Red RC » Electric

August 8, 2023

Cragg claims 27th British Championship title

Neil Cragg claimed his 27th British National Championship title over the weekend with the Team Associated driver successfully defending his 1:10 2WD Buggy title at the season finale at TORCH. Hosted by Titchfield Off Road Club Hants, the sixth & final round of the BRCA Championship was the 2WD decider after the 4WD title was decided at the previous round in favour of Tommy Hall who would also be Cragg main 2WD title rival. In qualifying it was Schumacher’s Lee Martin who took the TQ from Hall and Cragg. Unfortunately heavy rain would force the meeting to be cancelled on the Saturday and the result declared on qualifying which gave former World Champion Cragg the title by a single point from Hall with Martin completing the 2023 Championship Top 3. In the concluding round of the 4WD Championship, held on the Sunday, Schumacher’s Ben Smith secured his first ever Nationals TQ ahead Cragg and the Hall brothers Tommy & Jamie. In the final Smith would win the opening two legs to secure the win with Tommy Hall and 2WD winner Martin joining him on the Round 6 podium.

Image: Racewayone [racewayone.com]

August 5, 2023

3 in a row as Coelho takes 2023 European Championship

Bruno Coelho is the 2023 1:10 Electric Touring Car European Champion, the Xray driver making it three in a row with his latest victory in Germany today. Securing the overall TQ in the finale round of qualifying after a battle with Mugen’s Ronald Volker and Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, the Portuguese ace opened final’s day at Türkheim with a 0.25 second win from a closing Volker, the race finishing order remaining unchanged from how all 10-drivers line-up on the grid. A dramatic start to A2 would see Volker spin out in front of the field and get collected, leaving Orlowski to mount the challenge on Coelho and while the Polish driver would set the fastest lap the gap at the end was 1-second. The win secured the title for Coelho with A3 the battle for runner-up spot. Volker would get the win ahead of Orlowski who would complete the overall podium followed by Awesomatix’s Marc Rheinard and Mugen’s Eric Dankel. In Pro Stock it was also a win for the Top Qualifier with Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter securing the title in A3 after runner-up Jan Ratheisky won A2. Outgoing champion Olivier Bultynck completed the podium.

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]

August 5, 2023

Finishline RC Raceway set to host ’24 ISTC World C/ship

With IFMAR having unveiled the provisional 2024 World Championship calendar this week but with no venue or date for Electric Touring Car, it has now been announced by Finishline RC Raceway in California that they have been approved by sanctioning bloc ROAR to host the championship for the category. Located in Bakersfield, the track stated they ‘have a long way to go to make it official with IFMAR’ but all going to plan they are suggesting a Fall date for the running of what will be the 12th ISTC World Championships. The third time the championship will visit the USA, the last visit was 2014 when Naoto Matsukura took the win in Kissimee and a certain Bruno Coelho announced himself to the world with the runner-up spot. A decade earlier, when the US held the race for the first time in 2004, Marc Rheinard came away with a debut World title.

Source: Finishline RC Raceway [Facebook]

August 4, 2023

Coelho to defend European title as Top Qualifier

Xray’s Bruno Coelho is the Top Qualifier for this year’s 1:10 Electric Touring Car Championship in Germany, the reigning World Champion chasing a hat trick of consecutive European Championship titles that would equal the achievement of Ronald Volker who held the title previously from 2016 to 2018. Having topped the opening two rounds of qualifying, Coelho would have to wait until the fifth and final round to secure pole for tomorrow’s finals at the Türkheim track with a third TQ run. Behind the Portuguese driver, 7-time Champion Volker will start P2 having taken his Mugen to the top of the times in Q4. Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, who just recently claimed the 1:10 4WD Offroad European title, will start 3rd in his quest for a first European Touring Car title after posting a TQ run in Round 3. In Stock, Simon Lauter is the Top Qualifier after he steered his Awesomatix to the fastest time in four of the five qualifiers. Xray’s Jan Rathiesky starts P2 followed by 2018 Champion Max Machler’s Awesomatix with reigning champion Olivier Bultynck try to go for three in a row from fifth on the grid. In FWD the TQ went to Daniel Poehlmann while in Formula Andreas Stiebler’s Schumacher is on pole position.

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]

August 1, 2023

BRCA 2WD Onroad Nationals R4 Bedword – Report

The fourth round of this year’s BRCA 2WD Onroad Championship took place at the Bedword circuit near Nuneaton where Ben Moorey took the FWD win on tie break and Michael Lee won F1. In the FWD the first of qualifying was a close affair with half-a-second covering the top three on 21 laps and saw Moorey’s Awesomatix edge out Ben Cosgrove’s Xray and Andy Murray’s Schumacher, with Aaron Rose’s Schumacher in fourth. Round two was a repeat result of the first round but with Dale Burr’s Awesomatix in fourth. Q3 went the way of Ben C, Andy, Ben M and Aaron. This gave the grid of Ben M, Ben C, Andy, Aaron and Dale. The first leg of the final’s saw Ben M take the win on 21 laps from Ben C, Andy and Aaron. The second leg saw a change in conditions and a win for Andy on 17 laps from Ben M, Aaron and Daniel Robins and Ben C was fifth. So, going into the final leg the win was still up for grabs between the two Ben’s and Andy. The third leg saw a win for Ben C on 19 laps from Andy, Dale and Daniel. This left the Top three all on the same points, so it was down to the tie-breaker to decide the overall win and that went to Moorey from Cosgrove and Murray.

View F1 podium here

July 31, 2023

Collina wins Italian National Trophy

Schumacher’s Mattia Collina took the win in the Italian National Trophy for EP Touring Car held at Minicar Fontanellato track near Parma over the weekend. A sanction event of ACI Sport, the Italian motorsport & RC Car Racing Federation and member of the FIA, the two day event attracted 70 racers who had to contend with high temperatures that kept them busy in trying to find the optimal set-up. Already this year’s Italian Indoor Modified Champion, Collina would take the outdoor trophy win ahead of the Xray of World Championship finalist Alessio Menicucci with Alessio Tolomelli driving an Awesomatix completing the podium. In Stock, Orlando Fenili took the TQ and win with his Xray ahead Alessandro Bianchi and Federico Collina. The FWD win went to the Awesomatix of Top Qualifier Riccardo Laletta with Andrea Tonini and William Carrato joining him on the podium. Andrea Tonini took advantage of some technical problems for the very young pole sitter Edoardo Guarneri to take the GT class win over Mon-tech Racing’s Alberto Montecchi and Massimiliano Musetti.

Source: ACI Sport [acisport.it]

July 25, 2023

MIBO International 2024 Announcement

Following the hugely successful inaugural running of the MIBO International Race in the Czech Republic in March, former international touring car racer Michal Bok has confirmed the race is back for 2024 on the slightly earlier date of February 16-18. A long time dream of Bok to host his own major international event in Hrotovice, the indoor event finally came to fruition in 2023 bringing together both electric onroad and offroad racing on two tracks build side by side by the team from Mibosport. The first edition of MIBO International saw Mugen’s Ronald Volker crowned the inaugural Touring Car Champion and Xray’s Bruno Coelho take double buggy honours at the Sport V Hotel venue. With everything from the track, restaurant, bowling alley and hotel rooms all under one roof, the venue was a hit with racers who travelled from 13 different countries. With a capped entry limit the relaxed schedule also meant plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing. On the onroad track, the racing action will again cater for Modified, Stock & FWD Touring cars plus Formula. The Offroad track will cater for 2WD and 4WD Buggy as well an open class of ‘Offroad Kids’ that will give the future stars of racing an opportunity to be a part of this international event.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]

July 24, 2023

Maifield & Tessmann win ROAR 1:8 Electric Offroad National titles

Ryan Maifield and Ty Tessmann took the two main titles at the 2023 ROAR 1:8 Electric Offroad Nationals held at CRC Raceway in New York state over the weekend. In qualifying it was Xray’s Ty Tessmann who lead the way, the Canadian securing the TQ in both eBuggy and eTruggy. In eTruggy, Tessmann was able to convert that TQ into the championship title with wins over the TLR of second place qualifier Tater Sontag in the opening two A-Mains. In A3, having qualified 5th, Maifield would take the win to complete the podium line-up. In the eBuggy finals, while Tessmann won A1, third place qualifier Maifield was able to get his Tekno buggy passed his rival to win second & final encounters. This secured him his second National title with Tekno having become Nitro Truggy National Champion last month at AMain Hobbies’ Silver Dollar RC Raceway in California. A difficult race for second place qualifier Joe Bornhorst, who ended up P7, Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz took the final podium placing from 5th on the grid.

View Truggy podium here