Red RC » R On Road

October 18, 2023

Olly and Harry Jefferies join Awesomatix️

Awesomatix has announced the addition of Olly Jefferies and his son Harry to their Factory Team. The 16-time BRCA Champion and multiple A-finalist at ETS, European and World Championships brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the team. Olly will not only drive himself, he will also be chief mechanic for their young gun Harry Jefferies. Commenting on the announcement Harry and Olly said, ’We are both extremely happy to be joining Awesomatix. We have always been impressed with the quality and forward thinking designs adopted…..can’t wait to get to the track!’

Source: Awesomatix [Facebook.com]

October 18, 2023

’23 1:8 GT World Championship Chassis Focus Index

With our first ever 1:8 GT World Championship now in the books (well published online at least), we have put together a full index of all the chassis we photographed for our ‘Chassis Focus’ during our time in Sydney. Only the second running of an IFMAR World Championship for the category, it was exciting to have such a variety of manufacturers represented at the race with the cars having come along way from their beginnings as modified 1:8 buggy chassis. Hong Nor become the second World Champion manufacturer, Sworkz having taken the inaugural title in 2020. In 2025, GTe looks set to get full World Championship status giving manufacturers the opportunity of achieving Worlds double.

View Chassis Focus Index here

October 17, 2023

1:8 Onroad Worlds coverage presented by Infinity

After our trip Down Under to cover our first ever 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney last week, Red RC is excited to announced that the next stop on our World Championship tour, 1:8 Onroad in Japan, will be presented by Infinity. In less than 2-weeks time the sport’s original World Championship category will descend on the Infinity International RC Speedway where the 23rd IFMAR World Champion will be decided. A category through which our own interest in RC racing came about, the first World Championship we covered here on Red RC was the 2007 1:8 Onroad Worlds in Argentina so it’s a category which has a very special place in our hearts. Nine years ago, the last time Japan hosted the event, we where on hand to tell the story of Tadahiko Sahashi home victory and last year when Infinity also made our coverage possible we where able to see Tadahiko add the 1:10 Onroad title. Our coverage from Japan will begin on Monday, October 30th, starting with news from control practice and how the story unfolds over the next 5 days.

October 17, 2023

2023/2024 Schumacher Winter Series Rd1 – Report

The 2023/2024 Schumacher Winter Series presented by the Louth Radio Control Car Club got underway over the weekend with the first round of the popular championship attracting a strong capacity entry. The stock class for this year saw rule freeze from the previous seasons with everyone now in a single 17.5-turn category. This created great racing through the field, with a much larger field and closer racing. Four rounds of fast paced qualifying would see the Xray of Chris Lovely take the TQ spot, taking three rounds in the process. Defending Champion Alex Brocklebank would take a TQ run to secure second on the grid. Daniel Burks would place his Destiny in 3rd place, chased hard by the Awesomatix duo of Paul Sleight and David Sedgewick. Daniel Leonard would round out the top six positions with his Xray. In the final it was clean start for all the drivers as Chris lead The field around, himself and Alex would gap the field until the 2 minute mark when Alex would drop back and be caught by a hard charging Daniel. It was close behind between Paul, Dave and Dan Leonard. Chris would see it as a flag to flag victory, as Alex would hold off late pressure from Daniel. Dave would have a race long field and hold off Paul to flag and Daniel Leonard would round out the field.

Continue reading here

October 16, 2023

Senesi Motorsport GT5 1:8 GT Engine

During the 1:8 GT World Championship in Australia, Senesi Motorsport unveiled their new upcoming GT5 engine release for the category. With a custom WC head graphic, Natanaele Senesi used the engine to good effect posting a TQ run in the fourth round of qualifying. After qualifying he stripped down the OS based 5-port engine to allow Red RC a preview. Featuring a piston & liner that is hand tuned by his mechanic Michele Baruzzi, the engine is equipped with a unique plastic back plate which reduces friction compared to the aluminium version usual associated with engines. With less friction, the top speed is increased along with reducing wear on the conrod. Having invested a lot of time into testing different plastic materials to find best option in terms of offering the lowest friction, Senesi is protective of the specific material used to make the final product. With the GT5 using the R2104 crankcase, the back plate will be available separately for those using OS or OS based engine brands in both onroad and offroad.

View more images here

October 16, 2023

Branson wins EWS season opener

Xray’s Kyle Branson took the win at the opening round of the Essex Winter Series presented by Ruddog over the weekend. The opening round of the popular British indoor series which runs over 5-rounds, the race attracted a capacity entry with back to back Champion Branson leading the Modified Touring Car entry. In qualifying the Champion stamped his authority on proceedings with TQ runs in all five rounds. Behind Yokomo’s Alex Thurston, winner of the last season’s finale, would secure P2 on the grid ahead of the Schumacher of racing returnee Elliott Harper and Hayley Eldridge. With a single A-main, Branson would convert his pole position into the win with the Top 5 remaining unchanged over the 5-minutes. In Pro Stock, Zak Finlay took the TQ & win from Tony Broad while in FWD it was also a win for the Top Qualifier with Ben Moorey taking max series points ahead of Aaron Rose.

Image: Kyle Branson [Facebook]

October 16, 2023

Kuenning crowned ROAR 1:8 Onroad National Champion

Max Keunning is the new US 1:8 Onroad National Champion, the Xray driver having the perfect weekend at the ROAR On-Road Fuel Nationals in Texas over the weekend. Racing at N-Control RC Racing Circuit, in qualifying Keunning, who is better known for his electric onroad exploits, would takes his RX8 to TQ runs in 3 of the 4 rounds. The only other to post a TQ run was Chris Kemper when he topped Q4 as Keunning had a DNF. Lining up on pole for the 45-minute final ahead of Kemper and former World Champions Ralph Birch and Joel Johnson, he would go on to win with Johnson, the only other driver to hit the front during race, finishing second 2-laps down at the end. With Birch an early retirement, Kemper would complete the podium ahead of Scotty Barrera in fourth. In 1:10, Serpent’s Jose Almonte went one better than last year, when he was second to Bryce Butterfield, to take the title. Having struggled with the balance of his 750 Evo in qualifying, he had it sorted for the final, setting the fastest lap of the race en route to victory over Scott Barnes.

Image: Max Keunning [Facebook]

October 16, 2023

IFMAR 1:8 GTe World Cup Podium revised

IFMAR has issued a statement regarding the revision of the podium result of the A-Main of the 1:8 GTe World Cup which ran alongside the alongside last week’s 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney, Australia. With Joern Neumann taking the overall victory with wins in all three finals, there was a penalty issued for A3 by the Race Director following the race which saw Peter Jovanovic docked a lap for ‘Un-sportmanship’ for failing to re-address early race contact. This promoted Top Qualifier Natanaele Senesi to the final step of the podium as at least he thought. On Saturday morning unknown to any of the drivers, the penalty was removed by IFMAR as the Race Director had incorrectly applied his discretion to penalise the offender by removing a lap for the alleged offence. Upon further discussion with IFMAR, clarification of the rules showed that there was no provision or does it permit the use of video’s as a retrospective evidence to apportion wrong doing and hence apply penalties. Disappointingly, Senesi only found out some 28-hours later when he was called out to collect the trophy for fourth place. Herfried Pucher was just as surprised when he got called to collect the third place trophy with the crowd even calling that there was an mistake in the results. While the presentation of the 1:8 GT World Championship continued, there was ongoing discussion between an understandably frustrated Senesi, the Race Director, IFMAR officials and club representatives that when on until close to midnight. IFMAR have now issued a statement on the incident which they agreed ‘resulted in disappointment and dissatisfaction for both drivers’ leading the governing body to make the decision ‘to award the 3rd place to both participants as a tie in the race.’ The matter highlights the need for IFMAR to establish a formal method of communication with competitors such as the use WhatsApp Channels.

Read IFMAR Statement here