Round four of this year’s Jimmy Babcock Racing League Electric Series was held at OCRC Raceway in Huntington Beach, California. In the premier class of 2WD Open Buggy, Team Associated’s Steven Hartson would take the win in the A-main from the TLR duo of Blake Beyett in second and Radek Grammes in third.
This past weekend Nor-Cal Hobbies was over run with contestants coming from all across California battling for a chance to win a coveted boxing belt at the 8th running of the Northern California Off-Road Championships – The Nor-Cal Champs. The course was a challenge for both Spec and modified class drivers. The Spec drivers had to deal with a challenging right side drop down, with back section that only Modified drivers could only triple. After two days of qualifying and a fierce triple A main format, Mason Eppley from Tekno set the track record of 13.9. Derek Stepanson (TLR) won 2WD Modified and 2WD Short Course. Matt Olson (MIP) also took home two belts from the 4×4 Short Course Classes and 1/8th E-Buggy. Rudy Rico (Team Associated) took the 2WD 17.5 Expert Buggy while Rob Russel (Team Powers) took a belt in 40+ 17.5 Buggy and got a 2nd in Expert. Finally Newcomer Julian Jimenez took the 13.5 Stadium Truck belt.
Round two of the Victorian Drivers Series was held at the regional club on Mildura, around 550km northwest of Melbourne. Over 140 entries were received for the event, including close to 20 in the under 16 junior class, the first to be held at the famous club’s new facility which their members ha. With a very large red clay track with a unique diagonal centre straight, and winter desert climate giving freezing mornings and sunny afternoons, the event was a challenge for all racers. The surface was very cold and slick in the mornings but grooved up through the day, making tyre choice critical. With the large entries the meeting was run over 3 days, practice Friday and Saturday morning, qualifying Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, finals Sunday afternoon.
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Arrma have upgraded their BLX range of 4WD vehicles such as the Typhon 6S buggy, the Kraton 6S monster truck and the Senton 6S short course truck. All three now include a new BLX185 brushless power system consisting of a 2050kV motor for massive torque and 60+ mph speeds, plus a waterproof, fan-cooled 150A ESC. The Tactic TTX300 radio is also new, providing fast and consistent car control. Standard features on all three vehicles are also full ready-to-run specifications minus batteries and charger, silicone oil-filled metal gear diffs, new hubs, and twin 2-3S battery trays.
The Dirt Racing have announced that the 18th annual, 2017 The Dirt Nitro Challenge will once again be held at the famous Fear Farm facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The dates are set at February 22nd to 26th 2017. As the new entry and class limit proved to be a success, with the 2016 race selling out and allowing the event to run smoothly with a scheduled race itinerary and 10 pm finish time, the 2017 DNC will continue to implement the same format to insure a successful, scheduled event. As usual The Dirt offers a discounted entry fee for a limited time in the Summer. Starting Saturday June 18th the early entry fee is 60US$ and it will be available until an allotted number of entries are sold. Classes will be the same as last year with the 40+ drivers allowed to run in addition to the regular classes. To enter, paypal fees to thedirtracing@aol.com and put the racer info in the notes section, or email Joey Christensen at thedirtracing@aol.com. More information about the race can be found here.
The second round of THE Series was held at 710 Raceway in Okemos, Michigan. It was a long day, with racing starting at 9 AM and trophies around 11 PM. The track normally hosts 1/8th scales, and even though the crew had cut out the two big back jumps, a fast lap in Mod Buggy was 30 seconds. The track was bumpy and, as usual for Midwestern outdoor tracks with lots of sun and a nice breeze, watering was necessary. The whoops section was difficult at the beginning, and as the surface began to deteriorate the fast line through it disappeared. Russ Bryant started the day off by TQing all three rounds of Mod Stadium Truck qualifying. He then ran away with the main, leading wire-to-wire.
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Exotek have introduce two heavy duty aluminium servo arms for the TLR 22 range of off-road vehicles. Machined from 7075-T6 alloy the servo arms are much stronger than the original plastic items, making for greatly improved durability and steering authority. Designed to use the stock TLR 4/40 ball end the servo arms are also of a clamping design for added security even when the servo screw comes off. The black anodised parts are available for 25T spline servos such as Futaba and Savöx and also as 23T variant for Spektrum, Sanwa and KO Propo servos.
Hot on the heels of the Xenon Racing Nova 1/12th scale battery packs come additional configurations. Also new are three 2S packs including a 5300mAh 110C and a 6000mAh 110C offering that weigh in at 272g and 308g respectively. The third new battery is a lightweight 5000mAh variant made from 100C cells that weighs in at 256g. All of them come in protective hardcases.
