Red RC » R On Road

February 3, 2023

Coelho to contest 1:12 World title

In a major boost for the IFMAR 1:12 World Championship, reigning Touring Car World Champion Bruno Coelho has announced his intentions to travel to Florida for the 21st running of the IFMAR’s second longest running World Championships. The factory Xray star unveiled his intentions at the famous Snowbirds National which is taking place this week when he revealed that in addition to racing Touring Car he would be also contest 1:12 at the iconic Florida race. Known for his ultra successful relationship with Francesco Martini of MonacoRC as his mechanic in Touring Car, the Portuguese driver has teamed up with 1:12 expert Paul Ciccarello to guide him through his first foray into the pan car category. Known for his versatility that includes being the reigning 4WD Buggy World Champion, Coelho has had no trouble adapting to 1:12 as he claimed a TQ run in the opening round of qualifying together with a TQ run in Touring Car. In the past 1:12 kicked off the week of onroad electric World Championships action and most of the touring car stars raced for the title but after South Africa in 2018, where Alexander Hagberg was the only touring car front runner to take on the event, which he duly won, it became a standalone event. In 2020, touring car legend Marc Rheinard took the title in England for a second time. With the US, where Marc won his first 1:12 title in 2014 ending Naoto Matsukura’s 6 year reigning of the category, a hot spot for 1:12 and now Coelho committing to the event, the category looks set to garner plenty of additional attention in 2023. Red RC will as part of our extensive 2023 World Championship coverage be travelling to Florida to tell the story of how the race unfolds.

Image: Xray [Facebook]

February 1, 2023

Nitro Warrior EP2 2023 – Report

Nitro Warrior EP2 2023 was held at ORT Oasis Racing Track in the Chanthaburi Province of Thailand over the weekend with 3 classes with 1:8 GP Racing, 1:10 GP Touring and 1:8 GT making up the race programme. The race started on Saturday with 4 rounds of qualifying with extreme cool and windy weather affecting both car set-up and driving provide a great experience for many racers. Sunday’s action with one final round of qualifying after which the Top Qualifiers were confirmed as Nay Eon Lee from Republic of Korea from Team KARS in 1:8 GT,
Thailand’s Meen Vejrak from Team Maxima in 1:8 GP Racing and Anusorn Sirironaharong from Thailand from Team SPF Racing in 1:10 GP Touring.

Continue reading here

January 29, 2023

Orlowski claims first ETS victory

Michal Orlowski has claimed his first Euro Touring Series victory, the Schumacher driver winning the season finale today from Ronald Volker in a battle that went to A3. Having secured his first ever overall TQ in the Modified class, the Pole wrapped up a very successful Saturday in Daun, Germany, by winning the opening A-Main from the front. With Sunday’s action kicking off with the second round of Mains, it wasn’t a good start for the 21-year-old as a mistake on the opening lap dropped him to the back of the pack. Up front, Volker took his Mugen to an easy win ahead of the Awesomatix of Marc Rheinard while Orlowski recovered to finish fourth behind the Yokomo of Christopher Krapp. Laying down the fastest lap of A3, Orlowski resisted the pressure from one of the ETS’ most successful drivers, finishing 3/10ths of a second up on Volker to land his first ever ETS win. Volker who would celebrate yet another overall ETS title finishing 2 points ahead of Rheinard who completed the podium in Daun. In the ETS’ largest class, Pro-Stock, Simon Lauter took his fourth win of the season to secure the overall title for Awesomatix.

January 28, 2023

Orlowski Top Qualifier at ETS Finale

Schumacher Racing’s Michal Orlowski has claimed the overall TQ at the season finale of the Euro Touring Series in Daun, Germany. The Polish driver claimed his first ever ETS pole position when he topped the fourth & final round of qualifying beating multiple champion Ronald Volker on tie break for the top spot. Second fastest in seeding practice behind Mugen’s Volker, Orlowski opened qualifying with a TQ run ahead of the German and Awesomatix’s David Ronnefalk, the Swedish Offroad star showing great form on the flat carpet surface. In Q2 & 3 it was Volker who set the pace but in the decider as the duo swapped times Volker hit trouble and Orlowski got the vital TQ which thanks to his fastest Q1 time secured the overall TQ. Behind Volker, Marc Rheinard took third ahead of team-mate Ronnefalk with the Yokomo duo of Christopher Krapp and Yannic Prumper completing the Top 6. With the opening round of finals completing Saturday’s track action, Orlowski took full advantage of his TQ to move one step closer to his first ETS victory as he took A1 by almost 3/10th of a second from Volker with 3rd place going to Krapp, a distant 5-seconds back.

Source: Michal Orlowski [Facebook]

January 26, 2023

Former World Champ bringing RC to schools

We’ve all heard it said that ‘youth are the future of tomorrow’. This is why it is great to see well decorated offroad racing champion Daniel Reckward doing his bit to give something back to the hobby and try to bring in the next generation of racer in a time when RC Racing faces much more competition in an ever increasing high tech screen distracted era. One of the brothers behind the successful German based RC distributor RMV and always a gentleman to deal with during our coverage of races he attended, the former World and multiple European 1:8 Buggy Champion has been bringing RC into schools. Now after a successful pilot run of the concept, he is looking to grow the idea with others. In a positive move, he has already had initial negotiations with EFRA, the governing body of RC Racing in Europe about implementing the idea across its national federations.

Read the full article on Daniel’s efforts to-date here (originally in German/use Google Translate).

Source: RMV [Facebook]

January 25, 2023

BRCA LMP12 Nationals Rd 1 & 2 – Report

Rounds 1 and 2 of the BRCA LMP12 Nationals were held last weekend in Eastbourne. The start of the new season was eagerly anticipated and a capacity entry of 80 drivers attended the event. This year’s championship offers 13.5 Stock and Modified classes and consists of six rounds with four counting rounds. The Eastbourne club laid out a large track at their Robertsbridge facility. The track design was a tale of two halves with a faster flowing section on the drivers right with a tricky technical section with a challenging entry to the main straight on the left. The layout certainly gave the drivers a challenge and an error free run was essential for a fast time.

Continue reading report here

January 24, 2023

Max Mächler V2 Brushed Motor Collection

We are big fans of all things retro and our good friend Max Mächler, both an accomplished touring car racer and Team Manager for Awesomatix, has been busy gathered together a really cool collection of V2 brushed motors. Also a collector of painted bodyshells, he is looking for a little help to complete the motor collection and you might be able to assist him. We’ll let Max explains the story, “During the pandemic, I started collecting and restoring some of the cool “old” RC stuff from back in the days. Always liked the optics of the V2 motors and with all the driver editions it was a cool project. Was able to collect a good bunch, also some very rare ones like the “Custom Edition”, but still miss a few to have the V2 collection complete. If anyone may has something laying around, let me know”.

Click here for list of motors Max is seeking

January 22, 2023

Coelho wins GP3F

Bruno Coelho has won the GP3F leading home an Xray 1-2 at the French classic. The 18th running of the race, Coelho would snatch the overall TQ from team-mate Alexander Hagberg. The Swede held the overnight TQ in Longwy but Sunday morning’s fourth & final qualifier saw Coelho put in the fastest run to take the TQ honours on the tie-breaker with his team-mate. Behind, Mugen’s Ronald Volker lined up third with defending Champion Marc Rheinard’s Awesomatix carrying the no.4. In the triple A-mains, Coelho took the the first encounter from a very fast Hagberg, the former 1:12 World Champion laying down the fastest lap of the race as he tried to get to the front. In A2, World Champion Coelho again took the win from Hagberg to go one better than 2022 and secure the overall victory. Hagberg got his win in A3 with a 1-second winning margin over Volker, the German completing the overall podium. In Pro Stock, Alexandre Duchet made it also an win for Xray, taking opening two A-mains from P2 on the grid. Top Qualified Tim Benson would win A3 to secure second with Adam Izsay making up the Top 3. In Front Wheel Drive it was Luxembourg’s Jacques Libar took the win.

Image: MRC Longwy [Facebook]