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February 22, 2007

2007 Thailand International Touring Car Champs

TITC Marc Rheinard

This weekend sees the RC circus make their way to Thailand, fresh from the Snowbirds & Winternats in the case of Jilles Groskamp, to race the Thailand International Touring Car Championships, or TITC for short. This years event takes place at the Radio Control Speedway in Jadujag, Thailand and is sure to be a tough race for all involved as it has attracted all 4 IFMAR ITC World Champions as well as some of the best Asian and European racers (see entry lists here). Last years Mod race was won by Marc Rheinard and he is certain to be a favourite this year along with local favourite and winner of last years Stock class Surikarn C, but they first have to get their cars dialed in on the rubber tires and in the 40 degree C heat that is beating down on the track in practice.

Expect the heat to play a major role in who can win this event, as the track temperature is in the mid 50’s celcius, and when you consider that modern machinery is already struggling to get rid of the heat while racing indoors in cooler conditions you can expect to some heat related failures throughout proceedings. Qualfiying will start on Saturday, with the finals on Sunday and we hope to bring you some end of day updates as we get them.

For pictures from the event until now, you can go here, here and here.

Image: TITC [titc.in.th]

February 22, 2007

Helge Johannessen wins Norwegian National Cup

Helge Johannessen wins Norwegian Nationals

Xray have a report on their site from team driver Helge Johannessen who has done a write up from the 4th round of the indoor national cup series held 2 weeks ago in Trondheim at the Spectrum Sports Center. Johannessen set the TQ in both the modified and 19T classes ahead of fellow Xray racer Adrian Berntsen and went on to finish in those positions after all the finals were run. In winning both races in Helge took both National Cup titles.

You can read his full report here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

February 21, 2007

Xray on their NT1 debut

Xray on the NT1 debut

Although we already covered the Winternats I thought it was interesting to get an insight on how the Xray team felt they had performed, considering the hype surrounding the event and the debut of their new 200mm racer, the NT1. While the car definitely performed, it suffered from some off track problems when it mattered most such as poor pit stops as well as the problem that got Jilles Groskamp disqualified after the B-main, but they showed some good speed in the A-main but suffered major tyre wear problems as the track conditions on the finals day changed.

Despite using the harder tire compounds the tires were wearing more than expected and with only a few minutes remaining the rear tires on both Martin and Ralph’s cars wore down almost to the rims making the car more difficult to handle; in the last laps, both lost their 2nd and 3rd position respectively.

You can read the full report here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

February 20, 2007

Snowbird A-main Videos now online

[youtube]ID5rBBE9oCQ[/youtube]

Thanks to the wonder that is YouTube and the enthusiasm of some great spectators with a video camera we can bring you all the important A-mains from the Worlds biggest race, the Snowbirds. This is far better than the webcam as you can actually now see the far corner of the track, those who watched it live online will know what im talking about. The first one is above and is from the Touring Mod final that was won by Jilles Groskamp, the others are below.

Check out the other Videos here… content

February 19, 2007

Vialla wins Rd4 of French 1/12th Nationals

Philippe Vialla has won the 4th round of the French 1/12th scale Nationals held last weekend in Montbrison. Philippe raced his Team Laje SpeedEvil 07 to a fine win over 2nd placed Simon Rubet who was driving a CRC Carpet Knife. The final podium position went to round 1 and 2 winner Pierre-FranÃ§ois Brunet, the Associated RC12L4 driver also managing to wrap up the National title with this result, beating eventual runner up Simon Rubet to the top spot with Philippe Vialla claiming 3rd in the final points.

Source: RC Infos [rcinfos.com]

February 18, 2007

Race Announcement – Handy Models Grand Prix

Cotswold track

We received a mail from the race organisers at the Cotswold Model Car Club asking us to plug their upcoming Handy Models Grand Prix and we were happy to oblige, after all thats what we’re here for. The Grand Prix will take place on the 17th and 18th of March on their fast looking new track and is open to Stock, 19T and Modified Electric touring, Gas foam and rubber as well as 1/5th bikes. It should be a good event and a good chance for gas and electric racers to mingle and see each others racing class up close.

Click here to find out more information… content

February 18, 2007

Zuykov Denis wins at Russian Nationals

Zuykov Denis

Xray have a report on their site about the recent Russian National electric touring car race that was held last weekend in Vladimir, not far from Moscow. In the Modified class Zuykov Denis dominated the event by taking TQ spot and the overall win, finishing ahead of team mate Lopukhin Artem whilst in stock class it was Smirnov Alex that took the win ahead of Drenâ€™kov Evgeniy.

Team XRAY dominated the qualifications up to the last final and as a result, best lap, TQ and win in TC10 were set by Team XRAY which was represented in the A final by Zuykov Denis, Artem Lopukhin, Bogdanov Vladimir. Itâ€™s also important to know that 11 year old Vladimir won the Junior Championship.

You can read the full report here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

February 18, 2007

Morganti & Tosolini win 2007 Winternats, Florida

2007 Winternats, Florida

The 2007 Florida Winternats is in the bag and it has produced some very exciting racing, none more so than the A-mains which were packed with talented racers and the best machinery. In the 1/10th scale A-main, the class with the most big names and most varied manufacturers, Paolo Morganti could easily convert his pole position into a much deserved win. The Serpent 720 racer could pull away from his pole position starting spot to win the race 6 laps ahead of 2nd placed racer, Chris Tosolini, driving for Kyosho. The final podium step went to Ralph Burch driving the Xray NT1, who finished only 3 seconds down on 2nd place Tosolini. Danny Horta and Martin Hudy had a close race for 4th with the Serpent driver getting the position by 1 seconds from the Xray racer after 45 minutes racing. It was worth mentioning that Jilles Groskamp managed to win every final from the H-main to the B-main, only to be disqualified after his car failed scrutiny stopping him from bumping up into the A-main.

In the 1/8th scale class it was Chris Tosolini, driving a Kyosho Evolva, that took the win, moving up 1 place from his grid spot to power his way to a 1 lap advantage in the end over 2nd place Rick V, who driving a Mugen MRX4-R had managed to bump up from the B-main after a difficult qualifying. An interesting thing to note was that while everyone else in the final had changed their tyres mid race Chris had left it until the 43rd minute of the race to change his tyres and ensure he was over the weight limit when his car went into race scrutiny. The final step of the podium went to Kyosho racer and pole position sitter Josh Cyrul who ran into some problems and had dropped back to 3rd spot finishing 8 laps clear of 4th placed finisher, Italys Marco Vanni driving a Mugen. Morganti and Salven were out early and this left Scotty Gray to uphold honours for Serpent but he then tangled with last years winner Mike Swauger and Kyoshos Joel Johnson causing damage to all 3 cars and effectively ending their races.

Red RC and The-Border wish to thank the race organisers and fellow racers for making this years event another action packed, well run and enjoyable event.

Click here to view the final A-main results for each class as well as some more images… content