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June 1, 2009

F1 RCGP Round 5 report

The 5th round of the F1RCGP Championship was held recently at Pit In Stadium in Chiba. This round attracted Masayuki Mimura (former 1/8 GP national champion) from Hot Bodies with the brand new HPI Formula 10.The track being used was designed by RC legend Masami Hirosaka and father Masaaki. With no exceptions just as in round 1 and 3 the race started under heavy rain condition and drivers started to try different tires like glue spreaded sponge tires, rubber tires and tamiya tube tires. Apparently most of the drivers got experience from the previous round as most of the cars ran pretty well under rain condition and the biggest issue seemed to be how to avoid water getting into your radio. The first casualty was David Tse running in the F1 class who was in a different league on a 17lap pace but stopped in lap10 with radio failure. All the heats finished under rain condition and Yoshitsugu Takahashi took pole position for the F1 class, while for F1GP class championship leader Hiroshi Kamibayashi (Alex Racing) led the first round with a 19 laps record and eventually took the pole position.

Continue reading the report

June 1, 2009

Andrea Pirani wins Lostallo Open GP

Lostallo, Switzerland, hosts of this years 1/8th scale World Championships, recently ran an Open GP in preparation for the WC. While entry was low, a lot of top quality drivers were present, which featured 6 rounds of qualifying and a final of 60 minutes, just like the Worlds. Qualifying went the way of Alberto Picco, 4 seconds ahead of Andrea Pirani, Andrea Cristiani and Oliver Mack a further 8 seconds back in 4th, current World Champion Lamberto Collari could only manage 12th. The final went the way of Pirani, who took home the win by 2 laps from Oliver Mack in 2nd, Andrea Cristiani in 3rd and Mattia Pesenti in 4th, with pole man Picco hitting problems before retiring close to the end of the race.

Thanks to Mattia Pesenti for the report.

June 1, 2009

HPI Europe seek Account Manager

HPI Europe have been in contact to tell us that they are looking to recruit a high calibre, experienced Account Manager to compliment and work closely with their successful sales team. This position covers a geographical territory selling the HPI range of products to a customer base of hobby shops and R/C specialist outlets in the UK. The successful applicant will be a highly motivated and professional individual with drive, confidence and enthusiasm to sell, promote and manage all the products within the range and have experience of the following:-

– Front line sales
– Knowledge of radio controlled products
– Account Management techniques
– A good understanding of the retail sector
– The ability to seek and open New Accounts
– Creating Excellent Customer relationships

Closing date for applications is the 10th of June 2009 and further information on how to apply can be found here.

June 1, 2009

Richard Hicklin wins BRCA 1/8th Rd3

The 3rd Round of the BRCA national series was held at the Wombwell circuit, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The weather forecast for the weekend was for clear blue sky and hot summer temperatures which made sure that the damp tires where never a consideration for once. During Saturday practice it was Mark Green again setting the pace from a close chasing pack of Andy North (Mugen), Neil Diver (Volex), Richard Hicklin, Tim Wood and Pete Hastings (Serpent). With time restrictions due to the local residents enforcement policy, it made practice less than usual and ensured a busy track throughout the day. It was however apparent that the track at the end of the straight was starting to break up over the bump and it was therefore decided by the committee to form a chicane to slow the cars down. This was to become a further challenge to the drivers with regards to learning how quick to go through it, further set up refinement to allow the car to quickly change direction and gear ratio changes due to the main straight becoming considerably smaller.

Continue reading the report

June 1, 2009

Diggity Designs XLR8-V2 Conversion

Diggity Designs new XLR8-V2 is a carbon fibre and aluminium conversion kit for the Associated TC3 and TC4. The V2 has a newly designed chassis, top-plate, LiPo brace and battery strap for optimzed LiPo and brushless racing. The chassis is narrower with the weight on the battery side moved back to level out the balance of the motor and electronics. The motor cutout is open to allow mounting of any brushless motor, while the LiPo brace can be mounted in one of three positions to help balance the kit out from left to right without adding lots of weight on the battery side. The V2 has a 2.5mm chassis, top-plate, LiPO brace and battery straps (instead of 3mm that is included with the original XLR8) along with 3mm front and rear shock towers. The new chassis and top-plate will help improve performance for asphalt but still keep its performance at top level for carpet racing.

Click here to see more photos

June 1, 2009

GRP Fire – Official Statement

Following on from last weeks fire at the GRP factory in Italy, that destroyed the company’s facilities, the Gandini brothers have released the following statement:

As you probably may have heard already last Tuesday 26th of May, our factory was completely devastated and destroyed by a serious fire. Fortunately, nobody got injured amongst any of the Gandini’s members or workers.

In the next days, as soon as we have recovered from our physical and mental shock, we will take stock of the situation from the technical point of view, to understand what we can do to rebuild ourselves and restart from this huge set-back.

In spite of our deep sadness and sorrow for what has happened, our first thought and thank goes to all those persons who in many ways have expressed and shown their sympathy and support during that horrible night and the following days.

Our will and hope is to be able to restart again soon, and we are working round the clock, if needed to make it happen and not to lose completely the work of the last 20 years. However, we will keep you updated soon on the schedule of our resumption.

In faith,
Maurizio and Stefano Gandini

May 31, 2009

Groskamp & Janssen secure Dutch ETS glory

A-Main number 2 has decided the outcome of the Dutch round of the 2008/2009 Euro Touring Series with Jilles Groskamp and Rob Janssen repeating their opening leg victories to secure the overall win here at the impressive Apeldoorn facility. Groskamp again took an easy win with his Tamiya TRF416 World Edition this time over the Corally of Marc Fisher and the Xray of Bart Wubben. The only driver to run a sub 16 second lap, Groskamp made it look easy as behind him a number of great battles were fought out.

Continue reading the report here.

May 31, 2009

Steen tops Q5, Groskamp secures TQ in Holland

Kyosho factory driver Steen Graversen became the fifth different driver in as many rounds to TQ a round of qualifying here in Apeldoorn but it is defending ETS Champion Jilles Groskamp and his Tamiya that will start from pole. Dane Graversen recorded the fastest 5 minute run of the weekend with his Orion powered Stallion thanks to a fresh set of tyres and cooler track conditions. Having changed motor for the run Graversen is now much happier with the top speed of his car and said he tried to drive safely so as to not punish his tyres too much as he will have to run them again in the A Main. Lining up fifth on the grid his aim is to try and hold station in the final for a Top 5 finish.

Continue reading the report here.