Red RC » P Off Road

September 29, 2013

Hartson is World Champion following thrilling A3

Steven Hartson is the 2013 4WD Electric Buggy World Champion, the American claiming the 15th IFMAR title in a thrilling 5-minutes of racing at the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway in Chico, California. Having been a surprise winner of the opening A-Main from fifth on the grid, the factory Team Associated driver was one of five drivers in with a shot of the title going into the deciding third A-Main but came out on top to win ahead of Naoto Matsukura and Ty Tessman, the same order as how they would line up on the final podium. Once again Top Qualifier Joern Neumann would drop out of an early lead, a problem with the front shock leaving the German with a very difficult buggy, and the 2011 Runner-up would only end up 7th for the leg to finish 4th overall ahead of outgoing champion Ryan Cavalieri.

View our complete event coverage here.

September 29, 2013

New World Champion to be crowned as Naoto wins A2

Matsukura

A new 4WD World Champion is to be crowned in California after leg 2 of the A-Main saw reigning Champion Ryan Cavalieri retire with a broken car on lap 2 in an incident that also saw his Associated team-mate Ryan Maifield eliminated. Starting from 8th on the grid, it was Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura who took the win 1.5 seconds ahead of Durango’s Ryan Lutz and Joern Neumann. The win puts the 3-time 1:12 World Champion, who was 3rd in A1, in strong contention for the title as A1 winner Hartson could only manage 5th second time round.

View our complete event coverage here.

September 29, 2013

Hartson wins action packed A1

Hartson

Team Associated’s Steven Hartson was a surprise winner of the opening A-Main at the 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships this morning, the American finishing 1.9 second ahead Ty Tessman. On the first lap things looked to have been handed to Top Qualifier Joern Neumann as a fast starting Maifield hit the No.2 starting Ryan Cavalieri delaying the pursuing field with Hartson coming out in 2nd spot. With a comfortable lead Neumann’s reign at the front lasted just a lap as the German rolled his Durango next time round giving former Worlds Finalist Hartson the lead from Ryan Lutz. Taking control of the race while the rest of the drivers fell over one another, such was Hartson’s lead that the 21-year-old was able to get away with rolling his Reedy powered B44.2 onto its roof on the last lap. Requiring it to be marshalled he was still able to hold on for a convincing win. Having worked his way back up to second after a good battle with Lutz, who would break & retire in the final minute, further mistakes by Neumann would see him finish 4th just ahead of defending Champion Cavalieri who would post the fastest lap of the race.

View our complete event coverage here.

September 29, 2013

Neumann is 4WD Worlds Top Qualifier

Despite the best efforts of defending Champion Ryan Cavalieri, Team Durango’s Joern Neumann is Top Qualifier for the 15th running of the 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships. Cavalieri was the only driver going into the fifth & final round of qualifying who could deny Neumann from starting on pole position for tomorrow’s A-Main at Silver Dollar R/C Raceway in Chico, California. TQ’ing the round from Ty Tessman, Cavalieri complete the run in 11 laps in 5:06.990 a mere .135 shy of the time needed to deny the German his first Worlds TQ.

View our complete event coverage here.

September 29, 2013

Wesley van Helmond wins Dutch 2WD championship

After winning five out of the seven meetings for this year’s Dutch electric buggy championship TLR’s Wesley van Helmond took the overall title in the 2WD class. Second place overall went to Arjan van der Graaf (Yokomo) in front of Tom van Drunen (Team Durango). Wesley also was successful in the combined Dutch/Belgium BNK championship while his little brother Dominique, who replaces Tom in the podium photo as he was on holiday, came in fourth overall.

Thanks to Joey van Helmond for sending the report.

September 29, 2013

Cavalieri TQs penultimate qualifier

Having said he was ‘very close’ when he posted the second fastest time on Q3, defending World Champion Ryan Cavalieri finally hit the top in the penultimate round of qualifying taking it by a mere 0.062 from Joern Neumann. Q3 pace setter Ty Tessman completed the Top 3 ahead of Lee Martin’s Tamiya and the Associated’s of Steven Hartson and Neil Cragg. The result means that the final qualifier will see the Top 2 finishers at the 2011 World Championship will battle it out for the honour of becoming Top Qualifier for the 15th IFMAR 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships.

View our complete event coverage here.

September 29, 2013

Tessman takes Q3

Ty Tessmann

After a rocky start to 4WD qualifying, failing to make the Top 10 in the opening two rounds, Ty Tessman bounced back to TQ Q3 ahead of Team Associated’s Ryan pairing of Cavalieri and Maifield, the latter throwing away a TQ run the final lap of his run. For Q1 & 2 pace setter Joern Neumann a bad landing at the quad after the main straight resulted in a bent chassis for the Durango driver who would only be able for 11th for the round. The biggest news of the third qualifier however is that newly crowned 2WD World Champion Jared Tebo will not make the A-Main. Having finished all three rounds well down the order even if the Kyosho driver was to TQ today’s remaining two rounds he would not make the Top 10.

View our complete event coverage here.

September 28, 2013

Neumann TQs opening 4WD qualifier

Joern Neumann TQ’d the opening 4WD qualifier at the Electric Offroad World Championships in California, the Team Durango driver recovering from an early roll to snatch it by 3/10ths from Naoto Matsukura and Ryan Maifield with defending champion Ryan Cavalieri completing the Top 4. It was a strong start to qualifying for Durango with Neumann being joined in the Top 6 by team-mates Ryan Lutz and Travis Amezcua.

View our complete event coverage here.