Participants of the 3rd round of the 2013/14 Euro Offroad Series, that will take place at the Hudy Racing Arena, are invited to take a unique tour through the Xray manufacturing facility. The guided tour takes place on the 6th and 7th of March. If you are interested, simply add yourself to the event on Facebook. Due time limits the entries for this tour are limited and the deadline to sign-up is February 28th.
The inaugural 110% RC Racing clinic is in the books and it was a huge success. Ty and Gord Tessmann sent us the following report. ‘There were 9 teams (one team couldn’t make it at the last minute) consisting of a driver and a mechanic. The ages of the participants ranged from 9 to 47 yrs old, and as it turned out we had a lot of father and son duos participating. The participants were very receptive to what we had to say and we were impressed by their willingness to learn. Over the four days there were a lot of questions and the occasional debate. We did see noticeable improvement in the participants driving from the first time on the track to the last time, they worked very hard. The youngest driver, Peyton at 9 yrs old, reminded me of Ty when he was that age, very smooth and consistent on the track and very quiet, it was awesome to see a huge improvement in him.
Continue reading the report here
After three long days, I sat down to write this column as we waited for our Euro Tunnel crossing on our journey home from this weekend’s ETS race. Being just one of the 320 racers present for what was quite probably Europe’s largest ever R/C race (no doubt until next year!) I had a number of opportunities to take a step back during the weekend to try to think about what it really is that makes an event popular.
Continue reading Oli’s column here
Last Monday morning I kind of broke one of own unwritten rules by wearing a t-shirt of an RC brand. I have also been very aware of brand association having had to deal with it during my time doing PR/Sponsorship work in 1:1 Motorsport. I probably first came across this when dealing with Colin McRae for a rally event I was involved in organising. Although Colin’s preferred method of transport was flying his own helicopter, when he arrived at the race course he had to land in a designation landing area and for the short drive to the pit area because he was rallying for Ford that short trip had to be taken in a Ford. Similarly when I chauffeured around World Touring Car ace Gabriele Tarquini, who came to Ireland to launch a Young Racing Driver Award, it had to be done in an Alfa Romeo for whom he was racing at the time. As a result of these and similar dealings, I have always been conscious about brand association and because of my work more so about remaining neutral. So while travelling to/from events we cover I make sure my clothing doesn’t represent any particular brand. While very grateful for the r/c t-shirts that do come my way I restrict myself to wearing them when I am enjoying some down time at home.
Continue reading On the Grapevine here
HB/HPI Racing team manager and manager of Japanese operations Masayuki Miura has made the shock announcement that he has decided to leave the company. Having worked at HPI for 11 years and been largely responsible for the company’s 2 world titles, with Andy Moore in 2006 and Atsushi Hara in 2008, his is the second high profile departure in the last 5 months following Atsushi Hara’s resignation back in August. Miura informs us that he has not yet decided what his next move will be but as soon as we find out we will let you know.
Read the statement from Muira-san here
After a bit of time off so as to facilitate the visit of a certain Mr. Claus to my two daughters and to spend some quality time with family & friends the dawn of the New Year brought with it the busiest start to a season yet. Traveling to the west of Ireland to celebrate bringing in the New Year with a long time friend & his family, during our stay the question came up as to what date I would be free so as to attend the Christening of his new born son for whom I have been asked to stand as God Father. Looking up my calendar it was only then I actually realised just how many weekends, some extended, are going to be spent at various rc events around the world – over 9 weeks there are 8 events to be reported on. Kicking off that run of events was a race that in many ways is responsible for the continued growth of Red RC event coverage calendar – the DHI Cup.
Continue reading On the Grapevine here
It looks like we may be coming towards the end of one of the most active ‘silly seasons’ in RC that I’ve ever seen. Whilst it’s true that our sport does appear to move forward every year in the media elements, with both drivers and manufacturers realising the importance of media exposure and getting their news out to their fans and competitors, I did wonder what exactly it was that may have meant we saw so many news items, press releases and announcements concerning driver contracts for 2014.
Continue reading Oli’s column here
JSP Group International, the investment group behind the European distributor Pro Models, today announced that they have acquired the Corally brand name (Corally, Team Corally, TC) and their high performance RC car designs and related products at the end of November last year. Founded in 1984 by Constant Paul, Corally has won multiple World and European Championships as well as countless National titles around the globe. JSP had the following to say about the deal:
We at JSP Group International are excited about the acquisition of the world famous competition brand Corally. We have set a strong strategy for Corally to bring new and exciting competition products to the rc racers worldwide. We will not only concentrate on the competition products, also a line of innovative high quality products for the hobby driver will be developed very soon. We look forward to see racers all over the world using our innovative Corally products.
Source: Corally [corally.com]
