Red RC » International

June 27, 2013

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

June 25, 2013

SpeedRC Cup – Announcement

SpeedRC Cup - Announcement

The organisers of the SpeedRC Cup got in touch to tell us about their touring car race which is held on Sunday the 14th of July at Parona Lomellina (PV) Italy 50km south-west from Milan. The race is open to 1/10 Touring Mod and 13.5 (no timing) classes and they have introduced a new race format with the possibility to make the A main through a Last Chance race. Entries are limited to 40 drivers per class, if the number of entries in one class is lower than 40 the other class can be supplemented. More details and entries can be found through iscrizione.gare@hotmail.it

View an image of the track here

June 24, 2013

Romanian Nitro Cup – Announcement

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).

June 23, 2013

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

June 21, 2013

Groskamp & Tironi confirmed for ENS Austria

JillesENS

Reigning Electric Touring Car World Champion Jilles Groskamp will contest next weekend’s (June 28-30) Euro Nitro Series race in Graz, Austria, the Shepherd driver one of a number of World class factory drivers set to battle it out for the 200mm Touring Car win at the Stöhr-Ring track. Another confirmed entry for the second race of the ENS ‘Pilot Series’, is Capricorn driver & World Championship podium finisher Francesco Tironi who together with reigning Italian National Champion Giorgio de Felici will be looking to complete a clean sweep of the all new series for the Italian company who at Race 1 earlier this month at the Hockenheimring in Germany took a convincing win with Eric Dankel.

Continue reading the announcement here

June 19, 2013

On the Grapevine – Traiskirchen

On the Grapevine - Traiskirchen

Last weekend I traveled to Austria where the Yokomo Euro Touring Series set down at the unique Traiskirchen track for the penultimate round of the world famous championship with a great air of anticipation & excitement as four of the best drivers in the business came to town with a chance of making the title fight go to next month’s season finale at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia. While the series has established itself as a must do event for the world’s best drivers and manufacturers, an incident packed Leg 2 of the A-Main highlighted just how important an ETS win has become to the drivers. The most fraught 5-minutes of racing in the series’ six seasons of existence, the outbreak of raw emotions that ensued following four key incidents, while not a great advert for our sport, showed the intensity at which these guys perform. While the faces of the involved drivers after Leg 2 sent out a clear message that myself & my white notebook would be best off leaving them alone, I think the tension clearly showed these are not just guys ‘playing with toy cars’ but competitive sportsmen who have a passion for what they are doing. Don’t get me wrong I would not like this to become a regular occurrence but like any sport when there is a bit of drama it does create some extra buzz. I am glad to report that come the prize giving the drivers were exchanging hand shakes and admitting that things said in the heat of the moment where just that. Ultimately Marc Rheinard took the win in Austria from Ronald Volker to set the stage for a thrilling show down to the 2012/13 ETS between the two great German rivals.

Continue reading On the Grapevine here

June 18, 2013

Watered Down Racing?

I was fortunate to spend a day last week at another sporting event in the UK. One which was interrupted throughout the day by rain showers. During one of the numerous showers, during which the event was stopped, I thought about how the rain also affects our sport. Racing outdoors, which forms the majority of the important races in almost every R/C class, always has the potential to be affected by the weather. Obviously, some classes, such as the offroad classes, can be less affected, but generally a change in weather means a change in set-up, a change in attitudes and often, a change in results. Of course, we’d all love to have facilities like this weekend’s ETS venue in Austria, or the ROAR Nationals track in Texas – an “outdoor” track with a roof!

Continue reading Oli’s column here

June 17, 2013

Joakim Nicolaisen wins Nordic Championships

The Nordic championship is a yearly race with drivers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland attending. This year Denmark was supposed to arrange the meeting, but after a while Norway got the event, with the Oslo Modellbilklubb hosting it. The event was supposed to be a 2 day event with qualifying on Saturday and finals on Sunday. But with the weather that was showing, and the usual Norwegian weather, everybody agreed to make it a 1 day event. After practice Thomas Holmesland was fastest and set the pace for the event. In the first qualifying heat both Oskar Fjeld and Joakim Nicolaisen was driving incredible fast, and with no errors being done Joakim set a good qualification round. This was his TQ run.

Continue reading the report here