Red RC » Racing

March 14, 2009

Yokomo sign World Champion Hayato Matsuzaki

Yokomo have announced the signing of current IFMAR 2wd buggy World Champion Hayato Matsuzaki. The former Hot Bodies racer joins IFMAR 1/12th scale World Champion and current double JMRCA National buggy Champion Naoto Matsukura as well as former European Champion Joern Neumann to create the company’s dream junior team. Fourteen time World Champion Masami Hirosaka, who has announced his retirement from competition, will oversee operations for Yokomo and has put together the current team in preparation for this years World Championships that take place in South Africa. The first race for the team is this weekend’s Cactus Classic in the USA.

Source: Yokomo [teamyokomo.com]

March 14, 2009

John Ermen joins ATS Tyres International Team

ATS Tyres have announced that front running Dutch driver John Ermen has joined the ATS Tyres International Team. Alongside the National Championships the former Dutch National Champion will attend most of the international races this year as well as the main event of the season, the WC in Lostallo, Switzerland that takes place in August. John will continue to use his Novarossi powered Serpent chassis and will once again use Tornado fuels.

Source: ATS Tyres [atsmodel.com]

March 13, 2009

Iñaky Pahissa wins Spanish 1/10th Nats Rd1

Last weekend saw the Cerdanyola Modelcar Track, play host to the 1st round of the Spanish 1/10th scale 200mm National Championship. The event drew 84 drivers ready to open 2009 season and following qualifying it was Xabier Arana who had taken the TQ, followed by Rodrigo Pahissa, Iñaky Pahissa and Johnny Pastor. The main Final was clearly dominated by Xray driver Iñaky Pahissa who took the first position after the first refuelling and kept it for the whole race. The fight for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th places was very interesting and we saw 5 drivers fighting and swapping positions trying to reach the final podium places. In the end it was Kyosho driver Ramón Guasch that took 2nd ahead of another Xray driver Rodrigo Pahissa in 3rd, who also made the fastest lap in the final and set an new track record. Both Rodrigo and Iñaky Pahissa used Merlin fuel to power their Max Power engines.

Source: Merlin [merlinfuel.com]

March 13, 2009

Basile Concialdi wins French 10th Nats Rd1

The opening round of the French 1/10th scale Nationals took place last weekend in Monteux in the south of France. The weather was dry all weekend with 18 degrees temperatures on the finals day and there was 87 drivers in attendance, split between Elite and National classes. In the Elite class, it was Thomas Eytard who took the top spot in qualifying from Mikael Pontal in 2nd and Thomas Desmaries claiming 3rd, while in the National class it was Anthony Bruyer who claimed TQ ahead of local racers Jérôme Di Crocco and Thomas Corréard. In the Elite final the first 20 minutes saw the race still wide open to a number of front runners with Thomas Desmaries leading the way. At the 30 minute mark a lot of drivers came in for a tire stop with Chaussard doing all 4 and the leader Desmaries only doing the rear tires. Basile Concialdi would not change any tires and could take the lead and with it the win, with Chaussard taking 2nd and Maxime Favrel 3rd, all 3 drivers with the Xray NT1. In the National final it was all about the pole man Anthony Bruyer, who cruised to victory in front of Thomas Correard in 2nd and J-Paptiste Geneau in 3rd.

Click here to see the final results

March 12, 2009

Xray Column – 2009 Kick-off

The 28th installment in the Xray column from Xray owner and chief designer Juraj Hudy is now online. In this months column, Juraj talks about the start of the 2009 race season which takes in the DHI Cup and European Indoor Championships in Italy.

This January was busy as usual, even a bit more so than usual. First of all, internally we have worked on four new big XRAY projects at the same time as well as finishing plenty of new HUDY products which is by far the largest amount of new stuff we have ever worked on simultaneously. Secondly, in addition to the annual DHI Cup which kicks off the electric touring car season, we had another major and highly competitive race on schedule; the newly-added European Indoor Championship for 1/10 electric touring cars and 1/12 pan cars and the US team headed to the annual US Touring Car Championship.

Read the full column here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

March 11, 2009

Adam Drake wins Silver State warmup

Last weekend was the final test at the Boulder City track to get ready for the Silver State Nitro Challenge the first week of April. Drivers from Losi, AE, Tamiya, Mugen, Kyosho, and O’Donnell were in attendance to do some final testing. The conditions were very dusty and bumpy and at the end of qualifying it was Losi / GRP’s Adam Drake on top of both the 1/8th buggy and 1/8th truck class. The conditions in the mains were even rougher and the weather was getting cold, but Adam Drake was able to come out on top again in both 1/8th buggy and 1/8th truck, in the latter Adam won the final by more then 1 lap.

March 11, 2009

Adrien Bertin wins French 8th Nats Rd1

The opening round of the French 1/8th scale National series was held last weekend in Toulouse in the south west of France, close to Spain. The race saw 63 drivers entered separated between Elite and National classes and the weather for the event was cold but dry for most of the event. Qualifying for the Elite class saw Team Orion engine man Adrien Bertin, driving a Kyosho, take the pole position for the main final in front of Sebastian Zatla in 2nd and Stéphane Bouche 3rd, while in the National class it was Maxime Tenet who started 1st ahead of Philippe Regolle in 2nd and Jérémy Cassagne 3rd. Following the semi finals the main finals got underway and in the Elite class it was Bertin and Bouche who lead away, remaining like this up until the 15 minute mark when there was some light rain which made some drivers pit for new tires, something Bertin didn’t do and he could stretch his lead to win by 3 laps from Bouche in 2nd and Laurent Zatla in 3rd. In the National class it was local driver Jérémy Cassagne that took the lead and stretched out a gap, and despite the engine stopping once, could maintain his lead and take the win by a lap from Gérald Colinet in 2nd and Maxime Tenet in 3rd.

Click here to see the final results

March 10, 2009

LRP TCM Live page now online

Our friends at LRP have finalized the Live page for their Touring Car masters race, which takes place in less than 3 weeks time in Eppelheim, Germany. A long time fixture on the Indoor touring car racing scene, the event attracts top names such as Marc Rheinard, Ronald Völker, Viktor Wilck, Alex Hagberg & Jilles Groskamp to battle it out for the crown. On the live site you can already find information on the event as well as vote on who you think will win this year’s TCM, and will provide reports, results and photos from during the actual event.

Check out the event site here.