Red RC » National

June 23, 2009

Grainger & Bowden take BRCA TC Rd2

The second round of the BRCA National Championship saw the series head to the beautiful Halifax facility in the north of England. Chris Grainger dominated early qualifying with his GM powered Schumacher Mi4 choosing his new tires at the correct moments to get a perfect 3 TQ’s from the 5 qualifying rounds over the weekend with Rd1 winner Andy Moore with his Hot Bodies Cyclone 2nd and Xray driver Elliot Harper in 3rd. Pro Stock qualifying went the way on Jon Bowden in front of Lee Price and Byron Humphries. The first mod leg saw a flag to flag victory for Grainger but the second didn’t quite go to plan. Chris got dirt on his tyres before the delayed start, allowing Andy Moore to pip him on the first lap and take the victory on his fresh tyres compared to Chris’s used ones. With the tyres now all being equal going in the last leg Chris dominated the run taking a comfortable victory to secure the overall win in front of Moore, with Harper taking 3rd. The Pro stock was dominated by Bowden, winning all 3 rounds, with Lee Price a consistent 2nd, while Luke Thompson claimed 3rd spot.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

June 23, 2009

Pedro Rombouts wins Rd3 Dutch 10th Nats

Round 3 of the Dutch 1/10th scale Nationals was run last weekend at the tight and technical Gouda track in the south of the country. Despite it being dry all weekend, a lot of drivers found it a challenge to get their setup right and so after qualifying it was Maarten van Lierop on pole in the NK class ahead of Arco de Jong in 2nd, Pedro Rombouts 3rd and Sander Borghoff in 4th, while Euro B podium finisher Daan Jacobs could only manage 5th. In the Nomac class Marc Meijer took the pole position in front Michael Behnert and in the promo class Dennis van Lammeren TQ’d ahead of Luigi Pili. The NK main final was missing Daan Jacobs who won his semi final but failed to pass post race scrutiny with a too wide car. In the main race itself there were some good battles throughout the field but in the end Pedro Rombouts could take his 2nd National win in front of van Lierop, who made some mistakes in the race, with Bas Geurds, who was on a 6 minute pit strategy moving up from 9th on the grid to take 3rd at the end. The Nomac class was won by Michael Behnert in front of Davy Geraets and Rik Meijeren, while in the Promo class Dennis could win from Alfred van Dijk and Dick Doom.

Click here to see the other podiums

June 22, 2009

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th Rd4

Round 4 of the BRCA championship was held at the Mendip circuit, just outside the seaside resort of Weston Super Mare. The weather was dry both days with overcast sky’s and a lot of drivers arrived early Saturday morning to start testing to find the perfect setup. Many drivers use the first couple of hours to run-in and set up engines which then allows the track to rubber in, making chassis setup work that little easier in the afternoon. The early indication was that Mark Green would again be the man to beat due to his consistent driving style every lap. Once the grip was good and black line started to form, it was apparent that Mark was struggling for a setup with his quickest lap time being 15.5 secs, but this was consistent. The other Championship contenders were soon starting to push this time hard and with fine tuning of chassis setup’s, Neil Diver (Velox) and Pete Hastings (Serpent) produced lap times of 15.3 and 15.2 respectively and now needed to work on consistency to have any chance to beating Mark Green in qualification. Andy North was testing geometry changes to the rear of his Mugen in the quest to find more steering and corner speed. This was beginning to work well and with lap times of 15.4 secs seemed to suggest that we are heading in the right direction.

Click here to continue reading the report

June 22, 2009

Redding & Johnson take Region 10 titles

This weekend saw the ROAR Region 10 Championships run at Colorado Fast Track in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Racers from around the Region came to compete for the championship and it was Team Losi’s Lars Johnson who was on early form to defend his Regional titles from 2008 in the Pro Buggy and Pro Truggy classes, TQ’ing the first couple rounds in both classes. Round 3 saw Team Associated driver Adrian Redding grab TQ with his new RC8B and with a shortened schedule due to rain on Saturday, Lars would be top qualifier for both pro classes. The 45 minute Buggy Main would prove to be very tough with temperatures in the 90’s and track getting bumpy and hard to navigate through. The start of the main was not what Lars had in mind, a costly mistake over the first double had him getting bounced around with the back of the grid. While making a charge back to the front of the race he would have mechanical problems ending his chance of challenging for the win. This would allow Adrian Redding to get the distance he needed over the rest of the racers and cross the finish line first.

Continue reading the report here

June 19, 2009

Christophe Aygon wins French 8th Nats Rd4

Round 4 of the French 1/8th scale on road Nationals was run last weekend in Limoges, close to the the centre of the country. With the winner of the first 3 rounds, Adrien Bertin busy helping at the Euro ‘B’ Championships in Switzerland, the series would be sure of having a new winner this round. Qualfiying in the Elite class went the way of Serpent/RB driver Anthony Abisset debuting the new 966, followed by Stéphane Bouche, Romain Picard and Laurent Pageneau, while in the National class another Serpent 966 driver topped the time sheets, Arnaud Mathieu, in front of Jérôme Berthelot, Gérald Colinet and Damien Thirion. Following the semi finals, the Elite main final saw Bouche start from 11th having called for a delay. Abisset went off into the lead but on lap 5 came into contact with another car and broke his rim, loosing him a lot of time and dropping him down the order. Romain Picard took over the lead but a better tire strategy from the old guns Christophe Aygon and Serge Christiany saw them take over at the front and claim the win for Serpent and the new 966, with Stéphane Bouche recovering to 3rd by the end. In the National final Arnaud Mathieu sets off at qualifying pace and couldn’t be touched as behind Jérôme Berthelot claimed 2nd and a close battle for 3rd between Damien Thirion and Gérald Colinet is decided on the final corner with Colinet claiming the final podium step by 3 tenths of a second.

Click here for the final results

June 18, 2009

Mickael Pontal wins French 10th Nats Rd3

Round 3 of the French 1/10th scale gas nationals was held last weekend at Bourg en Bresse in the east of the country, close the to Swiss border, with sunny conditions all weekend for the 104 competitors attending. Qualifying for the Elite class saw Thomas Eytard take the top spot ahead of Basile Concialdi in 2nd, Arnaud Chaussard in 3rd and the final direct qualifier was Thomas Desmaries in 4th. The National class qualifying went the way of Anthony Bruyer ahead of Cédric Guillaud in 2nd, with Ludovic Cesar and Benjamin Brasset rounding out the top 4. In the Elite final, it was pole man Eytard that got the holeshot, but problems with his car dropped him out of contention. Concialdi, who was conserving his tires in 2nd, took over the lead but unfortunately some radio problems also dropped him down the leader board. Steady driving and good fortune allowed Kyosho driver Mickael Pontal to take over at the front and bring home the win, by a lap from Mugen Driver Thomas Desamaries in 2nd and Jacky Mouton, with another Kyosho, in 3rd. In the National class the race was all about Benjamin Brasset as pole man Bruyer had problems with his gearbox and dropped down the field. Benjamin was able to pull out a half lap lead by the halfway point, a gap that would be closed up by 2nd placed Julien Colas by the end of the race to only 4/100 of a second. Brasset just managing to cross the line first to take the win from the hard charging Colas in 2nd with Arthur Leclercq in 3rd, the top 6 covered by just over a lap.

Click here to see the final results

June 17, 2009

Francesco Tironi wins Italian Nats Rd2

The 2nd round of the Italian 1/10th scale 200mm Championships took place in Messina last weekend and in the expert class it was Dario Balestri, with the new Team Magic G4 II, that took the pole position. In the race however, Mugen Sirio driver Francesco Tironi won the final by a lap, setting a new track record along the way. In 2nd place was Xray Max driver Giorgio De Felici, with 3rd place going to Mugen SM racer Guiseppe D’angelo, 7 seconds further back. Alessio Mazzeo finished 4th driving the prototype Serpent 733 chassis.

Source: F.V.S.S. Racing Team [fvssrc.com]

June 16, 2009

Steele & Campbell win Irish Nationals Rd4

The fourth round of Ireland’s On road Nitro Nationals took place over the weekend at the St.Annes track near Dublin city where Chris Steele took his third 200mm win of the season and Ian Campbell notched up his first 1:8 victory following a thrilling 30 minute final. Qualifying on pole for the 200mm race ahead of fellow Kyosho driver Chris Lawlor, Steele dominated the race setting the fastest lap enroute to a 7-lap winning margin over the Xray of Eoin Doran with Thomas Ward completing the podium. In 1:8 it was defending champion Clive Connolly who took TQ honours with his IDM powered Mugen over the Kyosho of current championship leader Austin Elliot. A very close final saw four drivers in the hunt for the win but that dropped to three when Elliot flamed out and then to two when Connolly had to make an unscheduled tyre stop five minutes from the end. This left Campbell and 1:8 returnee Steele, winner of the 200mm race, to battle it out for the top spot on the podium. In the end teenager Campbell, whose Matrix tyres equipped Shepherd recorded the fastest lap of the race, took the win by 7 seconds from Steele’s Kyosho with the recovering Connolly a further 7 seconds adrift in third.

Click here to see the 1/8th scale podium