Red RC » R On Road

February 16, 2017

Coelho top seed at TITC

Bruno Coelho is the top seed for tomorrow’s qualifying at the TITC at Infinity Addict Circuit, the reigning champion making the most of the cooler conditions of the second & final timed practice to head an Xray 1-2. Improving on his opening time by over 6/10ths of a second, Coelho would end the session 2/10ths up on team-mate Alexander Hagberg who had set the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the first session. Behind the champions of the passed two years, Nicholas Lee would complete the Top 3 for Yokomo ahead of team-mate Ronald Volker. Setting the fifth fastest time, Marc Rheinard would end his first official day as an Infinity driver as the Japanese manufacturer’s quickest driver with P5 ahead of team-mates Jilles Groskamp and Aki Sobue.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

February 16, 2017

Rheinard excited to begin new chapter in career with Infinity

Marc Rheinard has announced that he has signed to race for electric touring car newcomers Infinity with the 4-time World Champion ‘excited by the new challenge’ of a 2-year contract with the Japanese manufacturer. Electric touring car’s most successful driver, winning its top prize three times, the German established himself as one of the sport’s all time greats through a driver/manufacturer relationship that spanned an impressive 22-years. Cutting his teeth in racing at the controls of a Tamiya, Rheinard and the iconic R/C brand became a formidable force starting out with a first World title together in 2004 and two further back to back titles in 2008 and 2010. This golden era however was to come to an unexpected end in December when Tamiya shocked the racing world with the news they were calling time on their TRF race team. Through his admirable loyalty to Tamiya, he had never been available before to rival Touring Car manufacturers so one positive of the news was that it presented the opportunity to other manufacturers to try and secure the services of the 30-year-old. Receiving a number of offers, and taking his time to carefully consider each of them, it was to be the ambitious plans of Infinity that would secure Rheinard’s signature marking the beginning of a brand new chapter in his career. The deal also comes as a major boost to Infinity as they embark on their first foray in EP touring car with them also announcing the signing two of Rheinard’s former TRF team-mates, 2014 World Champion Naoto Matsukura and Akio Sobue, will all three making their Infinity debut at the TITC in Bangkok this weekend.

Continue reading the announcement here

February 16, 2017

Xray add David Loppini to their factory team

Xray have announced the signing of reigning Italian 200mm vice-champion, David Loppini to their factory team. Already an Xray privateer David will now receive the full factory support at races such as the Italian national championship, the ENS and select international events. The multiple ENS finalist had the following to say:

Since I was a child my dream was to be part of Xray team. Attention to details and the chase for perfection are exclusive Xray features. I have raced as a private driver the Xray cars and the reliability and especially the performance helped me to reach all my achievements and to improve myself as a driver. Now with focus for international level races I am very happy to be part of the team and family, which is a dream come true for me. I am more excited than ever and I am looking forward to hit the track.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

February 16, 2017

Hagberg heads first seeding practice at TITC

Alexander Hagberg has topped the first round of seeding practice at the TITC in Bangkok, the Xray driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps just ahead of Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp and reigning champion Bruno Coelho. With the majority of the international drivers having already spent almost a week testing at the Infinity Addict Circuit, the first of the two scheduled seeding rounds finally gave the first official opportunity to gauge where everyone is at with Hagberg and Groskamp running almost identical times, the separation just 5/1000ths of a second. Aside from the times, the first seeding practice would be of extra interest as it marked the debut of Marc Rheinard as an Infinity driver, the Japanese manufacturer finally confirming the signing of the former Tamiya star this afternoon at Asia’s most famous touring car event. As an opening run Rheinard would post the 8th fastest time behind Atsushi Hara, who after concluding a deal with the local distributor is ironically racing the TITC for Tamiya.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

February 15, 2017

Picco sign Takehiro Terauchi

Picco Micromotori have announced the signing of Japanese front runner Takehiro Terauchi to their factory racing team. Current Japanese 1/8th on-road vice national champion, Takehiro will be an important addition to the team and he will be competing in the Japanese Championship, the FEMCA Championship and the World Championship later this year.

Source: Picco [teampicco.com]

February 15, 2017

Dominic Quek wins at Urban Touring Series Rd2

Round 2 of Singapore’s Urban Touring Series was held this past weekend in downtown Singapore. With the Chinese New Year festivities still in the air, racers were looking forward to a great racing start in the Year of the Rooster. This time only a single Touring Car class, 17.5T Blinky, was run. In qualifying, run over four rounds with the best-2 points score to count, Dominic Quek (Xray) would secure an early overall TQ after three consecutive TQ runs. In Q4, Colin Tong (Xray) and Leonard Sim (Awesomatix) started Q4 in front, but a racing incident allowed Chee Lip Keong (Yokomo) to capitalise and secure a surprise TQ for the round. This shook up the final qualifying standings as Lip Keong secured P2 on the grid on the tie-break. Leonard would start in P3, with Colin in P4.

Continue reading the report here

February 15, 2017

Xray Racing Series Germany Rd3 – Report

The third round of the Xray Racing Series Germany was held recently and it saw Jannick Namyslo sweeping the Touring Stock qualifying by taking all three rounds in style. Felix Reichold and Tobias Höfflin completed the qualifying top 3 and the order would stay the same after the A-main to make for an Xray 1-2-3. Luka Fecher and Thorsten Reichold (both Xray) rounded out the top 5 result.

Continue reading the report here

February 15, 2017

FinTrack Tour Rd3 – Report

Round 3 of the Finnish Touring Car Nationals took place just outside of the southwestern city of Kouvola. Nearly 100 entries were on hand for the two-day event that featured Touring Car and Formula classes. In the Pro Stock 13.5 class Kalle Lehto, Kim Elfstrom and Vesa Yli were battling closely for the top spots. Previous round winner Kalle Lehto eventually earned the TQ position, followed closely by Kim in second with Vesa earning a second-row start in fourth. In the finals, Kalle took advantage of his pole position start to win in all three legs. Kim finished a close second with Vesa moving up a spot to finish third. With three rounds completed and one remaining, the 2017 Pro Stock championship comes down to a showdown between Kalle and Vesa – the dominant drivers in the class over the last two years.

Continue reading the report here