April 10, 2013

2013 JConcepts Spring Indoor Nats – Announcement

2013 JConcepts Spring Indoor Nats - Announcement

The 2013 JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals is quickly approaching (19th – 21st April). The first of its kind, the Indoor National Series sponsored by JConcepts will converge in Carrollton, TX, for the 2nd leg of the popular series. For the 2nd year in a row, Mike’s Hobby Shop will host the Spring event and with entries expected to reach a peak capacity, Steven Hartson will look to defend his 2012 titles against some of the nation’s best drivers. Winter round 1 TQ and champion Ryan Maifield, fresh off his Cactus Classic success, will attend the Texas event for the very first time looking to take on last year’s champion Steven Hartson, as well as Team Associated teammate Brent Thielke and challengers from TLR include Dustin Evans, JR Mitch and Taylor Larsen. Red RC will be in attendance bringing you live coverage throughout the event. Signups are available at www.rccarcal.com


April 10, 2013

Nick Gibson RC Pro North Rd1

Nick Gibson RC Pro North Rd1

This past weekend, HobbyTown USA Hobbyplex in Omaha, NE hosted the first round of the RC Pro Series North Division. With a good number of entries to start the series, Team Associated’s Nick Gibson qualified his Team Associated RC8.2 in the number 2 spot behind Jared Tebo. Settling in to second place and overcoming adversity with a bent servo horn, Nick was able to solidify a gap over third place Associated teammate Chad Parks. At the 33-minute mark and with just over 10 minutes to go, leader Tebo flamed out. Gibson capitalized on Tebo’s misfortune, taking the lead and holding off a late race charge by Parks and Tebo, taking the win with just a 5-second margin.

Source: Associated [teamassociated.com]


April 10, 2013

Bruno Coelho wins 2nd Portuguese National

Bruno Coelho wins 2nd Portuguese National

Last weekend the 2nd round of the Portuguese 1/8th offroad Nationals was held in the north of the country and Xray driver Bruno Coelho gave this report. ‘The weather conditions were not so good with a lot of rain during the final. On Sunday, during the morning qualifications we are very close to the T.Q. Bruno was always faster making the fastest laps but the track is hard and very bumpy and a small mistake caused Bruno to lose the top qualifying position and he decided to not push too hard. So after the qualifying we were in third position for semis. Bruno won his semifinal with a very consistent race and two laps ahead of the second driver. Bruno take very careful start at the beginning of the final and started improving his lap times lap after lap. At the end of 4th lap he was in the lead and kept it until the finish. Ricardo Monteiro finished 2nd with TLR team mate Miguel Matias in the 3rd.’

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]


April 9, 2013

Andrew Gillott takes 2wd Australian title

Andrew Gillott takes 2wd Australian title

TLR and OMP driver Andrew Gillott has taken the 2013 Modified 2WD EP Australian National Title over the weekend. The Nationals were held in the regional city of Mildura, Victoria, with a fantastic high grip track prepared by the host club and perfect weather throughout proceedings. Gillott took the top qualifying position in the fourth and final round of qualifying with Josh Pain, Ashley Peeler, Matt Griffen and Ray Munday all vying for TQ leading into the final round. The TQ was important leading into the A-finals given the tight and flowing nature of the Mildura facility. Josh Pain had consistent pace all weekend and was always going to make the win harder for Gillott particularly with nerves of P1 in the first leg of the finals, however he managed to hold the lead for the full 5-minutes and take A1. Gillott then managed a fast start in A2 to secure the win in a comfortable victory in the second leg of the three main finals series. Final results saw first place going to Andrew, second to Josh Pain and third place to Ashley Peeler.

Thanks to Andrew Gillott for the report.


April 9, 2013

Cavalieri adds World class to record EOS Finale entry

Cavalieri adds World class to record EOS Finale entry

Reigning 2WD & 4WD Electric Offroad World Champion Ryan Cavalieri will compete in the season finale of the ‘TLR/Spektrum Euro Offroad Series presented by Horizon Hobby’ in Dortmund, Germany, this weekend (12-14 April) with the American super star set for his first experience of European style indoor offroad racing. Cavalieri is part of a strong line-up of Team Associated drivers traveling to the fourth & final round of the 2012/13 EOS which again runs as part of of Europe’s largest consumer hobby show ‘Intermodellbau Dortmund’ and is expected to attract over 85,000 visitors.

Continue reading the announcement here


April 9, 2013

Robert Batlle wins Spanish 1/8th season opener

Robert Batlle wins Spanish 1/8th season opener

The opening round of the Spanish 1/8th National series took place last weekend in Lebrija Jose Maria RC track in the very south west of the country near Seville. Robert Batlle would take 3 of the 4 rounds of qualifying to start the semi on pole position with Oscar Baldo taking the 4th and final round and line up on pole for the second semi. With the Semis over, and Daniel Vega and Borja Hernandez out, the World Champion would lead away from pole and easily take the win by nearly 3 laps from Ignacio Candel in 2nd with Oscar Baldo completing the podium in 3rd.

View a video of the A-main here


April 9, 2013

Cody King double at JBRL Rd1

Cody King double at JBRL Rd1

Cody King has won expert buggy and expert truggy, and Tim Long the 40+ class, for a Kyosho clean sweep at JBRL round 1. The race was held at Thunder Alley RC Raceway in Beaumont California in the USA. This track was the site of multiple ROAR Nationals and one of the more popular circuits in the United States. There were 250 entries for this one day race, and thanks to expert handling of the program by Jimmy Babcock, the race was completed by 10pm local time. The completely fresh track design was done by Levi Jackson of Sik Track Designs (Rob Jackson’s son) and it got rave reviews. The over/under cross over section was brilliant as it launched the cars up in the air over the speeding traffic below. The layout was smooth, fast and flowing with lap times in the low to mid 30 second range for most drivers. The track was watered every couple races and it kept the surface smooth and easy on the tires. As the sun went down and temps cooled off, there was plenty of moisture in the track and watering wasn’t necessary. The surface was fair all day.

Continue reading the report here


April 8, 2013

Kyosho MP9e TKI 1/8th buggy

Kyosho MP9e TKI 1/8th buggy

Kyosho have announced their new MP9e TKI, a kit which includes many of the features developed over the last few years for the World Champion TKI3 nitro-powered car. It includes the shorter rear shock tower and the medium length shocks and the shocks feature threaded spring pre-load adjusters and the popular genuine Kyosho Matched light blue springs. It also includes the heavy-duty driveshafts, reinforced bulkheads, stronger upper arms, milled and anodized adjustable motor mount, milled aluminum rear hub carriers and much more.

View more images here