Red RC » Events

October 10, 2022

Sugiura defends JMRCA National title after 2 year break

Yusuke Sugiura has successfully defended his JMRCA Japanese1:8 Offroad National title as the championship was hosted for the first time over the weekend since 2019 due to Covid. The weekend was very much a repeat of 2019 as the Futaba Buggy Track in Ichihara City hosted the championship once again. Topping three of the four rounds of qualifying to secure the overall TQ, Sugiura would again lead home Sanwa’s Kouki Kato in the 1-hour final, crossing the finish line with a 1-lap advantage for his fourth consecutive National title win. Making it an all Mugen podium was 3rd place qualifying Shin Adachi who finished just 1/3 of a lap behind Kato.

Image: Kouki Kato [Facebook]

October 9, 2022

Rheinard wins MonTech New York Grand Prix

Marc Rheinard has won the MonTech New York Grand Prix. A race that has attracted some of touring car’s biggest names such as 2019 winner Ronald Volker and Alexander Hagberg, this year it was 3-time World Champion Rheinard who made the trip across the Atlantic to 360V2 RC Raceway in New Rochelle, New York. The fourth running of the annual event, in qualifying it was multiple ROAR National Champion Sam Isaacs who had the upper hand taking the opening three rounds ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Rheinard. While Rheinard would hit the top of the time sheets in Q4, it was Isaacs with the overall TQ for the single 5-minute A-Main ahead of Rheinard, Xray’s Keven Hebert and Kemp Anderson. A mistake on lap 2, when he hit the curbing, would see Isaacs drop to third as Rheinard and Herbert went through. Despite Hebert posting the fastest lap of the race, Rheinard would stretch his lead to almost 1.2 seconds by the finish with Iaascs completing the podium a further seconds back from Hebert.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]

October 8, 2022

3 out 3 for Balestri in Italian National Championship

Dario Balestri has completed a clean sweep of the 2022 AMSCI Italian 1:8 Onroad National Championship with victory at the third & final round today at Pista Di Leno. Originally planned as a two day event, forecast bad weather saw the season finale condensed down to Saturday qualifying and finals. Three rounds of qualifying would see the former World Champion secure the TQ from Xray’s Filippo Domanin and Mirko Salemi. In the 30-minute final, the Infinity driver would continue his form from the previous two championship rounds to take victory number 3 from team-mate Carmine Riola. The Mugen of Andrea Pirani would complete the podium with young Domanin having to settle for fourth.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

October 7, 2022

Hamilton ‘having fun’ with RC at Japanese Grand Prix

It seems RC is the big thing in the paddock at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton the latest driver to take time out from his F1 duties and enjoy a bit of RC fun in the Suzuka paddock. A video shared on the official F1 instagram page shows the 7-time World Champion driving a Tamiya Lunch Box out through his Mercedes-AMG Petronas team’s garage and into the paddock where he enjoys pulling wheelies with the iconic 80’s 1:12 truck. Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team shared a photo of their star driver and the Lunch Box on their Facebook page with the simple description ‘Just out here having fun’. We already know how much fun RC is and it is great to see both iconic Japanese RC brands Kyosho and Tamiya being enjoyed by Formula 1. Hamilton famously appeared on BBC’s Blue Peter show racing an RC car well before he became one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time.

View F1 instagram video here

Images credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team [Facebook]

October 7, 2022

Hobby Action awarded 2023 1:10 Offroad World Championship

Hobby Action RC Raceway has been awarded the 2023 IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship, the Arizona indoor track having been selected by host bloc ROAR from a strong list of candidate tracks across the United States. Officially made public via a Facebook Live post by Hobby Action’s Larry Tom and Jake Thayer, the announcement the track will host the 19th running of the World Championship is significant. A track best known for the annual Desert Classic and Kinwald BKlassic races, the state of Arizona is the home of 2015 & 2019 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin, both his titles won on indoor tracks, and to 2017 double champion Ryan Maifield for whom Hobby Action RC Raceway is his ‘home’ track. With the United States having had the honour of hosting the inaugural 1:10 Offroad World Championships back in 1985, this will be the 6th time the nation has hosted the IFMAR event. On four of those occasions it was home drivers who took the win in either 2WD or 4WD. While no date has yet been officially set, Tom said in the announcement that he expects it will most likely take place in the month of September.

Source: Hobby Action RC Raceway [Facebook]

October 4, 2022

1up Racing Cup – Report

Perfect weather all weekend made for some incredible racing at the 2nd Annual 1up Cup hosted by Steel City R/C Speedway in Fontana, CA! Seeding took place on Friday followed by 3 rounds of qualifying on Saturday with 2 counting. Sunday featured triple mains for all racers with the top 2 finishers bumping up in the first round of mains. In the Modified TC class is was JJ Wang setting the pace in qualifying as he went on to take TQ ahead of Jacob Cruz and Robbie Cerrato. JJ would go on to win A1, but Jacob Cruz was able to get by and take the win in A2. A3 was all about JJ again as he pulled away from the field while the others battled to secure the final podium spots. Top 3 – JJ Wang, Jacob Cruz and Robbie Cerrato.

Continue reading report here

October 3, 2022

Phend does double at JConcepts Fall Indoor Nationals

Now in its 12th season, the JConcepts Indoor National Series travelled to Hoosier RC HobbyPlex in New Albany, IN, over the weekend for the ‘Fall’ event where Dakotah Phend came away with the buggy double. The Team Losi Racing star would secure the TQ in both 2WD and 4WD buggy en route to taking home the wins against three World Champions. Fastest in all three 2WD qualifiers, Phend would line up on pole ahead Xray’s Ty Tessmann and Yokomo’s Ryan Maifield. Neither were able to find away passed in A1 & 2 allowing Phend to wrap things up early. With him absent from A3, Tessmann could take the win from Cole Tollard to secure 2nd overall with World Champion Spencer Rivkin completing the overall podium thanks to two 3rd place finishes. In 4WD Phend again topped all qualifiers to lead away the A-Main field from Maifield, Broc Champlin, Tessmann and Rivkin. While he would win A1, an early mistake in A2 left Phend with a 5th as Maifield took the win from Tessmann meaning it was A3 to decide the overall win. An exciting final encounter would see Maifield put a pass on Phend to go to the front with the TLR driver quickly coming back at him, unfortunately a problem for Maifield would deny the big showdown. Making it a INS podium double, Tessmann would complete the 4WD Buggy Top 3 behind Phend and Maifield.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

October 3, 2022

ROAR Fuel Onroad National titles for Butterfield & Colon

The ROAR Fuel Onroad National Championships took place over the weekend with Serpent’s Bryce Butterfield and Mugen’s Jose Colon taking the two big wins in Puerto Rico. Held at Barceloneta RC Speedway, qualifying would see Butterfield top all three rounds of 1:10 200mm with his fastest 4-minute run in Q3 securing him the overall TQ ahead of Infinity/Wallace Motorsports’ DJ Apolaro. In the 45-minute A-Main, Butterfield would continue that form to win by a 2-lap margin over Serpent team-mate & 4th place qualifier Jose Almonte with Apolaro completing the podium.

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