Red RC » Racing

October 4, 2008

Kyosho 1-2-3 in the East Midlands Cup

Last Sunday saw the final round of the 10 round East Midlands Nitro Offroad Racing Championship. The championship is competed in and around the East Midlands area visiting each track twice in the year with 6 out of 10 rounds to count. Recent Kyosho signing Steven Bond received his Kyosho STRR Truggy days before the opening meeting and started off the series in the second round on the new Derby track with a TQ and Win. Following this by TQ and wins in rounds 3,4,6,7,8 and missing 3 rounds due to racing in the Truggy Nationals the Championship was won with a maximum score. With a National A final and finishing 15th overall in the UK Nationals followed by a 2nd in the Hongnor Cup Steven stated “I am more than satisfied with the STRR”. The Kyosho reliability and superior handling also helped Tony Drabble and Dean Coupland to second and third to complete the Kyosho 1-2-3.

October 3, 2008

Costa wins Final Portugese 1/8th National

Last weekend the final round of the Portuguese National Championship was run at the Sintra track in Lisbon. It was the first time a Shepherd Velox showed up at a track in Portugal and was also the debut 1/8th scale race for current 1/10th scale Champion Filipe Costa. He quickly got used to the car and was able to claim 2nd position after the qualifying. Because there are no direct qualifiers in Portugal all drivers had to pass the semi-finals to reach the main final and Filipe could win his semi final without any problems and secured himself pole position on the starting grid for the final. At the beginning of the final he lost the lead to Serpent racer Ricardo Nogueira but after 25 minutes he was able to take over the lead again and never lost it until the finishing line.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

October 1, 2008

Simon Kurzbuch wins Swiss Nats Rd6

The final round of the Swiss 1/8th scale Nationals was run last weekend in Langenthal in the North of the country. Qualifying for the Expert class saw Simon Kurzbuch take the pole position by 2 seconds from Thomas Henzi, while Christophe Pethoud and Mattia Pesenti rounding out the top 4. In the 45 minute final, Simon was unstoppable, the Serpent driver winning by 2 laps from Henzi in 2nd and Pethod 3rd, a further 3 laps behind. The Amateur class was won by Shepherd driver Stephan Eschler, 3 laps in front of Angelo Albani in 2nd with Claudio Pasquin 3rd.

Thanks to Mattia Pesenti for the report and pics.

October 1, 2008

Robert Pietsch rejoins Mugen Seiki

Robert Pietsch, the designer behind the successful Shepherd Velox as well as top international racer has made a shock return to the MID Mugen Team for the start of the 2009 season. The 2007 German Champion will compete with the MRX-4X and MTX-4 but he will not just represent Mugen as a driver but will bring with him his experience and design ideas and will work closely with the technical designers at Mugen’s Japanese Headquarters. This is big blow for Shepherd who not only lose a World class racer, but a product designer too.

Source: Mugen [mugen.eu]

October 1, 2008

Schaefer wins Rd3 in Central Germany

Schaefer wins Central German Rd3

Last weekend saw the 3rd round of the German Championship central regional qualifier was held at the beautiful Ettlingen track where the German Championship was hosted earlier this year. Under perfect weather conditions 34 drivers attended the race and on Saturday the track was open for free practice and nearly all participants were already at the track. On Sunday morning 4 rounds of qualifying were raced and although Patrick Schaefer made a safety run in the first round he could beat his record of the German Championship by one second and secure pole position. At the start of the final Patrick managed to defend his lead and pulled away while current Champion Stefan Hanauer and Philip Sting could pass Jörg Wäldle in the first lap and a tough battle for the second position started. Patrick constantly increased his lead and at the first pit stop after 5 minutes he was half a lap ahead of the rest of the field. Suddenly his Velox started to break out in right corners and the lap times got slower but he could manage to keep the lead for the remaining 25 minutes and won the race one lap ahead of Hanauer. Philip Sting decided not to change tires but he lost too much time with his small tires at the end and crossed the finishing line in 3rd position. After checking the car Patrick noticed that a pivot ball at the lower rear wishbone was completely off and the left upright was only held by the remaining pivot ball.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

October 1, 2008

Alberto Garcia retains Spanish titles

LRP Team Driver Alberto Garcia has done it again, winning 2wd and 4wd at the Spanish Championship, thereby securing 8 x 1/10th Spanish Offroad National titles with LRP in 4 years. The Spanish Nationals were held the weekend of 27-28th September at the track of Bilbao City and all the fastest drivers from Spain including Garcia and new LRP team driver Borja Hernandez took part at the biggest EP off road event of the year in a fight for both titles. In 4wd which was held on Saturday it was Alberto Garcia who dominated the race already from the beginning by winning 4 out of 5 qualifying rounds to take TQ. Alberto went on to secure the 4wd Spanish Championship title by winning all 3 A-finals with 2nd place going to Hernandez. Going into 2wd on Sunday it was again to be a successful day for Alberto, placing first in all three A-finals again to become the 2008 2wd Spanish Champion with Hernandez once again taking 2nd.

Source: LRP [lrp.cc]

September 30, 2008

Jared Tebo released by Hobbico

Tebo takes Gas Truck National Title

Hobbico have come with the bombshell that as of September 30, 2008, Jared Tebo is being released from the O’Donnell, Team CheckPoint, Futaba and O.S. Engine brands racing teams. Throughout his 11-year career with the O’Donnell team, Jared has won several National Championships as well as an IFMAR World Championship. Hobbico wanted to thank Jared for his hard work and dedication and wish him much success in his future endeavors. Where to next for young superstar, I’m sure time will tell, but with close ties to Associated through his electric racing they could be a strong option? Stay tuned.

September 30, 2008

Hudy takes win, Liptak takes title

The final round of the Slovakian Nationals was held over the weekend at AutoRC-Trnava track in Trnava, Slovakia. The race was TQ’d and won by Worlds podium finisher Martin Hudy, but as the Xray driver was unable to participate in earlier rounds of the series the overall title went to one of the oldest RC drivers in the country, Igor Liptak who finished the race in 2nd place, while Tono Sloboda took 3rd.

Click more to see the final series standings… content