RC Concept have announced the signing of Riccardo Berton to their electric factory team. The Kyosho factory driver will use RC Concept’s WTI brushless speed controllers, brushless motors, competition LiPo batteries and also RC Concept’s accessory line to power his 1/8th and 1/10th electric rides.
Source: RC Concept [rcconcept.net]
Round 2 of this year’s Grassroots Racing Series was held at SoCal Nitro Raceway in Victorville, California. In the Open Nitro Truggy class it was Mugen’s Adam Drake with the overall TQ, however in the single 15-minute A-main it was TLR’s Anthony Westergaard with the win, some 7.3s in front of Adam as TLR’s Brian Sullivan rounded out the top 3 a lap down. In Pro Nitro Buggy it was Mugen’s Adam Drake with the TQ and win from TLR’s Anthony Westergaard 2nd and Mugen’s Marcus Garrett in 3rd.
View the Pro Nitro Buggy podium here
The Montpellier GP, season opener for Europe’s 1/8th off-road drivers, was held this past weekend at the Mini Bolide Montpellierain track in Montpellier, France. As usual the event attracted most of Europe’s 1/8th off-road stars as well as local talent and to no one’s surprise it was 2018 IFMAR World Champion, Italy’s Davide Ongaro (Team Associated) with the overall TQ after coming out on top in Q2 and Q3. Mugen’s Robert Batlle came in 2nd from new SWorkz signing, Juan Carlos Canas. Davide then also secured the pole position for the hour-long Nitro Buggy A-main event from Juan Carlos in 2nd and Kyosho’s Riccardo Berton in 3rd. The race then looked pretty straight forward for Davide until his battery broke in the closing stages of the race, allowing Kyosho’s Elliott Boots take a narrow win from Juan Carlos Canas and Riccardo Berton, all ending the main on the same lap. Robert Battle and Marco Baruffolo would come in 4th and 5th to round out the top 5.
Newly-formed Performa Racing have announced the signing of World Champion racer David Ronnefalk to their factory team. The HB Racing factory pilot will race, test and help develop Performa Racing electric and nitro power units and accessories for off-road and on-road racing. Performa Racing’s Adrien Bertin says: “Over the past two years we have had great success with HB Racing, and some of our HB team drivers wanted to use a complete Neidhart SA package that included the car and power source. After some talk with Neidhart SA owner Philippe Neidhart, we decided that the Performa concept will work alongside HB Racing.” From elite world class racers like Ronnefalk to club racers around the world, Performa Racing is committed to deliver industry leading products developed by the most experienced designers and tested by the top racers in the R/C industry. Look for the complete line Performa products to roll out in early 2019, including nitro engines, electric motors, speed controllers, batteries for on-road, off-road, crawlers and much more.
Source: Peforma Racing [performaracing.com]
AKA Europe have announced the signing of Germany’s Burak and Berkan Kilic to their team. The two youngsters can already look back on some very impressive national and international results and they will be using AKA rubber on their Agama rides starting immediately.
Source: AKA [raceaka.com]
After the huge success of the first round at the end of December the Essex Carpet Clash returned to Hornchurch, Essex, for round 2 of what’s proving to be a very popular new off road series, with yet again a full entry for 4WD and 2WD. After listening to the drivers feed back from the previous round, a few small changes were made to both the pitting and more importantly the track. Additional jumps were added for this round and strategically positioned to give a fun and more driver-friendly track. The addition of a cross over jump proved a real favourite with the racers and looked great for the spectators. There was a slight change in the race format for this round giving the drivers even more value for money. Practice, four round by round qualifying runs and three finals for all.
Continue reading the report here
The last weekend saw the running of the Swedish Electric Off-road Nationals in Sundsvall. The race was a bit special because it was held like a mix of a Reedy race style and a regular 1/8th scale bump-up format. The qualifying was decided Reedy-style while the finals were held in a bump-up form with semis and main final. After the four qualifying rounds it was Elias Johansson on top, Wilhelm Skjöldebrand 2nd and Micke Svensson in 3rd. They were the only one’s who went through all the qualifying rounds with victories only. In 4th it was Lukas Larson and Felix Angseryd held 5th.
Continue reading the report here
The Trukz RC track in Calgary, Alberta held the Dirt Classic race this past weekend. The grip on the track was very low, because of the very low temps outside, and the ground was very cold also which at times caused there to be small sections that actually had ice on the track. The club members went out on the track with blow torches to keep the track in good shape, but tire prep was very important. The race was held in two classes, 2WD and 4WD Buggy with the schedule seeing four qualifiers and single 8-minute mains. In the 2WD Buggy class it was Ty Tessmann with the win from Peter Toszer and Eric Hardy. Over in 4WD Buggy Kevin Thompson would hold the upper hand over and placed Karim Kanji and 3rd placed Mark Hughes.
View the 4WD Buggy podium here
