Red RC » R On Road

August 5, 2013

Ronald Volker claims 2013 European TC title

The EFRA 1/10th scale touring car European Championships was held this week in Portugal attracting 60 drivers. Qualifying started and it all looked familiar at the top with Yokomo driver Ronald Volker dominating the first two Heats as he TQ’d both, but on Saturday morning Alexander Hagberg showed that somehow Team Xray has found the way to reduce the gap from Ronald’s pace and took the 3rd round. Now all was to be decided until the last round, since Hagberg had the best 21 Laps time. In the end Ronald didn’t fail and TQ’d the last 2 heats and was declared the TQ of the race. Looking at the timesheets, the expectation for some very tight racing in the finals surrounded the pits.

Continue reading the report here

August 4, 2013

Naoto Matsukura retains JMRCA touring car title

The 2013 JMRCA Touring Car National Championships were held this weekend at the Wangan Circuit under rain affected conditions. Qualifying would go the way of Yokomo super star Naoto Matsukura just beating out team mate Hayato Matsuzaki who put in a stellar performance following a year off racing. Tamiya team driver Akio Sobue rounded out the top 3 with Nagashima 4th and Thai driver Meen Vejrak in 5th. In the finals it was a close affair in Leg 1 with the top 3 covered by 3 seconds with Naoto winning from Hayato with Akio 3rd. The second leg was a repeat for Yokomo pairing, Naoto taking the win and wrapping up the overall title with Meen V taking 3rd. Leg 3 was a repeat of the first leg with Sobue taking 3rd to wrap up the final podium position behind Matsuzaki with 2nd overall and Matsukura in 1st, the 3-time World Champion taking his 3rd consecutive National touring car title.

Source: Yokomo [teamyokomo.com]

August 3, 2013

SouthWest Championship Series Rd5 report

SWCS Rd5

The first-ever R/C onroad race event at the famous Circuit of the Americas F1 track in Austin, Texas took place over last weekend. Coordination on the part of HobbytownUSA Austin, the SouthWest Championship Series Committee, and several R/C racing enthusiasts at the Circuit of the Americas made this event possible. Both nitro and electric classes were run, which made for an exciting and unique experience.

Continue reading the report here

July 31, 2013

Nitro-West-Masters mid-season report

The second half of the Nitro-West-Masters 2013 will start with round four held at the Velp track in the Netherlands this coming weekend. Located close to the German boarder the Velp track is of a challenging layout and 260 metres long. It is the fifth year of this popular championship mainly run in Western Germany and it is only the second time this nitro series is going abroad of Germany. With no official licence being needed the Nitro-West-Masters is a class for everybody and the tyres are open with additives strictly forbidden. The racing format is the same as in previous years with three seven minute heats and the three best consecutive laps to count for the qualifiers. The race format sees four direct qualifiers and the race is run in Sunday with the Saturday being the official practice day.

Click here to continue reading

July 30, 2013

Mitchell van Es wins TC Modified at Dutch nats Rd4

Round 4 of the Dutch nationals took place last weekend. The modified class saw a TQ and win by the Mi5 in the hands of Mitchell van Es. The very tight and technical track of Model Racing Midland was difficult to drive due to high asphalt temperatures. During the day the grip changed a lot due to dust from a nearby dirtbike track covering the surface but this did not keep Mitchell from winning the class in style.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

July 28, 2013

Groskamp wins 2013 1/8th European Championships

Jilles Groskamp has become the 2013 1/8th Track European Champion here in Halifax after a thrilling final saw him take the win after a race long battle with Brit Kyle Branson, Dario Balestri completed the podium. The finals day in Halifax began with a dry track, something that hadn’t happened many times during the week. Hot temperatures began the day but by the time the semi finals were out on track, it had cooled slightly. In the first semi final, Dario Balestri took a dominating win ahead of his Capricorn team mate Daniele Ielasi and Simon Kurzbuch’s Shepherd. Balestri finished on 78 laps in 1208.48 seconds with Ielasi on 77 laps in 1205.55 seconds with Kurzbuch just .91 seconds behind. Adrian Bertin took the final definite place with the new KM prototype car but Patrick Schafer would have to wait and see if he had made the final. The second semi final proved to be a much closer affair with Mark Green taking the win just .32 seconds ahead of the Shepherd of Groskamp. 3rd and 4th in the Semi A, to definitely book their place in the final, were Motonica’s Robin D’Hondt and Mugen’s Kyle Branson. A noticeable person missing from the final would be Robert Pietsch with the German taking his Novarossi powered Mugen to 8th position. Green’s run of 78 laps in 1201.95 seconds proved to be a whole 7 seconds faster than Dario’s winning time in the Semi B, putting Mark on pole for the 45 minute main final.

Continue reading the report here

July 26, 2013

Mark Green is 1/8th Euro A top qualifier

Mark Green is the top qualifier at the 2013 1/8th European A Championships in Halifax. The Serpent driver pulled everything he had out of the bag in the last round of qualifying to take the TQ by 0.14 seconds from Capricorn’s Dario Balestri who held the accolade after the first 4 rounds. With Balestri fastest in the first qualifier, Jilles Groskamp topped the 2nd round with a run of 21 laps in 313.00 seconds ahead of Balestri and Green. With the clock approaching 12:00 at the time of the run, the track proved to be too slow. In the 3rd round, Mark Green took his serpent to the fastest time ahead of Capricorn’s Daniele Ielasi and Mugen’s Kyle Branson. Posting a time of 21 laps in 314.18 seconds, Green again proved that the track was too slow. After the lunch break Round 4 commenced and again Groskamp posted the fastest time to improve by around a second ahead of Dario Balestri and Mark Green hinting ever so slightly that the track was picking up pace as the sun started to go down. With almost every heat prior to the top heat going faster in the final round, the stage was set for something special to come. Dario Balestri would lead for the majority of the heat only for Mark Green to close him down and take the round on the last lap to the joy of the crowd. The stage is set for an exciting set of finals tomorrow.

View the final qualifying results here

July 24, 2013

Belgian touring car nationals Rd5 – Report

The fifth round of the FBA championship took place in Rucphen at the club Mac De Baanbrekers. The weather was awesome and the heat could give the drivers some issues at this fast track. In the Efra class it was Olivier Bultynck who took TQ in front of Nick Joosens and Thomas Stockman. Olivier started well in the first final and Nick tried his best to follow and put some pressure on him but Ollie was a little bit faster and could make a gap on Nick. Thomas followed the two but struggled with his car and later on also scored a DNF as the had to retire in lap 18. Meanwhile Rico Claeys who started 8th on the grid was in third place. Ollie took the win and Nick came in second with Rico taking the third spot.

Click here to continue reading