Red RC » P Off Road

February 13, 2010

Euro Indoor Race Belgium report

This past weekend the Euro Indoor Race was held at the indoor off road track of the BRCC club in Charleroi, Belgium. The event is driven on an all astroturf track, equipped with whoops, jumps, table tops and had a very challenging layout and is open to 1/8th BL buggy, 1/10th trucks, 1/10th 4WD buggy and 2WD buggy and it attracted drivers from Belgium, France, Netherlands, the UK and Denmark. Free training on Friday saw 7 rounds of 5 minute qualifying on Saturday and 1 last qualifying round on Sunday followed by 5 finals. In 1/8th, it was Nicolas Hammerton that TQ’d but the battle in the finals was fierce and it was Roger Capelmann that took the overall win. Nicolas Hammerton finished 2nd with third place going to French pilot Philippe Schlafmunter.

Continue reading the report here

February 13, 2010

Frank Root joins Team Losi

Team Losi Racing have announced the signing of Frank Root to their off-road racing team for 2010. Frank’s vast racing experience, impeccable driving talent and superior public relations will be an excellent asset to their organization. Frank’s recent successes include 2008 & 2009 JBRL 2wd and 4wd Off-Road Champion, 2009 NORCAL Championship in 2wd and Truck and Multi-time ROAR National, Cactus Classic and Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout A-main finalist. Frank had the following to say:

I am really excited for this amazing opportunity with Team Losi Racing and Horizon Hobby. I would like to thank Kevin Gahan, Adam Drake, and Mike Truhe for helping make this opportunity come to fruition. I am anxiously looking forward to the Nitro Challenge and Cactus Classic to make my debuts with the Team Losi Racing cars and run with my new Losi teammates! I want to thank everyone from Team Associated for all of the support over the past several years. I have had a great span with Team Associated, Brent Thielke, Kurt “Coach” Wenger, and all of my teammates at Team Associated. I would like to give a big thank you to Jason Ruona from J-Concepts. As my first real sponsor, Jason and J-Concepts were very influential in my success in my racing career.

Frank will be competing this year in the electric off-road classes with his Team Losi Racing XXX-CR, XXX-T CR, 8ight-E 2.0 and XXX-4 Graphite Plus and all will be powered by Xcelorin speed controls, batteries, and motors. Frank will also compete at the nitro events with his Team Losi Racing 8ight 2.0 and 8ight-T 2.0 powered by Nitrotec Engines and Nitrotane Fuel. All vehicles will be exclusively equipped with Team Losi Racing tires.

Source: Losi [losi.com]

February 12, 2010

HPI Blitz ESE Short course truck

Last week we saw the new Blitz ESE from HPI Racing for the first time and today they have release full information on this no compromise short course truck. Outfitted with a ton of premium upgrades, high grade materials and tuned performance parts, it comes as a kit allowing you to customize your truck and top it off with your choice of electronics, high performance wheels, tires and batteries. The high performance parts are color coded white, cool gray, and warm grey. Not only does this enhance the style of the truck, it lets you know at a glance which part is the high response performance part. Featuring a stiffer composite main chassis that quickens the overall response of the truck as well as firm front arms for a more precise steering feel, while the rear arms help free up the truck in corners. Other new parts include firm shock towers, firmer skid plates and firmer bumpers.

Click here for more images and full features list

February 12, 2010

Ty Tessmann TQs Worlds Warmup race

17 year old Hot Bodies star Ty Tessmann has taken the top qualifying spot at the 1/8th scale buggy Worlds Warm up race in Pattaya, Thailand. Having TQ’d 2 rounds yesterday, TY took rounds 5 and 6 today to cement his place at the top and lead home a Hot Bodies 1-2-3 in qualifying with Jesse Robbers TQ’ing round 4 to leap frog World Champion Atsushi Hara to line up 2nd, with the Japanese driver having to settle for 3rd. Losi driver Yannick Aigoin managed to improve with a 3rd place in the final round to jump up to 4th, ahead of Dani Choi, Teemu Leino and Meen Vejrak. Lining up 8th after improving from yesterday is current European Champion Renaud Savoya who took 2nd in round 4. Jerome Aigoin and Martin Bayer complete the top 10. Lower finals start tomorrow with the big finals starting on Sunday, giving the top drivers a chance to relax and enjoy their surroundings.

Click here to see a video from qualifying

February 11, 2010

Ty Tessmann heads qualifying at Worlds Warmup

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLs8tngxrEo[/youtube]

With the first day of qualifying over at the 1/8th scale buggy Pre Worlds in Pattaya, Thailand it is the current World Champions Hot Bodies that are leading the way after 3 rounds. Heading the current standings is young Ty Tessmann who has taken the TQ in rounds 1 and 2 and backed it up with a 3rd spot in round 3, while current World Champion Atsushi Hara popped in a TQ run in round 3 to line up in 2nd and leapfrog his other team mate Jess Robbers who is currently sitting in 3rd. Best of the non Hot Bodies is Teemu Leino driving the Xray in 4th, with Korean Mugen racer Dani Choi in 5th with former European Champion Yannick Aigoin in 6th. Joseph Quagraine, Alex Bayer, Surikarn and Meen Vejrak complete the top 10. Current European Champion Renaud Savoya, whom we interviewed prior to the event, is not have a good time and is currently placed in 20th place with a best finish of 8th in the 3rd round. Tomorrow’s final day of qualifying sees 3 more rounds for everyone to try and improve their positions.

Source: RC Blood [rcblood.com]

February 11, 2010

STRC Slash 4×4 option parts

ST Racing Concepts have released a huge selection of option parts for the Traxxas Slash 4×4 starting with this CNC machined aluminium multi-piece steering bellcrank set that greatly increases the durability and takes out any flex in the kit plastic bellcrank system providing a more precise steering feel. New CNC machined aluminium front c-hubs, steering knuckle and rear hub carriers greatly improves the durability of those areas and add that great factory look. The rear hub carriers feature a set-screw over hinge-pin design that securely keep the hub carriers on the hinge-pins, and also keep the wear to a minimum by making the hinge-pins rotate in the arms and not in the aluminium hub carriers while also increasing the durability. Greatly reduce the flex of the stock plastic towers with the new CNC machined aluminium HD front and rear shock towers.

Click here for more information

February 11, 2010

Ansmann Racing V8 1/8th scale buggy

Ansmann Racing are showing off the first pictures of their new 1/8th scale buggy platform, the V8. A full competition car to follow the success their previous cars, this new buggy is the result of 2 years testing and design. The goal of the car’s design was to get a perfectly balanced lightweight car with awesome track performance, with the manufacturer providing no further information at this stage. The first prototypes are expected to hit the tracks in April this year.

Click here for more images of the prototype

February 10, 2010

22nd Annual April Fools Classic – Announcement

Intermountain RC Raceway has announced the dates of April 9th, 10th & 11th for the 22nd Annual April Fools Classic. With all the common electric classes running from novice, short course and on up through stock, pro stock and modified electric, last years race had over 200 entries with tons of fun had by all over the weekend. This is one of the longest running annual electric indoor races in the country with plenty of legends of RC making a showing in previous years like Pop’s Losi, Brian Kinwald, Matt Francis, Mike Truhe and many others. With an incredible clay surface that has consistent high traction all weekend makes for great racing. Along with the mains in all the classes the triple A-mains in the mod classes always end in quite a show, last year saw a battle between Losi and Associated drivers in all the mod classes with top showings from Brent Theilke, Scott Brown, Dustin Evans, Matt Chambers and Joel Eaton. The sign up sheet and more information can be found on the IRCR website here.