VRC met up with Ronald Völker (RV) on the right and Tobias Brunke (TB) on the left, 2 very successful German VRC racers who happen to have a very similar background in RC. Both racers started their r/c career racing in the Tamiya Cup and used VRC to improve their r/c racing skills. Ronald Volker has become one of world’s best racers in 1:10 Touring cars, Tobias looks like he may be getting there very soon too!
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In the end he made the (almost) perfect run to win the 2009 VRC World Championship title in 1:8: Matt Kellett. The win for the young Australian driver was backed up by another Aussie Chris Stack. The 2 Italian front runners Mingotti and Parisi both had problems with the AI and with some of their pitstops, loosing them valuable time against Kellett. Kiwi Daniel Burrows just missed 3rd by some 11 seconds to make it a full podium for the racers from down under.
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VRC v3 is purely an on-road racing sim. Still we see quite a few off-road racers competing in the VRC on-line competitions. Also our Quarterly Progress Monitor indicated that a good number of off-road racers use VRC to improve their racing skills. Although off-road requires some very special skills to control the cars during flight and landing, off-road racers are benefiting of the precise steering and throttle control needed to race a model car around a tight track with 100 km/h + speeds. Even off-road ‘basher’ communities are getting involved in VRC and are setting up their own private clubs in VRC.
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Don’t let your fingers get rusty now that the racing season is over in most countries. VRC is here to fill the gap with exciting on-line racing competitions, especially in December. 5 Weeks of continuous on-line racing excitement and adrenaline rush. The December frenzy kicks off with the 2009 Nations Cup 1:8 CanAm on the Clermont Ferrand track in France. Next is the 1:10 VRC World Championship 1:10 TC at the Tamiya Kakegawa track in Japan, followed by the VRC World Championship 1:8 CanAm at Sydney Australia. The 2009 season is finished off with the 2009 Nations Cup 1:10 TC at Cincinnati 02 in the US. All events stretch over 2 weeks and have a 1 week overlap with the next event.
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R/C simulators have some very special features which make them the ideal simulation, more than any other type of simulation game. The most important feature is the nature of r/c (for remote or radio control) itself. Being in a remote position to control the car means that there is no other feedback than through seeing and hearing. R/C racers have developed special skills to control their cars by what they see and what they hear and translate that to their hands to operate the radio. A real car or flight simulator lacks for instance the all important feedback from G-forces generated by the car or airplane when it turns, accelerates, climbs or dives. R/C racing is purely an audiovisual experience so if what you see and hear on your monitor is an almost perfect simulation of the real world (track and car behavior) and if you can control your car with your own radio then you have the perfect sim! We call this WYSIWYR, What You See Is What You Race…
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Running simultaneously to the real IFMAR World Championship for 1/8 nitro cars that takes place this August, VRC will hold its own Virtual Wolds on the very same Lostallo track in Switzerland. With a total length of 403m this is by far the largest track ever to host an IFMAR Worlds and only 150 racers will be lucky enough to be present in Switzerland. But VRC now invites all other r/c racers to join the Virtual 1/8 Nitro Worlds, for FREE and just for this special event the Lostallo track will also be made available for FREE. VRC look forward to welcome racers from all over the world to give the game a try and compete for the Virtual Worlds title. Order your VRC adaptor from the VRC e-shop, hook up your receiver, switch on your transmitter and start practicing today. Make sure you’re ready for it in August.
For more information on how to sign up and get the Lostallo track for free, click on the VRC banner to go to the special Virtual Worlds page on the VRC website.
Preparations for VRC PRO are in full swing and VRC is now starting to inform r/c manufacturers about the unique concept of VRC PRO and to give them insight in the rich features and communication opportunities the new platform has to offer to the r/c industry. Although there are many manufacturers who would like to join the VRC PRO partnership, VRC is restricting the partnerships to the 5 main manufacturers in each product category. We strongly believe it is in the interest of our partners and our racers to offer this level of brand exclusivity although this may also mean that some less popular brands will not be represented in VRC. Still, working with the top-5 in each category will ensure the major brands and their customers will be best served. Kyosho, XRay and Associated are among the most popular brands in most chassis categories.
VRC has been spreading information about VRC PRO mainly through these columns which appear in leading r/c car magazines and websites. Middle of February VRC will launch its VRC PRO promotional site which will give you an insight in what is to be expected in VRC PRO, details to be announced on the official VRC website at www.virtualrc.com. We have stated before in these columns that VRC PRO will be a project continuously developing, new features will be made available on the fly with the integrated software updater keeping everybody’s VRC installations up to date. So don’t expect everything you will find on the VRC PRO promotional website to be available at the first launch. The main focus will be on nitro and electric on-road in 1:10 and 1:8 scale with off road and other classes to follow later.
