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August 25, 2016

China to host 2017 IFMAR EP Offroad Worlds

3Circles

With China in the middle of hosting it’s first IFMAR World Championships, and doing a superb job of putting on the 9th 1/12th & ISTC Worlds in Beijing, the country is now set for its second World Championship as the venue for next year’s 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships has been decided. The 17th running of the championships, the week long FEMCA block event will be held near the city of Xiamen, which in the south east of the country, at the ARC International Raceway. Having hosted this year’s Chinese National Championships, and with many touring car drivers using its asphalt track for pre Worlds testing, the impressive facility which is part of the 3-Circles battery factory, will build a new dirt track for the WC on the same location as it is current 1/8th scale offroad track. With Red RC having been to the facility to cover the Chinese Nationals and been impressed by the facility, and currently in Beijing for the ISTC Worlds where we have experienced first hand the high standard of event China can put on, we believe this will be an event to remember.

View more images of the facility, here, here & here.

August 25, 2016

Wilck top seed at Beijing Worlds

Viktor Wilck is the top seed for qualifying at the Electric Touring Car World Championships in Beijing, the Serpent driver having topped a much faster second round of controlled practice. With wind causing many drivers problems in the first round, the sun came out for driver’s second attempt at a 3-consecutive lap time and with the wind dying off the track would prove over a second faster. Having set the pace so far at these unique Worlds, in that no one drove the newly surfaced track prior to the first round of free practice yesterday morning, Bruno Coelho would finish second fastest 0.125 off of Wilck’s pace, their fastest lap times almost identical with only 2/1000ths of a difference between them. Ronald Volker would complete the Top 3, the Yokomo driver a further 3/10th back. For World Champion Naoto Matsukura a though first day didn’t get any better with his title defence starting in the 5th fastest qualifying group. It wasn’t a good controlled practice for his Tamiya team-mate Marc Rheinard either, the 3-time Champion only able for the 13th fastest time.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

August 25, 2016

Coelho masters difficult conditions in 1st control practice

Bruno Coelho mastered difficult track conditions on Day 2 of the Electric Touring Car World Championships in Beijing this morning to top the first round of controlled practice. Having topped yesterday’s six rounds of free practice, the Xray driver again was fastest but with wind effecting track conditions it was not a repeat of the 1-2 the Slovakian manufacturer witnessed on the opening Day. With Hagberg managing only P10, pulling up with a minute to go as he clearly struggled with his car, there was a marked improvement from reigning manufacturer champions Yokomo. Only p5 in free practice, Ronald Volker would set the second fastest time, albeit 7/10ths off Coelho over the best 3-consecutive laps, with team-mate Loic Jasmin completing the Top 3.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

August 24, 2016

Day 1 complete in Beijing, Xray in control

Day 1 of the Electric Touring Car World Championships is complete in Beijing with Xray having controlled proceedings. Opening the day at the Fengtai R/C Model Area asphalt track at the top of the time sheets, after 6 rounds of free practice it was still an Xray 1,2 with Bruno Coelho fastest from Alexander Hagberg. While the pair would fail to improve on their 3-fastest lap time from FP4, Coelho would still top the times sheets for the final practice ahead of Tamiya’s Chrishopher Krapp. Krapp’s FP6 time would see him the best of the rest as he turned around his performance over the day to finish P3 ahead of TRF team-mate Marc Rheinard although the gap was substantial at over half a second. Unfortunately for defending champion Naoto Matsukura he couldn’t replicate the turn around of his team-mates ending up on page 2 of the time sheets with the 39th fastest time. The Japanese driver said despite making changes to his set-up each run his car ‘still feels the same’.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

August 24, 2016

Coelho continues to top practice at WC

Bruno Coelho continues to set the pace at the Electric Touring Car World Championship in Beijing, the Xray driver continuing to the top the time sheets with four of the opening day’s six free practice runs complete. Taking things up a notch in FP4, he continues to be quickest from team Alexander Hagberg but with a bigger advantage, his best lap over 1/10th of a second faster and his fastest 3-consecutive laps almost 4/10th better. Behind the Xray’s, after a ‘horrible’ start to practice, Marc Rheinard has started to find some speed with the Tamiya driver completing the Top 3 ahead of Andy Moore, the Team Infinity driver making good use of his black anodised Xray. Unfortunately for reigning World Champion Naoto Matsukura is poor start hasn’t improved and the newly crowned 1:12 World Champion finds himself 44th fastest.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

August 24, 2016

Xray set early pace in Beijing

Xray have set the early pace in practice at the 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championships in Beijing, with Bruno Coelho topping the times for the first two practices from team-mate Alexander Hagberg. With the opening practice the first time cars have ever run on the newly resurfaced Fengtai R/C Model Area asphalt track, it was Hagberg who took the initial bragging rights and with the laps time improving by 1-seconds in the second of the opening day’s six free practices, he again set the fastest lap but over three consecutive laps it was Coelho who was marginally quicker – 0.025 the difference. Behind the Xray’s it was Yokomo’s Ronald Volker who completed the Top 3 followed by the Serpent of Viktor Wilck and Capricorn of Marc Fischer. With the first of the cars hitting the sugar watered track at 08:30, all the competitors coming out to watch Heat 1, the overall reaction to the layout and early traction is proving very positive.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

August 23, 2016

Kyle Branson teams up with Infinity

Creation Model has announced that British talent Kyle Branson has signed to join their factory race team. Branson, who was the runner-up at the 2013 1/8th EFRA Euros, joins a line up of experienced racers, to compete in the on-road nitro classes with Infinity’s 1/8th scale platform and the recently revealed 1/10th scale prototype. Branson will also be continuing to race electric on-road, and contributing to the development of Infinity’s future projects. Branson, a multi-time ENS and Euros A-finalist, made the top ten at this month’s IFMAR Worlds in Gubbio, has the following to say about the deal:

I’m really excited to join creation model to be running their infinity brand car’s. The dedication the team has shown in its short time to establish itself as one of the leading manufacturers is amazing, and I can’t wait to hit the track with their cars. I want to thank Kenji and every body at creation model for the opportunity to represent the team, and look forward to achieving more great results with them.

Source: Creation Model [creationmodel.net]

August 22, 2016

Matsukura is 1:12 World Champion

Naoto Matsukura is the 1:12 World Champion for a fourth time. The Japanese ace, who burst onto the international r/c scene when he won his first World title in 2008 aged 15, took back the sport’s biggest prize with an impressive recovery drive to make it 2 wins from 2 in the second A-Main in Beijing. Starting P2, China being his first Worlds not being the Top Qualifier, Matsukura came out best from a third lap pile up involving the Top 3 to go to the lead but almost immediately threw it away with a mistake of his own dropping back to fifth. With Sobue the new leader, Matsukura set about his recovery with his Roche clearly the fastest car on the track. On the limit trying to keep his lead and under pressure from Matsukura, Sobue would too lose the lead with a mistake and once passed Matsukura took complete control of the race to win ahead of Rheinard to put himself into the history books as the first driver to hold both the 1:12 and Electric Touring Car World titles simultaneously. A win of a very entertaining A3 would give Rheinard the overall runner-up spot with 1:12 Worlds debutant Sobue completing the podium for the 18th running of the championships.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.