Red RC » R On Road

November 12, 2023

Jefferies wins EWS International

Recent Awesomatix signing Olly Jefferies has won the EWS International. Part of the popular indoor winter series in the UK, the International race again attracted a number of top international racers with the TQ going to France touring car ace Lucas Urbain. Making it a strong qualifying for Awesomatix, Urbain’s team-mate Jefferies secured P2 on the grid ahead of the Mugen of Ronald Völker and Xray of Kyle Branson. In the triple finals it was a tough day at the office for Urbain with A1 resulting in a DNF as 2022 Champion Volker took the win from Branson and Schumacher’s Elliott Harper. A2 saw Jefferies win ahead of Volker and Urbain putting everything on the line for A3. In a repeat of the Top 4 of A2, Jefferies lead the field home to claim the outright win with Volker and Branson completing the Modified podium. In Pro-Stock and FWD, German visitor Stefan Schulz had the perfect weekend taking the TQ and victory in both categories for Xray.

Image: Olly Jefferies [Facebook]

November 10, 2023

ACI Sport 2024 RC Car Racing Calendar – Announcement

ACI Sport, the Italian Motorsport Federation and member of the FIA, has announced the 2024 National Sporting calendar for RC Car Racing. The sporting activity that will ultimately assign the official titles of 2024 Italian Champion will unfold across three blocks of EP classes: Touring EP (Modified, Stock 17,5T, FWD and GT 21,5T), LMP (1/12 OPEN, GT12) and finally Endurance, which represents a newly introduced sanctioned event for Factory and Private Teams. The 2024 sanctioned racing activity will kick off on 17-18 February with the “Italian Indoor Championships” to be held in RC Landia (Scandiano) for TOURING EP and LMP classes. Racing will then move to springtime when “Italian Cups” across three Divisions (Northern – Central – Southern Italy) will take place from April to June in both Touring EP classes and Endurance. Italian Cups will act as qualifying events for drivers/teams aiming for a spot to race in the “Italian Championships” which will be held in Fontanellato (Minicar Fontanellato) for Endurance on 31 August – 1 September and in Riccione (Road Race Riccione) for Touring EP on 21-22 September. Finally, the “Italian National Trophy” will be held in Lucca (Minicar Lucca) on 6-7 July and will cater Touring EP classes.

View full ACI Sport calendar here

November 9, 2023

Mugen Seiki’s Volker confirmed for FIRC 2023

Mugen Seiki Electric Touring Car ace Ronald Volker has been confirmed to attend the inaugural Foshan International Invitational RC Championship in China on December 15-17. A country in which the German driver became the 2016 World Champion, he will make the trip to the new GDC Indoor Race Club track in Guangdong for the recently announced event. The hope is that having international electric onroad racers at FIRC will boost the level of competition among young local racers. Officially opened in May of this year, and at 800 square metres the largest professional indoor onroad track in China, a number of international team drivers are expected to be announced shortly. Red RC is excited to be making the trip to GDC to cover what the organisers hope will become an annual highlight of the international touring car race calendar.

Source: GDC Indoor Race Club

November 9, 2023

’23 1:8 Onroad World Championship Chassis Focus Index

After a four year wait the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship was back and what a final we would witness at Infinity International RC Speedway in Japan. Following more than a week of action on track it was Infinity’s Dario Balestri who came out on top winning the World title for a second time and in doing so became only the second driver in the history of IFMAR’s original category to be a repeat winner. In terms of manufacturers it was great to see three different manufacturers represented on the podium. During our coverage of the race we managed to photograph 15 cars from 8 different manufacturers and have compiled them all in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

November 8, 2023

Yoshiyasu joins Nagashima at RC Xpress

Following RC Xpress’ announcement in April that they have acquired the services of international Japanese Touring Car driver Yugo Nagashima, the electric Touring Car manufacturer has announced that it has signed another top Japanese driver in Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu. A podium finisher in both the 1:12 World Championship, Yoshiyasu finished 2nd to Akio Sobue at the recent Japanese Touring Car National Championship. Racing their Execute QII touring car, RC Xpress is looking forward to him helping them developing the car to a higher level.

Source: Xpress [rc-xpress.com]

November 6, 2023

Payne wins 1:12 International Grand Prix

Schumacher’s Ollie Payne won the 1:12 International Grand Prix in Italy over the weekend ahead of team-mate Michal Orlowski. Fresh from his double victory at the Masters of Foam race in Belgium a week earlier, the British driver travelled to RC Landia in Scandiano where we would again dominate the action. Topping three of the 6 rounds of qualifying, Payne secured the overall TQ ahead of 2022 European Champion Orlowski who posted two TQ runs. Reigning European Champion Alexander Hagberg who take Q3 to secure 3rd on the grid with his Xray. In the triple 8-minute A-Main, Payne won to first two take the overall while victory in A3 gave Orlowski second ahead of Mattia Collina for an all Schumacher podium with Hagberg fourth after a DNF in A3.

Image: RC Landia [Facebook]

November 6, 2023

Lovely makes it 2 from 2 in Schumacher Winter Series

Round 2 of the Schumacher Winter Series presented by the Louth Radio Control Car Club took place over the weekend with Chris Lovely taking the win in the hotly contested Contact RC 17.5 class. In qualifying Lovely topped the first three qualifiers before having issues in Q3 which was topped by Alex Brocklebank securing the Schumacher. A string of P2 times would give the Schumacher of Joseph Cocking 3rd on the grid ahead of destiny’s Daniel Burks. A duo of Awesomatix chassis of Dave Sedgewick and Paul Sleight. A clean start through the first corner, and a melee through the second would see Burks pushing Lovely early on in the single leg final. Chris would be able to bridge the gap and bring his Xray home for the win, ahead of Daniel. Paul Sleight would fight his way through from the back end of the field to time the final step on the podium. Incidents would mean Dave Sedgewick was fourth ahead of the Schumacher pair of Alex Brocklebank and Joseph Cocking.

Continue reading here

November 4, 2023

Balestri back on top of the World in Japan

Infinity’s Dario Balestri is back on top of the World after taking victory at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan. Having relinquished the title to Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata in the USA in 2019, after a forced 4-year-old wait, the Italian took the title back today and becomes one of the greats of the sport. Having often been referred to as the fastest onroad nitro driver in the World without a World Title before he finally got his breakthrough win in France in 2017, today’s win see him join legendary 9-time World Champion Lamberto Collari as the only other driver to hold the title more than once in the 23 editions of IFMAR’s original World Championship class. Unfortunately for Takahata after a brilliant Semi final win that put him 3rd on the grid, his title defence came to a very premature end in the final when his engine broke after just two and a half minutes. Having enjoyed a good stint as leader of the race, Capricorn’s Toni Gruber would finish 2nd just 7.5-seconds behind Balestri after the one hour of intense racing. Top Qualifier Simon Kurzbuch, who lead for the first 10-minutes until his first tyre stop, would complete the podium for Mugen in a dramatic end of race battle with Infinity’s Jesse Davis that led to a long delay in the prize presentations as it was reviewed by the officials. When the prize giving did get underway Takahata, who changed engine and finished the final, gave himself a better reason to remember his home World Championship by using the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend and she said yes.

Continue reading here