Red RC » R On Road

November 8, 2022

Greiner is Top Seed in Thailand

Dominic Greiner is the top seed for qualifying at the 1:10 Nitro World Championship in Thailand. The Capricorn posting the fastest time of the day in the fourth & final round of seeding practice. Ending yesterday’s controlled practice at the top of the time sheets, the German found himself only P9 as the seeding got underway this morning at the challenging RC Addict track. Improving to fourth in the second round, he would make his mark on the second half of the day topping the remaining two rounds with his fastest 3-consecutive laps of the day in Round 2 giving him the tie-breaker over Tadahiko Sahashi. Fastest in the opening two rounds, Sahashi lost his edge as the track traction came up, his best 3-laps on his final attempt being 6/10th off that of Greiner. The most consistent driver of the day, Jilles Groskamp completed the day with the 3rd fastest time and that is where he is seeded for qualifying thanks to his second fastest times in the earlier three runs. Posting P4 runs in the final two rounds, Mugen’s Shoki Takahata will carry the No.4 in the top heat while a strong final round for Dario Balestri lifted him from 11th to 5th in the final ranking. An impressive performance from Milan Holthuis sees the young Dutch driver in the top heat as the 6th seed just ahead of reigning champion Naoto Matsukura.

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November 8, 2022

Sahashi tops first round of seeding practice

Tadahiko Sahashi has topped the first round of seeding practice at the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championships in Bangkok. The first of the day’s four seeding rounds threw up a number of surprises as the sun appeared for the final heat of the round leaving a number of the pre race favourites well down the order. 2013 1:8 World Champion Sahashi recorded the fastest 3-consecutive laps with a time of 46.351 seconds followed by his Infinity team-mates Jilles Groskamp and Milan Holthuis. Shinnosuke Yokoyama added some variety to the top of the times using his Mugen to post fourth fastest ahead of Andy Moore. For reigning Champion Naoto Matsukura a mistake cost him track time and he was only able to post the 14th fastest time just ahead of team-mate Dario Balestri. Having been fastest at the end of controlled practice Dominic Greiner found himself only 9th quickest.

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November 7, 2022

Greiner on top as free practice concludes at Nitro Worlds

Having waited four years for it to come around, it is go time at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship in Thailand with Dominic Greiner at the top of the time sheets as controlled practice concludes at RC Addict. After the 14-rounds of practice over the past 2 days, the Capricorn driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps followed Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp. Reigning Champion Naoto Matsukura completed the Top 3 just ahead of team-mate Jesse Davis while behind it was a trio of 1:8 World Champions. 2017 winner Dario Balestri posted the fourth fastest time from 2013 Champion Tadahiko Sahashi with reigning 1:8 Champion Shoki Takahata completing the Top 6 before the go into four rounds of seeding practice tomorrow (Tuesday).

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November 7, 2022

Simon Nicolson crowned Australian Champion

Simon Nicolson is the 2022 Australian Electric Touring Car National Champion. The Yokomo driver took the Mod win of the KWR Engineering sponsored event at the ACT Model Car Racing Club track in Canberra over the weekend. Having won the Queensland State Championships back in August, Nicolson would secure the TQ after taking three of the five rounds of qualifying. Behind, having topped Q5, team-mate Antoni Caretti lined up second with the ARC of Jeffrey Mackie, fastest in Q3, P3 ahead of Serpent’s Jeff Hamon. In the Finals, Nicolson took A1 but with slight rain at the start of A2 he would crash out allowing Mackie to take the win from Hamon. In A3, the Top 3 would remain static allowing Nicolson to secure the title ahead with Mackie second and Hamon completing the podium. Unfortunately it was to be a tough run of finals for Caretti as he got hit each outing leaving him 5th overall. It was also victory for Yokomo in 13.5 Touring Car, Alex Ilievski taking the win from Cristian Silva and Nathan Tanti.

Image: Castle Hill RC Onroad [Facebook]

November 6, 2022

“I never give up wanting to win”, Balestri says 1:10 World Title “the missing piece”

The first ever event Red RC covered was the 2007 1:10 Nitro Touring Car European Championship in Madrid, Spain. The class was still the new kid on the block and there was plenty of hype about the category. The race would be Xray’s first venture into nitro with them bringing in star names Teemu Leino and Jilles Groskamp from electric touring car in their quest to win with their new NT1. Dario Balestri was the defending Champion and the real star of nitro onroad. He was Italian, he exclusively raced nitro, and he was one of chosen ones for iconic Italian engine manufacturer Novarossi. This was a time when your engine sponsor was the most important element of your race package – without the right power you weren’t going to win and the makers of these little engines were very selective about who got one of the ‘special’ ones! The market also had a newcomer in the engine department in Team Orion, headed up by a certain Adrien Bertin, who to this day is still the only driver to have achieved the double of being World Champion of both 1:8 and 1:10. This was a golden era of 1:10 nitro onroad.

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November 4, 2022

Greiner “very confident” ahead of World Championship despite no previous RC Addict experience.

It is hard to believe that this will be only the fourth 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship appearance for Dominic Greiner. Think about 1:10 Nitro Touring Car and the German is going to be one of the first drivers to come to mind. If ever a driver was branded a class specialist it is Greiner. Making his World’s debut in 2014 he took the TQ and finished on the podium despite a damaged car following a roll during the race. In 2016 he switched that order qualifying third but achieving what mattered most, finishing first to endorse his outright raw speed and put his name in the history book of World Champions. A driver who wears his emotions on his sleeve, we love the passionate energy Dominic brings to big races. Never afraid to speak his mind, Dominic goes to RC Addict for his very first time as one of just three drivers vying to become a double World Champion of the only IFMAR class that up to now hasn’t had a repeat winner.

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November 4, 2022

Power HD sign leading 1:5 driver Rick van der Bol

Power HD has announced the signing of leading 1:5 scale racer Rick van der Bol to their team. The 3-time Dutch National Champion, IFMAR World Championship and European Championship finalist, will be using Power HD’s high torque servo T70 at forthcoming 1:5 scale national and international race events.

Source: Power HD [chd.hk]

November 3, 2022

Vejrak “just excited to race again” as WC returns to scene of his 2012 World title.

This week drivers from around the world are setting off on their travels to Asia and more specifically Bangkok, Thailand after a longer than usual 4-year wait between World Championships. The 2022 IFMAR World Championship for 1:10 Nitro Touring Car is returning to RC Addict in the capital city exactly a decade after hosting the event when it had a fairytale finish. Not really featuring on anyone’s radar when he made his World’s debut in the USA 2 years earlier, in 2012, Bangkok born & bred racer Meen Vejrak took the title. Winning a World title is a thing of dreams but winning it on home soil surrounded by those who supported you from your very first days of racing takes it to an even higher emotional level. It turned out 2012 was a special year for ‘local boy done good’ as a few months earlier we witnessed Jilles Groskamp become ISTC World Champion at the very track on which he honed his skills as a kid. With the Worlds returning to his home track and his name coming up as one that is expected to be in the mix, Meen isn’t phased by the pressure but instead is relishing the opportunity saying, ‘I’m just excited to race again’.

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