Destiny have announced the signing of up and coming Japanese drivers Shin and Jin Sawada. At 17 years old, Jin already made several A-mains at the Japanese Nationals while 12 years old Shin already showed some very impressive speed and results. The first big race for the two was the recent AOC finale at Yatabe arena where Jin achieved a fine third place after the qualifiers.
The 37th running of the US Indoor Championship was held at the Embassy Suite/Hilton in Independence, Ohio. The race has slowly grown over the last few years to reach a peak of 413 entries this year, making it one of the largest indoor races in the country. This time the format was special as the organizers left the track open all night so you could get in a lot of track time. Still, most of the testing took place on Friday during the seeding rounds and controlled practice. In true US Indoor Champs fashion, qualifying went on Friday from 7pm to 2am and Saturday from 7am to 3am, with main events on Sunday finishing at 3:30pm for those racers wanting to get on the road home. Once again Keven Hebert proved to be the man to beat. Taking the top qualifying honors in both Modified Touring and 1/12th scale, Hebert was in the best position possible for Sunday’s main events. In 1/12th, Hebert was able to win the main event by over a lap and in the Touring Car main event he was again able to take the win, even after an altercation with backmarkers close to the end of the race.
Source: Team Associated [teamassociated.com]
This weekend (2-4 December), the Yokomo Euro Touring Series will celebrate the start of its 10th season when over 300 racers from 29 countries travel to Hrotovice in the Czech Republic for the opening race of the six round championship. From small beginnings when the first ETS race was held in Vejle, Denmark in March 2008, over the 51 races that made up the subsequent 9 seasons the championship has established itself as one of touring cars’ most coveted titles with both drivers and manufacturers. Only 4 drivers have achieved the top prize and defending that title in Season #10 will be Bruno Coelho.
Muchmore have introduced the Fleta M8.1 Black 180A brushless speed controller for 1/8th scale applications. The 6S LiPo-compatible ESC measures a compact 44.8x45x23.2mm and it is housed in a machined and black anodised aluminium case with Flow-Max design for maximised cooling. The triple power capacitor ensure high power output and a linear throttle feeling while the included ultra high RPM fan is protected by an aluminium guard. The controller comes with the new M8 V2.0 firmware that is adjustable using the optional Fleta Super High Response programming card. The speedo is usable with sensored and sensorless 2 to 6-pole motors and it will hit stores soon.
Since 2013, the Asian Onroad Championship has grown through the years and has become the premiere onroad racing event in the Asia Pacific. Making five stops throughout the calendar year in various regions across Asia, the AOC continues to grow and gain momentum from each and every event bringing with it a world class level of competition wherever it goes. The final stop on the 2016 schedule was held at the historic Yatabe Arena in Tsukuba, Japan. With heritage and history like the Yatabe Arena, the final AOC event was sold out within a few days and has become the biggest race in Japan attracting many international racers from across the world including from countries like Germany, France, America, and other neighboring Asian countries like China, Taiwan, Korea to name just a few. Not only were racers on hand, the event attracted over 20 RC vendors that setup a display/support booth and transformed the atmosphere into a mini RC Expo.
Continue reading the report here
3DRC have introduced a new shorter version of their Fan Booster cooling fan mount. Designed for most 30mm fan units, the mount incorporates a shorter air channel that guides the air towards the motor can for improved heat dissipation. The updated shorter design not only allows to mount the unit in more crowded environments, but it also improves cooling efficiency over the standard version at the same time. The 3-D-printed part is available through 3DRC’s Shapeway store.
Source: 3DRC [shapeways.com]
The driver market is in full swing these days and the latest pilot to swap teams is Italy’s Dario Balestri. The long-time Capricorn factory driver, multiple European Champion and Worlds A-finalist will teamed up with Creation Model and will be campaign Infinity’s 1/8th and 1/10th nitro on-road cars while helping with future developments. Dario says:
It’s a great pleasure for me to be chosen as part of Infinity “dream team”; I join a group of friendly and dedicated guys that shares my same passion for r/c world. I wanna express my gratitude to Kenji San that believes in my skills giving me this opportunity. I’m so excited to start this new chapter of my professional career and I will do my best to help the entire staff to realize the best products for the customers. See you at the track!
Source: Creation Model [creationmodel.net]
A round of the South German electric on-road regionals was held in Gottmadingen on a purpose-built track laid out with ETS-style carpet. Young Dionys Stadler would take the win in the Touring Car class, coming from the 2 spot on the grid following some problems in the qualifiers. Carl Grandel ended the day on the runner-up spot from third placed Markus Wegmann.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
