Sworkz have announced the addition of top Dutch 1/10 racer Wesley van Helmond to their 1/8th team. Joining Jorn Neumann in using the combination of Schumacer brand in 1/10th and Sworkz in 1/8th, Wesley will use the Sworkz S35-3 in Nitro and Electric races and together with Jarno Pijpers will form a strong national team in the Netherlands.
Source: MW RC Cars [mwrccars.at]
Xray have announced that multi-time UK national champion Elliott Harper is joining their Factory Team to race the Xray T4 platform. Elliott leaves Schumacher after 3 plus years to return to a team for whom he raced with at the start of his career when he burst onto the international racing scene, making the final on his Worlds debut in Bangkok in 2008. He had the following to say about the deal.
I am very excited to rejoin the Xray factory team. Xray was the very first team I started to race professionally with almost 10 years ago, with great successes winning multiple European Junior Championships with the 1/10 Touring Car and 1/12. After collecting experiences with other teams in the last few years I am excited to be back “home” with the Xray team and I am honoured to represent them again. I am thankful for this opportunity and I’m confident that I will continue to grow and achieve the best possible results at the highest level, whilst working closely with all Xray drivers. I look forward to seeing you all at the track very soon!
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
The organisers of the new OneTen Series presented by Infinity are delighted to announce the confirmation of a number of top factory drivers for the opening double header of the championship. Set to be held at the awesome RCI V2 Indoor carpet track in Shanghai on October 6-7, joining the top regional and local racers in attendance will be TITC Champion Akio Sobue who will be joined by his Infinity team mate and current Japanese National Champion Jin Sawada. All the way from Germany, current ETS Pro Stock Champion Jan Ratheisky will be representing Xray in both Mod and Stock and will be joined by his team mate, multiple Chinese National Champion Gary Huang. From Singapore Nicholas Lee, who is no stranger to racing in China, will lead the Yokomo factory effort and all these drivers will be on hand to provide technical support for those in attendance. More information about this and all future rounds of the series can be found here and entry for rounds 1 & 2 is now open here.
The world famous OCRC in Huntington Beach, CA was the location for the Proline Surf City Classic this past weekend and with Xray driver Ty Tessmann in attendance, he sent us this report. ‘Once again they outdid themselves with another awesome, challenging layout and a smoothly run race. The track is very well prepped and maintained and the whole facility is top notch. It is a well known fact that after a new layout is put in, the track starts out low bite but will continue to increase in grip throughout the weekend, so to be fast your car setup has to be changing constantly to keep up with the changing condition. Tire prep is also a big factor at this race, to adjust for the changing grip level. All this combined, makes for a very challenging and competitive race. As usual all the top drivers from the US were at this race and with one of Europe’s shining stars added into the mix made for a very competitive field.
Continue reading the report here
The Indonesia R/C Car Community (IRCC) together with Infinity hosted the recent 2018 Indonesian Challenge at Hobby Track Sukoharjo, an indoor track located in central Java, Solo. The event was attended by Racers from several countries, including, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and also from various provinces across Indonesia, the most notable overseas drivers were Naoto Matsukura and Kyle McBride. The format of the race is run with 4 Qualifying Rounds and Bump up Finals. Kyle McBride took the opening round TQ, followed by Matsukura in the second round. While Matsukura was not able to run the 3rd round, McBride easily took his second TQ, but Matsukura bounced back and got the TQ for the last round and with a faster time took the overall TQ.
Continue reading the report here
The 4th and penultimate round of the Austrian Nationals was held on the beautiful, high speed,and high traction astro turf track of the ERT Steyregg near Linz. Xray team driver Hupo Honigl managed to TQ and win both classes and with it wrapped up both National Titles with one round still to run. In 4wd it was a very close battle for the remaining podium spots and it came down to the very last corner of A3 where Martin Kreil made a mistake and Lucas Grainer could finish 2nd while Martin had to settle for 3rd.
The 2nd annual Protoform Cup ran this weekend at beautiful Steel City R/C Speedway in Fontana, California. A great field of drivers from Southern and Northern California, Arizona, Texas, and Nevada tackled a special layout designed specifically for electric cars across 6 classes: Mod & Stock Touring, USGT, F1, PRO-10 and a new addition to the American on-road scene, 1:8 Electric. Practice Friday was followed by 3 rounds of qual points Saturday and Triple Finals for all racers on Sunday. A couple unique aspects of this race were handout fixed-timing motors for the three spec classes, provided by Reedy, and a strict limit on how the Solaris spec tires were used, to eliminate all “tire games” and force all drivers to drive hard every round on the track. The weather was unseasonably cool with high’s in the low-mid 80s F (27 C) for the event, which was definitely welcomed by racers.
Continue reading the report here
Schumacher Racing have announced the surprise signing of 11 time British National Champion Olly Jefferies to their pro race team. The multiple ETS and IFMAR Worlds ‘A’ finalist has penned a multi year agreement starting from 1st of September 2018. Olly is renowned not only for his exceptional driving talent but also his huge dedication and determination to win and he will be mainly concentrating on Touring Cars but will also run some LMP12 and be working closely with the Schumacher R&D Team to refine their range of On Road platforms. Olly had the following to say:
I’m extremely excited to be joining Schumacher Racing and working closely with the factory. I’m confident we can build something great together and feel at this point in my career this is the perfect opportunity for me to progress and win at the highest level. I’d like to thank Team Xray and the Hudy family for the support they have given me over the past 5 seasons, I wish them all the best for the future.
Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]
