Tekin welcome Elliott Boots to their factory team. Elliott is know as being one of the fastest drivers in the World and will help showcase Tekin’s latest 1/8th and 1/10th speed controllers during his upcoming campaign. Elliott is already debuting his Tekin-powered Kyosho cars this weekend and will soon also come to the states to race at the Dirt Nitro Challenge as well.
Source: Tekin [teamtekin.com]
Italian engine manufacturer Novarossi announce the latest addition to their factory team in the form of Teemu Leino. The quick Finn, who took TQ at the 2012 1/10th 200mm IFMAR World Championships in Thailand, will use the company’s .12 on-road and .21 off-road engines in his rides.
Source: Novarossi [novarossi.it]
Xray announce that Nordic on-road racer and multiple Swedish national champion Magnus Vässmar will continue to race with the team in 2014. Magnus will race electric touring car as well as 1/10th off-road and plans to attend at the IFMAR World and EFRA European Championships, the ETS series, LRP TCM, IIC Vegas and of course many national races. This is what Magnus has to say about the deal:
I am very happy to re-sign with Xray because I feel that the team as a whole has been working very well together. The T4 car is a great development in the right direction and also the new XB4 buggy has very promising future. My personal goals is to step it up even more and aim for higher results and compete as much as I can in touring cars and also 1/10th buggy. I am very much looking forward to the future with Team Xray.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mETDFZv3PM[/youtube]
With lots of speculation over his future since announcing his departure from HB/HPI last August we again talked exclusively with Atsushi Hara and can confirm ahead of its official announcement that he has signed for Speedmaster, parent brand of SWorkz. Having tested many brands of car and talked with numerous companies he finally decided on the Taiwanese company as he feels they offer him the best opportunities for his future going forward, not just for racing. One of the factors influencing the deal was the connection with A-Main Hobbies, a personal sponsor of his but with some big developments in the pipeline between the Taiwanese brand and the US online power house we can expect to see the brand receive a bigger push in the US and Worldwide. In terms of the car, he says that while it needs some work to get the performance up to scratch, the quality is top notch and going forward he will have an updated car for this year’s Worlds in Italy. In our interview Hara also confirmed that he will race for Yokomo in the remaining ETS rounds as well as the TITC and the World Championships in Florida in what is a per race contract.
View the official statement from Speedmaster here
Hobbywing have announced the signing of 2000 IFMAR World Champion Atsushi Hara to use their ESC and motors for the 2014 season. Making his debut at this weekends ETS Rd2, having signed a deal with Yokomo to compete in the series, the Japanese star had the following to say:
I am very excited to join Hobbywing team in 2014! A very special thanks to Jack, Michael and Salton for the excellent offer. I’m looking forward to the ISTC Worlds coming in this October. We will show huge performance for this event!
Source: Hobbywing [hobbywing.com]
Xray have announced that European Junior champion Adrian Berntsen will continue to race the 2014 season with the Xray team. Adrian is focused on the on-road TC class and as such will race the T4 and participate at the major races during the season. The 2013 DHI Cup winner had this to say:
I’m really happy to re-sign my contract with Xray and continue to use Xray high-quality products throughout the next seasons. After coming back to Xray, I’ve achieved my best international results ever and I work hard to continuously improve. I can’t wait to continue cooperate with the best R&D team throughout the next seasons and hopefully achieve many more nice results.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Xenon Racing and JFT Tires have announced the signing of top European 1/12th scale drive Vesa Yli. The Finnish driver, who is the manufacturer of the well know V-Dezign chassis, has made the switch to the Japanese made JFT tires for the new season and will also continue to use other Xenon Racing parts on his cars as he has in the past. Vesa gave this statement:
I would like to thank Terutaka Hanaumi from Xenon and JFT Racing for this opportunity to race with their tires made with the highest quality standards! Been supported by Xenon Racing since 2007 already, I am very excited and looking forward to the future races and to help developing even better products! I would also like to thank Markus Mobers for his support for tires over the last 5 years.
Source: Xenon Racing [xenon.ne.jp]
FX have announced that the young talented French driver Lorenzo Crolla joins the FX team. Lorenzo choose the FX engine to empower his car in the 2014 season which will include the Worlds, Euros and French Nationals. Lorenzo had this to say:
I got the chance to test and run some of the very first FX engines and after several races I was fully confident that FX will be my next engine I want to run. I have been running the engine for several months already without any single flame out or any technical failures and the performance is simply amazing. I was very happy when FX approached me to be a factory team driver and I want to thank for this opportunity. I am excited for the 2014 season and at the same time very confident in the engine and I will do all my best.
Source: FX [fx-engines.com]
