February 23, 2024

Schumacher Winter Series Finale – Report

The 2023/2023 Schumacher Winter Series presented by the Louth Radio Control Car Club concluded last weekend with the sixth & final round of the popular Indoor Series.  In the Contact RC 17.5 Touring Car class, outgoing Champion and Schumacher racer Alex Brocklebank took a commanding Top qualifier position after the four qualifying rounds.  The battle for the second spot was a close affair between the Awesomatix of Daniel Leonard and Mugen of Tim Wood.  Tim taking the 2nd spot on count back with Daniel in 3rd.  In fourth place was Awesomatix racer Paul Sleight from fellow Awesomatix racer James Herring and Matt Cook with his Mugen Seiki.  The single leg final started at a quick pace with Wood making an early overtake on Brocklebank who would fall to the rear of the field.  Tim and Daniel would battle with Daniel making a mistake, which would allow Paul Sleight through.  A minute in Paul would make a move and claim the lead, with the rest of the field clawing themselves back.  Wood would Gather himself up and give the spectators a race for the lead, contact between himself and Paul would see the recovering Alex Brocklebank take the lead and create a gap which he would see to the end.  Daniel and Matthew Cook would recover and take advantage of the melee and place themselves in the final two podium positions. Paul and Tim would recover to 4th and 5th respectively with James Herring round out the field.

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February 19, 2024

Lutz takes buggy win at Motorama

Ryan Lutz took the big win at this year’s Motorama taking his Kyosho MP10e TKI2 to the TQ and win at the Pennsylvania event.  In qualifying Lutz, fresh from his Asian Buggy Championship winning trip to New Zealand took two of the four qualifiers with the other two going to Tekno’s Ryan Maifield but on tiebreaker it was Lutz who took the overall Expert Buggy TQ honours.  In the triple 5-minute finals Lutz took the first two for the overall win with Maifield taking A3 to finish second. They where joined on the podium by the Tekno of Spencer Heckert.  In Expert Truggy, Maifield completed a clean sweep of all four qualifiers and from the TQ spot secured the win ahead of Heckert with Lutz third.

Image: Motorama RC Racers [Facebook]


February 19, 2024

Collina retains Italian Indoor National title

While Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski was busy winning MIBO International in the Czech Republic, in Italy his mechanic Mattia Collina was also adding to the silverware collection of the British manufacturer’s new prototype touring car by being crowned the 2024 Italian National Indoor Champion.  Racing at the RC Landia track in Scandiano, Collina got his title defence off to the perfect start securing the TQ honours by topping 2 of the 4 rounds before securing the title with wins in A1 & A2.  Winning A3, Awesomatix driver Gabriele Berselli finished runner up with the Xray of Alessio Menicucci completing the podium.  In Stock Nico Catelani took the title ahead of Federico Collina while in 1:12 Alessio Tolomelli became the Champion.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com] 


February 19, 2024

Harper wins EWS Round 4 – Report

The fourth round of the high profile UK based EWS took place over the weekend.  In Modified, Elliott Harper (Schumacher) took the TQ, but each time was only a few tenths of a second ahead of the chasing pack.  Kyle Branson lined up second ahead of his Xray team mate, and winner of the previous event, Harley Eldridge, with Alex Thurston rounding out the top four for Yokomo.  In the A Final, Kyle kept the pressure on Elliott for the entire five minutes, with Harley and Alex looking to pick up any pieces. Elliott withstood the pressure and managed to take the win, with Harley taking second from Kyle on the very final corner.

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February 18, 2024

Neumann takes surprise 2WD win at MIBO

Joern Neumann came out the surprise winner of 2WD Buggy at MIBO International, the Sworkz driver having lined up 5th on the grid for the three action packed A-Mains at the Czech Republic race.  With team-mate Micha Widmaier leading the challenge of the Sworkz team in qualifying, holding the overnight TQ and one of four drivers to go into Sunday morning’s fifth & final qualifier in contention for pole position, Neumann was running well under the radar.  The first of the finals changed all that as the multiple European Champion picked up the pieces as those ahead cracked under the pressure and he took the win, even the German himself having a smile of surprise on his face as he went to out marshal afterwards.  A2 was a similarly incident filled race, this time Neumann following home the Xray of fourth place qualifier Martin Bayer to finish P2 helped by late contact between the top 2 qualifiers Daniel Kobbevik and Joona Haatanen.  Top Qualifier Kobbevik would finally deliver in A3 taking his Schumacher to the win ahead of Widmaier but a late incident between Bayer and Haatanen who define the outcome of the podium.  Running second at the time and with a faster winning time than Neumann, the incident cost Bayer the overall win as he finished 3rd on tie break with Kobbevik as Neumann became the Champion of the second edition of the MIBO International.

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February 18, 2024

Orlowski adds MIBO International to tally

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has added the MIBO International race to his 2024 winning tally with victory ahead of 2023 Champion Ronald Volker.  The current benchmark in both onroad and offroad carpet racing but unable to do offroad  at the unique Czech event due to a lack of mechanic, Orlowski dominated proceedings in Modified Touring Car.  Taking TQ honours after 3 round of qualifying, but completing the clean sweep by taking Q4 & 5,  in the opening A-Main he checked out early his prototype Schumacher finishing 2.5-second clear of Volker’s Mugen.  A2 would start with Volker looking a lot more of a challenger and running close enough to give Orlowski the first bit of pressure of the weekend.  A tyre additive driven improvement, unfortunately the advantage faded in the second half of the race and Orlowski again cruised to win and the overall MIBO International from Volker with Xray’s Jan Ratheisky completing the podium in Hrotovice.

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February 18, 2024

Kobbevik & Zalewski secure TQ honours at MIBO

Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik and Xray’s Bartosz Zalewski are the buggy Top Qualifiers at MIBO International.  While the TQ honours on the onroad track were settled yesterday with Michal Orlowski dominating proceedings, it was an intense fifth & final qualifier this morning on the offroad track with four drivers vying for pole position.  In 2WD Buggy it was Sworkz’s Micha Widmaier who led away the decider from Xray’s Martin Bayer, Kobbevik and Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen.  Under pressure, with Kobbevik quickly on his rear wing, it was Bayer who was first to bow out with a mistake.  Shortly after Widmaier’s challenge was over with the two Scandinavians continuing the battle with Kobbevik getting it done by 6/10th as P2 secured Haantanen second on the grid ahead of Widmaier and Bayer.  In 4WD,  it was a three way battle which quickly became two as Kobbevik pulled up after a mistake.  A mistake from Bayer then took the pressure off Zalewski and last year’s 2WD Top Qualifier took the round and a 4WD pole position this time round.

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February 17, 2024

Bayer on provisional MIBO TQ in 4WD

Martin Bayer is the provisional Top Qualifier overnight at MIBO International, the Xray driver being denied locking in the overall TQ with a mistake that allowed Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik to top the fourth round and be part of the battle for pole position tomorrow morning in Q5.  Posting a TQ run in Q1 and Q3, Bayer was on target for a third in Q4 but keying an eye on the very fast Sworkz of Micha Widmaier and distracted by a mistake from the overnight 2WD TQ holder, Bayer made a mistake that cost him more than 3-seconds allowing Kobbevik to grab max points.  With Bayer still managing a P2 2.6-seconds off Kobbevik, the Top 3 would be completed by Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen but the Finn won’t contend for the overall TQ in Q5, instead it will be Bartosz Zalewski who is part of the three way fight.  The double runner up here last year to Bruno Coelho, the young Polish talent was on a competitive Q4 run until be popped a steering link.

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