U.S. World Nitro Cup – Announcement

The crew at Full Throttle RC Raceway in Kissimmee, Florida have been in touch to let everyone know about the U.S. World Nitro Cup race that they are organising from the 5th to the 8th of December this year. Located close to all the major Florida attractions such as Disney, Epcot, MGM, Universal Studios etc, the race will be held on their newly resurfaced track and is open to 3 classes, Sedan, 1/8th Masters and 1/8th Open. The event has already attracted entries from a number of top US drivers as well as some major European and Japanese names. Full details on the event can be downloaded here (PDF).

Nicholas Lee wins 2013 Futaba Cup

The annual Futaba Cup took place last weekend in the city of Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia and Nicholas Lee gave this report. ‘The track was resurfaced two weeks before the event but the layout remains the same as to the one I attended last year with the surface sugar watered for increased traction on Saturday. This year’s event attracted drivers from 8 different countries, but most notably, 1 Reigning World champion from Thailand (Meen.V) and 2 Worlds finalists (Alexander Hagberg and Chavit). As I had a good result finishing 2nd last year for the 10th and the 8th scale, I was hoping for a strong result. My dad and I arrived on Wednesday and we headed to the track right away. There were some new rules for this year as addictive is allowed and 4 rounds of 5 minutes qualifiers were to be run. My initial plan was to break-in engines and choose the best engine for the race. However, I had a stressful week because none of my engines would finish 5 minutes. I wasted the time stressing on my engines rather than finding a competitive car setup and tyre combination.

Continue reading the report here

Morganti double at Byron Fuels On Road Challenge

Nitro racers from all over the USA and from as far away as Shanghai, China descended on Leisure Hours RC Raceway in Joliet, IL for the 2013 Byron Fuels On Road Challenge. Qualifying would JJ Wang take the top spot in 1/10th 200mm, Joaquin DeSoto Jr the top spot in Nitro GT and Paolo Morganti the top spot in 1/8th scale. First on the schedule was the 1/10th scale class which following an early exit by Wang after 4 minutes, say Morganti go to the front of the field and take the win only 3 seconds in front of DJ Apolaro in 2nd, with Vincent Jackson in 3rd, 4 laps further back. The GT class turnout was very large this year and this resulted in some intense racing. Taking the TQ honors and finishing first in the 60 minute A main was Joaquin DeSoto Jr. Bill Sydor finished in second place followed by Andy Liu in third to complete an all Serpent podium. Although the first 20 minutes of racing during the 1/8th 60 minute A main was exciting and intense, lightning and rain forced the end of racing for the day. As a result, the top qualifiers were awarded the podium positions. Paolo Morganti, TQing took the first place followed by Mike Pulfer (Xray) and Jason Conley (Xray). Byron fuels took the win in all three classes.

View the other podiums here

Romanian Nitro Cup – Announcement

The organizers of the Romanian Nitro Cup got in contact to tell us about their annual competition for 1/10th and 1/8th scale IC on road nitro cars which this year will be held from the 30th of August to the 1st of September 20th to the 22nd of September. It is a private event with important prizes and the rules are kept as simple and as fair as possible for the drivers. Entries are limited to 60 drivers per class, if the number of entries in one class is lower than 60 the other class can be supplemented. The event will be held on the beautiful new Hobby Arena track near Bucharest and to make it event more interesting both classes offer prize money of EUR 1000 for the winner, EUR 700 for 2nd place and EUR 400 for 3rd. More details can be found here (under Competitions).

Markus Hellquist is 1/10th Nordic Champion 2013

Having covered 1/8th and 1/10th Electric from last weekend’s Nordic Championship in Oslo, Norway we now have the report from the 1/10th 200mm class. The race was originally a 2 days event, with qualifying on Saturday and the finals running on Sunday. Saturday gave great weather but the weather forecast for Sunday was indicating over 30mm of rain. After an extended driver’s meeting it was decided that the race was to be changed to a 1 day event, with the last final running half past nine in the evening. This was not a problem since the sun is up almost until midnight in Oslo.

Continue reading the report here