September 27, 2023

2023 Tamiya Championship Series Finals – Report

The 2023 Tamiya Championship Series season concluded over the weekend with his year’s National Finals again hosted by Hobbytown-Hobbyplex in Omaha, Nebraska.  After a short hiatus, due to the worldwide pandemic pause, the long running Tamiya radio control car racing event returned with the master of ceremonies none other than announcing legend, and the 1996 TCS GT National 4WD Champion, Scotty Ernst.  The racing action was competitive and nerve racking with plenty of battles testing drivers nerves.   With a total of eight classes run, the next stop for the three winners from GT-2, M-Chassis, and GT-Pro-Spec will Shizuoka, Japan where the Tamiya World Championships will be held in November.  In GT-2 Daniel Ho took the victory ahead of ChrisTyler with John Brown third.   The win in M-Chassis was taken by Charlie Lydon ahead of Al Sodano and Ken McKinney while in GT-Pro-Spec Vue Vang was the winner with Tim Ski and John Incantalupo joining him on the podium.

Source: Tamiya USA [tamiyausa.com]


September 26, 2023

Woods heads Shepherd British Championship 1-2

Team Shepherd claimed a 1-2 in the 2023 British 1:8 Nitro Onroad National Championship headed by Tim Wood, the former champion taking a convincing win over team-mate Karl Dransfield at the season finale over the weekend.  Racing at the Cotswold circuit, where the 6 round championship kicked off back in April, qualifying would see Wood secure his fifth TQ of the campaign before going on to take his fourth win of the season.  Winner of the penultimate round in Adur last month, Dransfield’s second place would at Round 6 would see him finish runner-up in the overall championship.  Having taken over Shepherd Micro Racing earlier this year through his company Zen Racing, David Spashett was on hand to share the championship success in what is now the new home of the long time onroad nitro manufacturer.

Image: Shepherd Micro Racing [Facebook]


September 25, 2023

Cruz wins 3rd annual 1Up Cup at CenCal Speedway

Mugen Seiki driver Jacob Cruz took the win at the 3rd annual 1Up Cup hosted by CenCal Speedway in Fesno, California, over the weekend.  An event that attracted almost 100 entries, in Mod Touring Car it was the Awesomatix of Lex Tyler who took the TQ on tie-breaker with Cruz, each driver having a TQ and P2 while a TQ in Q1 put Aaron Lewis third on the grid.  In the triple A-Mains, Cruz was able to get by Tyler in the first encounter and again win A2 to wrap up the overall win.  With a DNF in A2, victory in A3 kept Tyler ahead of Lewis on the final podium.  Cruz would enjoy a double victory at the event securing the win also in Nitro Touring Car having started as the Top Qualifier.

Image: Jacob Cruz [Facebook]


September 25, 2023

Lot crowned French 1:8 Nitro Buggy Champion

Sworkz driver Jordan Lot was crowned the new French 1:8 Nitro Buggy Champion over the weekend after taking victory at the fourth & final round of the championship which was hosted by Mini Bolides Chanusiens 61.  Having claimed the eBuggy title two weeks earlier, this would be Lot’s sixth win from the 8 National Championship races that made up both championships.   Qualifying second behind Top Qualifier Matisse Peyre for the Nitro title decider, Lot would win his Semi final to start pole in the 45-minute final which he would control to win from the Kyosho of multiple former European & French Champion Reno Savoya with Peyre’s Xray completing the podium.  Overall Savoya would finish runner-up in the championship.

Image: Reno Savoya [Facebook]


September 24, 2023

’23 Offroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

With the dust now settled on what was a fantastic & exciting 1:10 Offroad World Championships at Hobby Action RC Raceway, we have put together a full index of all the buggies we were able to photograph for our ‘Chassis Focus’ during our time in Arizona. While we request chassis focus with all the manufacturers, some are forced to decline to protect prototype parts or developments they were trying at the Worlds. We are always happy to respect this as in this modern era it has become easy for parts to reverse engineered from online images and made available before the chassis manufacturer, who has invested the time & funding into the buggy, has fully tested and signed off the final design of parts. Sworkz was one manufacturer who was unable to provide their buggies because of a new suspension parts they had for the event.

View Chassis Focus Index here


September 21, 2023

Hamilton & Ocon enjoy 1:8 Nitro fun at Japanese GP

Last year at the Japanese Grand Prix we saw Lewis Hamilton at the controls of a Tamiya Lunchbox and Esteban Ocon having some fun with a Kyosho buggy thanks to RC Legend Yuichi Kanai and now the two F1 drivers have teamed up at Suzuka this year for a bit more 1:8 Nitro Buggy fun at the event.  The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team shared photos and a video on social media of the pair driving the two buggies up and down the pit lane with both drivers clearly enjoying the experience before they get down to the more serious business of this weekend’s F1 Grand Prix which starts tomorrow.  Clearly F1 drivers also need to be marshalled too with a photo of one of the cars upside down.  It also appears that Lewis shares something in common with our own 1:8 Buggy and now 1:10 4WD World Champion Davide Ongaro in using a stick radio!!

View more images here


September 21, 2023

RC Cars Köngen 2023 Halloween Race – Announcement

It’s that time again with RC Cars Köngen e.V. hosting its annual Halloween Race over the weekend of November 4/5th 2023.  With over 150 entries, the Halloween Race in Köngen has become one of the largest national electric offroad events in Germany.  In the past, drivers from all over Europe have come to Köngen to compete with drivers like Jörn Neumann,  Micha Widmaier, Burak Kilic and Moritz Lautenbach from Germany, Clement Boda from France, Senne Pauwels from Belgium and Rik Haemers from the Netherlands.  Racing will take place in the classes 2WD and 4WD Modified and Stock as well as Mod Truck according to the regulations of the DMC.  On the Friday of race weekend there will be practice at the venue.  If you want to be there, you have to be fast with the entries opening via myrcm.ch on 25.09.2023 at 20.00 o’clock.

Source: RC Cars Köngen e.V. [rc-cars-koengen.de]


September 20, 2023

BRCA 4WD Onroad Nationals R5 Colchester – Report

For the fifth and final round of this year’s BRCA 4WD Onroad Championship it was off to the Colchester track.  With the Modified and 17.5 titles already decided, it just left the 13.5 title to be decided. A couple of surprise entries were previous champions Olly Jefferies and the now un-retired Elliott Harper.  In Modified the first round of qualifying saw the returning Elliott Harper with his Schumacher Mi8 go fastest from Alex Thurston’s Yokomo BD-12 and defending champion, Kyle Branson, with his Xray X4, the top six were all on 22 laps.  Q2 saw another TQ for Elliott from Bailey Graves, Alex and Schumacher’s Andy Murray.  Elliot made it a hat-trick of wins by taking Q3 from Olly Jefferies and Kyle.  So, it was Elliott on pole position from Alex with Olly edging out Kyle for third by virtue of the tie-break.  In the finals, the first leg was wet with the rest being dry, and it was Elliott who took the clean sweep of all three legs for the overall win, what a way to make your return. Behind him it was Alex in the runner-up spot with a brace of seconds, with the final podium spot going to Kyle with a second and a fourth, edging out Olly who had two thirds.

Continue reading report here


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