Red RC » Events

June 8, 2024

Orlowski cruises to TQ at ETS season opener

Defending ETS Champion Michal Orlowski has claimed the TQ at the opening round of the 2024/25 season which is taking place at the Dutch Apeldoorn circuit. Having secured his first ETS title with an indoor victory at the season finale in Austria back in March, the Schumacher driver looks to have picked up where he left off taking his Mi9 to the fastest time in all four rounds of qualifying. One of the great outdoor touring car tracks which is a favourite among many top drivers, Apeldoorn was the location of Orlowski’s first ETS win on asphalt last year. Providing the biggest challenge to the Pole in qualifying was Marc Rheinard will start P2 for Awesomatix thanks to a pair of P2 runs. Team-mate Lucas Urbain, who joined the ranks of ETS Modified race winner last season, will start 3rd ahead of the Mugen Seiki of multiple Champion Ronald Volker and the Axon of Japanese ace Akio Sobue. In Pro Stock, Awesomatix’s Lukas Ellebrock also continued his winning finish to last season by securing the TQ ahead of Tim Benson, TQ run in Q3, and reigning Champion Oliver Bultynck who was fastest in Q3.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

June 5, 2024

Ehrbar & Lee win at FFFF1 RC Race

The FFFF1 RC Race took place over the weekend at the Riccione track on Italy’s Adriatic coast where Xray duo David Ehrbar and Luke Lee took the wins, Lee winning a rather innovative ‘Long run’ 20-minute final. Attracting a number of international drivers a field of capacity 72 competitors from 7 nations made for an impressive F1 gathering with all cars running to the same technical regulations of using Hobbywing’s Justock 21.5 combo, minimum ratio of 2.4, and very resistant Fenix A rubber tyres. In the qualify German Ehrbar secured the TQ ahead of local star Gianni Zonzini and Dutch F1 stalwart Jitse Miedema. With 12 different brands of car represented at the event in the finals it was Ehrbar who completed a clean sweep to win ahead of Fenix Racing’s Miedema with Lee coming through from P6 on the grid to complete the traditional format finals. To complete the weekend in Riccione, drivers had the opportunity to try something different with a single 20-minute that include two mandatory pit stops. Drivers had a pit stop window with the first stop needing to take place between 2nd and 9th minute and the second between the 12th and 18th minute. Ehrbar would make a early mistake and unfortunately for Miedema his race was done after 5-laps as drivers faced a few drops of rain. All the while Lee was leading the way chased by a train of drivers but at the end of the 20-minutes the British racer had 2-second advantage over Luca Buono who was closely followed by Gonzalo Garcia for the final podium place and all all Xray Top 3.

View ‘Long Run’ podium here

June 5, 2024

Veseli wins European Large Scale Series Round 2

The second round of the European Large Scale Series took place at Lostallo in Switzerland over the weekend where MCD Racing’s Dario Veseli took the win. In qualifying it was the Mecatech of Emanuele D’Amico winner of the season opener in Bologna in March who took secured the TQ. The Italian set the fastest time in the 3rd round of qualifying with reigning World Champion Markus Feldmann second fastest ahead of fellow German Veseli. With the Top 2 locked into the half hour final, reigning European Champion Veseli would win his Semi final to secure P3 on the grid while World Championship Top Qualifier Marius Hetland won the other putting the Norwegian fourth on the grid for the main event. In a rain effected final, the rain arriving as the race enter the second half, a decision to switch the wet tyres would pay dividend for Veseli allowing him to take the win by almost a lap from D’Amico with Hetland getting passed Feldmann to complete the podium.

Image: MCD Racing [Facebook]

June 4, 2024

Canas wraps up National title with 3 from 3

Factory Sworkz star Juan Carlos Canas has wrapped up the Spanish 1:8 Nitro Buggy National title early with his third win of the season in as many races. The reigning European Champion, who this year has the potential to consecutively hold a National, European and World title, secured the TQ and win at the third round which was hosted at the Circuito de Alhaurin de la Torre over the weekend. Winner of the Silver State Indoor Championships in the US last month, starting from pole after winning his Semi Final in the fastest time, Canas was chased home over the 45-minute final by the Tekno of João Figueiredo, who after qualifying P18 after a tough five rounds of heats, started 4th on the grid. Posting the fastest lap of the race, in the end he would finish just 4.7-seconds back from Canas. Despite a bad tyre choice, Daniel Pariente made it a second Tekno on the podium as he finished third.

Image: Sworkz [Facebook]

June 3, 2024

Sawada wins Hobbywing Cup

Attracting a number of international factory team drivers, it was Xray’s Shin Sawada who took the big win at the Hobbywing Cup which took place at the Shanghai International Model Auto Racing Arena (SIMARA) in China over the weekend. Qualifying would see the Japanese driver top 3 of the 4 rounds of qualifying to secure the TQ ahead of team-mate Alexander Hagberg who went fastest in the final qualifier. Team Yokomo’s Nicolas Lee would complete the Top 3 in the feature Open Brushless class ahead of China’s very own JJ Wang. Representing Awesomatix and a driver who does a lot of development work for Hobbywing, 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Mächler lined up 6th on the grid. In the triple final Sawada continued his form setting the fastest lap of the race to win A1 repeating the feat again in A2 for the overall win. Winning A3, Hagberg would finish runner-up while P2 in A3 promoted Wang to third overall for an all Xray podium. Lee was best of the rest taking his Yokomo to fourth ahead of Mächler who moved up one spot to finish fifth.

Source: Hobbywing [hobbywing.com]

June 2, 2024

Senesi crowned 1:8 GT European Champion

Natanaele Senesi is the new EFRA 1:8 GT European Champion claiming the title for the very first time at the Naxos World track in Sicily, Italy. Lining up P5 for the 45-minute title decider, the World Championship finalist took his Senesi Motorsport S21 GT car to victory by a 10-second margin from the Xray of Top Qualifier Edoardo Repetti with Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani completing the nitro podium. Only the third running of the European Championships for the category, there was plenty of drama at the start of the final. Set to start P3 on the grid for the 45-minute encounter, Capricorn’s Alessio Mazzeo called a technical timeout in the warm-up which put him to the back of the grid. On the race start Repetti suffered a flame out. Taking the lead of the race after a few laps, during his first fuel stop Senesi would flame out handing Catanzani the lead. Chased down by a recovering Senesi, with three minutes to go Catanzani would lose 2nd gear allowing Senesi back to the front where he would stay to the finish to end Bernard-Alain Arnaldi reign over the category. Arnaldi would give up his back to back title finishing P6. In the 1:8 GTE title race, Top Qualifier & Schepis Model team driver Rosario Giaimo was able to complete the job and wrapped up the championship with wins in A1 & 2 of the triple finals with Senesi and 2023 Champion Mazzeo completing the Top 3.

Image: Natanaele Senesi [Facebook]

May 31, 2024

Repetti is 1:8 GT European C/Ship Top Qualifier

Italy’s Edoardo Repetti is the Top Qualifier at the 2024 EFRA 1:8 GT European Championships which are underway at the Naxos World track in Sicily, Italy. The former European Large Scale Champion took his Ielasi Tuned powered Xray to the TQ honours with TQ runs in Q3 & 4 together with a P2 in the fifth & final round. Also registering two TQ runs and a second, but losing out on the tie-breaker, Schepis Model driver Rosario Giaimo, winner of the recent Italian National Champion round at the same track, qualified 2nd having taken the Electric GT overall TQ earlier in the day. Former 1:10 Nitro Touring Car Champion Alessio Mazzeo completed the Top 3 for Capricorn. Top Qualifier at last year’s European Championship in Croatia, Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani ended qualifying P4. Only the third running of a European Championship for the category, defending back to back Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi took his Genius Racing chassis to 6th as the fastest non Italian driver.

Image: Xray [Facebook]

May 28, 2024

Wins for Smith & Orlowski at Scotty Ernst UK Showdown

With it a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, Scotty Ernst took his UK Showdown to the famed Robin Hood Raceway where Schumacher pairing Ben Smith and Michal Orlowski took the two big wins. The second year of the event, in 2WD qualifying it was Smith, fresh from his British National win a week earlier, that took the TQ after topping 3 of the 5 rounds. Behind him with 2 TQ run was Orlowski ahead of Team Associated’s Tommy Hall and Schumacher’s Lee Martin. While Smith took all three A-Mains, the main battle as first second. Hall got by Orlowki for the second in A1, with Orlowski 2nd in A2 but both where passed by Luke Holdsworth in A3 and it was a tie-breaker between the pair with Hall getting the second spot. Bank Holiday Monday’s 4WD action saw reigning European Champion Orlowski secure the TQ with fastest times in 2 of the 4 qualifiers. Fastest in Q1, Jamie Hall would line up second ahead of Lee Martin, Tommy Hall and Smith who had TQ’d Q2. In the triple finals, Orlowski secure the overall victory with wins in A1 & 2, while Jamie Hall secured the runner-up spot with the A3 ahead of Martin who completed the 4WD podium.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]