April 3, 2023

Horne does double at Pro-line April Fools Classic

The 34th Annual Pro-line April Fools Classic took place over the weekend with Aydin Horne the big winner in Utah.  In 2WD Buggy, the Team Associated driver secured TQ honours after topping the final 2 of the four qualifiers, his Q4 pace giving him the tie breaker over Schumacher’s Broc Champlin.  Domnic Paccione secured P3 with the second fastest time for both Q3 & 4. In 4WD Buggy it would be Champlin who secured pole for the triple finals after he also set the pace in the third & fourth rounds.  Horne opened quali with a TQ run while team-mate Dustin Evans topped Q2 but had to settle for 4th on the grid behind Kevin Gillespie.  In the 4WD finals, second place starter Horne would get the better of Champlin to take A1 and repeating that again in A2 wrapped up an earlier overall win. Following Champlin home in A3 for a P2 finish, Evans would complete the podium line-up ahead of Xray’s Ty Tessmann.  In the 2WD finals, Horne won A1 while Champlin retired and Evans came through from P5 for second.  Taking A2 ahead of Horne, Champlin forced play to the last final of the event however Horne duly took A3 to complete the April Fools Classic double.

Image: Team Associated [Facebook]


April 3, 2023

Tolomelli & Tassinari secure LMP & GT12 Italian C/ships

The 2023 LMP & GT12 Italian Indoor Championships took place at RC Landia in Scandiano over the weekend.  A race sanctioned on the 2023 National Sporting calendar of ACI Sport, the Italian Motorsport Federation and member of the FIA,  in LMP Open Modified it was Alessio Tolomelli (Team Marka) secured pole position after the 4 qualifiers.   In the afternoon finals he would back his qualifying pace up with a dominant win during the finals ahead of Marcello Galli with Alessandro Bianchi (Team B-Racing) completing the podium.  In GT12, Luca Tassinari (Team Schumacher) showed speed and consistency throughout the day securing both TQ and the overall win in a dominant fashion ahead of Davide Mischiatti (Team Schumacher) and the emerging young talent of Luca Rampini (Team Treerremodellismo).  The activity of the Italian RC Car Racing Federation (ACI Sport) will now move outdoors with the second phase of the National Sporting calendar: the months of May, June and July will see the Italian Cup taking place in Northern, Central and Southern Italy in several classes (8th scale On and Off Road, TOURING EP).  Such races will also serve as Qualifiers for drivers in order to gain access to the 2023 Italian Championships, to be held in September and October.

View GT12 Podium here


April 2, 2023

Tironi & Branson winners at Ielasi Tuned Trophy

Francesco Tironi and British visitor Kyle Branson were the winners of the 2023 Ielasi Tuned Trophy.  First hosted by former World Champion Daniele Ielasi in 2O15, the annual Ielasi Tuned Trophy again attracted a quality international field to the Northern Italian Leno track.  Unfortunately rain meant no finals could be run with the final results being declared on the outcome of qualifying.  In 1:8, it would be the Infinity of Tironi that had the edge over Mugen’s Robert Pietsch over the 4-minute qualifiers.  Former Trophy winner Toni Gruber managed P3 with his Capricorn just ahead of team-mate Mirko Salemi.  In 1:10, it was the Xray of Branson who set the pace in qualifying to be the Top Qualifying ahead of the Serpent of Matteo Passetti and Capricorn of Stefan Chodzynski.

View 1:10 Trophy presentation image here


April 2, 2023

JConcepts Tribute Wheels BIGFOOT body set

JConcepts has teamed up with BIGFOOT 4×4 to offer officially licensed Tribute Wheels decal sets to go along with branded body shells.  One of the more famous paint schemes from the 1990’s featured a lot of flame work on a black base colour body.  This radical departure became a crowd favourite with Dan Runte piloting a new generation BIGFOOT to victory during the glory days of side-by-side competition. With JConcepts’ featured wheel in the RC monster truck product line, “Tribute Wheels” seems to be a perfect match for one of the more successful BIGFOOT trucks of all-time.  The included body shell, a 1993 Ford F-250 with visor and racerback can be dressed as the iconic truck. With major help from the included decal sheet and massive wrap, the Tribute Wheels body is a thing of beauty once it is carefully prepped and decalled. Tribute Wheels BIGFOOT is the result of JConcepts always looking through the lineage to add staple designs to an already bolstered line-up. Back in 2020, the team unveiled this shell design with a wild look and to the pleasure of many RC monster truck fans, now, they were able to re-create a lot of their favourite vehicles.

View more images here


March 30, 2023

IFMAR World Cup 1:8 Electric Buggy – Announcement

IFMAR has announced details of the first ever World Cup for 1:8 Electric Buggy.  While 1:8 nitro has enjoyed World Championship status since 1986, the World Cup will be the first step for the electric category to become a World Championship category in 2025.  The World Cup event will take place on September 22-24 and be hosted by the Club ACDB “OS BEIROES” at their 310m track in Guarda, Portugal.   The track previously hosted the 2010 EFRA European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship when Reno Savoya took the third of his European titles.  While taking place only one week after the 1:10 Offroad World Championships at Hobby Action in the USA, the 1:8 Electric Buggy World Cup is still expected to be well supported by the industry given the growing future importance of the category.  View Stage 1 report here.

Source: IFMAR [imfar.org] 


March 29, 2023

JConcepts Kosmos & Sprinter SCT Aqua A2 compound

JConcepts is now offering their Kosmos and Sprinter SCT tyres in its Aqua A2 compound.  Starting with a clean shape and carcass, for the Kosmos the design team took to a rectangular based pin which has the forward bite muscle to boost a 1:8 buggy.  The staggered rows create a unique zig/zag affect at certain views giving it a 3D mind puzzle affect. In fact, the design is 4 rows deep of off-set and staggered sections when compared to some traditional tires which rely on 2.  The Sprinter tyre is designed to bridge a gap between the popular Double Dees and other pin tire options from JConcepts.  It has square, angled pins that are stacked vertically to flex and fold evenly across the tyre.  Typically, a stacked tread will wear less and provide more forward bite while the aligned space helps rotation in the turns and gives a snappy release to square up quickly.  Starting with the new tread, the team focused on durability and performance to bring a tyre option to market that competes on loose surfaces which are wet or dusty.

View Sprinter SCT tyre here


March 29, 2023

2023 Portugal Touring Series (PTS) – Announcement

The Portugal Touring Series has announced its schedule for 2023 with the popular Lisbon based series being made up of three rounds.  Taking place on the 2008 1:10 200mm IFMAR World Championship hosting Monsanto track, the home track of a certain Bruno Coelho, the series kicks off on April 23th with Round 2 scheduled for May 21st.  Organised by CRB-Clube Rádio Modelismo de Benfica, each round caters for Touring Car and Formula with the addition of a Carten M Cup for 2023.  The PTS will conclude on July 23rd and with Lisbon the home to both Coelho and Alexander Hagberg don’t be surprised to see either of these World Champions turn up at a round.

Source: PTS [Facebook]


March 29, 2023

Tamiya Championship Series Rnd3 Cal Raceway – Report

The third round of the 2023 Tamiya Championship Series made its way to Cal Raceway in Orange, California last weekend with the event attracting an impressive 186 entries.  Now in its 28th year, this year’s series regional race at Cal Raceway hosted 119 racers competing for honours in 8 different classes.  Fielding the biggest grid was the Euro-Truck class with 49 entries with Michael Monaghan taking the win ahead Mark Brown and Brian Ruvalcaba.  Monaghan would also take the win in M-Chassis class.  The next largest grid was GT2 (17.5 Tamiya tub chassis class) with Matt Allen the winner over Hector Martinez.  The other Round 3 winners were Brian Ruvalcaba (Formula 1), Cory Belanger (GT Spec NOVICE), Pete Teh (GT-PRO SPEC), Edgar Fiallos (GT-1) and Phillip Enriquez (GT-E).

Source: Tamiya USA [tamiyausa.com]


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