April 3, 2023

Wood wins British 1:8 Onroad Nationals opener

Tim Wood has won the opening round of the 2023 BRCA British 1:8 Onroad National Championships.  Hosted by the Cotswold Model Car Club over the weekend, the first encounter of the 6 round championship would see the Team Shepherd driver top all four rounds of qualifying but it was his run in Q3 that secured him the TQ honours.  Behind, Andrew Hastings would line-up second with his Capricorn after he posted his fastest time in Q2.  John Carr completed the Top 3 posting his quickest run in the penultimate qualifier.  In the 30-minute final it would be a repeat of last year’s penultimate round visit to the Cotswolds track, as Wood secured a comfortable win with his Hasi Tuned powered Velox V8.2s.  Hastings would finish second while the Serpent of Matthieu Dambrine, fifth fastest in qualifying, completed the podium as Carr retired after 8-minutes.

Image: BRCA [Facebook]


April 3, 2023

Xpress signs top Japanese Touring Car ace Nagashima

A big announcement from Xpress is that they have acquired the services of top international Japanese Touring Car driver Yugo Nagashima.  The 27-year old brings a wealth of race experience and knowledge to the Hong Kong manufacturer and kicked off his deal with his new sponsor with victory for their XQ10R 1:10 Touring Car at the opening round of the popular Speed King Tour at Super Rajikon Osaka Store over the weekend.  Nagashima’s CV includes victories at the Japanese, Canadian & Australian Nationals, the Snowbirds, the U.S. Indoor Champs and the Asian Onroad Championships.  Having previous raced for Serpent, he is set for an international race programme with Xpress.

Source: Xpress [rc-xpress.com]


April 3, 2023

Hebert dominates at ’23 Canadian Onroad Nationals

Keven Hebert completed another double at the Canadian Onroad Nationals, the Xray driver securing both the Touring Car and 1:12 wins at the Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario. Attracting just shy of 350 entries, Canadian’s best known onroad racer would secure the overall TQ in both classes, setting the fastest time from Leonard Schinzano in 1:12 and Douglas Shewfelt in Mod Touring Car. In the single legs Mains, Hebert would dominate from the front winning 1:12 by a full lap after the 8-minutes from Schinzano with fourth place qualifier JB Catricala completing the podium. In Touring Car, Hebert pulled clear to win from Shewfelt’s Awesomatix with third place qualifier Barrett Morrow also holding station to complete the Top 3.

Image: Keven Hebert [Facebook]


April 3, 2023

Tolomelli & Tassinari secure LMP & GT12 Italian C/ships

The 2023 LMP & GT12 Italian Indoor Championships took place at RC Landia in Scandiano over the weekend.  A race sanctioned on the 2023 National Sporting calendar of ACI Sport, the Italian Motorsport Federation and member of the FIA,  in LMP Open Modified it was Alessio Tolomelli (Team Marka) secured pole position after the 4 qualifiers.   In the afternoon finals he would back his qualifying pace up with a dominant win during the finals ahead of Marcello Galli with Alessandro Bianchi (Team B-Racing) completing the podium.  In GT12, Luca Tassinari (Team Schumacher) showed speed and consistency throughout the day securing both TQ and the overall win in a dominant fashion ahead of Davide Mischiatti (Team Schumacher) and the emerging young talent of Luca Rampini (Team Treerremodellismo).  The activity of the Italian RC Car Racing Federation (ACI Sport) will now move outdoors with the second phase of the National Sporting calendar: the months of May, June and July will see the Italian Cup taking place in Northern, Central and Southern Italy in several classes (8th scale On and Off Road, TOURING EP).  Such races will also serve as Qualifiers for drivers in order to gain access to the 2023 Italian Championships, to be held in September and October.

View GT12 Podium here


April 2, 2023

Tironi & Branson winners at Ielasi Tuned Trophy

Francesco Tironi and British visitor Kyle Branson were the winners of the 2023 Ielasi Tuned Trophy.  First hosted by former World Champion Daniele Ielasi in 2O15, the annual Ielasi Tuned Trophy again attracted a quality international field to the Northern Italian Leno track.  Unfortunately rain meant no finals could be run with the final results being declared on the outcome of qualifying.  In 1:8, it would be the Infinity of Tironi that had the edge over Mugen’s Robert Pietsch over the 4-minute qualifiers.  Former Trophy winner Toni Gruber managed P3 with his Capricorn just ahead of team-mate Mirko Salemi.  In 1:10, it was the Xray of Branson who set the pace in qualifying to be the Top Qualifying ahead of the Serpent of Matteo Passetti and Capricorn of Stefan Chodzynski.

View 1:10 Trophy presentation image here


March 29, 2023

2023 Portugal Touring Series (PTS) – Announcement

The Portugal Touring Series has announced its schedule for 2023 with the popular Lisbon based series being made up of three rounds.  Taking place on the 2008 1:10 200mm IFMAR World Championship hosting Monsanto track, the home track of a certain Bruno Coelho, the series kicks off on April 23th with Round 2 scheduled for May 21st.  Organised by CRB-Clube Rádio Modelismo de Benfica, each round caters for Touring Car and Formula with the addition of a Carten M Cup for 2023.  The PTS will conclude on July 23rd and with Lisbon the home to both Coelho and Alexander Hagberg don’t be surprised to see either of these World Champions turn up at a round.

Source: PTS [Facebook]


March 29, 2023

Tamiya Championship Series Rnd3 Cal Raceway – Report

The third round of the 2023 Tamiya Championship Series made its way to Cal Raceway in Orange, California last weekend with the event attracting an impressive 186 entries.  Now in its 28th year, this year’s series regional race at Cal Raceway hosted 119 racers competing for honours in 8 different classes.  Fielding the biggest grid was the Euro-Truck class with 49 entries with Michael Monaghan taking the win ahead Mark Brown and Brian Ruvalcaba.  Monaghan would also take the win in M-Chassis class.  The next largest grid was GT2 (17.5 Tamiya tub chassis class) with Matt Allen the winner over Hector Martinez.  The other Round 3 winners were Brian Ruvalcaba (Formula 1), Cory Belanger (GT Spec NOVICE), Pete Teh (GT-PRO SPEC), Edgar Fiallos (GT-1) and Phillip Enriquez (GT-E).

Source: Tamiya USA [tamiyausa.com]


March 28, 2023

Felix Heyse (1970 – 2023)

The nitro onroad community is in shock today with the news of the untimely passing of well known race mechanic Felix Heyse.  A gentle giant of the sport, Felix was a huge part of the racing scene and was one of the most recognisable faces in pit lane at World and European Championships.  Having worked with some of the best drivers, he played an integral part in many of their racing achievements.  A member of the Infinity team, when he wasn’t busy executing super fast pit stops Felix was a keen racer himself.  Having travelled the world alongside Felix and had the chance to spend time with him both on and off the track, Red RC would like extend our condolences to his family, the Infinity team and all those who had the pleasure of calling Felix their pitman over the years.  Rest in Peace.