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January 16, 2023

Clean sweep for Phend at Southern Indoor Championship

Dakotah Phend has completed a clean sweep of the first major on the 2023 1:8 Offroad calendar winning Buggy, Truggy and eBuggy at the the RaceTime Entertainment organised Southern Indoor Championship in Alabama. Having already opened his 2023 electric programme with a triple victory at the ‘Clash of Champions’ at Hoosier RC Hobbyplex in Indiana last weekend, in qualifier at SIC the TLR driver would secure the TQ in Nitro Buggy from last year’s triple champion Ryan Maifield. In Truggy, Phend would start from 3rd with Mayako’s Jared Tebo the Top Qualifier while eBuggy saw him qualify P2 behind Maifield’s Tekno. In the finals, Phend kicked off yet another impressive race day with Truggy victory over Tebo and Sworkz’ Joe Bornhorst. Next up was Nitro Buggy and from the front he controlled the half hour encounter finishing over 18-seconds up on Maifield with the Kyosho of Ryan Lutz completing the podium. To cap off yet another star performance from the ‘Phenom’ he won eBuggy but this one went to the wire. Winning A1 by a comfortable margin, in A2 it was Top Qualifier Maifield who lead home the 15-cars with Phend 3rd leaving the pair tied on points. With A1 just fractionally faster, Phend completed the triple while HB Racing’s Mason Fuller completed the overall Top 3.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

January 15, 2023

2 in a row as Branson wins EWS Round 3

Round 3 of the popular British based Essex Winter Series took place over the weekend with reigning Champion Kyle Branson making it two in a row. Runner-up at the opening the season opener when Xray team-mate Bruno Coelho took the win on the series’ return following Covid, Branson would qualify on pole for the latest encounter taking all four round of qualifying. Xray team-mate Harley Eldridge qualified second but found herself defending from Capricorn’s Alex Thurston in the single leg final allowing Branson to take the win. Eldridge kept Thurston at bay reversing their finishing order of the previous round. Following his rejoining of the Schumacher team last week, Chris Grainger qualified & finished 4t ahead of his new car’s designer Andy Murray. Continue reading here

December 31, 2022

RC Indoor Arena to host opening round of Swiss 1:10 Offroad Nationals

The newly opened RC Indoor Arena in Wädenswil, Switzerland, is to host the opening round of the Swiss 1:10 Offroad National Championships. The 600m2 offroad track which is equipped with new EOS carpet, will host the event over the weekend of January 21-23 with Saturday’s programme made up of 1:10 2WD Buggy while Sunday will see 4WD Buggy and 2WD truck action. While a round of the Swiss National Championship, the race is open to drivers who do not hold a Swiss Federation licence. Race registration is via myrcm.ch .

Source: RC Indoor Arena [rc-indoor-arena.ch]

December 21, 2022

Lougheed crowned Irish 1:8 Onroad Champion

2022 would see Infinity driver Graeme Lougheed crowned Ireland’s National 1:8 Onroad Champion. The IF18/ASM Nuclear/Eirerc driver claimed the overall title following 2 victories and a second place, all three round being hosted by the ORCA Club at Ireland’s only 1:8 Onroad track in St Annes Park on the outskirts of the capital city of Dublin. It was a tough battle between Lougheed and Austin Elliot (Shepherd Velox v8.2/Ielasi Tuned) all year with both setting blistering times and both dominating every round. In the end it all boiled down to the last race as each driver came into the event with one win a piece. With Elliot fresh back from the European Championship, and all to play for going into the last round, it was a tough ask for Lougheed but he was able to TQ and set the fastest lap of the year to clinch the 1:8 National title.

Continue reading here

December 18, 2022

Matsukura hosts 1st Naoto Cup

It is nice to see one of the great drivers of RC racing Naoto Matsukura giving back to the sport that has served him well by hosting the 1st Naoto Cup in his native country of Japan over the weekend. The multiple 1:12 World Champion and both Electric & Nitro Touring Car World Champion, held the race at New Next Rush Circuit in Chiba Prefecture, where he was joined by his mentor and legend of the sport Masami Hirosaka. Masami was instrumental in bringing a very young Naoto onto the international stage as a Yokomo driver. The first of hopefully many Naoto Cup events for years to come, after attending Naoto Cup the 14 time World Champion paid tribute to the now factory Infinity driver.

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December 14, 2022

Schumacher Winter Series Rnd 4 – Report

December 11th would play host to round 4 of the Schumacher Winter Series presented by the Louth Radio Control Car Club. On offer was the 17.5 blinky touring car class and support class, with 50 drivers assembling at the venue in Lincolnshire in the U.K. Plunging temperatures outside but some hot action on track as the racers took on four qualifying rounds before a single legged final. After four rounds the TQ spot went to Alex Brocklebank, his Schumacher mi8 the car to beat all day. Alex would take 3 of the four qualifying rounds to take the top spot. Second on the grid was returning racer Ricky Lee and his Awesomatix, Ricky the only driver to put a TQ round together apart from Alex. Another Schumacher of Daniel Burks would line up third on the grid, from Vulcan rc racer Callum Chapman who would secure fourth. Top lmp racer Adam Mackman would make a return to touring cars with his Schumacher Mi8 and would line up 5th with some consistent runs, and Daniel Leonard would round out the top six and take the final a final spot with his Awesomatix. Daniel would show the pace in the final quaking round to take 2nd in the run.

Continue reading report here

December 12, 2022

Branson wins second round of Essex Winter Series

Round 2 of the Essex Winter Series presented by Infinity took place over the weekend with Kyle Branson taking the win. In qualifying Branson topped the first three qualifiers before having issues in Q4 which was topped by Alex Thurston securing the Capricorn driver 2nd on the grid. A string of P2 times would give the Xray of Harley Eldridge 3rd on the grid ahead of Schumacher’s Andy Murray. While Thurston and Eldridge pushed Branson in the single leg final they were not able to pass the British National Champion and they finished as they qualified. In Stock it was Zak Finlay who took the TQ and win with Billy Fletcher second and Tony Broad third. Starting from pole Shane Chipolina won Front Wheel Drive with his Schumacher while in the Junior E class James Snashall took the victory having also started from the front of the grid.

View more podium images here

December 7, 2022

2022 Willspeed GP – Race Report

The inaugural Willspeed Grand Prix took place over the weekend at the 1066 Racing venue in Hastings, East Sussex. A 2WD only single day event, it attracted an impressive 69 drivers. 1066 Racing completed a fantastic job presenting a worlds standard 30mx18m EOS Carpet Track dressed in WS blue features, Banners and decals not only looking fantastic with challenging obstacles connecting high and low speed sections the layout a delight to drive linking the sections required to deliver a competitive lap time. Willspeed manufactured billet aluminium winners medals with event specific engraved details (dual use as camber gauges) for top 3 in all finals, it was all to race for! These medals were also presented all juniors racers whom attended the event. For the one off event the Willspeed and 1066 Racing teams developed an adapted format for the singular event. The format consisted of 3 round by round 5-minute qualifiers with the best 2 seeding into 1 semi-final for all. The top 8 qualify directly into the A final with the remaining finals containing 10 cars with the top 2 bumping into the next final. 3 leg finals then followed for all racers.

Continue reading report here