Red RC » R Off Road

February 13, 2010

Frank Root joins Team Losi

Team Losi Racing have announced the signing of Frank Root to their off-road racing team for 2010. Frank’s vast racing experience, impeccable driving talent and superior public relations will be an excellent asset to their organization. Frank’s recent successes include 2008 & 2009 JBRL 2wd and 4wd Off-Road Champion, 2009 NORCAL Championship in 2wd and Truck and Multi-time ROAR National, Cactus Classic and Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout A-main finalist. Frank had the following to say:

I am really excited for this amazing opportunity with Team Losi Racing and Horizon Hobby. I would like to thank Kevin Gahan, Adam Drake, and Mike Truhe for helping make this opportunity come to fruition. I am anxiously looking forward to the Nitro Challenge and Cactus Classic to make my debuts with the Team Losi Racing cars and run with my new Losi teammates! I want to thank everyone from Team Associated for all of the support over the past several years. I have had a great span with Team Associated, Brent Thielke, Kurt “Coach” Wenger, and all of my teammates at Team Associated. I would like to give a big thank you to Jason Ruona from J-Concepts. As my first real sponsor, Jason and J-Concepts were very influential in my success in my racing career.

Frank will be competing this year in the electric off-road classes with his Team Losi Racing XXX-CR, XXX-T CR, 8ight-E 2.0 and XXX-4 Graphite Plus and all will be powered by Xcelorin speed controls, batteries, and motors. Frank will also compete at the nitro events with his Team Losi Racing 8ight 2.0 and 8ight-T 2.0 powered by Nitrotec Engines and Nitrotane Fuel. All vehicles will be exclusively equipped with Team Losi Racing tires.

Source: Losi [losi.com]

February 12, 2010

Ty Tessmann TQs Worlds Warmup race

17 year old Hot Bodies star Ty Tessmann has taken the top qualifying spot at the 1/8th scale buggy Worlds Warm up race in Pattaya, Thailand. Having TQ’d 2 rounds yesterday, TY took rounds 5 and 6 today to cement his place at the top and lead home a Hot Bodies 1-2-3 in qualifying with Jesse Robbers TQ’ing round 4 to leap frog World Champion Atsushi Hara to line up 2nd, with the Japanese driver having to settle for 3rd. Losi driver Yannick Aigoin managed to improve with a 3rd place in the final round to jump up to 4th, ahead of Dani Choi, Teemu Leino and Meen Vejrak. Lining up 8th after improving from yesterday is current European Champion Renaud Savoya who took 2nd in round 4. Jerome Aigoin and Martin Bayer complete the top 10. Lower finals start tomorrow with the big finals starting on Sunday, giving the top drivers a chance to relax and enjoy their surroundings.

Click here to see a video from qualifying

February 11, 2010

Ty Tessmann heads qualifying at Worlds Warmup

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLs8tngxrEo[/youtube]

With the first day of qualifying over at the 1/8th scale buggy Pre Worlds in Pattaya, Thailand it is the current World Champions Hot Bodies that are leading the way after 3 rounds. Heading the current standings is young Ty Tessmann who has taken the TQ in rounds 1 and 2 and backed it up with a 3rd spot in round 3, while current World Champion Atsushi Hara popped in a TQ run in round 3 to line up in 2nd and leapfrog his other team mate Jess Robbers who is currently sitting in 3rd. Best of the non Hot Bodies is Teemu Leino driving the Xray in 4th, with Korean Mugen racer Dani Choi in 5th with former European Champion Yannick Aigoin in 6th. Joseph Quagraine, Alex Bayer, Surikarn and Meen Vejrak complete the top 10. Current European Champion Renaud Savoya, whom we interviewed prior to the event, is not have a good time and is currently placed in 20th place with a best finish of 8th in the 3rd round. Tomorrow’s final day of qualifying sees 3 more rounds for everyone to try and improve their positions.

Source: RC Blood [rcblood.com]

February 10, 2010

22nd Annual April Fools Classic – Announcement

Intermountain RC Raceway has announced the dates of April 9th, 10th & 11th for the 22nd Annual April Fools Classic. With all the common electric classes running from novice, short course and on up through stock, pro stock and modified electric, last years race had over 200 entries with tons of fun had by all over the weekend. This is one of the longest running annual electric indoor races in the country with plenty of legends of RC making a showing in previous years like Pop’s Losi, Brian Kinwald, Matt Francis, Mike Truhe and many others. With an incredible clay surface that has consistent high traction all weekend makes for great racing. Along with the mains in all the classes the triple A-mains in the mod classes always end in quite a show, last year saw a battle between Losi and Associated drivers in all the mod classes with top showings from Brent Theilke, Scott Brown, Dustin Evans, Matt Chambers and Joel Eaton. The sign up sheet and more information can be found on the IRCR website here.

February 9, 2010

Red RC Pro Talk – Renaud Savoya Interview

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdrnHcjmYl8[/youtube]

With the 1/8th scale buggy World Championship warm up race taking place in Pattaya this week, we thought it would be a good time to release an interview we made 2 weeks ago with the current European Champion Renaud Savoya. For those who don’t know, the French Mugen RB driver is currently based in Australia, taking advantage of the great weather and the country’s relative proximity to Thailand. A two part session, both of which you can view right here, we get the lowdown on Renaud down under and check in on how his preparations are going as he aims to defend his European crown and take his first World title later in the year.

Click here to view part 2 of the Renaud Savoya interview

February 9, 2010

Nic Hamilton teams up with LRP

LRP have announced Nic Hamilton as a new member of the LRP racing team. Young Nic, brother of 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, has decided to join forces with LRP and VTEC for the upcoming racing season. Used to the sound and racing action of Formula 1, Nic still founds his true joy and passion in the R/C model sport and is determined to develop and improve in the coming season. Introduced to the R/C hobby by his brother Lewis back in 2007, Nic has already enjoyed early success, despite limited free time by finishing in an impressive 7th place at the AKA winter series and 4th in a recent 4 hour long endurance race.

Source: LRP [lrp.cc]

February 2, 2010

Simon Moss wins on Schumacher Cougar SV debut

Schumacher are reporting that the Cougar SV made its much anticipated race debut this weekend at the BRCA British Open, which has replaced the Indoor Nationals formally run during the winter season. Against a strong entry of most of the UK’s top electric off road drivers the race could not have gone better for the Schumacher team. The result was a convincing victory in the 2WD class, Simon Moss won all 5 of his races in the Reedy style event to score a maximum perfect score. Simon also recorded the fastest 5 minute run by a huge margin of 5 seconds and fastest single lap with his Speed Passion powered car.

Continue reading the report here

February 1, 2010

Bitty Design team up with Davide Tortorici

Italian company Bitty Design have announced that they have signe 2 time European champion Davide Tortorici for the 2010 racing season. Davide, who recently changed to Hobao, will use the company’s new Fighter shell for the Hyper 9, which following track tests has shown to be faster and more agile in low speed turns, have better direction change and improves air flow to the engine.

Click here for images of his new Hyper 9 shell