Red RC » Racing

March 29, 2007

RC Pro Series expands to South Africa

RC Pro Series

The RC Pro Series is going global, following their first move to the Caribbean, the top racing series in the US is now expanding to South Africa with the announcement that RC Pro South Africa will be running their own National Series for Nitro Offroad, similar to the series in the US. Members of RC Pro SA will be full RC Pro members and be eligible to compete in any RC Pro event and together the Series organisers are working on plans for a World Finals in the future.

The first RC Pro South Africa event is this coming weekend hosted by Avion RCX in Kempton Park. The board of directors for RC Pro South Africa are working feverishly to put everything together for a live broadcast of this event. We will keep everyone informed of start times etc as soon as they have everything setup.

You can view the series flyer here and read more about it here.

March 28, 2007

Jeff Cuffs signs to Serpent

Former Snowbirds winner and top US electric racer Jeff Cuffs has signed to Serpent Motorsport to race their new electric touring car. According to the mention on RC Tech, Jeff has already had his first race with the as yet unreleased, and unnamed, Serpent electric touring car at last weekends Carpet Wars in the US and apart from that, little else is known about the deal pending an official release from the Dutch manufacturer. The Trinity backed driver has previously raced for Corally and Xray, before hooking up with Serpent.

Image: Trinity [teamtrinity.com]

March 28, 2007

Juho Levanen wins Fintrack Rd 3

Fintrack Rd 3

Juho Levanen has continued on from where he left off by winning the 3rd round of the Fintrack series held last weekend in Mäntsälä, a small town close to Helsinki in the southern part of Finland. With Teemu Leino away at the Silver State NC, Levanen was left to take an easy TQ and win in Touring Mod for Team Associated ahead of Xray racer Pekka Koivula who finished 2nd, with another Associated racer Christer Andersson in 3rd. The event also hosted 1/12th, Touring Stock and Prostock that were won by Vesa Yli, Otto Laurila and Janne Valtanen respectively.

You can read a full report on the event here and here.

Source: RC Zone [rczone.net] Image: Xray [teamxray.com]

March 28, 2007

Ilia van Gastel leaves Sirio?

Ilia van Gastel

To continue our long running look into the partnership breakdown between Kyosho and Sirio, we today heard a rumour, that backed up something we heard a while back, that multiple Belgian Champion and Euros podium finisher Ilia van Gastel has not re-signed to use Sirio engines. Van Gastel is of course a factory sponsored Kyosho racer and his abandoning Sirio as an engine partner is in keeping with the other Kyosho factory racers Collari, Bertin, Cyrul and Shimo who have all abandoned Sirio as their engine supplier in recent months.

So where does Van Gastel go from here? Should he choose Novarossi like 7 time World Champion Collari or choose the Team Orion CRF like Cyrul and Bertin or perhaps go for some other manufacturer? Who knows, but we’re sure to find out soon, as the new outdoor season is about to start up.

UPDATE: According to a number of e-mails from other top European racers that i have received and also the current entry list (PDF) from the 1/8th scale EFRA GP that will be held at the end of April, Ilia will race Team Orion CRF engines.

Image: JE Racing [jeracing.eu]

March 28, 2007

3rd Annual March Meltdown, Canada

3rd Annual March Meltdown

Xray have a report on their site from the 3rd Annual March Meltdown that took place recently atÂ Action Hobbies Kingsville, outside Windsor, Ontario in Canada. Attracting racers from Ontario and Michigan, the high speed and flowing turns of the track showed that a premium would be placed on precision and consistency and to that extent the Xray touring car won all classes at the event with Andy Vetor taking the wins in both Stock and 19T while in Modified Aaron Straus took the win.

Read the full report with results here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

March 28, 2007

Homestead Miami International Fuel Challenge

Last weekend saw the RC Pro Series come to Miami Speedway for the International Fuel Challenge, held on the same weekend as the IRL race on the full size oval track. Racing on a temporary circuit, with huge tire wear, the competitors raced to a triple A-main format to determine the race winner. In the 1/10th scale sedan class it was top electric racer Paul LeMieux that claimed the pole position and then proceeded to win all of the 10 minute long triple A-main finals to take a dominant win for Xray. Barry Baker backed up the Xray NT1s performance by taking 2nd with Ralph Burch coming home in 3rd complete a total podium lock out for the Slovakian manufacturer.

In the 1/8th scale class it was a battle between Chris Tosolini and Joe Sumasky who swapped 1st and 2nds, but the 2 wins of Tosolini meant the Kyosho racer came out on top despite a more consistent run by Sumasky with Franco Ragusa rounding off the podium, finishing in 3rd.
Click here to view the final results… content

March 27, 2007

Slovenian 2007 National Off-road Champs

Our friends in Slovenia have asked us to mention their upcoming 2007 National Championship for Off-road that starts at the beginning of May. The championship will cater for 1/8th buggy, truggy and 1/5th, 1/6th buggy with the first race being held at a track near the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana. The series will consist of 4 rounds with the 1st round taking place on the 6th of May in Ljubljana, the 2nd round on the 3rd of June in Jesenice, the 3rd round in Maribor on the 30th of September and the 4th and final round will take place at an, as yet, undecided venue on the 28th of October. We will be bringing you results from each of these National rounds as we get them.

RC Racing in Slovenia seems to be growing strongly on a National level, and is also being recognised on an international level as this year Slovenia will host the European B Championships for 1/8th gas in Tolmin on the 25th – 27th of May.

Source: Skalec Racing Team [users.triera.net/kiselrob]

March 27, 2007

Interview with Martin Wolhuter

Martin Wolhuter

More interviews, this time from our Aussie pals Rube Dude who delve deep in to the mind of one of Australias top racers, Martin Wolhuter. Born in South Africa and began racing in the US we reported recently on the Aussie residents great run at last weekends Western Australian Championships where he finished 3rd in the buggy class and dominated the truggy class for Hong Nor.

Read his full interview here.

Source: Rube Dude [rubeduderc.com]