Team Magic have announced the signing of Xavier Arana to their team for 2010. The runner up at last year’s Spanish National championship will race the G4S09 throughout the season, making his competition debut at the opening National race at the Valladolid track.
Source: Team Magic [teammagic.com.tw]
Our friends at LRP were in contact to remind us that their annual international touring car event will get underway this Friday in Eppelheim, Germany. LRP will be covering the event live on their official TCM website, where you can follow all the action with reports, interviews and videos.
Check out the official event site here.
Last weekend’s Cactus Classic race saw AKA debut their two new SC tires, which we wrote about previously, the Wishbone and the Enduro at the event. Mark Pavidis posted the fastest time in Short Course qualifying and started in second for the main. Two laps into the 15 minute final Mark took the lead and never looked back. Mark took the top spot on the podium followed by team mate Joe Pillars who finished third overall. Some competitors questioned using the small Wishbone tread on such a high bite and abrasive track condition, but the pictures prove that AKA’s long wearing proprietary rubber compounds proved the competition wrong and finished with tread to spare.
Click here for images of Mark’s truck
Team Orion are reporting on the 24th Annual Cactus Classic hosted by Scottsdale R/C Speedway in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. Like in years past, this race had an International feel with drivers coming from as far as Japan and Europe to attend. The Cactus is very well known as being one of the biggest and best races of the year for its great competition and perfect weather. At the beginning of every year, this is one race that every marks on their calendar to attend.
Continue reading the report here
Following the introduction of the new forward cockpit Bull dog shell from Pro-Line, that made its debut at the recent Silver State race, it seems that this and other new body shell designs was a step too far for ROAR. The US governing body have today announced that they will begin to approve buggy shells for sanctioned events, something they haven’t done previously, in order to maintain a resemblance to “those used in full-scale off-road and stadium racing”. One could question how much conventional RC buggy and truggy resemble full size race cars, but rules are rules and ROAR believe that these new body shell designs are not in the spirit of the rules and so are clamping down.
We received word that Adam Drake took the win at the RCX buggy Supercross race, that took place at the RCX show in Pomona. The Team Losi factory driver took the win with his Novarossi powered 8ight 2.0 ahead of Kyosho’s Cody King in 2nd with Travis Amezcua taking 3rd spot.
Image: RCCA
Round 5 of the Florida State off road series took place recently at B&B Hobbies in Hudson. The week leading up to the race, Florida was hit with heavy rains for several days straight and the weekend’s race was certainly in question but B&B Hobbies however had no doubt that their track would be ready to go Saturday morning for the first round and they certainly didn’t disappoint. After about an hour of open practice qualifying got under way. Just coming off his recent success at Motorama; JR Mitch lead the way by taking the overall TQ position in both Pro Buggy & Pro Truggy with his JConcepts equipped Rc8B and RC8T-CE. By the main events the track had taken on a nice blue-groove condition and JR took full advantage by reaching for his favorite tires, Double Dee V2 in buggy and Sevens in Truggy. Once the dust settled, JR Mitch stood on top by winning both classes in dominating fashion beating Billy Easton and Jason Ruona in buggy and Ryan Eckert and Joey Perez in truggy.
Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]
With the start of the new season getting close, talented 16-years old up and coming German driver Tobias Hepp has signed a deal to use different products distributed by Shepherd Micro Racing. Besides Novarossi engines he will also use MLC fuel by Lamberto Collari as well as Shepherd Racing Tyres in both classes, 1/10th scale on-road and 1/10th scale touring car. Tobias will race the West German Championship, the EFRA Grand Prix in Apeldoorn and Hildesheim and of course the German Championships in Rötz (1/8) and Leipzig (1/10). He had the following to say:
I am looking forward to working together with Team Shepherd and I am sure that the use of such high quality products will help to increase my performance in the upcoming season.
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
