October 9, 2022

Rheinard wins MonTech New York Grand Prix

Marc Rheinard has won the MonTech New York Grand Prix.  A race that has attracted some of touring car’s biggest names such as 2019 winner Ronald Volker and Alexander Hagberg, this year it was 3-time World Champion Rheinard who made the trip across the Atlantic to 360V2 RC Raceway in New Rochelle, New York.  The fourth running of the annual event, in qualifying it was multiple ROAR National Champion Sam Isaacs who had the upper hand taking the opening three rounds ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Rheinard. While Rheinard would hit the top of the time sheets in Q4, it was Isaacs with the overall TQ for the single 5-minute A-Main ahead of Rheinard, Xray’s Keven Hebert and Kemp Anderson.  A mistake on lap 2, when he hit the curbing, would see Isaacs drop to third as Rheinard and Herbert went through.  Despite Hebert posting the fastest lap of the race, Rheinard would stretch his lead to almost 1.2 seconds by the finish with Iaascs completing the podium a further seconds back from Hebert.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]


October 7, 2022

Hamilton ‘having fun’ with RC at Japanese Grand Prix

It seems RC is the big thing in the paddock at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton the latest driver to take time out from his F1 duties and enjoy a bit of RC fun in the Suzuka paddock.  A video shared on the official F1 instagram page shows the 7-time World Champion driving a Tamiya Lunch Box out through his Mercedes-AMG Petronas team’s garage and into the paddock where he enjoys pulling wheelies with the iconic 80’s 1:12 truck.  Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team shared a photo of their star driver and the Lunch Box on their Facebook page with the simple description ‘Just out here having fun’.  We already know how much fun RC is and it is great to see both iconic Japanese RC brands Kyosho and Tamiya being enjoyed by Formula 1.  Hamilton famously appeared on BBC’s Blue Peter show racing an RC car well before he became one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time.

View F1 instagram video here

Images credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team [Facebook]


October 7, 2022

Hobby Action awarded 2023 1:10 Offroad World Championship

Hobby Action RC Raceway has been awarded the 2023 IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship, the Arizona indoor track having been selected by host bloc ROAR from a strong list of candidate tracks across the United States.  Officially made public via a Facebook Live post by Hobby Action’s Larry Tom and Jake Thayer, the announcement the track will host the 19th running of the World Championship is significant.  A track best known for the annual Desert Classic and Kinwald BKlassic races, the state of Arizona is the home of 2015 & 2019 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin, both his titles won on indoor tracks,  and to 2017 double champion Ryan Maifield for whom Hobby Action RC Raceway is his ‘home’ track.  With the United States having had the honour of hosting the inaugural 1:10 Offroad World Championships back in 1985, this will be the 6th time the nation has hosted the IFMAR event.  On four of those occasions it was home drivers who took the win in either 2WD or 4WD.  While no date has yet been officially set,  Tom said in the announcement that he expects it will most likely take place in the month of September.

Source: Hobby Action RC Raceway [Facebook]


October 2, 2022

Canas wins Buggyland 9.0

Less than a month after the country hosted the 1:8 Buggy World Championship, some of the best offroad drivers where back in Spain over the weekend for the the annual Buggyland race where Sworkz’ Juan Carlos Canas was this year’s big winner.  The 9th edition of the Madrid based event, qualifying in Pro Buggy opened with Kyosho driver Joao Figueiredo setting the pace around the Circuito de Fuencarral from Canas, Berkan Kilic and Marco Baruffolo.  Q2 & 3 saw Canas go fastest securing the former champion the overall TQ from Figueiredo, young Spain talent Adrian Pariente, Kilic, Baruffolo and World Champion Davide Ongaro. Having already secure the eBuggy TQ & win from Ongaro and Pariente, Canas would do the double to win from the 1-hour nitro final from the Mugens of 8th place qualifier Burak Kilic and former World Champion Robert Batlle after Anger was an early retirement from 2nd position. In Saturday’s Nitro Truggy Final Tekno’s Baruffolo claimed victory, the Italian holding off Canas (P2) and Figueiredo (P3).

Image: Sworkz [Facebook]


September 30, 2022

MRC Longwy Winter Series/GP3F – Announcement

Prominent French electric onroad club MRC Longwy has announced details of its popular Winter Series. Boasting recent ETS winner Lucas Urbain and fellow international racer Loic Jasmin among its membership, it has also confirmed the date of its famous international GP3F event. The Winter Series is known to attract many international factory drivers while the GP3F has become one of the big events on the annual international touring car calendar. Run over four rounds, the Winter Series has categories for Rookie, FWD, Stock 17.5, Stock 13.5 & Modified and with entries limited to 120 drivers per meeting. With 2023 marking the 18th edition of the GP3F, the dates has been confirmed for January 21-22 although the club are still awaiting final confirmation of the hall

View Series dates here


September 27, 2022

2022 EWS International – Announcement

The well-known EWS team have announced the details of their EWS International event. After an enforced break for a couple of years due to the COVID restrictions, the popular race will return over the weekend of 18-20 November 2022. Taking place on at their usual indoor venue in the south-east of the UK, the race will see classes for Modified and Stock (17.5) Touring, plus Front Wheel Drive and Tamiya Junior-E. As in previous years, the top drivers from the UK will face competition from many of Europe’s best racers, with drivers including World Champions Ronald Volker and Marc Rheinard already confirmed to attend. As always, the EWS team will prepare a world-class track and popular announcer Oli Meggitt will be on the mic to direct the races. This year, a tweak to the time schedule will allow more practice time for those who are only able to attend Saturday onwards, in an effort to provide an option for those drivers looking to save costs or with limited time. Entries for the race open at 19:30 UK time (20:30 CET) on Thursday 29 September via MyRCM, and will be limited.

Source: EWS [ewsevents.co.uk]


September 27, 2022

Urbain wins at ETS RD4 in Luxembourg – Report

Last weekend, ETS RD4 took place at the Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg” in Luxembourg. A fantastic onroad racetrack that attracted 150 ETS racers to sign up for the event. The weekend of racing was amazing, and luckily the weather was stable and dry. In the Matrix Modified class, Lucas Urbain took his first ever race win at the Euro Touring Series and joined the circle of winners. He took the very important pole position in qualifying and won the first two A-Mains from start to finish. It was a perfect weekend for the French Awesomatix driver who was showing an amazing performance on track! Behind the race winner, Marc Rheinard and Ronald Völker took second and third place overall. Yannic Prümper finished fourth, and Jan Ratheisky completed the top 5 in the Matrix Modified class at ETS RD4.

Continue reading report here


September 25, 2022

Salven wins European C/ship 40+ title in Utrecht

He might have officially announced his retirement from top level competition at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in the USA in 2019, but Michael Salven showed this weekend that he hasn’t lost any of his competitiveness.  Racing at the RACO 2000 track in Utrecht, the Netherlands, the Serpent designer became the EFRA European 40+ Champion for a second time.  A multiple 1:10 and 1:8 European Champion over the years, the Dutch based German secured the overall TQ as he took his Serpent 990 to the top of the times in 4 of the 5 rounds of qualifying. Unfortunately turning wet for the finals day, this didn’t effect his pace and despite suffering oneway bearing gearbox issues 10 minutes into the 45-minute final he was able to recover the lost ground and take the win.  Joined by from Martin Zevenhoven (2nd) and Felix Reto (3rd), it was to be an all Serpent podium.  In 1:10, another stalwart of onroad nitro racing took the title as Switerland’s Traugott Schaer led home Claus Ryeskov and Jurmin Etnel.

Image: Michael Salven [Facebook.com]


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