Red RC » R Off Road

February 16, 2010

Yatabe International Offroad GP 2010

The organisers of the Yatabe International Offroad GP 2010 have asked us to let everyone know about this great event that is taking place at the Internationally famous Yatabe Arena in Japan from the 6th to the 7th of March. So far Ryan Cavalieri (AE), Joern Neumann (Yokomo) and Hupo Honigl (Durango) have confirmed their entry and as usual all of the Japanese factory team drivers from Kyosho, Tamiya, Yokomo, etc will also be in attendance as well. The event is split over the 2 days with 2wd classes, short course, stadium truck, buggy and world class buggy being run on Saturday, while on Sunday there are the 4wd classes, stock class buggy, buggy and world class buggy. Entry forms for both days are available here (Sat 2wd) and here (Sun 4wd) and if you want more information you can e-mail the Yatabe Arena directly at info@yatabearena.com.

Source: Yatabe Arena [yatabearena.com]

February 14, 2010

Meen Vejrak wins Buggy Pre Worlds

Thai driver Meen Vejrak has won the Pre Worlds race in Pattaya today, following a hectic 60 minute main final which saw the Hot Bodies team hit trouble, leaving them down the order. The Semi finals went as planned for event TQ Ty Tessmann and team mate Jesse Robbers, both winning their respective finals to line up 1 and 2 on the grid for the main final, with Atsushi Hara to start from 3rd ahead of an ever improving Renaud Savoya. In the main final it was a complete reverse of fortunes that saw Robbers the first retire after 22 minutes, while Tessmann would be the next to hit bad luck, dropping out with electrical problems at the 33rd minute. The remain half of the race saw the lead change multiple times as the front running drivers all hit trouble until local Mugen driver Meen V emerged at the front, himself recovering from an earlier problem, to take the win by 18 or so seconds from one time race leader Teemu Leino, while former Touring car World Champion Surikarn C. took the final podium position in 3rd.

Click here for a video of Meen in action

February 13, 2010

Euro Indoor Race Belgium report

This past weekend the Euro Indoor Race was held at the indoor off road track of the BRCC club in Charleroi, Belgium. The event is driven on an all astroturf track, equipped with whoops, jumps, table tops and had a very challenging layout and is open to 1/8th BL buggy, 1/10th trucks, 1/10th 4WD buggy and 2WD buggy and it attracted drivers from Belgium, France, Netherlands, the UK and Denmark. Free training on Friday saw 7 rounds of 5 minute qualifying on Saturday and 1 last qualifying round on Sunday followed by 5 finals. In 1/8th, it was Nicolas Hammerton that TQ’d but the battle in the finals was fierce and it was Roger Capelmann that took the overall win. Nicolas Hammerton finished 2nd with third place going to French pilot Philippe Schlafmunter.

Continue reading the report here

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