Red RC » Racing

June 5, 2023

Balestri wins EFRA GP at Lostallo

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has made it two from two after winning the latest EFRA GP International race which took place at the iconic Lostallo circuit in Switzerland over the weekend. Winner of the EFRA GP in Leno, Italy back in April, the former World Champion was fastest in qualifying with a best time of 12/4:00.363 set in the final of his three attempts. His closest rival would be team-mate Carmine Raiola whom he held over a 1-second advantage. Lamberto Collari, who claimed the most recent of his record nine 1:8 Onroad World Championship titles at the same circuit back in 2009, would qualify third ahead of Capricorn’s Mirko Salemi. In the half hour final, Balestri posted the fastest lap of the race on his way to victory with Collari in second just 4-seconds back. With Riola retiring after 10-minutes, Salemi would complete the podium ahead of the Mugen of Massimo Aliprandi.

Image: Dario Balestri [Facebook]

June 4, 2023

Phend & Maifield lift ’23 ROAR Fuel National titles

Dakotah Phend and Ryan Maifield lifted this year’s ROAR 1:8 Fuel Offroad National titles, Phend successfully defending his Buggy crown but hitting late issues that denied a repeat of the TLR driver’s 2022 double Tekno’s Maifield would take the Truggy win. Hosted by AMain Hobbies’ Silver Dollar RC Raceway in Chico, California, qualifying saw Phend secure the overall TQ honours for both categories. In Buggy it was Xray’s Ty Tessmann who was his closest challenger as the only other driver to register a TQ run in the four rounds. Truggy saw Seth Vandalen secure P2 after coming out top of a three way tie-breaker with Spencer Rivkin (P3) and Jared Tebo (P4). With the 45-minute Truggy Main up first, Phend was on target to retain his title but clutch issues in the final two laps dropped him to third allowing 5th place qualifier Maifield, who mounted a challenge for the lead earlier in the race, to come through to lift his 7th National Truggy Championship 4.7-seconds ahead of Tebo. After the disappointment of Truggy, Phend was able to convert his qualifying form into victory winning the 1-hour encounter from Maifield with the Team Associated of Rivkin completing the podium. In the 1:8 Buggy Junior Final Team Associated’s Jonah Wilson took the win from Top Qualifier Andrew Beauchamp with Phi Long Nguyen third.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]

June 4, 2023

Orlowski wins ETS Season opener

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has won the opening round of the ETS at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. Having claimed his first ever win in the series at last season’s finale in Daun back in January, the Polish driver registered his first outdoor win ahead of the Awesomatix of Lucas Urbain and Mugen of Erik Dankel as reigning champion Ronald Volker kicked off his title defence with a fourth place. Getting qualifying underway with a TQ run, Orlowski would start the finals from P2 behind Top Qualifier Marc Rheinard, the Awesomatix driver topping two of the four rounds, while Q2 pace setter Urbain secured 3rd on the grid. In the opening A-Main, Rheinard would take the win ahead of Urbain and Dankel with Orlowski retiring from the race. In A2, Rheinard would suffer a spin allowing Orlowski to go to the front and claim a win that put everything on the line in A3. Leading away the field, Rheinard would suffer an early issue that would allow Orlowski to the front where he would stay to secure the overall win. Holding second, few laps later, Rheinard’s car came would come to stop at the end of the straight ending his race and leaving the German with only a P7 for his weekends’s efforts. In Pro Stock Olivier Bultynck enjoyed the best start possible to the season as he took the TQ and win with Lukas Ellerbrock and Max Machler making it an all Awesomatix podium.

May 31, 2023

Lucas Grainer doubles at Slovakian Nationals Rd2

The second round of the Slovakian 1:10 Offroad National Championships took place over the weekend where the Team Associated of Lucas Grainer took the double win. Racing at the RCcomorra track which is located in Komarno in the South West of the country, in qualifying Grainer secured the TQ in both classes. The Xray of Roman Dero Pavlus would be his closest challenger in the finals finishing runner-up in both 2WD and 4WD. In 2WD the Team Associated of Michal Nagy completed the podium while in 4WD the Top 3 was rounded out by the Xray of Lacko Toth.

Image : Thomas Grainer

May 31, 2023

T-Works 22X-4 Alu Center Bulkhead

Coming from T-Works and made for TLR’s 22x-4 is this aluminium centre bulkhead. The single piece is machined from high-quality 7075-T6 aluminium for exceptional strength and features a black surface coating for wear and looks as well as machined silver edge details. The part is a direct replacement for the standard kit bulkhead.

Source: T-Works [rc-tworks.com]

May 30, 2023

BRCA 2WD Onroad Nationals Round 2 – Report

The second round of this year’s BRCA 2WD Onroad Championship took place at the West London Racing Centre. Both Saturday’s Practice and Sunday’s race day saw the drivers greeted with sunny, warm conditions which were ideal for what was to prove to be some very close racing. The first of the FWD qualifiers went to Ben Moorey’s Awesomatix from Ben Cosgrove’s Xray and with our Dutch visitor, Robin Van Gog, in third with another Awesomatix. Ben C took round 2 from Dale Burr’s Awesomatix and Andy Faulke’s Destiny. Round 3 went the way of Schumacher’s Andy Murray with the new FT8 from Ben C and Ben M. So, it was Ben C who took pole from Ben M, Dale and Andy. The first leg of the final’s saw Ben M take the win by three-tenths from Andy, Ben C and Dale. The second leg saw a win for Ben C from Ben M by less than four-tenths with Dale in third, so it was all down to the final leg to decide it. It was Ben C who took the win with Ben M recovering to take second from Andy and Dale. So, the overall win went the way of Ben C and his Xray from Ben M’s Awesomatix and Andy’s Schumacher.

F1 report and podium photo here

May 30, 2023

Ioannidis & Kalantzakis win Greek Nationals opener

Last weekend, the first round of the 1:10 Electric Touring Car Greek Nationals was held at Fanatix Racing Track located in Athens, Greece in sunny but windy conditions. In the Modified class, reigning Greek champion Dimitris Ioannidis (Awesomatix) took the TQ spot early on by taking Q1, Q2 and Q3 while Nitro Greek champion Dimitris Dimitriou (Xray) secured the 2nd spot on the grid with fast Dimitris Kouretas (Infinity) behind him. In the finals, Ioannidis won leg 1 and leg 2 securing the overall win and thus not racing in leg 3. Dimitriou, Kouretas, and former Greek champion Kostas Sidiropoulos (Mugen) fought for the remaining podium positions with Dimitriou securing P2 overall after consistent driving with a P1 finish in leg 3 and a P2 finish in leg 1 while Sidiropoulos capitalised on some errors from Kouretas rounding out the podium.

View Stock report and podium here

May 30, 2023

Hong Nor sign large scale World Champion Grenenger

In this 1:8 GT World Championship year, Hong Nor has made a significant signing in Australian driver Russell Grenenger. In collaboration with with Speedy RC, the 2015 IFMAR Large Scale World Champion joining the Hong Nor Factory Team and will drive the new Hong Nor X3GTS 2023 World Edition at future Australian state and national events to prepare for the GT 2023 IFMAR World Championship in Sydney, Australia. Commenting on joining Hong Nor, Grenenger said “I’m delighted to join the team and take on this new challenge. Hong Nor has been amazing to deal with, and very supportive of feedback and testing. I look forward to seeing how my many years of on-road large-scale, and more recently 1/8th IC on-road transfers over into the 1/8 GT class. I would like to thank Hong Nor and SpeedyRC Online Store for this opportunity”.

Source: Hong Nor [hongnor-racing.com]