Red RC » Electric

November 7, 2024

Coelho opens World title defence with Q1 TQ

Reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho has opened his Electric Touring Car World Championship title defence with a TQ run in the opening round of qualifying at Finishline RC Raceway in California. Having set the pace in yesterday’s free practice, the Xray driver carried that form into the opening two seeding rounds but in SP3 a traction roll would mean he would be the fifth car to leave the line in Q1 as arch rival Michal Orlowski got to go first. With the sun setting in Bakersfield, and temperatures dropping as the top heats went out on track, Q1 conditions would challenge all the drivers but chasing a third consecutive title it was Coelho who came out on top. Ahead of him on the track but behind him on the time sheets Orlowski’s Schumacher would stop the clock 1.3-seconds off Coelho. A further 1.7-seconds back Akio Sobue completed the the Top 3 for the first of the six rounds followed by Ronald Volker, Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg.

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November 7, 2024

Orlowski to lead out Q1 at Worlds

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski will lead out the opening round of qualifying at the Electric Touring Car World Championships, the Polish driver setting the fastest 5-minute run time in CP3 as official Top Seed Bruno Coelho traction rolled meaning the Xray driver will roll out 5th in Q1. Having set the pace based on 3-consecutive laps in the day’s opening seeding round, Coelho repeated the feat in CP2 to secure the No.1 race number for his car for qualifying ahead of Orlowski, Alexander Hagberg and Marc Rheinard. While Coelho again proved he had the fastest outright pace in CP3, it was now the full 5-minutes that determined the starting order for the first of the six qualifying rounds. Orlowski would end up setting that pace 3.5-seconds up on Rheinard with an impressive performance from Orlowski’s Italian team-mate Mattia Collina securing him third ahead of the Mugen Seiki of former World Champion Ronald Volker.

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November 7, 2024

Coelho tops opening seeding round in Bakersfield

As things start to get official here at the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Bakersfield, California, it was Bruno Coelho who set the pace in the first of the 3 seeding rounds, the reigning World Champion’s closest challenger continuing to be Michal Orlowski. With yesterday’s wind having died down and the morning sun bringing some extra temperature, drivers posted their fastest laps of the event so far around the Finishline RC Raceway with Coelho’s advantage over 3-consecutive laps 1/10th of a second on Orlowski. Behind them it was Warm-up Race winner Akio Sobue who was 3rd fastest ahead of Marc Rheinard with Infinity’s Jin Sawada and Schumacher’s Mattia Collina completing the Top 6.

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November 6, 2024

Practice underway at Worlds, Coelho sets early pace

After of months of preparations & testing by manufacturer & drivers, the IFMAR 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championships are finally underway in California with defending champion Bruno Coelho setting the early pace at Finishline RC Raceway. With 5 rounds of practice on today’s schedule the biggest take after the opening two rounds of practice was grip, or more specifically the lack of it, the track completely different to what drivers had expected after previous visits to the track. With the first practice round very much a systems check for drivers, issues with noise on the timing loop caused by a 7000 volt electric fence resulted in over an hour of a delay before drivers resumed with the second practice run. With Coelho’s Xray fastest in both rounds, his 3-consecutive laps of the second practice a 33.146, it was Worlds Warm-up Race winner Akio Sobue who was closest on pace running a best time of 33.379 with Axon team-mate Hayato Ishioka completing the Top 3. One of the favourites coming into this World Championship Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski set the fourth fastest pace ahead of Mugen’s Ronald Volker, Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and the Awesomatix of Marc Rheinard.

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November 5, 2024

Mugen brings new MTC3 to World Championship

Mugen Seiki has brought two of its all new MTC3 1:10 Electric Touring Cars to the IFMAR World Championship which gets underway tomorrow (Wednesday) with the first day of track action. The very close to final production prototypes will be raced by former World Champion Ronald Volker and top US racer Jacob Cruz, both drivers getting their very first feel for the car on asphalt when they joined a number of other manufacturers for a final shakedown over the weekend at the Exeter RC Speedway, that track about a one hour drive from the WC venue. While the Japanese manufacturer is currently working on the planning of parts production for the new car, the MTC3’s designer Robert Pietsch, who has travelled out to California with Volker, says that no release date has yet been set for the car adding that from a design aspect what they are racing is very close to the final product. Making the decision to not yet allow any detailed photograph of the cars as it looks to keep the design under wraps, speaking to Volker during today’s registration and tyre prep day here at Finishline RC Raceway here in Bakersfield, the German said the new car is a big step forward, the new design bringing the car in line with the latest design trends in the category. Having had four bodies painted in his trademark colours for the World Championship, unfortunately we wont be seeing much of Volker’s MTC3 in his scheme as the bodies failed to arrive in time for his departure to the US.

November 5, 2024

RugRacers Round 1 – Report

Popular British indoor touring car series Rug Racers returned for another season last weekend with racing over 3 classes with Schumacher’s Elliott Harper coming away with the Modified win. In qualifying Bailey Graves proved his impressive pace on track by bringing the fight to the defending Rug Racers and national champion, where Graves held the TQ spot through the second and 3rd qualifiers until Harper was able to take pole in the last qualifier by one second on fastest time. Harper was able to find the space to stretch his legs in both finals, taking the overall win while Matthieu Dambrine was able to find his way through to second in leg 1. Leg 2 allowed everyone to find their own space easing to the top 4 finishing where they started.

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November 4, 2024

Pequito double World Champion at PNWC

RC Atomic driver Jose Pequito completed a title double at the PNWC to be crowned World Champion of 2WD Mod and Pan Open classes at the 1:28 scale event. Taking place in Vélizy Villacoublay, France, the 2024 PNWC attracted 270 entries made up of 130 drivers from 19 counties, but it was Portuguese driver Pequito who came away the biggest winner. In 2WD Mod, he would take the title ahead of French RTRC driver Guillaume Loie with American John Dickson completing the podium. It was the same trio who would make up the podium also in Mod Open, Dickson managing 2nd ahead of Loie. Close to a hat trick of titles, Pequito would finish 2nd in AWD Mod, with that title going to RTRC driver Thomas Robin from France with Clement Coquel completing the podium.

Image: MOD Media [Facebook]

October 28, 2024

Parker wins BRCA 1:12 Nationals opener

The 2024/25 BRCA 1:12 National Championship kicked off over the weekend with Schumacher’s Louis Parker taking the win. While defending champion Ollie Payne was absent due to the clashing Masters of Foam race in Belgium, the first race of the 9-round British championship attracted 44 drivers to the West Bridgford Model Car Club hosted event. In the FTD format qualifying it was Sam Coult who secured the TQ after four rounds with his Schumacher ahead of Parker with Awesomatix’s Mark Stiles completing the Top 3. With a single A-Main, Parker would get passed Coult to win the 8-minute encounter by 6/10th of a second with Stiles maintaining third a further 2-seconds back.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]