This year’s JMRCA All-Japan 1/8th Nitro Off-road Championships were held in the Chiba prefecture over the weekend. Kyosho’s Naoto Matsukura would take the TQ spot after the qualifiers in front of team mate Kazuya Tanaka. In the final Kazuya would then hold the upper hand, adding another national championship to his belt following his nationals win in 2012. TQ holder Naoto would end the main on the runner-up spot.
Source: Kyosho [kyosho.com]
Following last weekend’s EFRA AGM, the European governing body has announced the (provisional) dates for next year’s European Championships. The season kicks off in April with the 1/12th scale Euros that are again being held in Trencin, Slovakia while the Summer season starts with the 1/8th On-road and 1/8th Off-road B Euros in May and June respectively. The Nitro Buggy Euros A in July starts a month of a total of seven European Championships including the Electric Touring Car, 1/10th Electric Buggy and 1/8th On-road A while the 1/8th E-Buggy and 40+ Euros round out the calendar in September. Several classes also saw clarifications or additions of existing rules with the EFRA now clarified on the status of EFRA A and B licences and the allowed drivers for the respective Euros. The 1/8th E-Buggy class saw an amendment of the existing bodyshell rules with the bodies now have “to have a real car shape” and they have “to be able to carry the EFRA Numbers at the front and both sides as high as possible”. As for the electric on-road side of things EFRA has added a 1/10th 21.5T Formula class that will be part of the European Championship and that is run with “open” 21.5T motors and blinky speed controllers. Full AGM details can be found here.
Click here to view the provisional race calendar
Multiple World and National Champion, Atsushi Hara has announced his departure from off-road chassis sponsor SWorkz. Having joined Speedmaster Hobby Company, parent brand of SWorkz, at the beginning of 2014 and having a three year contract, Atsushi has terminated the contract effectively of October 31st. The reasons remain in the darkness and Hara so far left open what his next move will be. Atsushi states:
I have to announcement about terminate contract for SWorkz in between myself on 31st October 2015. I’d like to thank SWorkz owner Scott Yang and SWorkz USA team manager Marty Korn. It was great opportunities to start build for new brand SWorkz with them. I have such a great time to working with them and I had a lot of experience for many things. I never forget over my life those are great time for me. Also, Thanks to all of SWorkz distributors and SWorkz fans are great support! It will make me a big motivation for all time.
For the first time the Western Australia titles were held outside the metropolitan area in Kalgoorlie, some 580km from the Capital, Perth. In the Nitro Buggy Kyle Francis took the win in the main final after an eventful 45 minutes. Coming from the 3 spot on the grid, Kyle got caught up in someone else’s crash, dropping him to 11th. Slowly the comeback started and he began gaining positions and the gap to the first placed driver was 18 seconds. A few laps later and it was back to 15, then 12. Kyle had the fastest car out there, it was just a case of keeping it on four wheels and having enough time to reel in the leader. Another 10 minutes passed and the gap was down to 6 seconds, then 3 seconds. The race commentator was getting excited.
Xray have announced the signing of young and talented Czech off-road driver Max Götzl to their junior team. Max is a long time Xray supporter and a regular winner of the junior categories at national off-road events. Max says:
I’m very happy to be part of the team Xray. I have started with racing in 2009. During this time Xray have been producing the best products for us. With Xray’s cars I was able to grab several junior titles in different categories as well as finishing on podium among the best Czech drivers. I am very happy to be given this opportunity and hope this will help me to improve myself even more. I will race all the main races in Czech Republic including the XWS Czech Republic as well as some international events including EOS, Euros, etc.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Phillip Atondo held the Fourth Annual Octoberfest last weekend at Central Valley Raceway in Madera, California. The race brings out the fastest drivers from Northern California and it was Jacob Haas (TLR) who TQ’ed the event, but Tyler Vik (Xray) would take the lead on the first lap of the A-main as he continued on for the win, finishing a lap and a half ahead of a great battle for the final podium spots. While running in second, Cooter Kenney (Mugen) would have a flameout and end up sixth. Jonathan Hernandez (TLR) ended up second, just slightly ahead of Curtis Door (Muen) and Austin Blair (SWorkz).
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Indy R/C World in Garland, Texas played host to the inaugural Pro-Line Shootout. The event had 200 entries and in the premier Nitro Buggy class Adam Drake would take the TQ and later on also the win in the 45 minute main final. Adam also TQ’d and won in the Nitro Truggy class and he would round out a perfect weekend by taking the overall win in the 1/8th E-Buggy class and the electric and nitro Dash for Cash races. Elsewhere Mark Morrow TQ’d and won the 40+ Nitro Buggy class while Matthew Brown TQ’d and won the Open Truck category.
Source: Mugen Seiki [mugenracing.com]
The maiden season of the Swiss 1/8th E-Buggy Championship concluded with race three and four held at the Luetisburg astro turf track in Eastern Switzerland. The weekend started out cold and with light rain on Saturday and in the qualifiers Kevin Zwahlen (HB) and Romeo Grass (Xray) set the pace with Robin Frischkopf (Xray) rounding out the top 3 result. The A-main on Saturday then saw Robin fighting for the win although he lacked traction as he was using Minipin tyres, knowing a Spiral tread would be faster. After a couple of position changes Robin was able to take the win some two seconds in front of Kevin Zwahlen.
Continue reading the report here
