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May 21, 2024

Hamon is 2024 NSW State Champion

Jeff Hamon is the 2024 NSW State Champion, the factory Serpent driver defending his title with the perfect trio of the TQ, Fastest Lap and Win. Racing at the 2023 IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship host track in Moorebank near Sydney, this year’s State titles attracted a huge field of entrants making for a great atmosphere. Unfortunately some delays meant qualifying had to be cut short and run under some questionable conditions. Running four rounds, Hamon’s Serpent X20 ‘24 would secure the TQ on tie break from the Infinity of Brayden Stanley, also with two TQ runs, with Yokomo’s Simon Nicholson qualifying P3. A mistake from Hamon in A1 would see Stanley with the win while a number of unfortunate incidents in A2 would see Hamon pull off and save tyres for A3 which he duly lead tone to tone for the overall win. Winner of A2, the Awesomatix of Jeffrey Mackie finished second with Stanley completing the podium ahead of Nicholson.

Image: Jeff Hamon [Facebook]

May 20, 2024

Iris team sweeps Austrian FWD Nationals Round 1

The opening round of the Austrian Nationals was held at the MRC Wr. Neustadt track over the weekend where the Iris Team enjoyed a clean sweep in FWD Touring Car category. Matheo Buchhalt took the TQ with his Iris ONE.05 FWD after setting the fastest qualifier in each of the four rounds. He was followed by Philipp Stadler, who lined up second on the grid. In the finals, Matheo won the first two finals to secure the overall win, marking his first-ever victory at a Nationals event. Philipp Stadler finished in P2, and Loris Buchhalt, another Iris driver, took P3. Markus Buchhalt finished fourth, making it an all-Iris top 4 result.

Source: IRIS [iris-racing.com]

May 20, 2024

BRCA 2WD Onroad Nationals Round 2 Mendip – Report

The first round of the 2024 BRCA British 2WD Onroad Championship kicked off at the Mendip circuit near Weston-super-Mare on what would be their last visit to the circuit as it is being redeveloped. This year the BRCA Championship is back to four rounds of qualifying, best two to count, with two finals for all.  In F1 qualifying it was the Glen Westwood who took the first two rounds of qualifying with his Schumacher which was enough to take pole position. Behind him it was Luke Lee and his Xray edging out brother Michael’s Schumacher by virtue of having the faster time for the tie-break with both having a first and second. Next up was James Greener’s Xray with a second and a third from Rob Chaldecott who had three thirds. The finals saw Luke Lee taking both legs for the overall win, from Westwood with a pair of second places while Michael Lee completed the podium.

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May 7, 2024

Thurston claims first EP British Nationals win

Alex Thurston got his 2024 season off to the best possible start by securing his first ever BRCA Electric Touring Car National win at opening round held at Halifax over the weekend. In qualifying it was the Schumacher of former National Champion Elliott Harper who took the TQ ahead of Thurston’s YMC Racing Mugen MTC2-R with another former Champion Olly Jefferies in third. Successfully defend his title in 2023, defending Champion Kyle Branson would line up P4 with his Xray. With double mains to decide the first of the 5 round National Championship, A1 would see Harper take the win as Thurston and Jefferies had a good battle for second with the later unable to find a way through. A2 and Thurston was able to capitalise on an issue for Harper however Jefferies wasn’t able to get through cleanly giving Thurston a comfortable lead to the finish over multiple BRCA Champion Chris Grainger for a first EP National win to go with his 1:8 Onroad season opening win at Cotswolds last month. Branson would fill the second step on the podium which was completed by Harper. In 13.5 Touring Car, Ollie Payne took the TQ and win ahead of Zak Finlay and James Hart.

Image: Alex Thurston [Facebook]

May 6, 2024

Orlowski wins 1up Racing West Coast Invitational

The inaugural 1up Racing West Coast Invitational took place at 2024 IFMAR World Championship host track Finishline RC Raceway where Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski took the win. A nod to the famed Reedy Race Race of Champions, which last ran in 2019, the Mike Reedy Memorial Invitational Touring Car class attracted some strong international entries to the Bakersfield, California, track for 12 rounds of heads up racing. With a field of 16 invitational drivers, Orlowski and Xray’s Bruno Coelho would go right to the wire for the title. Sharing a total of 6 wins each and both ending up on 16 points, and all tie break avenues exhausted, 2nd places, 3rd place etc. the fastest 3 run times combined would give the on form Pole the title over the current World Campion. With most of the major manufacturers using the event to get track time ahead of the ISTC World Championships, that take place in early November, it would the Axon of Japanes driver Akio Sobue who completed the podium. Also with four win Awesomatix’ Lucas Urbain finished 4th ahead of team-mate and best of the host nation representative Sam Isaacs. Yokomo’s Nicholas Lee rounded out the Top 6. Making it a double celebration for Schumacher, Italian Mattia Collina took the traditional race format Open Touring Car win from David Mayhew and Byrce Butterfield while Xray’s Jan Ratheisky won 17.5.

Image: 1up Racing [1upracing.com]

May 1, 2024

The Michal Orlowski Column – Edition No.2

You all loved his first column so we are delighted that Michal Orlowski has somehow found time in his busy schedule to give us another great column as an insight into his world as Schumacher’s star factory driver. Once again we’ll let Michal take it away and tell you in his own style what has been going on over the last two months….. ‘It has been a while since my last update here. We have been hard at work with the team to finish off the winter season on a high. We attended numerous events between February and April, which I will tell you all about, emphasising the struggles and how we could overcome them together. After attending the Mibosport Cup in early February, it was time to switch back to buggy mode. For the last few years, the MK GP event has been one of the mostly anticipated off-road races of the winter season with hundreds of drivers participating, but more importantly thousands of people coming to watch us race RC cars. The event is held in the MK shopping centre in Milton Keynes, UK, home to the Redbull F1 team. The event is organised by the Silverstone Club, who hosts weekly club races and a winter series at a smaller venue. This gave us the chance to test on the unique carpet the MK GP crew decided to use since 2023.

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April 30, 2024

Hobbywing Cup – Mächler, Sawada & Lee announced

The organisers of the Hobbywing Cup have announced a number of well known international drivers will make the trip to the Shanghai International Model Auto Racing Arena (SIMARA) in China for the May 30 – June 2 electric touring car event. 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Mächler will make the trip from Germany with his Awesomatix touring car, while Nicolas Lee travels from Singapore for the factory Yokomo team. Japanese driver Shin Sawada with represent Xray in the Open Brushless class at the 4-day event. The Hobbywing Cup will also see drivers battle it out around the 65m by 35m track in categories for Stock, Sports Class and Tamiya TT02.

Source: Hobbywing [hobbywing.com]

April 23, 2024

Rivkin makes it 3 in a row with ROAR Nationals double

Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin made it three consecutive years of being crowned 1:10 Offroad ROAR National Champion with a buggy double at the 2024 Championships held at the Beach RC & Hobbies track in South Carolina. A relatively small entry by US race standards, 93 drivers making for a total of 201 entries, all the major contenders where there for the Mod 2WD and 4WD titles. In qualifying it would be former World Champion Rivkin with the 2WD TQ ahead of the similar buggy of Aydin Horne and the TLR of Dakotah Phend. 4WD would see the Top 2 order reversed with Horne the Top Qualifier from Rivkin with Schumacher’s Broc Champlin 3rd. With Horne getting passed Rivkin to take A1 and Rivkin then taking A2 it went to A3. While Horne laid down the fastest lap, he couldn’t get by Rivkin who eventually took the win by 9/10ths of a second and with it the overall title with Phend completing the podium. In 4WD, Rivkin got by Horne in the first two encounters to seal the deal early. Winning A3, Horne took the runners up spot with 2WD World Champion Tater Sontag completing the podium for TLR. Horne wouldn’t go home empty handed however taking Stadium Truck title ahead of Rivkin and the Xray of Tom Rinderknect.

Image: Team Associated [Facebook]