Red RC » Electric

October 2, 2020

Ronald Völker joins Mugen Seiki

Having dropped the bombshell on Wednesday that he was leaving Team Yokomo, Ronald Völker has just been confirmed as a Mugen Seiki driver. The former World, European, ETS & Reedy Race Champion will now head Mugen’s EP onroad race team, a move that shows very clearly the ambitions of the Japanese company within this category. Having only entered the ultra competitive touring car class for the first time back in 2017, they have always had a competitive platform but up until now were lacking a tier-1 driver, which they now have with Ronald. Völker, who is currently leading the ETS standings after 3 rounds, will have to adapt quickly to the all new MTC2 if he is to maintain that lead with the 4th round of the series taking place in less than 2 weeks. Mugen had this to say about the new deal:

Mugen Seiki is very proud to announce, that former IFMAR World Champion and multiple European-, National- and ETS-Champion Ronald Völker has joined their electric on-road team! Ronald will bring his amazing speed and all his knowledge into the team and he will campaign the all new MTC2 platform at all upcoming races. We are looking forward to a successful long term partnership with him. “Welcome to the Mugen family Ronald!”

Source: Mugen Europe [mugen.eu]

September 30, 2020

Ronald Volker shock departure from Team Yokomo

In big driver market news, Ronald Volker has announced his shock departure from long time sponsor Yokomo. The German was with the Japanese brand for 11 plus years and won everything there was to win including his World title in China in 2016. Yokomo has gone through some major changes in the passed 12 months with the famous marque changing owners and with Volker handling the onroad team activities alongside driver duties, this will leave a big hole in their team. Ronald gave the following statement:

After more than 11 years, from now on I am no longer part of Yokomo anymore! It was my decision to leave and my decision to look for a new challenge. I can not really describe how thankful I am for taking the opportunity back in 2009 to join Yokomo under Mr. Yokobori and to be able to stay for so many years. I grew in that period as a better driver and person in our wonderful RC World. Together we came a long way which personally highlighted in winning a World Championship and multiple European and ETS Championships, Nationals and many other events. Additionally we had developed some amazing cars within a great team and I had the chance to meet tons of people worldwide and collect so much experience which I never even have dreamed of.

September 30, 2020

Kev Lee joins Schumacher Racing

Schumacher Racing have announced that Kev Lee has joined their offroad team. Kev brings vast experience and great speed to the table, being a previous EFRA Euro’s A finalist, multiple BRCA National winner and regular top 10 performer. Kev will be seen at popular UK events including Worksop, Silverstone, BRCA Regionals and Nationals, all subject to COVID restrictions and he had the following to say.

I last raced for Schumacher in the late 90s and early 2000s and have fond memories of the team and cars of the time, so I’m really excited to return. The cars on offer at the moment are strong contenders in all classes, and with the continual development, from the factory and the team, I’m certain they will continue to be so. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

September 28, 2020

Hupo Honigl is double Austrian Champion 2020

The 2020 Austrian EP offroad Nationals was hosted by the RMC Wien track in Ebreichsdorf and due to Covid restrictions was condensed into a single event. Qualifying saw a battle between the Xray trio of Hupo Honigl, Ádám Izsay and Lucas Grainer, with the multiple European Champion Honigl coming out on top in both the 2wd and 4wd classes. In the finals it was more of the same from Honigl as he would take the win in both classes with the podium also identical in both classes as Grainer took 2nd and Izsay 3rd.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

September 22, 2020

Max Gotzl is double 2020 Czech National Champion

The 3rd and 4th round of 2020 1/8 Czech Nationals took a place last weekend at the home track of Max Gotzl in Horni Jeleni. The nice weather forecast promised a good racing weekend, which it was. On the 3rd round on Saturday Gotzl was able to set the overall TQ with Ebuggy straight after Q1 and Q2, Ales Bidovsky lined up 2nd and Mirek Koutek 3rd on the A main grid. With Nitro Martin Bayer took Q1, but Max managed to win Q2 and Q3 to take the overall TQ in Nitro as well. In the finals Xray driver Gotzl was able to win all three A mains in Ebuggy with at least one lap gap over 2nd placed Ales and Martin Milowsky who took the last step on the podium overall.

Continue reading the report here

September 21, 2020

Volker victorious as ETS gets back on track

The Euro Touring Series (ETS) finally got back underway last weekend, after the Coronavirus situation forced the delay to the 2020 season. The newly re-surfaced and re-configured Arena 33 circuit in Andernach, Germany was the host for the return of the famous series and attracted around 200 entries – impressive given the situation and the travel restrictions that continue to affect events in Europe. In the Modified class, Yokomo’s Ronald Volker took the first two rounds of qualifying, putting him in a strong position early on. The German driver led Q1 ahead of Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain and Xray’s Bruno Coelho, whilst Q2 saw second and third places reversed as Urbain showed his intention to challenge the “big three” at this event. Marc Rheinard took the challenge to Ronald in Q3 to get his event back on track, the Tonisport/Awesomatix driver leading Volker and Coelho in the round. Q4 would then decide pole position between the two German rivals, but it was Urbain who took his first ever ETS round TQ to lead, leaving Rheinard in second and Alexander Hagberg having his best result in third. This left Volker on pole, ahead of Rheinard, Urbain, Coelho and Hagberg.

Continue reading the report here

September 21, 2020

Maifield & Phend win big at Southern Nationals 2020

The Southern Nationals 2020, run by Racetime Entertainment, were held last weekend in West Monroe, Louisiana on a beautifully presented dirt track at the Ike Hamilton Expo Center. Attracting most of the US 1/8th scale top guns, the blue ribboned Pro Nitro buggy class saw Mugen/JConcepts driver Ryan Maifield lead the field in qualifying, doing a clean sweep in all 3 rounds. Behind, Spencer Rivkin (Associated) would line up in 2nd with Dakotah Phend (TLR), Ryan Lutz (Agama) and Jared Tebo (Tekno) completing the top 5. Getting his head down early in the race, Maifield was able to convert the top starting spot into the win to bring it home just over 7 seconds ahead of Tebo who took just some 7 laps to move up from 5th into the runner up spot. Dakotah Phend would take the 3rd spot, having dropped back early, finishing where he started. Ryan Lutz would bring his Agama home in 4th with HB driver Cole Ogden 5th of the 18 starters in the 30 minute main.

Continue reading the report here

September 21, 2020

Frehner & Schmid take Rd4 of Swiss EP Offroad Nats

The Kaiju Racing R/C track played host the fourth and final round of the 2020 Swiss EP Offroad Championships. In the 2wd buggy class it was Associated driver Kay Frehner who took the top spot in qualifying and was also easily able to win the opening A-main. The 2nd a-main wasn’t so straight forward as Frehner had to battle with Fabian Luca Widmer (Yokomo) for the win, but was again able to come out on top to take the overall along with the Swiss National title. Fabian Luca Widmer could take the 3rd A-main to secure the runner up spot for the round with Nico Schmid (Xray) completing the podium in 3rd.

Continue reading the report here