Red RC » Electric

August 1, 2009

Wilck heads Tamiya domination of penultimate Euros Qualifier

The penultimate round of qualifying for the 2009 EFRA 1:10 Electric Touring European Championships was an all Tamiya affair as their drivers set the Top 5 fastest times with Viktor Wilck (17/5:17.016) claiming the TQ even after flipping his TRF416WE. Despite the warmer track condition the Swede was on target to beat his teammate Marc Rheinard’s Round 3 time, currently the fastest run of qualifying, but once again made a mistake at the hairpin flipping his car. Luckily it landed rubber side down but the incident cost him over a second and a half, time that would have moved him in to the overall provisional TQ spot.

View our full event coverage here.

July 31, 2009

Groskamp holds overnight pole in Luxembourg

Jilles Groskamp (17/5:16.582) holds the overnight pole here in Luxembourg after the Dutch ace, who is in search of his first EFRA European title, set a new fastest time in the second round of qualifying. The factory Tamiya/Speedpassion driver described the run as perfect as he made best use of the cooler track conditions to head home Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker (17/5:17.977) who TQ’d the slower opening qualifier. Very happy with his overall performance today the ‘Warm Up’ race winner said everything had worked perfectly and it is was good to end the opening day holding the provisional pole.

View our full event coverage here.

July 31, 2009

Volker takes first qualifier in Luxembourg

Yokomo team driver Ronald Volker (17/5:17.928) has TQ’d the opening qualifier here in Luxembourg after an extremely close first round. The 2008 Top Qualifier took the round on the final lap after pace setter for most of the run Viktor Wilck dumped on his 17th lap. Volker said his LRP powered BD5 suffered with understeer at the beginning but got easier to driver as the run progressed.

View our full event coverage here.

July 30, 2009

Tamiya end Euros Day 1 on top

Day 1 of the 2009 EFRA Electric Touring European Championships has been completed and it is the Tamiya team who top the time sheets. The final practice of the day saw defending Champion Marc Rheinard set a new fastest run as both he and Jilles Groskamp broke into the 17 laps. Having had a run time issue in the third practice, Rheinard switched to SpeedPassion’s new Competition 3.0 motor for the final outing of the day and now plans to stick with the motor after posting the 17/5:17.356 run with plenty of power left aferwards. The German will make a small change to the gearing but said overall he was confident that his run time shortfall was a one off. In terms of the car, the World Champion said it was a little loose but feels that is down to track conditions rather than set-up.

View our full event coverage here.

July 30, 2009

Volker setting pace in Euros Practice

With three rounds of free practice completed here in Luxembourg it is last year’s Top Qualifier Ronald Volker who is setting the pace from reigning champion Marc Rheinard. The Yokomo driver recorded the fastest run time (16/5:00.987) in the second outing, and has also laid down the fastest lap (18.364) around the large circuit. Topping the timesheets again in the third session, with a slower run of 16/5:03.894, the German ran different shocks on his BD5 but found they made the car feel unstable and he will revert to the shocks used earlier for today’s fourth and final practice.

View our full event coverage here.

July 27, 2009

Mark Stiles wins Summer Shootout Rd3

Sunday 19th July saw round 3 of the Action Model Centre supported 1/12th scale ‘Summer Shootout’ take place at Chesterfield, the home of 1/12th scale racing in the UK. The driver line up was one of high quality, despite the fact that 1/12th scale racing is relatively quiet over the summer in the UK. Pre-event favorites included the Hot Bodies pairing of Mick Farrell and Chris Smith, Corally’s Andy Sawyer and Serpent’s Peter Craig. Joining them in the hunt for victory was Mark Stiles, who has recently switched from Hot Bodies to the V-Dezign team. Mark immediately got off to a good start with his new chassis, being fastest in all 5 rounds of qualifying and took TQ by over a lap ahead of Mick Farrell and Chris Smith. Mark got a clean start in the A-final and went on to comfortably lap the entire field with an almost faultless run. Mick Farrell recovered from an early crash to finish 2nd, while Peter Craig improved on his 4th placed grid slot to complete the podium. With 3 of the 4 rounds completed, Mick Farrell heads the championship table by virtue of having competed in all of the rounds. However, a top three finish at the 4th and final round on 6th September would see Mark take the overall title.

Source: V-Dezign [v-dezign.net]

July 24, 2009

Cragg & Martin take Southport BRCA National

oOple are reporting on the 4th round of the 2009 BRCA 1/10th off road National Championship series held last weekend at the popular Southport buggy track. After a domination by XFactory drivers during the 2WD series thus far, it was looking a similar story with XFactory cars taking the first couple of qualifiers in the hands of Phil Sleigh and Mark Stanley respectively. Round three saw Neil Cragg’s Associated B4 on top and to make it four different drivers from four, Danny McGee put his Losi/Atomic Carbon hybrid CR2 in the top spot. Despite some great pressure especially from Mark Stanley, Neil Cragg dominated the finals – winning all three legs to take his first 2WD National of the season. Reigning 4WD champion for the previous two years, Lee Martin, went out meaning business in the wet early morning of the 4WD event – taking the first three rounds of qualifying before Neil Cragg took the final round. Like Neil had done in 2WD – Lee Martin took all three legs to take the victory after some intense and exciting racing.

Check out the full report, with video and lots for photos, here.

Source: oOple [oople.com]

July 23, 2009

Naoto Matsukura retains his JMRCA 1/12th title

Last weekend saw the annual 1/12th scale JMRCA National take place in the Yatabe Arena in Tokyo. Despite the usual low grip conditions when running the 1/12th class on asphalt, this years race proved to be quite a challenge for all drivers with most experiencing traction roll already from the first practice. In what was a very close competition, current World Champion and reigning national Champion Naoto Matsukura kept his cool and was able to take both the TQ spot and go on to win the title with his Yokomo/Nosram package.

Source: Nosram [nosram.com]