Red RC » Racing

September 22, 2024

Balestri retains 1:8 Onroad European C/ship Title

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has retained his EFRA 1:8 Onroad European Championship title, the Italian claiming the title for a fourth time with victory at Miniautodromo Locorotondo in Italy. Qualifying fifth and having to come through the Semi Finals, winning his encounter, the reigning World Champion would line 5th for the 45-minute decider behind the Top 4 direct qualifiers. While the Mugen Seiki of Top Qualifier Simon Kurzbuch lead way the field, the Swiss driver’s quest to retake the title he last held in 2018 ended in the first round of fuel stops. With his engine running lean, he suffered a glow plug failure dropping him to last from where he could only recover to eventually finish 6th. A race that saw a number of contacts between drivers, leading to a post race protest against Balestri which EFRA would reject, despite being on a three tyre stop strategy Balestri would take the win by 2 seconds from his 2-stop team-mate Carmine Raiola. Suffering a crash earlier in the race after contact with Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani in which he then got collected by Raiola, 1:8 GT World Champion Toni Gruber would take his damaged Capricorn to the final podium position only half a lap down. Winner of the Last Chance Final to secure P11 on the grid, Lamberto Collari came through to take P4 followed by Xray’s Filippo Domanin.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

September 20, 2024

Kurzbuch Top Qualifier at 1:8 European Championship

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch is the Top Qualifier at the EFRA 1:8 Onroad Championship. The former World Champion came out top of the 5-rounds of qualifying at the Miniautodromo Locorotondo in Italy, where 4 different drivers posted TQ runs. Thursday’s opening day of qualifying would see defending Champion Dario Balestri kick off proceedings by taking his Infinity to a TQ run before Kurzbuch posted the first of his two TQ in Q2. Friday’s second day of qualifying would open with the Serpent of Practice Top Seed Andrea Catanzani topping the times sheet for Q3 before Kurzbuch went on to take Q4. With the overall TQ wide open going into the fifth & final round, it would be Infinity’s Carmine Raiola who set the pace from the Capricorn of Toni Gruber, Kurzbuch, Catanzani and Balestri. With 3 from 5 to count overall, Kurzbuch was declared the Top Qualifier from Catanzani with the all important Top 4 direct Main Final qualifiers being completed by Raiola and Gruber, the latter’s 1-2 in Q5 knocking Balestri back to P5. The 22nd running of European Championship will be decided tomorrow over 45-minutes with Kurzbuch going for his second title having previously won it in 2018 when the race was also held in Italy.

Image: Simon Kurzbuch [Facebook]

September 19, 2024

JConcepts RC10B7 aluminium 1-piece rear wing button

With the introduction of the RC10B7 from Team Associated, JConcepts received requests for an assortment of products leading to this release of a 1-piece rear wing button. The connected, dual triangular item is braced and shaped for function and flair. The idea of the shape is to create a solid footing against the wing with a hefty base but a soft leading edge for smooth air flow. The domed shape with small flat top reveals just enough room for the standard mounting hardware. The item has silver highlighted chamfering around the base with connected brace between the two functional housings. The connector sports another channel cut for additional detail and cuts the wind like a racing machine should. Available in bold blue or stealth black, the 1-piece wing button adds strength, durability, and outright pizzazz to your RC10B7 buggy. On top, JC logos are added for style and authenticity.

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September 19, 2024

JConcepts P2 XB4’24 body

Another new body release from JConcepts for the Xray XB4’24 1:10 4WD Buggy is its popular P2 body. A staple in the Florida company’s product line, the Punisher body shell design, started its time in the offroad during the 2010 racing season. Over the course of a decade, the design team along with the racers have helped push the envelope and re-invent the Punisher along the way. The P2 design arrived just in time for the IFMAR Worlds in 2017 where the team tested and confirmed performance characteristics on the Xiamen, China track surface. Now, the P2 has been updated to fit the XB4’24 and is available in both a standard and lightweight option and includes two of the 6.5” Carpet | Turf | Dirt wing which is now a standard racing item around the world.

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September 18, 2024

Team Associated RC10 Jay Halsey Edition Kit

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the original RC10, Team Associated has announced the RC10 Classic Jay Halsey Edition kit, a faithful reproduction of Jay’s world championship-winning car that changed the world of RC off road racing forever. Only eight months after it’s release on July 11, 1985, the legendary RC10 driven by Jammin’ Jay Halsey claimed victory as the first IFMAR 2WD Stock World Champion. It was at this inaugural edition of the IFMAR 1:10 Electric Off-Road World Championships in Del Mar California where history was made. At the time Jay didn’t know how important the race was and how legendary the buggy he drove would become. Looking back, he now realises the impact it made in RC history; not only for Team Associated, but for himself as well. Racing for Team Associated allowed him to travel the world attending different races. It’s what helped him get where he is today, working in the television and film industry. Now you can own a piece of that history with this very first ever kit release of that famous buggy and build a replica of that legendary worlds-winning paint scheme you remember as a kid.

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September 18, 2024

IFMAR publishes ISTC World Championship entry list

IFMAR has just published the latest entry list for the upcoming 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championship with 6 of the categories 8 World Champions set to make the trip to the US in November. The 12th running of the ISTC World Championship will be hosted by Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield, California, from Nov 5-10th where reigning Champion Bruno Coelho will try to emulate Davide Ongaro’s recent 1:8 Offroad feat of three consecutive wins of the biggest prize in racing. With the ISTC Worlds first held in 2000, it is great to see inaugural Champion and all time great of the sport Atsushi Hara back on the entry list. Hara’s last ISTC Worlds was in China in 2016 but this year the Japanese legend has enjoyed a return to competitive international racing.

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September 17, 2024

2024 1:8 Offroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

With the dust now settled on the 19th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championships at RC Redovan, we have put together a full index of all the buggies we were given access to to photograph for our ‘Chassis Focus’ during our time in Spain. We were able to feature buggies from 8 different manufacturers with Xray and Kyosho notably absent from the list with both manufacturers not allowing their buggies to be photographed in detail. Of the 180 drivers competing, it was Xray that proved the most popular brand with 33 buggies, just one more than Sworkz who were the brand with the greatest representation in the final filling 3 of the 13 spots on the starting grid. With 27 buggies, Mugen Seiki was the third most used chassis. Coming away with its 3rd consecutive 1:8 Buggy World title, Team Associated was fourth in terms of numbers with 18 driver while Tekno completed the Top 5 represented by 16 racers. Of the 13 brands present in Redovan, 8 made it into the main showdown.

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September 17, 2024

Iris sweeps Austrian FWD Nationals

After all six events of the Austrian Nationals the 1:10 FWD championship concluded with German manufacturer Iris securing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th place in their first full year of competition. Veteran racer Philipp Stadler, with 3 wins and 3 TQs emerged as the new Austrian Champion while alongside him, two young talents, Matheo Buchhalt (2 wins, 1 TQ) and Loris Buchhalt (1 TQ), took 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, locking out the overall championship podium and securing the youth title as well. Markus Buchhalt rounded out the excellent results with a strong 6th place in the overall championship. While the team used the ONE.05 chassis for the first five rounds, the final race of the series marked the debut of the new ONE.1 and it enjoyed the perfect debut taking the victory!

Source: IRIS [iris-racing.com]