November 13, 2017

Ryan Lutz trifecta at Battle of the Sikest

The annual Battle of the Sikest race was held at Thornhill Racing Circuit in Hutto, Texas this past weekend. Tekno RC’s Ryan Lutz would make a clean sweep, taking the TQ and win in Pro Nitro Buggy, Open Nitro Truck and Open E-Buggy while his teammate, Joe Bornhorst would come 2nd in all three categories despite winning the opening E-Buggy A-main. Brandon Rose (Team Associated) would come in 3rd in the Nitro Buggy class while Dillon Caldwell (Xray) completed the Nitro Truggy podium. Finally in E-Buggy it was Jake Dellinger (Team Associated) who rounded out the top 3 results.

Image: Ryan Lutz

November 13, 2017

Orlowski takes Q1 from Cavalieri on final lap

Top seed Michal Orlowski has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 2WD Offroad World Championships in China. After rain delayed the start of Day 2’s action, the first of the five qualifiers got underway with Orlowski making a cautious start as from the back 10th seed Ryan Cavalieri showed Team Associated had finally found their way on the challenging Xiamen track. Going to the top of the timing screens, Cavalieri looked to have bagged the first TQ with a big enough gap over the recovering Orlowski but contrasting last laps threw up a surprise. With Cavalieri touching the pipe on his final lap, Orlowski would post his fastest lap on his last lap with Cavalieri’s advantage turning to a 1/10th of a second deficit, the duo the only drivers to make 12 laps. Behind, fastest man on the track Bruno Coelho would somehow salvage a 3rd despite a number of crashes, with David Ronnefalk, Lee Martin and Dustin Evans completing the Top 6. For defending champion Spencer Rivkin the first qualifier would net the American the 11th fastest time.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

November 13, 2017

MTS FFV3 FWD chassis – Coming soon

Race Opt International have introduced the MTS FFV3 1/10th front wheel drive touring car. The vehicle makes use of the proven FFV2 base and features a new, more backwards motor position to allow for more balanced steering throw while the top deck has been raised by 1mm to increase chassis flex for improved traction and steering. In addition the raised deck allows to use thicker batteries. Other features include a new front pulley holder for easier and faster gear diff access, dual joint driveshafts come as standard and redesigned shocks will do away with oil leakage issues. The graphite suspension arms feature a new design with membrane absorbers to allow for quicker left/right rolling rebound movement and the new front shock tower with wire holes helps to bundle the motor and sensor wires for tidier wiring. Last but not least comes a new 30mm/40mm laydown motor fan mount, new design front spindle mounts allow for easy caster adjustment and updated swaybars with 1.6mm, 1.8mm and 2.0mm hardness allow easy suspension roll adjustment.

View more images here

November 13, 2017

LTCC 2017 & FinTrack Tour opener – Report

The famous LTCC race, the opening round of Finnish Electric On-road Nationals Series FinTrack Tour, took place at a handcraft and hobby expo in Lahti, southern Finland. Nearly 100 entries made the race quite a spectacle once again with Touring Modified and Stock classes being run on Saturday, while Touring Prostock as well as the Formula and GT-12 support categories were held on Sunday. As usual the LTCC King title would be awarded after the race to the driver with the best combined Stock and Prostock or Modified and Prostock results. The highly competitive Modified field saw many ETS and EOS stars including Viljami Kutvonen, Karri Salmela and Joel Valander among top russian drivers like Georgy Chmigal and Maxim Laverychev. With 45 entries the Modified class draw the most drivers in many years and it was welcomed by many to see drivers are getting back to Modified racing.

Continue reading the report here

November 13, 2017

Speedmerchant Rev 8.5 1/12th scale pan car kit

Following a first teaser Speedmerchant have released the features list of their new Rev 8.5 1/12th pan car kit. The carbon fibre chassis allows to run three different battery positions including inline, a front or rear transverse positions and all carbon parts are made of aerospace-grade fibre material. The construction furthermore allows to adjust the roll centre and “rear steer” to fine-tune the car to different track conditions. Other features include the original link and spring Speed-Tune racing suspension, exclusive Speedmerchant laser-inscribed damper tubes and a Team IRS large black anodised D-ring Pro axle and differential set. The car also utilises low CG black-anodised laser-inscribed aluminium pod plates, the HPS2 hard-coated Super shock, the exclusive Speedmerchant New School front suspension and black anodised laser-inscribed front suspension mounts and steering blocks. The kit is rounded out by titanium front axles, servo mounts with hardware, Speedmerchant logo side links and Speedmerchant centre pivot socket. Speedmerchant will also have a conversion kit for the Rev.8 available that contains the complete tweak/top plate/damper tube/battery holder assemblies to update the older spec Rev.8 kits.

View the features and more images here

November 12, 2017

Daniel Carlsson wins at Middle Swedish Indoor Cup Rd2

The second round of the Middle Swedish Indoor Cup was held this Saturday in Tibro, Sweden on a tight, high grip track that was a big challenge for all drivers. In the Touring Superstock class it was Daniel Carlsson (Team Associated) who took TQ one second ahead of Nathan Parker (Schumacher) in 2nd and Per Lindqvist (Team Associated) third. The finals saw Daniel leading the pack and in the first two legs stretch it our and win with almost a lap over Per. In the third final Nathan got the rhythm and did try to follow Daniel, and in the end it was five seconds between them over the line. Overall and behind Daniel, Per and Nathan would round out the top 3 results.

Thanks to Daniel Carlsson for the report.

November 12, 2017

Orlowski top seed at 2WD Worlds

Michal Orlowski is top seed at the 17th running of the 1:10 Offroad World Championships. Having set the fastest time in the first of the day’s two seeding rounds in Xiamen, the Schumacher driver would see that time beaten by fellow European David Ronnefalk, the HB Racing driver running two heats earlier than Orlowski’s group which completed the round.  With Free Practice pace setter Bruno Coelho topping the second last heat grouping but crashing on the last lap of the potential fastest 3-consecutive laps it was Ronnefalk’s time that was the target for Orlowski.  Run under floodlights, with most drivers struggling to to properly see where they were going, Orlowski somehow managed the fastest lap as he put together 3-laps that would leave him 2/10ths quicker than the HB Racing driver to wrap up a successful first day for the Polish driver. With the only other improver in the Top 10 being Coelho, that time good enough for 6th, it was Dakotah Phend who would complete the Top 3 ahead of fellow North American driver Ty Tessmann.  While the result determines the heats in which drivers will qualify and what number they will carry, a third controlled practice remains tomorrow morning that will determine the order in which drivers start Q1, making drivers question the logic of the IFMAR format, feeling that if you have topped seeding them you should lead out the top qualifying heat.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

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