, with Stephan settling for 2nd, while Michel Grosjean took the 3rd spot. Florian Hauser made a very good race, was very fast but some mistakes cost him a secure 3rd position but he was able to secure the Junior title with 4th place.

Source: HS Online Distribution [hsonlinedistribution.com]

Can-Am RC Challenge for Charity

This past weekend the inaugural Can-Am RC Challenge for Charity race was held in the Seaway Mall in Welland Ontario, Canada. It was a rousing success to say the least. The unique venue of racing in a large bustling shopping mall gave great exposure to the RC hobby in an all new way. Many shoppers were able to witness top-level RC racing for the first time in their lives.  Event organizer Mark Freshette succeeded in creating tremendous interest in those who stopped to watch the event unfold. The 156 entries raced hard during the 3 day event in classes ranging from Tamiya Mini and F1, to Vintage Trans Am as well as more traditional carpet on-road classes. The big winners were Jason Cramer, winner in 13.5 Foam Sedan, Wayne Vince winner and TQ in 10.5 World GT  as well as 13.5 1/12th GTP class. Martin Crisp TQ’ed 1/12th GTP and went on the TQ and win 10.5 Rubber Sedan class as well. An invitational Celebrity Race was held with a number of professional race car drivers, local business owners and Protoform’s own Dale Epp. Racing with Tamiya Mini’s, all the “celebrities” invited to race were actually holding an RC radio for the first time in their lives. Dale Epp slowly motored through the carnage to a 4th place finish. The event was sponsored by Tamiya Canada, Protoform Race Bodies, LRP, Reedy, APS/Speedmind RC and Orca Racing. A portion of every entry fee was donated to Niagara Children’s Center to aid their work with handicapped children.