The 2017 Ride Futaba Cup was held at the Infinity Addict RC Circuit in Bangkok, Thailand, over the weekend. The event attracted both local racers but also international experienced drivers and three of them, Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp, Yokomo’s Nicholas Lee and Atsushi Hara, campaigning a Tamiya at this event, would make up the top 3 result in the competitive Touring Modified class.
The German MCRT-Aschaffenburg club recently held a round of the national LRP-HPI-Challenge and in the Touring Stock class it was Jannick Namyslo (Xray) who set the pace in qualifying. With three TQ runs Jannick easily snatched the overall TQ and he would also dominate the opening two A-mains with tone-to-tone wins to take the day’s win from Marcus Ruth (Xray) on the runner-up spot. Thorsten Zorn (Team Associated) would take the final podium spot from Jens Haller and Dirk Gündra in fourth and fifth respectively.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Making his debut for new chassis & electronics sponsors Yokomo at last weekend’s Reedy Race, Atsushi Hara has chosen the Japanese company for his 2017 electric offroad campaign. One of the most versatile and successful racers in R/C, the 2-time World Champion will bring his vast experience to assist with their off-road program in preparation for the upcoming World Championships in Xiamen, China, as well as helping to develop their racing ESC and motor systems.
This year the IFMAR Offroad World’s will be held in China, which I am excited to attend as part of Team Yokomo. I would like to thank the owner of Yokomo, Mr. Yokobori and the entire team for the opportunity. Having some experience as a member of this team in the past, I am hoping to work well with all the drivers and factory staff. My focus this year will be to bring my form to 100% through the races and help the team bring home a World’s win. Being on a strong team is very motivating and I’m really looking forward to the challenge!
Source: Yokomo [teamyokomo.com]
Tekno RC have announced the signing of Portugal’s Ricardo Monteiro to their factory team. Ricardo’s experience and talent will be a great asset to their expanding European team as well as Tekno RC racers in the EU region. His first race for his new sponsor will be the Oleiros Trophy race in February and he had the following to say:
When the opportunity came to work with Tekno, I knew I had to take it into consideration. The quality of the cars plus the people that I would work with made for an easier decision. I would like to thank Ilias Arkoudaris, Daniel Lewis and all the guys involved, I believe we will have an awesome partnership together. I am already working hard getting to know the products and will be at the tracks soon with the new cars, they are awesome!
Source: Tekno RC [teknorc.com]
Round four of the Czech HIT 129 Winter Racing Series was held at the sports hall in Holesov. The weekend started off on Friday evening with free practice and resumed early on Saturday morning with more practice and the qualifiers. In the premier class of Touring Modified the race was on between top qualifier, Matej Sulc and Kuba Simurda who started from the 2 spot on the grid. In the opening final Matej was able to keep a tight racing line, leaving no room for Kuba to pass. In the second and third final though the pole sitter made smaller mistakes, allowing Kuba to go in front and to ultimately walk away with the win. Second place went to Matej while local driver, Ludvik Kurecka completed the podium result.
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Last weekend saw the fourth round of the BRCA LMP12 national series took place in South Shields, just south of Newcastle. The venue was filled with memories for some, having been used for the 1998 onroad IFMAR World Championships, in which David Spashett won all three classes. Returning for the 2017 event were not only David Spashett, but also a host of the UK’s leading drivers. With Alexander Hagberg away on Touring Car duty, the field was very even, meaning that a huge number of drivers went into the weekend looking for the win. Over the meeting three classes were contested, 13.5 on Saturday and on Sunday the field was split into Sports Modified (13.5) and Modified (6.5). The track laid out by the Barley Mow club was a large and open design, which required a car to flow well, whilst being very precise.
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Singapore’s electric buggy racing season flagged off this past weekend at the first round of the 2017 Urban Astro Buggy Championships. Run at Urban PlaySpace in downtown Singapore, racers were greeted with a track layout sporting a new wall-ride as well as an elevated straight. In the 2WD class, Esmail Apandi (Xray) TQ’ed in front of Nicholas Lee (Yokomo) and Kamen Koh (Serpent). In the finals, Esmail took the leg 1 win after an early mistake by Nicholas. In leg 2, Nicholas bounced back with a win as Esmail tumbled in the tricky front-double section. With Kamen finishing second in both legs 1 and 2, there would be a 3-way showdown in the final leg. A3 then was a close affair with Esmail holding the early lead after mistakes by Nicholas dropped him to fourth. Never giving up, Nicholas put in a masterclass performance to close rapidly on Esmail. At 90 seconds remaining, Nicholas took advantage of a small opening as Esmail ran wide to take the lead. Nicholas held off the determined Esmail to win an exciting Leg, taking the overall win.
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Xray have announce the signing of former French National Champion, Armand Lantheaume to their team for the 2017 season. Armand will race the XB2 and XB4 platforms at national and international level events and the 3-times national vice-Champion had the following to say:
After extensive testing of all Xray cars last year I was just amazed by the performance and quality of the cars and I am really happy that I was given the opportunity to be part of the Xray team for 2017. I will attend all the major French races and will do my best both in racing as well helping all Xray customers. Big thanks to Xray for the trust in me and I cannot wait to hit the track.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
