Red RC » International

November 7, 2018

Another TQ run for Tessmann as Ronnefalk breaks

It was another TQ run for Ty Tessmann at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Australia as the Canadian opened Day 2 of qualifying with a considerably slower time for the 10-minute compared to yesterday. Topping Q2 with a time of 10:08.083 compared to today’s pace of 10:12.716, Tessmann led an Xray 1-2 with Bruno Coelho topping his heat for his best points so far. Having taken the opening round of qualifying, it wasn’t to be a good start to Wednesday’s action for reigning champion David Ronnefalk. On his third lap, the HB Racing driver ‘donkey flipped’ his buggy on the right side of the track leading to a broken suspension arm. A strong run from Spanish Mugen driver Juan Carlos Canas would see him complete the Top 3 ahead of team-mates Ryan Maifield and Robert Batlle. Former Worlds Top Qualifier Elliot Boots, who so far hasn’t featured strongly, would be the top Kyosho for the third round with his first Top 6 run.

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November 6, 2018

Tessmann tops Q2 in Perth

Ty Tessmann has topped the opening day of qualifying’s second round at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Perth, Australia. Fifth in Q1, the Xray driver was fastest on his second attempt ahead of fellow Heat 1 runner Ryan Maifield by 9/10ths of a second. Running in Heat 2, the track getting one of its scheduled waterings before the first two heats, Q1 Top Qualifier David Ronnefalk was fastest of that group to complete the overall Top 3 ahead of Robert Batlle, Dakotah Phend and Juan Carlos Canas. Quickest in yesterday’s controlled practice to go into qualifying as the Top Seed, the day didn’t improve for Davide Ongaro. The Team Associated driver suffered a costly error in Q1 but ended up with a DNF for Q2 as he lost a wheel while on a TQ pace run.

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November 6, 2018

Champion Ronnefalk TQs first qualifier

World Champion David Ronnefalk has got the defence of his 1:8 Offroad title off to the best start possible by the TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying in Australia. Running in the second heat, the HB Racing driver topped the 10-minute qualifier by a significant margin, more than 5-seconds from Naoto Matsukura in turn was 6/10ths quicker than Bruno Coelho, the two onroad World Champions also in the same heat as Ronnefalk. The big surprise of the first of the six scheduled qualifiers was that of young American CJ Jelin who took his Xray to the fourth fastest time for the round ahead of team-mate Ty Tessmann, the Canadian being the highest place driver from Heat 1. Seeded in Heat 3, Joern Nuemann would complete the Top 6 just ahead of Ryan Maifield and Dakotah Phend.

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November 5, 2018

Ongaro Top Seed at 1:8 Offroad Worlds

Davide Ongaro is the top seed at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Australia. The young Italian star produced the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the day’s two controlled practice rounds to top the times from Ryan Maifield with Ty Tessmann completing the Top 3. Initially it was Tessmann, who ran early in the round, who set the pace bettering Dakotah Phend’s CP1 topping time by 1/10th of a second. Third fastest in CP1, Ongaro, who ran 9 heats after Tessmann, set a blistering new pace to go over 1-second quicker than the former World Champion. Two heats later saw the first serious challenge to that time as Maifield got to within 0.315 of the time to set the second fastest time of the day. Unable to better his CP1 time, Phend would end up 4th fastest ahead of Bruno Coelho, who also couldn’t better his opening time, with Robert Batlle completing the Top 6 ahead of the reigning World Champion David Ronnefalk.

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November 5, 2018

Phend tops 1st Controlled Practice in Perth

With things finally getting official at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships after 6 free practice runs over 4 days, it was Dakotah Phend who topped the opening round of controlled practice in Perth, Australia. The TLR driver posted a best time of 1:39.697 for his fastest 3-consecutive laps to set the pace ahead of Xray’s Bruno Coelho. Running in the heat just before Phend, Coelho managed a time of 1:39.957 around the MORBC track with both drivers having an almost identical fastest lap. Running in Heat 13 of 18, Davide Ongaro would complete the Top 3 followed by Jared Tebo, Naoto Matsukura and Australia’s own Aaron Stringer. For reigning champion David Ronnefalk, who topped the final free practice yesterday, the first of the 2 seeding rounds would see him with the 7th fastest time, a full second down on Phend.

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October 31, 2018

Florian Joos joins Xray

Xray have announced the signing of up-and-coming Belgian driver, Florian Joos to their Junior team. Florian achieved a podium finish at this year’s IFMAR 1/12th scale World Championships and is a multiple German and Benelux national junior champion. He will campaign Xray’s T4 and X12 platforms at national and international events and he has the following to say:

Ever since I started racing R/C cars, my father has always been very supportive. One of the first advices he gave me, and one I will always remember, is to go for the best possible car. This is why I am so pleased to be joining the Xray team. The quality of the cars is just outstanding and helped me to achieve some good results. Moreover, the help I get from the team drivers regarding setup, driving lines, etc is amazing. Everyone is always ready to give a helping hand. I am truly excited to drive for this great team and will do my best to be a great Xray ambassador. Hope to see you soon at the tracks to share our amazing sport!

Source: Xray [teamXray.com]

October 29, 2018

Ronald Volker ends ETS drought with victory in Vienna

Ronald Volker has finally broken his victory drought that stretched 11 races, all the way back to Mulheim Kaerlich at the beginning of the 16/17 season, having taken the win here in Vienna. Starting from pole position the former World Champion leaves Austria with a solid lead in the points standings, having also taken the bonus point for TQ. Despite some close racing with his long time rival Marc Rheinard, Volker was able to pull a small gap at the end to take the race, with Marc having to settle for 2nd place, just ahead of Alexander Hagberg and Freddy Sudhoff, with reigning Champion Bruno Coelho suffering another difficult race ending up in 5th. Ronald was quick to thank those who made it possible saying ‘I’m super happy to get the overall win for this event, we worked the last few weeks really hard to get the upcoming BD9 in good shape. A special thanks to Hayato and Team Yokomo for this as well as thanks to Jurgen from LRP for the support’. About his race he said ‘A2 was starting well but I struggled with my driving in the middle of the run and I made a few small mistakes on the left part of the track so Marc was very close but I really didn’t want it to go to A3 so I put my head down and got a bit of a gap so I didn’t need to defend’, concluding by saying ‘Very very happy, after a couple of ETS races I finally got the TQ and win again.’

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October 29, 2018

Matsukura adds first nitro title to World Championship tally

Multiple Electric Onroad World Champion Naoto Matsukura has added a Nitro Touring Car World title to his tally with a very convincing performance at the 1:10 200mm World Championships in Florida. After a messy start which saw Top Qualifier Dario Balestri, Super Pole winner Robert Pietsch and reigning champion Dominic Greiner receive penalties, the Infinity driver quickly stamped his authority on the 1-hour final. By the first round of fuel stops the 200mm rookie, who stopped early at 4:30, had already pulled out over a 6-second lead and such was his lead at the mid race tyre change his crew was able to switch to 4:00 stops ensuring his massive lead was never at risk. At the end the Japanese driver becomes the 8th different World Champion of the class by almost 2-laps. Battling with Tadahiko Sahashi for second place before the Infinity driver suffered a flame out in the final minutes of the race Capricorn’s Kyle Branson would finish second with Team Shepherd’s very quick Eduardo Escandon coming through from the back of the grid to complete the podium at Homestead RC Raceway. Half a lap back Pietsch would recover from his penalty and a bad tyre stop to finish fourth ahead of Mugen team-mate Jeff Hamon, with Greiner, who got a second penalty completing the Top 6. Ending up 9-laps off the lead after running out of fuel, Balestri ended up 7th but his biggest frustration was the length the cars were held on the starting grid. He said his penalty was a result of him trying to make sure his engine didn’t cut.

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