Red RC » R On Road

October 15, 2020

Apolaro, Morganti & Kemper win US Nitro Onroad Nats

This past weekend the 2020 ROAR Nitro Onroad Nationals were held at the RCRCNT track in Texas. The RCRCNT venue stepped in after the original venue was unable to host the event due to Covid-19 restrictions. In the 1/8 scale class it was Bryce Butterfield (Serpent) that would take the overall TQ on what was a particularly challenging track. In the main final DJ Apolaro (Hot Race/Max Power/Protoform) would get the win by 4 laps ahead of Brian Thomas (Mugen/Hot Race) in 2nd and Eric Dennett (Capricorn/Hot Race) a further 4 laps back in 3rd. In the Sedan class, it was Chris Tosolini (Serpent) coming out on top in qualifying, taking the tie break with Paolo Morganti (Capricorn) who would have to settle for 2nd on the grid. In the hour long final however Morganti would win by 6 laps from Tosolini in 2nd, while Felix Law (Serpent) would come from 10th on the grid to claim the final podium spot in 3rd. In the 1/8th Masters class Chris Kemper (Capricorn) would win from pole position in front of the world famous Scotty Ernst (Infinity/Hot Race) in 2nd, a lap back, with Ashton Brinson (Capricorn) completing the top 3.

View the other podiums here

October 12, 2020

Bruno Coelho wins at XRS Slovakia Rd1

The first round of the popular XRS Slovakia race series was held last Saturday at the Hudy Arena in Trencin. Unfortunately, due to local Covid-19 restrictions the entry count had to be limited to 50 drivers. So as expected, the race sold out in very short time, proving the popularity of the series, even in a complicated time like this. The race was run in 5 classes, with 3 on-road classes. Touring car modified, stock (with Hobbywing spec hand-out motors) as well as Formula. In the modified class, Bruno Coelho took the TQ position after the 3 qualifiers, just in front of Alexander Hagberg, with Oliver Havranek in the 3rd spot. Bruno managed to win the race as well, after some really close fights in the finals. Alex and Bruno were separated by less than 1 second in all of the finals, both drivers using the brand new T4 2021 cars.

Continue reading the report here

October 6, 2020

Schumacher GP Italy 2020 – Report

The Schumacher GP Italy 2020 took place at the fantastic indoor facility of RC Landia in Scandiano this past weekend. The event was also incorporating the warm up race for the 2020 EFRA GT12 European Cup that will be held on November 20th/22nd and that will be the first ever EFRA sanctioned GT12 race. The race was held under a dedicated safety protocol and race procedure that made the event possible in these difficult times and was open to 4 classes, GT12, TC Modified, LMP Open Modified and FWD. In GT12, it was Guido Carbognani (Team La Gang) to take the win ahead of Nathanael Goodban (Team Schumacher) and Alessio Mota (Team Schumacher).

Continue reading the report here

October 6, 2020

Carmine Raiola is 2020 Italian National Champion

The Club Automodellisitco 5 Colli in Gubbio played host to the single round Italian 1/8th Nitro Nationals this past weekend. With wet weather all weekend affecting running, it was former World Champion Dario Balestri that came out on top after qualifying taking the TQ spot ahead of Michele Romagnoli, Johnathan Gandin and Carmine Raiola. In the tricky wet 45 minute A-final, preserving tires wa key and Carmine Raiola managed it to perfection, going the full race without changing and managed to just edge out his Infinity team mate Dario Balestri by less than 3 tenths of a second at the end to claim the 2020 title. Shepherd driver Luca Romagnoli would round out the podium in 3rd.

Image: Carmine Raiola

October 6, 2020

Lex Tyler takes 17.5 class victory at Cencal Challenge

The 5th Annual Cencal Challenge was held in Fresno, California this past weekend and with 135 entries it was the biggest race for outdoor racing of 2020. The racing format set to Rocket Round and Triple Mains for each class. In the 17.5 TC division, Jaron Bandy took the top qualifying spot ahead of Xray driver Lex Tyler in 2nd with EJ Evans (Awesomatix) ending up qualifying in P3. Lex Tyler was able to clinch the overall win with victory in A1 and A2 meaning he would site out A3. EJ Evans would claim the runner up spot while TQ man Bandy would have to settle for 3rd.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

October 5, 2020

Mihelic is 2020 Austrian National 1/8th onroad champion

This past weekend the final round of the Austrian 1/8th IC championship took place at the beautiful Morac-Ring. In the low grip conditions it was Xray driver Nejc Mihelic who took the TQ followed by Herfried Pucher and Tobias Sutrich. In the very even superpole battle it was Tobias who joined Mihelic as the direct qualifier in the finals. Having found a reliable and fast setup in the direct finalist training Mihelic set with the fastest lap of the weekend on his way to another win in front of Herfried Pucher and Patrick Schweinzer. The result ensured Nejc Mihelic was crowned Austrian champion, followed by Herfried Pucher and Leonardo Varga.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

October 2, 2020

Ronald Völker joins Mugen Seiki

Having dropped the bombshell on Wednesday that he was leaving Team Yokomo, Ronald Völker has just been confirmed as a Mugen Seiki driver. The former World, European, ETS & Reedy Race Champion will now head Mugen’s EP onroad race team, a move that shows very clearly the ambitions of the Japanese company within this category. Having only entered the ultra competitive touring car class for the first time back in 2017, they have always had a competitive platform but up until now were lacking a tier-1 driver, which they now have with Ronald. Völker, who is currently leading the ETS standings after 3 rounds, will have to adapt quickly to the all new MTC2 if he is to maintain that lead with the 4th round of the series taking place in less than 2 weeks. Mugen had this to say about the new deal:

Mugen Seiki is very proud to announce, that former IFMAR World Champion and multiple European-, National- and ETS-Champion Ronald Völker has joined their electric on-road team! Ronald will bring his amazing speed and all his knowledge into the team and he will campaign the all new MTC2 platform at all upcoming races. We are looking forward to a successful long term partnership with him. “Welcome to the Mugen family Ronald!”

Source: Mugen Europe [mugen.eu]

September 30, 2020

Ronald Volker shock departure from Team Yokomo

In big driver market news, Ronald Volker has announced his shock departure from long time sponsor Yokomo. The German was with the Japanese brand for 11 plus years and won everything there was to win including his World title in China in 2016. Yokomo has gone through some major changes in the passed 12 months with the famous marque changing owners and with Volker handling the onroad team activities alongside driver duties, this will leave a big hole in their team. Ronald gave the following statement:

After more than 11 years, from now on I am no longer part of Yokomo anymore! It was my decision to leave and my decision to look for a new challenge. I can not really describe how thankful I am for taking the opportunity back in 2009 to join Yokomo under Mr. Yokobori and to be able to stay for so many years. I grew in that period as a better driver and person in our wonderful RC World. Together we came a long way which personally highlighted in winning a World Championship and multiple European and ETS Championships, Nationals and many other events. Additionally we had developed some amazing cars within a great team and I had the chance to meet tons of people worldwide and collect so much experience which I never even have dreamed of.