Red RC » R Off Road

April 16, 2009

Jared Tebo wins Neo 09 race

Less than a week after his big win at the Silver State Team Orion/Kyosho/AKA factory driver Jared Tebo made the long trip over to the UK to compete against Europe’s best at the Neo 09 Race. The race format consisted of five 10-minute qualifiers with the point totals from 3 out of the 5 rounds to be used to seed the drivers into the semi’s. A 20-minute semi would then ran to advance the top drivers into the 45-minute A-Main. Tebo went on to TQ rounds 3, 4, and 5 to set the overall TQ and would then start first on the grid for the 20-minute Semi which he won by 10 seconds over 2nd place. For the 45-Minute A-Main JT would once again start from the pole position and at the start of the tone Jared got a good start and began to gap the field. After the first rounds of pit stops Tebo was still out front and looking good. With 7-minutes left to go in the main, Tebo came in for his last fuel stop and came out with close to an 8 second lead on UK’s Darren Bloomfield and never looked back. Jared went on to win from Losi driver Bloomfield in 2nd and Tamiya driver Ryan Lutz 3rd.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]

April 15, 2009

Adam Drake dominates Losi Winter series Rd4

Adam Drake touched base to let us know about the 4th and final round of the Losi Winter Series that took place last weekend at Revelation Raceway. The Drake TQ’d both the expert buggy and truggy with Losi 8ight and 8ight T and went on to claim the win in both classes. In the buggy class he won from Losi team mates Matt Schreffler in 2nd and Colby Poh 3rd, both drivers a lap down, while in truggy he won from Losi man Eddie Laret and Scott Wagner driving an Associated, both drivers unable to mount any serious challenge. In taking these wins, Adam wrapped up both titles.

Click here to see Adam’s cars

April 13, 2009

Tebo & Maifield win Neo 09

Our Creme egg infatuated friends at oOple have been reporting all weekend from the Neo 09 race, the annual indoor buggy race which this year takes place in the UK. Associated racer Ryan Maifield took TQ in Electric 8th and took the first and third leg to take overall victory. The third leg had to be re-run after a disastrous error when it was run for 5 minutes instead of 10 – but Maifield won both anyway. Ryan Maifield won from Italian Losi racer Ricardo Rabitti in 2nd and Lee Martin 3rd. In the main gas class Maifield didn’t have much luck, an engine cut saw some drama right at the end of his Semi and he went from 2nd to ‘out of contention’ in the blink of an eye, but stellar marshalling and an expert pit team got him back on the track. Scraping through for the A in 6th place. The main was all about Kyosho driver Tebo however and he lead from start to finish, with a brief switch around due to fuel stops putting Darren Bloomfield up to first. Tebo won from Losi man Darren Bloomfield in 2nd and Tamiya’s Ryan Lutz 3rd.

Read oOple’s full report on their site here.

Source: oOple [oople.com]

April 13, 2009

North Carolina Championship series Rd1

JConcepts are reporting on round 1 of the North Carolina Championship series that kicked off last weekend at WCRC in Wilkesboro, NC. Strong storms came through on Friday night and delayed practice and the start of the race, however spirits would not be broken and a good crowd was on hand to enjoy some great racing action. The track crew did a fantastic job getting the track race-able, and all three qualifiers were able to take place. Pro Buggy saw a great battle with the top three drivers all fighting for the top spot with less than 2 minutes to go in the main. This battle saw Barry Pettit leading late, with Alex Birmingham (TQ) and Chris Pace in hot pursuit. Each driver led at one point during the closing laps, but at the finish it was Chris Pace taking the win, followed by Barry and Alex. During the early heats while the track was soft and loamy, Pace preferred Crowbars in blue compound, and for the mains as the track packed in, the Double Dee’s proved to be the winning edge needed.

April 7, 2009

Jared Tebo wins Buggy at Silver State

This year marked the 11th Annual Silver State Nitro Challenge in Las Vegas, NV and like in years past the weather was always changing, with very windy conditions and temperatures up and down proving to be a big challenge for the drivers all week long. A new race format was constructed this year by race director Jason Ashton for the Invitational Class, which consisted of 3 qualifying heats with all of them counting, the first of which was 7-minutes, the 2nd 10-minutes, and the 3rd and final qualifier 15-minutes. After the 3 qualifiers were run, each heat would have the top 3 drivers with the lowest point totals advance straight to the main event. Then the lower mains would be run taking the top 2 drivers to bump into the next main. Team Orion/Kyosho/AKA Factory Driver Jared Tebo was on fire in qualifying winning both heats for Invitational buggy and truggy on the first day, with the second day only consisting of the 15-minute qualifier. Tebo went on to finish 2nd in both buggy and truggy to wrap up the overall TQ in both classes. In the 30 minute main final for invitational buggy, Jared Tebo got a great launch off the starting line and set off on a fast pace with Ryan Maifield close behind. After the first round of pit stops Tebo was still in the lead but now his team mate Cody King was in 2nd. After the second round of stops Tebo was still leading but now Adam Drake and Billy Fischer were battling it out for the second position and only quick refuelling kept Tebo in the lead after the final stop as he went on to win from Losi pairing of Billy Fischer in 2nd and Adam Drake 3rd.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]

April 1, 2009

Adam Drake joins Novarossi

Adam Drake has been in contact to confirm that he has made a move to Novarossi. The deal which is for 2 years sees ‘The Drake’ leave behind a successful partnership with GRP engines for whom he has raced for the past few seasons. Adam has the following to say about the deal:

I’m very excited to be running for Novarossi. The testing has been great and this past weekend was my first race with the new engines. The power and fuel consumption is amazing. I’m really looking forward to the Silver State Nitro Challenge this weekend. Thank you to everyone at Novarossi for this great opportunity.

Adam made his Novarossi debut last weekend at Revelation Raceway for the 3rd round of the Losi Winter Series in which he won both the Buggy Expert and Truggy Expert classes, the latter from the TQ spot. The buggy class was TQ’d by Ryan Lutz running the new Tamiya 801X buggy, and he finished in 2nd place behind Adam, with Mugen driver Jeff Guest taking 3rd, while in truggy it was Matt Screffler that took the runner up spot in front of Ryan Lutz in 3rd.

Click here to see Adam’s Novarossi powered rides

March 31, 2009

Martin & Cragg win 2009 Players race

Our friends oOple have a detailed report on the three day ‘The Players’ race held last weekend in Worksop and was run to a Reedy style format for the top drivers who’d qualified earlier in the event. Neil Cragg set the early pace, winning all his 2WD and 4WD ‘Players’ races on Saturday but Lee Martin took the top spot away from Neil Cragg in 2WD with an impressive series of wins on Sunday to seal a well earned Victory. 4WD went down to the wire, with Associated’s Neil Cragg & Hot Bodies Adam Skelding on equal points going into the final round. By virtue of his faster time, Neil Cragg sat on top and only Skelding could steal the victory from him. It wasn’t to be however as the two were drawn in the same race and Adam simply couldn’t match Neils pace, as he went on to set an even faster time.

View the full report here.

Source: oOple [oople.com]

March 31, 2009

Team Orion confirms Yuichi Kanai

Following on from last weeks teaser image from Team Orion, and the subsequent guesses that you guys put in, the Swiss company has announced that Japanese star driver Yuichi Kanai is their newest team member. The Kyosho Inferno MP9 designer is already using the Alpha engines in his car, and this with great success having just won his first race using the new equipment. The former World Champion Yuichi Kanai will not only use all the Team Orion engines and accessories, but will also be part of the R&D process to developing new products. With the addition of Yuichi Kanai, a total of 9 World Champions are actively racing, testing and using Team Orion nitro and electric products to ensure their customers get the best quality and performance available.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]