Red RC » P On Road

June 23, 2009

Pedro Rombouts wins Rd3 Dutch 10th Nats

Round 3 of the Dutch 1/10th scale Nationals was run last weekend at the tight and technical Gouda track in the south of the country. Despite it being dry all weekend, a lot of drivers found it a challenge to get their setup right and so after qualifying it was Maarten van Lierop on pole in the NK class ahead of Arco de Jong in 2nd, Pedro Rombouts 3rd and Sander Borghoff in 4th, while Euro B podium finisher Daan Jacobs could only manage 5th. In the Nomac class Marc Meijer took the pole position in front Michael Behnert and in the promo class Dennis van Lammeren TQ’d ahead of Luigi Pili. The NK main final was missing Daan Jacobs who won his semi final but failed to pass post race scrutiny with a too wide car. In the main race itself there were some good battles throughout the field but in the end Pedro Rombouts could take his 2nd National win in front of van Lierop, who made some mistakes in the race, with Bas Geurds, who was on a 6 minute pit strategy moving up from 9th on the grid to take 3rd at the end. The Nomac class was won by Michael Behnert in front of Davy Geraets and Rik Meijeren, while in the Promo class Dennis could win from Alfred van Dijk and Dick Doom.

Click here to see the other podiums

June 22, 2009

BMI Racing DB12RR LiPo Edition

As the use of LiPo batteries in the 1/12th scale class has been gaining ground and sanctioning bodies and manufacturers have begun standardizing cell formats, BMI Racing have finally developed a new version of the DB12RR for this class. The LiPo edition features a lower chassis that has been optimized to locate and retain a 4000mah 3.7v LiPo pack. The chassis has had the slot dimensions adjusted to match the pack as well as pocketing of the chassis to lower the pack for optimum center of gravity.

Click here to see the chassis plates

June 22, 2009

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th Rd4

Round 4 of the BRCA championship was held at the Mendip circuit, just outside the seaside resort of Weston Super Mare. The weather was dry both days with overcast sky’s and a lot of drivers arrived early Saturday morning to start testing to find the perfect setup. Many drivers use the first couple of hours to run-in and set up engines which then allows the track to rubber in, making chassis setup work that little easier in the afternoon. The early indication was that Mark Green would again be the man to beat due to his consistent driving style every lap. Once the grip was good and black line started to form, it was apparent that Mark was struggling for a setup with his quickest lap time being 15.5 secs, but this was consistent. The other Championship contenders were soon starting to push this time hard and with fine tuning of chassis setup’s, Neil Diver (Velox) and Pete Hastings (Serpent) produced lap times of 15.3 and 15.2 respectively and now needed to work on consistency to have any chance to beating Mark Green in qualification. Andy North was testing geometry changes to the rear of his Mugen in the quest to find more steering and corner speed. This was beginning to work well and with lap times of 15.4 secs seemed to suggest that we are heading in the right direction.

Click here to continue reading the report

June 22, 2009

Xray T2R Pro FRP Chassis & Upper Decks

Xray have released this set of CNC-machined FRP chassis and front/rear upper decks for the T2R Pro. The main advantage of the FRP material is its flex allowance. Due to the flex, the chassis and top decks create more traction and stability on low-traction asphalt tracks compared to standard graphite material. Knowing that every small detail impacts the handling and performance of a high-performance car, Xray CNC-machines every chassis in-house using the most modern German milling machines. fully robotically-operated and controlled to ensure that every chassis meets the tightest manufacturing tolerances. Suitable for the T2‘009, T2‘008 and T2R Pro.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

June 21, 2009

Team Magic G4RS 09 of Raimondo Gilletti

Back in February we brought you the first photographs of the new G4RS 2009 edition (formerly dubbed the G4II) from Team Magic, when we were shown Dario Balestri’s prototype car at the Toy Fair in Germany. Last month we showed you a video of that car testing at Gubbio, host of this years European Championship, at the hands of the double European Champion and now we have photos of the final G4RS 09 of Italian TM/Novarossi team driver Raimondo Gilletti. Basically in its production form, the car is very similar to the prototype with the exception of some different materials, such as the plastic front upper suspension brackets, aluminium chassis stiffeners in place of carbon and plastic rear lower suspension brackets. The prototype plastics have of course all been replaced with the final molded versions and overall the car looks complete. The car has some nice touches such as the super small diameter front and rear gear differentials, the low centre of gravity and centralised weight, the large scope for adjustment and the ability to change between a blade or wire type front ant-roll bar. Having been tested extensively by the Italian TM team of Balestri, Gilleti and Mario Spiniello, the car is expected to hit the market at the end of June, 3 weeks before it will attempt to defend its European title.

Click here to see the rest of the photos

June 19, 2009

Christophe Aygon wins French 8th Nats Rd4

Round 4 of the French 1/8th scale on road Nationals was run last weekend in Limoges, close to the the centre of the country. With the winner of the first 3 rounds, Adrien Bertin busy helping at the Euro ‘B’ Championships in Switzerland, the series would be sure of having a new winner this round. Qualfiying in the Elite class went the way of Serpent/RB driver Anthony Abisset debuting the new 966, followed by Stéphane Bouche, Romain Picard and Laurent Pageneau, while in the National class another Serpent 966 driver topped the time sheets, Arnaud Mathieu, in front of Jérôme Berthelot, Gérald Colinet and Damien Thirion. Following the semi finals, the Elite main final saw Bouche start from 11th having called for a delay. Abisset went off into the lead but on lap 5 came into contact with another car and broke his rim, loosing him a lot of time and dropping him down the order. Romain Picard took over the lead but a better tire strategy from the old guns Christophe Aygon and Serge Christiany saw them take over at the front and claim the win for Serpent and the new 966, with Stéphane Bouche recovering to 3rd by the end. In the National final Arnaud Mathieu sets off at qualifying pace and couldn’t be touched as behind Jérôme Berthelot claimed 2nd and a close battle for 3rd between Damien Thirion and Gérald Colinet is decided on the final corner with Colinet claiming the final podium step by 3 tenths of a second.

Click here for the final results

June 18, 2009

Mickael Pontal wins French 10th Nats Rd3

Round 3 of the French 1/10th scale gas nationals was held last weekend at Bourg en Bresse in the east of the country, close the to Swiss border, with sunny conditions all weekend for the 104 competitors attending. Qualifying for the Elite class saw Thomas Eytard take the top spot ahead of Basile Concialdi in 2nd, Arnaud Chaussard in 3rd and the final direct qualifier was Thomas Desmaries in 4th. The National class qualifying went the way of Anthony Bruyer ahead of Cédric Guillaud in 2nd, with Ludovic Cesar and Benjamin Brasset rounding out the top 4. In the Elite final, it was pole man Eytard that got the holeshot, but problems with his car dropped him out of contention. Concialdi, who was conserving his tires in 2nd, took over the lead but unfortunately some radio problems also dropped him down the leader board. Steady driving and good fortune allowed Kyosho driver Mickael Pontal to take over at the front and bring home the win, by a lap from Mugen Driver Thomas Desamaries in 2nd and Jacky Mouton, with another Kyosho, in 3rd. In the National class the race was all about Benjamin Brasset as pole man Bruyer had problems with his gearbox and dropped down the field. Benjamin was able to pull out a half lap lead by the halfway point, a gap that would be closed up by 2nd placed Julien Colas by the end of the race to only 4/100 of a second. Brasset just managing to cross the line first to take the win from the hard charging Colas in 2nd with Arthur Leclercq in 3rd, the top 6 covered by just over a lap.

Click here to see the final results

June 18, 2009

Rick V joins SchepisModel team

Joining an already strong team that includes Walter Salemi and Guiseppe D’angelo, Dutch driver Rick V has been confirmed as joining the SchepisModel team. The European finalist and factory Mugen driver will participate in this years European 1/10th scale Championships in Gubbio Italy and 1/8th scale World Championships in Lostallo, Switzerland using the SM-Boss engines designed and tuned by Mario Rossi. Prior to this Rick had been running JP engines in his 1/8th scale and Mugen Ninja engines in his 1/10th scale.

Source: SchepisModel [schepismodel.it]