September 26, 2022

Sturdy triples at Australian Offroad Nationals

The 2022 RCRA Australian 1:10 Offroad Titles, sponsored by SpeedyRC, was held at Chargers RC over the weekend. While the 5 day event had its difficulties with rains cutting practice short, the big winner was Team Associated’s Christopher Sturdy who took the TQ and win in 2WD, 4WD and Mod Truck for a National Title triple. The first of the Premier classes lived up to the hype, with all of Australia’s best talent turning up to put on a show. Sturdy would take TQ all 4 rounds of 2WD qualifying with Lachlan Donnelly often nipping at the heels only a couple of seconds off. A clean display in A1 allowed Sturdy to pull a small gap over Donnelly. In A2 Donnelly was on song, following Sturdy around within a few tenths for most the race but Sturdy was not shaken and would also take victory in A2 giving him overall win.

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September 18, 2022

Coelho cruises to A1 win at World Championship

Bruno Coelho has cruised to victory in the opening A-Main of the ISTC World Championship in Gubbio, Italy.  The one delay in proceedings at the 11th running of the championship had no effect on the pace show by the defending Champion in qualifying.  Taking all 6 qualifiers, from the pole position Coelho was able to pull clear of his rivals, the closest of those being No.2 Christopher Krapp,  Krapp in turn had a big advantage of Akio Sobue who finished third ahead of Ronald Volker, who came through from 8th on the grid.

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September 16, 2022

Coelho to defend World title from TQ

Reigning ISTC World Champion Bruno Coelho is to defend his title from the TQ, the Xray driver making it 4 out of 4 in the latest round of qualifying in Gubbio, Italy.  A delayed start to Day 3 of the Championship following the heavy rain yesterday that left a very slick track. When qualifying did finally get underway at lunchtime it looked like the new conditions might result in some changes at the top.  While Coelho led off the qualifier, it was Christopher Krapp who set the early pace. However, once Coelho adapted to the lower traction, he resumed normal service despite Krapp’s impressive effort for the closest TQ battle we have seen so far.  Behind the big surprise of the round was Serpent’s Alessio Mazzeo, the 2016 Nitro Touring Car World Championship podium finisher here at the same track, posting the 3rd fastest time ahead of Alexander Hagberg, Hayato Ishioka and Ronald Volker.

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September 15, 2022

Groskamp splits Xray’s in Q3, but Coelho still in control

After his battery issues in Q2, Jilles Groskamp has bounced back to become the first driver to split the Xray’s at the top of the times. The Infinity driver set the 2nd fastest time in the third round of qualifying with a 4/10th advantage over Alexander Hagberg but upfront it was Bruno Coelho who remained in clear control of proceedings. The only driver to run 19-laps as wind made for loose conditions, Coelho’s rivals have just one last chance to deny the reigning World Champion from defending his title from the TQ, few expecting any other outcome here in Gubbio.

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September 15, 2022

Stiles wins 2022 CARS 1:12 Summer Shootout Series

Mark Stiles clinched the overall championship at the 2022 CARS 1/12 Summer Shootout Series GP last weekend driving his Awesomatix A12 chassis. Going into the 4th and final round of this long-standing UK summer championship Mark needed a solid finish in a high-quality field which featured nearly all of the UK’s top 1/12 scale drivers. After some early struggles in practice and qualifying, Mark lined up 3 rd on the grid for the single leg A Final behind top qualifier Ollie Payne and reigning stock world champion Andy Murray. An early crash put Ollie out of contention and left Andy and Mark out in front, where they both lapped consistently and were never separated by more than 1.5 seconds for the entire 8-minute race. Despite staying close, Mark was unable to pass Andy and the pair finished less than half a second apart. Ollie Payne recovered to complete the podium. This marked the last ever race meeting at the CARS venue in Clay Cross. After more than 40 years the club will be moving to a new venue this autumn where club and national level events will continue to be held. The end of an era, but the start of a new one!

Source: Awesomatix [facebook.com]


August 21, 2022

Rheinard finally claims first ETS win with Awesomatix

Marc Rheinard has finally claimed his first ETS win with Awesomatix, a nice boost for both driver and manufacturer ahead of next month’s World Championships in Italy.  Having secured the TQ for the German round at Arena 33, the former World Champion was pushed hard in the opening A-Main on Saturday evening by 2nd place qualifier Yannic Prumper. Despite the Yokomo team driver setting the fastest lap, the only one to run in the 17-seconds, Rheinard stayed out front for the win.  A2 on Sunday morning saw Rheinard take a more convincing win to lock up the overall victory for Round 3 of the series and finally give Awesomatix only their second ever success in the ETS’ premiere Modified category.  With Rheinard able to sit out A3, Prumper won that encounter from Christopher Krapp to secure 2nd overall with his Yokomo team-mate, winner at ETS Austria, completing the Andernach podium line up.  Mugen’s Ronald Volker claimed fourth ahead of Awesomatix’ Lucas Urbain with Xray’s Marco Kaufmann rounding out the Top 6. Adding to the Awesomatix celebrations, Max Machler would also convert his TQ into victory in Pro Stock.

Image: ETS [ets.racing]


August 18, 2022

Can Phend repeat National title double in San Diego?

National Championships don’t come much bigger than the ROAR 1:10 Dirt Off-Road National Championships and the titles are on the line this weekend.  With the US a powerhouse of offroad racing, some of the best drivers in the World are in San Diego at the indoor SDRC Raceway where Dakotah Phend will be aiming to defend his 2WD & 4WD Buggy titles.  The TLR driver did the double in style last year securing the TQ and victory in the first two A-Mains in both buggy classes.  In 2WD, Phend took the title from Xray’s Ty Tessmann while in 4WD the win came ahead of Team Associated’s reigning 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin and another World Champion (4WD), Yokomo’s Ryan Maifield.  With the 1:8 Offroad World Championships just over 2-weeks away and majority of this weekend”s title contenders making the trip to Spain, a newly won National title will be a nice confidence boost ahead of the long haul journey.

View SDRC Raceway track images here


August 3, 2022

Gimar 1:8 GT tyre warmers

Italian company Gimar, specialists in GT class and former European champion of the category, introduce this new tyre warmer for 1:8th GT. Featuring a very small control unit with front-side warming belt connectors, the warmer takes up minimal pit space. Gimar is also the first brand that use the CUP warmer for the GT class that is more commonly used in 1:10 touring class. The tyre warmers can be powered by a DC power supply or a 3S LiPo battery pack and come in a Gimar branded carry case.

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