March 1, 2013

Ben Ellis wins at Early Spring Off-road champs

Ben Ellis wins at Early Spring Off-road champs

Located in Southern Indiana, P&T Hobbies and Raceway hosted the “Early Spring Off road Champs”. Being in business for well over 25 years, P&T Hobbies and Raceway is one of the longest running tracks in the state and in the region. The one day trophy race brought in over 90 entries from across the tri-state area. With limited practice, everyone had to adapt to the track quickly and make setup changes as quickly as possible. Team Associated driver Ben Ellis was on a mission and TQ’d round two and three of the 2WD modified buggy class and ended up second in the truck class. In the main events he was able to get out to a quick lead and even lapped the entire field in both classes taking comfortable wins.

Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]


February 28, 2013

Tasmanian State Titles – Report

Tasmanian State Titles – Report

A four strong JConcepts team from Melbourne headed across the Bass Straight from the mainland to the small island of Tasmania to take on the local talent, the Victorian team consisted of veteran drivers Ashley Peeler and Leigh Cheeseman along with JConcepts newest recruits Andrew Selvaggi and John Watkins. Competitors headed to the picturesque town of Goodwood, Tasmania, located North West of Hobart on the south east coast of Tasmania. The crew at GOMCC (Goodwood Off-Road Model Car Club) had laid out an extremely high speed, flowing track that was to provide grip in bucket loads all weekend. GOMCC President, Alex John and all the awesome track crew had taken all their favourite parts for various tracks around Australia and combined them together to produce a top class track. The track surface was made up of fine red clay with a moderate sand content; the surface was sugared in the lead up to the event to ensure a consistent level of traction all weekend long. Temperatures for the weekend ranged from a low of 14 degrees Celsius on Friday morning to a high of 34 degrees in the late afternoons. The temperatures were 10-15 degrees above average for this time of year.

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February 28, 2013

Jason Branham 2013 Ice Breaker race

Jason Branham 2013 Ice Breaker race

The annual Ice Breaker race took place at the recently renovated Indy RC World track in Dallas, TX. Indy has done a great job cleaning up the facility but mainly the track area got the biggest upgrades with lighting, expansion and new dirt. There were around 140 entries and the bulk of the entries came to compete for Pro Buggy honours. The high bite, blue groove surface made finding the right tire compound for the time of day crucial and everyone seemed to be fast with lap times very close but it was going to come down to who was going to be the most consistent. The high bite surface could cause a traction roll at any time so if you weren’t on your toes you could get out of shape and get it wrong very quick. Jason Branham managed to TQ the first round of buggy with his XB9 but with mistakes he knew the time may not stand.  Kyle Skidmore from AE was running fast and consistent during Saturday’s qualifying and he was able to put it all together to take the overall TQ honors in buggy proving he was going to be the man to beat. In the final Kyle Skidmore got off to a slow start and Jason got by him quickly.  With the right tires and set-up the Xray driver was able to maintain consistency and stretch his lead fast. He then never looked back and took the win from Denver Houghton (TLR) and David Joor (AE).

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]


February 28, 2013

Caroli & Myburg win @ SA championship Rd1

Caroli & Myburg win @ South African championship Rd1

The first round of the South African national championship was held at the Welkom RC Raceway in Welkom, South Africa. Racing was super competitive in all classes that were run over the weekend. Team Xray SA dominated the competition by taking away almost all the silverware. The 13.5T touring class was dominated by Antonio Caroli who took TQ and the first place in his class followed by Xray team mate Anderton Smith. Third place went to Shaun Schutte. In the 17.5T class Xray’s Andre Greef took TQ honours but was not able to defend his position in the finals. It was Gerrie Myburg (Xray) who ended up on the top podium spot followed by Andre in second and Justin Cloete (Xray) in third place. In the Modified class it was again Antonio Caroli who not only took the TQ honours but also ended on the top sport. He was followed by Anderton Smitch who had Xray team mate Deon Gove in tow for third place.

Click here to see the 17.5T and Modified podium


February 27, 2013

Xray Challenge races – Announcement

Xray Challenge races - Announcement

Xray have been in touch to invite racers to the series of the Xray Challenge races around the Europe. A full list of confirmed dates can be seen in the calendar below with more events to be added to the calendar throughout the year. Each race will have a separate and detailed leaflet published, so watch the Xray site for more details to come.

View the complete list of dates here


February 27, 2013

Gran Canaria takes ETS season outdoors

Gran Canaria takes ETS season outdoors

This weekend (March 1-3) the Yokomo Euro Touring Series marks its 30th event traveling to the popular Spanish holiday island of Gran Canaria for the first outdoor race of the 2012/13 season. Making its debut on the ETS calendar 12-months ago, the race produced one of the most popular wins of the season when Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp notched up his first victory in the World famous electric touring car championship.

Continue reading the complete announcement here


February 27, 2013

Zacarias Villalba wins Spanish 2wd Nats Rd1

Zacarias Villalba wins Spanish 2wd Nats Rd1

The first round of the Spanish 2WD electric buggy Championship took place last weekend in the Andalusian town of Jerez, in southern Spain. It is the second consecutive year that the club CDRC Jerez hosts a national championship and they put on a great effort to prepare the track from all rain and bad weather the week leading up to the event. Yet again the series saw a great attendance with drivers from every corner of the country. Electric racing is getting pretty popular in Spain, and many drivers from nitro classes are trying their luck in the electric classes. One of them is current 1/8th World champion Robert Batlle who raced his first ever electric race in Jerez.

Continue reading the report here


February 26, 2013

Shortcourse Showdown Tour Rd1 – Report

Shortcourse Showdown Tour Rd1 – Report

Tacoma R/C Raceway hosted the first race of the yearly Shortcourse Showdown Tour presented by Scotty Ernst. The venue is run by racer Scott Brown, so he knows how to host and put on a good show. The track is a hard clay surface with plenty of traction to allow close and consistent racing. Qualifying saw Team Associated vehicles rise to the top in the Stock SC, Stock SCB, Mod SC, and Mod 4WD SC classes. All qualifying results were extremely close and hinted at some great battles developing for the mains. Stock Short Course had TQ and Associated driver Dave Duncan out to an early lead in his Factory Team SC10. Zane Courtway followed closely in second with his Factory Team SC10. Zane took the point while the lead tandem was negotiating lap traffic. Dave kept on chipping away at Zane’s lead until 2 minutes remaining when Zane had his own issues with lap traffic. Dave took over the lead and never let it go. Team Associated SC10’s finished first and third on the podium, with Dave taking the win and Zane third.

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