Red RC » International

June 5, 2009

Pietsch & Groskamp set pace in Turkey

Official timed practice has ended on the second day of the Bumod Grand Prix with Robert Pietsch and Jilles Groskamp topping the time sheets here in Turkey. Over the seven 30 minutes session each driver had today Mugen’s Pietsch showed he has the edge over his rivals setting a best lap time of 17.216 which is .185 up on second fastest man Patrick Shaefer who inturn is just 4/1000ths up on Michael Salven. In 1:10 things are closer with only 7/100th seperating Groskamp, who posted a 19.617, from Dirk Wischewski.

Check out our full event coverage here.

June 5, 2009

Sunny start to Day 2 of Bumod GP

After rain dampened the opening day of the Bumod Grand Prix, competitors woke up this morning to glorious sunshine for the second official practice day here in Bursa, Turkey. With two 30 minute sessions under their belts the drivers can now get down to some productive testing. In 1:10, Dutch international electric touring car star Jilles Groskamp is setting the early pace with his prototype Serpent 7XX running as he predicted last night some 19 second laps. The 2008 Worlds Top Qualifier, who said traction is still quite low, has started to play around with different set-ups with the car responding postively to the changes.

Check out our full event coverage here.

June 5, 2009

Carmine Raiola wins 1/8th Euro ‘B’ title

Last week saw the European ‘B’ Championships for 1/8th scale track, take place in Cassino, Italy. Mostly good weather greeted the drivers, along with a challenging track, and after qualifying it was local Mugen racer Carmine Raiola that took the top spot followed by veternan German driver Oliver Mack, with Stefano Pregnolato and Mattia Rinaldi claiming the final direct qualifying positions. The 45 minute main final was brought forward in the schedule due to the expected bad weather and this was a good decision as rain started to fall heavily shortly after the prize ceremony. In the race Raiola was never challenged and despite pitting earlier than his close competitors, no tire stop and skilled driving meant he could open up a one lap gap in front of Oliver Mack at the end, with Massimo Vadala, who had a race long battle with Stefano Pregnolato, taking 3rd.

Click here for photos of the track

June 4, 2009

Rain calls end to Day 1 in Turkey

The flood lights have been turned on at Bumod but unfortunately the pits are empty after the rain returned to Bursa bringing to an end the opening day of Turkey’s inaugural international nitro event. With the track wet the drivers have called it a day and made their way to what has to be the most plush r/c restaurant in the world, for dinner compliments of the race organisers. Drivers did however manage to get some partially dry running on the track, with two corners falling to develop a dry line.

Check out our full event coverage here.

June 1, 2009

Borja Hernandez wins 2wd Euro Warm up

Last Saturday a number of foreign racers attended the 2nd round of the Spanish Championship, which was also the warm up race for the upcoming European championship next August. A very nice track greeted all the drivers, which was 80% astroturf, and after 5 qualifying rounds Hupo Hönigl claimed the TQ spot in 2wd, followed by the local driver Borja Hernandez and Martin Kreil. The Spaniards Alberto Cano and Miguel Santos in the following spots showed not only they are fast, they had pace enought to fight in the mains with the fast guys.

Continue reading the report

June 1, 2009

Andrea Pirani wins Lostallo Open GP

Lostallo, Switzerland, hosts of this years 1/8th scale World Championships, recently ran an Open GP in preparation for the WC. While entry was low, a lot of top quality drivers were present, which featured 6 rounds of qualifying and a final of 60 minutes, just like the Worlds. Qualifying went the way of Alberto Picco, 4 seconds ahead of Andrea Pirani, Andrea Cristiani and Oliver Mack a further 8 seconds back in 4th, current World Champion Lamberto Collari could only manage 12th. The final went the way of Pirani, who took home the win by 2 laps from Oliver Mack in 2nd, Andrea Cristiani in 3rd and Mattia Pesenti in 4th, with pole man Picco hitting problems before retiring close to the end of the race.

Thanks to Mattia Pesenti for the report.

May 31, 2009

Groskamp & Janssen secure Dutch ETS glory

A-Main number 2 has decided the outcome of the Dutch round of the 2008/2009 Euro Touring Series with Jilles Groskamp and Rob Janssen repeating their opening leg victories to secure the overall win here at the impressive Apeldoorn facility. Groskamp again took an easy win with his Tamiya TRF416 World Edition this time over the Corally of Marc Fisher and the Xray of Bart Wubben. The only driver to run a sub 16 second lap, Groskamp made it look easy as behind him a number of great battles were fought out.

Continue reading the report here.

May 31, 2009

Steen tops Q5, Groskamp secures TQ in Holland

Kyosho factory driver Steen Graversen became the fifth different driver in as many rounds to TQ a round of qualifying here in Apeldoorn but it is defending ETS Champion Jilles Groskamp and his Tamiya that will start from pole. Dane Graversen recorded the fastest 5 minute run of the weekend with his Orion powered Stallion thanks to a fresh set of tyres and cooler track conditions. Having changed motor for the run Graversen is now much happier with the top speed of his car and said he tried to drive safely so as to not punish his tyres too much as he will have to run them again in the A Main. Lining up fifth on the grid his aim is to try and hold station in the final for a Top 5 finish.

Continue reading the report here.