Red RC » R On Road

August 2, 2009

Groskamp is European Champion

‘I have been second so many times, finally I am first’, was how your new European Electric Touring Car Champion Jilles Groskamp summed up his victory here in Luxembourg. Having been a Top Qualifier on two previous occasions at the EFRA Championships, the factory Tamiya/Speedpassion driver made it third time lucky, converting his pole position into victory with wins in Leg 2 & 3. Starting the third leg, with four drivers still in contention for the 2009 title, the Dutch ace lead from start to finish but said another bad set of tyres had made his car loose. Still managing to set the fastest lap of the race, Groskamp believes he would have had his work cut out if outgoing champion Marc Rheinard and 2007 Champion Ronald Volker had not controversially come together on lap 6.

Read the full report on our event site here.

August 2, 2009

Groskamp takes Euros Leg 2 with ease

After his dramas in the opening leg Top Qualifier Jilles Groskamp made it look easy in the second to take the win over Ronald Volker. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver lead from start to finish on the dry track with the only challenge coming from his teammate Wilck but that ended when the Swede hit tyre problems. There was a few tense moments for Groskamp after the race when scruntineers found one of the four tyres on his TRF416WE was registered to title rival Volker. Under the rules this would have meant exclusion for the Dutch driver but the Team Yokomo team came to the rescue and produced all of the tyres registered to the star driver proving Groskamp had done no wrong and the error was down to the incorrect marking of the tyres by officials.

View our full event coverage here.

August 1, 2009

Groskamp on pole for 2009 Euros

Jilles Groskamp is the 2009 EFRA Electric Touring Car European Championship Top Qualifier after a dramatic final round of qualifying that saw the big surprise of this event, Lucas Urbain (17/5:18.436), TQ the final round of heats. With 30 seconds to run on the clock it looked as though Viktor Wilck (16/5:01.046) was going to claim his first ever Euros pole position but on the final lap the Swede lost the rear of his Tamiya. With his teammate Groskamp, who he passed during the run, right on his bumper the pair made contact allowing Ronald Volker (16/5:00.335) to win the top heat. Luckily for the Tamiya team, Urbain’s time from the previous group was faster than that of Volker allowing Groskamp to retain the top spot on the qualification ranking.

View our full event coverage here.

August 1, 2009

Wilck heads Tamiya domination of penultimate Euros Qualifier

The penultimate round of qualifying for the 2009 EFRA 1:10 Electric Touring European Championships was an all Tamiya affair as their drivers set the Top 5 fastest times with Viktor Wilck (17/5:17.016) claiming the TQ even after flipping his TRF416WE. Despite the warmer track condition the Swede was on target to beat his teammate Marc Rheinard’s Round 3 time, currently the fastest run of qualifying, but once again made a mistake at the hairpin flipping his car. Luckily it landed rubber side down but the incident cost him over a second and a half, time that would have moved him in to the overall provisional TQ spot.

View our full event coverage here.

July 31, 2009

Sebastián Recio wins again in Argentina

Last Sunday saw the second round of the Campeonato Argentino de 1/8 Roar run at the Hernan Matticoli track in Buenos Aires. Mugen Sirio driver Sebastián Recio was the winner followed by Agustín Cutini and Juan Pablo Golobic. It was a great race and fastest in this second round was Recio, who set a new track record of 19.55 seconds, breaking the previously held record of 19.90 by Chris Tosolini, set back at the Copa de Las Americas.

July 31, 2009

Campbell & Steele take Irish Nats Rd5

Round 5 of the Irish Nationals took place in Dublin last weekened and in 1/8th scale qualifying it was Shepherd driver Ian Campbell that took the TQ spot for the final ahead of Austin Elliot and Michael Byrne, while in the 1/10th scale class it was Chris Steele that would start on pole ahead of Chris Lawlor and Thomas Ward. The 200mm A final saw Chris Steele hold his lead throughout, but 2nd place man Chris Lawlor retired when his transponder failed on lap 39. 3rd place qualifier Thomas Ward retired from the 30 minute final on lap 49, allowing Darren Gibb and Robert Boylan to take the remaining podium places. The 1/8th A final saw Ian Campbell set the fastest lap of the race, finishing in 1st ahead of 3rd place qualifier Michael Byrne, with John Delaney coming up through the field to finish 3rd overall. From 2nd on the grid, Austin Elliott was holding his position until he retired on just lap 21 with an electrical problem.

Thanks to Ian Campbell for the report.

July 31, 2009

Volker takes first qualifier in Luxembourg

Yokomo team driver Ronald Volker (17/5:17.928) has TQ’d the opening qualifier here in Luxembourg after an extremely close first round. The 2008 Top Qualifier took the round on the final lap after pace setter for most of the run Viktor Wilck dumped on his 17th lap. Volker said his LRP powered BD5 suffered with understeer at the beginning but got easier to driver as the run progressed.

View our full event coverage here.

July 30, 2009

Tamiya end Euros Day 1 on top

Day 1 of the 2009 EFRA Electric Touring European Championships has been completed and it is the Tamiya team who top the time sheets. The final practice of the day saw defending Champion Marc Rheinard set a new fastest run as both he and Jilles Groskamp broke into the 17 laps. Having had a run time issue in the third practice, Rheinard switched to SpeedPassion’s new Competition 3.0 motor for the final outing of the day and now plans to stick with the motor after posting the 17/5:17.356 run with plenty of power left aferwards. The German will make a small change to the gearing but said overall he was confident that his run time shortfall was a one off. In terms of the car, the World Champion said it was a little loose but feels that is down to track conditions rather than set-up.

View our full event coverage here.