Red RC » International

April 8, 2012

Kota & Matsukura take FEMCA EP Offroad titles

Today was finals day at the Yatabe Arena in Japan for the FEMCA Championships to decide the 2wd and 4wd electric buggy champion. With bump ups being used the final starting order was to be decided and it was Naoto Matsukura who couldn’t participate in qualifying due to school commitments, that was on the move. He would bump his way up from last in each class to take his starting spot on the grid for both A-mains in 7th and 8th for 4wd and 2wd respectively. In 2wd pole man and Kyosho driver Akimoto Kota would take the win from Yokomo driver Kikuchi Kai in 2nd, with Naoto taking 3rd. Akimoto would repeat the win in the 2nd leg to warp up the title with Kai once again taking 2nd and Meen Vejrak finishing 3rd. The last leg would decide the final podium positions and it was Naoto who would come through to take the victory to claim the runner up spot bumping Kai to 3rd despite being even on points.

Continue reading the report here

April 7, 2012

FEMCA EP Offroad Champs – Day 2 update

Day 2 of the FEMCA champs is in the bag and in was the turn of the 4wd class to get some practice at the Yatabe Arena followed by 5 rounds of qualifying with 3 to count. A notable absentee is reigning Japanese National Champion and factory Yokomo driver Naoto Matsukura who is missing both qualifying days, having an important school exam this weekend, but will show up on Sunday and hope to bump up from the lower finals into the main. In today’s qualifying it was Thai Yokomo driver Meen Vejrak that sits on pole position with 3 round victories and will start ahead of 2wd top qualifier Akimoto Kota in 2nd driving for Kyosho, while Sugiura Yusuke completes the top 3 also driving for Kyosho. Kikuchi Kai (Yokomo), Maezumi Satoshi (Tamiya), whose wife just gave birth to their 2nd child overnight, and Kono Takayuki (Tamiya) complete the top 6 direct qualifiers. Tomorrow is finals day for both the 2wd and 4wd classes to determine the 2012 FEMCA champion.

View the top 10 after qualifying

April 6, 2012

FEMCA EP Offroad Champs – Day 1 update

The FEMCA Championships for electric offroad are currently being held in Japan at the Yatabe Arena. The event is open to racers in the FEMCA region which includes all of Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand. Friday saw the first action on the track for the 2wd class with 5 rounds of qualifying with the best 3 to count. The top 6 go direct to the main final and the remaining 4 drivers bump up from the lower final. Following the 5 rounds of qualifying it was Akimoto Kota that took the pole position for Kyosho ahead of Kikuchi Kai driving a Yokomo with Sanpei Tatsuya in 3rd for Kyosho. Meen Vejrak from Thailand is the only non Japanese driver in the top 16 sitting 4th with a Yokomo, Maezumi Satoshi (Tamiya) and Enomoto Keisuke (Yokomo) complete the top 6 direct qualifiers. Tomorrow sees the 4wd qualifying run before the finals are run on Sunday to decide the FEMCA Champion.

View the top 10 after qualifying

April 6, 2012

Off-road Grand-Prix of Russia – Announcement

The organisers of the biggest annual Indoor Off-Road Race in Russia were in touch to tell us about their event. It will take place from the 13th to 15th of april as a part of the major Toy fair ‘Hobby Expo 2012’ in Moscow and attracts top pilots from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to battle it out in 11 classes covering OffRoad 1:18, OffRoad 1:10, OffRoad 1:8. The carpet covered track is 30X18 meters size and specially designed for this event and has so far attracted 170 entries, which is around 120 people. There are still places available so if you are interested you can enter here.

April 5, 2012

Andy Moore joins Team Hobbywing

Team Hobbywing have signed former IFMAR World Champion Andy Moore to their team. Andy will use the newest Hobbywing Xerun V3 speed controller and attend most of the highest level events around the World this year. Andy is the first top driver in Team Hobbywing and with his huge amount of racing experience is a perfect fit on the team and helpful to the development. Team Hobbywing is very excited to have Andy on board. Andy had this to say:

Having worked closely with the guys at Hobbywing whilst testing the new V3 speedo over the last few weeks I’ve been really impressed by their professionalism and the outstanding performance of the speedo with both stock and modified motors. I’d really like to thank Jack, Michael and Salton for this opportunity and look forward to the rest of this years racing with them.

Source: Hobbywing [hobbywing.com]

April 1, 2012

Ronald Volker takes 3rd straight TCM title

The annual LRP Touring Car Masters took place at its regular home in Eppelheim this weekend. The modified class saw Yokomo driver Ronald Volker take the TQ spot ahead of a Xray’s Alexander Hagberg in 2nd, following a close battle with 3-time World Champion and Tamiya driver Marc Rheinard who would start in 3rd. In the finals Volker would check out in legs 1 and 2 to take his third straight TCM title leaving the battle for the other podium spots to be fought out between Hagberg and Rheinard. With the German having two 2nd places going into the 3rd leg the Swede would need a win. With a mistake from the TRF driver dropping him into the mid pack Hagberg would go on to take the win and with it the runner up spot. Equal on points Rheinard would have to settle for 3rd. In the Pro Stock class Daniel Wohlgemuth took the win from the pole position ahead of Tony Streit in 2nd and Oliver Franke 3rd.

Source: LRP [tcm2012.lrp.cc]

March 30, 2012

Morganti wins Ipanema World GT Championships

Paolo Morganti took the TQ and World Championship in the Open Class at the Ipanema World GT Championship that was held at Barceloneta RC track in Puerto Rico last weekend. In an hour race Morganti went thru some problems when flame out in his first pit stop and lost the first position for a while but was able to recover and keep the lead to finish in first position with his Cobra GT, in second position was Andy Báez and in third was José González.

Continue reading the report here

March 26, 2012

Maifield wins big two at Pro-Line Cactus Classic

Ryan Maifield pulled off the big double at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic with the Team Associated driver successfully defending his 2WD & 4WD Buggy titles at the 26th edition of America’s longest running offroad meeting. Having made light work of 2WD Short Course title earlier in the day winning the opening two A-Main from pole position, the battle for the overall win in offroad racing’s premiere classes went down to the wire but the Arizona driver rose to the occassion in front of his home crowd to win both A3 Mains ahead of team-mate Ryan Cavalieri to claim back to back titles at the track that is just 10-minutes from his house.

View our complete event coverage here