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February 23, 2007

2007 TITC – Friday Controlled Practice

TITC

Yesterday we told you all about this years TITC in Thailand and today the event got underway with controlled practice for all the assembled drivers. In crazy heat once more it was Atsushi Hara with his Team Checkpoint powered Hot Bodies Cyclone that set the pace with Hido Kitazawa driving a Tamiya only 2 seconds behind. In 3rd was HB cyclone racer Surikarn C. while it was yet another HB racer in 4th with Olly Jeffries from the UK doing a great job. Andy Moore was on a fast run in the faster 2nd run but crashed out while Ronald Voelker broke a belt in his tire, ending his run. Qualifying starts tomorrow and we hope to bring you the results at the end of the day.

For pictures from the event until now, you can go here, here and here.

Click more to see the top 10 fastest… content

February 22, 2007

2007 Thailand International Touring Car Champs

TITC Marc Rheinard

This weekend sees the RC circus make their way to Thailand, fresh from the Snowbirds & Winternats in the case of Jilles Groskamp, to race the Thailand International Touring Car Championships, or TITC for short. This years event takes place at the Radio Control Speedway in Jadujag, Thailand and is sure to be a tough race for all involved as it has attracted all 4 IFMAR ITC World Champions as well as some of the best Asian and European racers (see entry lists here). Last years Mod race was won by Marc Rheinard and he is certain to be a favourite this year along with local favourite and winner of last years Stock class Surikarn C, but they first have to get their cars dialed in on the rubber tires and in the 40 degree C heat that is beating down on the track in practice.

Expect the heat to play a major role in who can win this event, as the track temperature is in the mid 50’s celcius, and when you consider that modern machinery is already struggling to get rid of the heat while racing indoors in cooler conditions you can expect to some heat related failures throughout proceedings. Qualfiying will start on Saturday, with the finals on Sunday and we hope to bring you some end of day updates as we get them.

For pictures from the event until now, you can go here, here and here.

Image: TITC [titc.in.th]

February 21, 2007

Toni Rheinard confirmed to Hot Bodies

A short while back we wrote a piece about the fact that Toni ‘brother of Marc’ Rheinard may be upping and leaving Kyosho, a company that he had only raced with for a short time, well that is now confirmed. In pictures from this weeks TITC race in Thailand we can see that Toni is now racing for Hot Bodies, which is a good move for both parties, with Toni hopefully able to get the exposure and success that being a HB driver brings, and HB getting a very talented racer. ~~Hopefully somebody will stand him against a wall and get a picture of him in his HB gear but in the meantime we’ll have to make do with my dodgy compilation shots above~~.

UPDATE: Someone called his name and took his picture.

Images: Team Novi [teamnovi.blog.drecom.jp/]

February 21, 2007

Xray on their NT1 debut

Xray on the NT1 debut

Although we already covered the Winternats I thought it was interesting to get an insight on how the Xray team felt they had performed, considering the hype surrounding the event and the debut of their new 200mm racer, the NT1. While the car definitely performed, it suffered from some off track problems when it mattered most such as poor pit stops as well as the problem that got Jilles Groskamp disqualified after the B-main, but they showed some good speed in the A-main but suffered major tyre wear problems as the track conditions on the finals day changed.

Despite using the harder tire compounds the tires were wearing more than expected and with only a few minutes remaining the rear tires on both Martin and Ralph’s cars wore down almost to the rims making the car more difficult to handle; in the last laps, both lost their 2nd and 3rd position respectively.

You can read the full report here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

February 20, 2007

Snowbird A-main Videos now online

[youtube]ID5rBBE9oCQ[/youtube]

Thanks to the wonder that is YouTube and the enthusiasm of some great spectators with a video camera we can bring you all the important A-mains from the Worlds biggest race, the Snowbirds. This is far better than the webcam as you can actually now see the far corner of the track, those who watched it live online will know what im talking about. The first one is above and is from the Touring Mod final that was won by Jilles Groskamp, the others are below.

Check out the other Videos here… content

February 19, 2007

Martin Pater wins Czech Kyosho Masters

Czech Kyosho Masters

Xray have a report on their site about last weekends Kyosho Masters race in the Czech Republic. The event attract around 100 racers from all around Europe and included many top international racers like former World Champion Daniel Reckward. In qualifying it was Michael Jonsson that got the fastest time ahead of Thomas Passmann and Martin Pater. After the semi finals were run it was on to the main final were Martin Pater was able to pull out a lead and keep it to the end despite heavy pressure throughout the race.

Martin was able to get a good lead which allowed him to take one extra fueling to keep a safe run. Despite having World Champion Daniel Recward pushing hard and trying to catch the leader, Martin stayed calm the whole race and was able to bring the XRAY XB8EC to the final win of this prestigious race.

Read the full event report here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

February 18, 2007

Morganti & Tosolini win 2007 Winternats, Florida

2007 Winternats, Florida

The 2007 Florida Winternats is in the bag and it has produced some very exciting racing, none more so than the A-mains which were packed with talented racers and the best machinery. In the 1/10th scale A-main, the class with the most big names and most varied manufacturers, Paolo Morganti could easily convert his pole position into a much deserved win. The Serpent 720 racer could pull away from his pole position starting spot to win the race 6 laps ahead of 2nd placed racer, Chris Tosolini, driving for Kyosho. The final podium step went to Ralph Burch driving the Xray NT1, who finished only 3 seconds down on 2nd place Tosolini. Danny Horta and Martin Hudy had a close race for 4th with the Serpent driver getting the position by 1 seconds from the Xray racer after 45 minutes racing. It was worth mentioning that Jilles Groskamp managed to win every final from the H-main to the B-main, only to be disqualified after his car failed scrutiny stopping him from bumping up into the A-main.

In the 1/8th scale class it was Chris Tosolini, driving a Kyosho Evolva, that took the win, moving up 1 place from his grid spot to power his way to a 1 lap advantage in the end over 2nd place Rick V, who driving a Mugen MRX4-R had managed to bump up from the B-main after a difficult qualifying. An interesting thing to note was that while everyone else in the final had changed their tyres mid race Chris had left it until the 43rd minute of the race to change his tyres and ensure he was over the weight limit when his car went into race scrutiny. The final step of the podium went to Kyosho racer and pole position sitter Josh Cyrul who ran into some problems and had dropped back to 3rd spot finishing 8 laps clear of 4th placed finisher, Italys Marco Vanni driving a Mugen. Morganti and Salven were out early and this left Scotty Gray to uphold honours for Serpent but he then tangled with last years winner Mike Swauger and Kyoshos Joel Johnson causing damage to all 3 cars and effectively ending their races.

Red RC and The-Border wish to thank the race organisers and fellow racers for making this years event another action packed, well run and enjoyable event.

Click here to view the final A-main results for each class as well as some more images… content

February 17, 2007

European B Championships Slovenia – Warm up event

European B Championships Slovenia

We have been contacted by the organisers of this years EFRA European B Championships for 1/8th scale to tell us about the warm up race that will be held on this beautiful track on the 10th – 11th of March. This warm up race is open to all competitors not just those who will take part in the actual championship race at the end of May and will be run as a rehersal for the big event. If you are planning to race the European B Championships, this is the perfect opportunity to get some practice in on the track before the event itself, and if your not taking part this would be a great chance to race on this challenging 300m long track.

To find out more information you can go to the official Championship site here.