December 19, 2006

MRC Academy seeking US team drivers

MRC Academy

Our partner site RC Forum are reporting that MRC Academy USA are seeking team drivers for their home market to race their off road buggies. Read the requirements below and see if you fit the bill.

MRC/ACADEMY (USA) is looking for OFFROAD Team Drivers. Currently we have about 20 drivers on our team, that is very small amount to represent this big market. We are looking for above average racers, with a professional track attitude, and vast chassis/setup knowledge. If you are, or know someone that would like to run for us, that is an accomplished racer, and that has the qualities to represent a company like us, please e-mail me your racing resume to DAVEG@modelrectifier.com. I will answer every single e-mail, no matter if we decide to bring you on as a team driver or not. I look forward to hearing from you, thank you for your time.

So if you are pretty decent on the dirt this could turn out to be a pretty sweet deal.

Source: RC Forum [rcforum.co.kr]

December 19, 2006

Chris Doughty reports on his 1/8th buggy debut

Chris Doughty Neo Invitational

Former 1/10th scale 4wd electric buggy European Champion Chris Doughty made his 1/8th scale gas buggy race debut last weekend at the Neo Invitational Indoor event. Driving his LRP powered HoBao he put on a solid show to claim 17th overall and even managed to bump up from his 1/4 final into the semi despite struggling with longer than 5 minute run times and only loosing his fuel stop virginity during his first final.

He has written a long and detailed report on his race weekend so check it out here.

Source: Doughty UK [doughtyuk.net]

December 19, 2006

David Crompton gives us the lowdown on the M1B debut

David Crompton with Team Magic M1B

Last weekend the much hyped Team Magic M1B 1/8th scale buggy made its race debut at the Neo Invitational event in the hands of British Champion David Crompton. Whilst testing was limited with the car before the event David adapted well and got the car into a semi final position only to suffer bad luck with electrical problems.

David tested the car in the Semi final warm up (10mins) and found that the changes he had done made the car feel easier to drive when driven hard, but at the start of the semi final David had electrical problems which sent the car flat out into the wall and broke the car. It was impossible to fix in the 5 mins the race director gave him so David was offered to drive a friends car, which is not in the rules but after asking all the drivers in his final no one objected so David was able to race while his pit crew fixed his M1-B ready for the Main final. David finished 4th in his semi which put him 11th on the grid. They managed to get the M1-B to the start line, but little did they know that due to the heavy impact with the wall it had damaged the steering servo and cracked the fuel tank so David retired after 6 mins.

Read the full report from David here.

Source: Nitro-Models [nitro-models.co.uk] Image: oOple [oople.com]

December 18, 2006

oOple pictures from the 2006 Neo Invitational race

Oople Neo Invitational

Top RC action photographer oOple (Jimmy Storey) has uploaded his amazing photo set from the 2006 Neo Invitational event. They really capture the athmosphere and excitement of the event and i know i keep going on about, but he takes some of the best action shots you’re likely to see. oOple also did a report from the event which contains interviews and insight so if you haven’t seen that yet be sure to check it out.

View the oOple race report here. View the photo gallery here, here and here.

December 18, 2006

Petit RC Indoor off road Race 2007

Petit RC Indoor off road Race

Our French partner site Petit RC has asked us to put up an announcement concerning upcoming indoor off road event that they are organising. Taking place next year in the Palais des Sports in Maions Alfort in France on February 10th – 11th, the event is open to everybody but places are limited so get your entry in soon. There will be a lot of international racers at this event and if the track is anything like last year it should prove to be very challenging.

You can read more info about the event here.

December 17, 2006

Adam Drake reigns supreme at 2006 Neo Invitational

Adam Drake

Adam Drake, as expected has won the 2006 Neo Invitational event in both buggy and Truggy classes. The class of the field all weekend, the American Team Losi racer won with ease by 3 laps over second place Crono driver Davide Tortorici in 2nd and with Greg Degani in 3rd driving for HoBao. In the truggy class it was more of the same for ‘The Drake’ but the margin was less than a lap this time over the 2nd placed CEN racer Andrew Smolnik with Graham Alsop a further 2 laps back driving a HoBao rounding off the podium.

Click more to view the A final finishing results for both classes… content

December 16, 2006

Ofna release high downforce wing

Ofna high downforce wing

Ofna have released a new high downforce wing for 1/8th scale buggies. Due to the wing’s design, added airflow over the wing increases the downforce for more low and high speed rear buggy traction. The wing comes in four colors white, yellow, red and black, plus side plate decals and numbers.

Source: Ofna [ofna.com]

December 15, 2006

Rush 2 Suspension & ground clearance

Piktor Rush 2 ground clearance

Possibly in an effort to detract the doubters that their laydown type suspension allows the Rush 2 to handle ruts and jumps as well as conventional shock mountings, Piktor have released a little interactive flash movie on their site that shows how the clearance of the car relates to compression of the shock absorbers. According to the interactive animation the Rush 2 should have no problems in that department and if you dont beleive me, have a look for yourself.

View the interactive animation here (didnt seem to work in Firefox).

Source: Piktor [piktor.fr]