November 26, 2007

Lawlor & Bickerstaff win at Fermoy GP

 Lawlor & Bickerstaff win at Fermoy GP

Fermoy Model Car Club hosted the first ever Munster Grand Prix over the weekend in Cork, Ireland with 35 drivers from around the country taking part in the indoor tarmac event. Biggest of the classes was 27T in which Top Qualifier Chris Lawlor took his S400 to victory over Serpent team-mate Keith Dempsey.  Lawlor won the first Leg of the A Final from Dempsey but in Leg 2 the result was reversed leaving the pair equal on points however as Lawlor was the fastest qualifier he was declared Munster GP Champion.  Completing the podium was local racer Michael O’Leary who finished 3rd in both Legs. In the 19T class Team Associated team driver Alan Bickerstaff dominated proceedings.  Starting from the pole he won both Legs of the A Final easily to win overall ahead of fellow Assocated driver Johnny Dunn with Andrew Rennick driving a Corally taking third. The first major EP Touring Car event to be held in Ireland for some time, the Munster GP looks set to become an annual event on the Irish R/C Racing calendar as the 190mm class goes from strength to strength.

Click more for the overall results… content


November 26, 2007

Bloomfield wins Novarossi Winter Series Rd2

Bloomfield wins Novarossi Winter Series Rd2

The second round of the Novarossi Winter series was held last weekend at the Novarossi Raceway and it was Elliot Boots and his Associated RC8 that started off the day off in fantastic form by setting TQ for the round and securing maximum points. In rounds 2 and 3 it was the turn of Losi 8ight racer Darren Bloomfield to take the top spot and he was able to secure TQ for the meeting. The start of the final was exceptional, Elliot and Darren swapped the lead in what seemed like ever corner for the first few laps, outstanding control and great respect between these two racers allowing them to race hard. It was Darren who managed to get the all important break just before the first pit stop and could pull away from the chasing pack. Elliot continued his excellent form for the day to finish second and once again an excellent run for Ed Kerry gave him the third spot.

Click here for the final results… content


November 26, 2007

Norway lifts ban on EP Racing

Update on the Exploding cells

The Norwegian RC federation have announced that following their Annual General Meeting on the 17th-18th November, they have lifted the ban on EP racing in their country. The racing ban was put in place following a number of cell explosions during charging which could have led to someone getting injured. The NMF have laid out a number of guidelines, similar to the BRCA, regulating how to safely charge batteries during training and racing up until 1st April 2008, at which time the new EFRA approved cell requirements will be adapted across Europe.

Click more to read the full press release… content


November 25, 2007

BRCA 1/12th Nationals Round 3

 BRCA 1/12th Nationals Round 3

The 3rd round of the BRCA 1/12th scale Nationals was held last weekend on the Cramlington track, which replaced the Teesside event that had been on the calendar for a number of years. Saturday’s 19T turn event saw Keith Robertson take the pole position from Chris Kerswell in 2nd and Andy Griffiths in 3rd. In the final it was the top 4 that got away cleanly but a mistake from Griffiths dropped him down the order, and then Keith hit a back marker that knocked him out of the race. This left Chris up in front and he was able to take his first 12th National win from Russ Williams in 2nd and a recovering Andy Griffiths in 3rd. In the Modified race on Sunday Adny Griffiths took the pole position and in the final dominated the race, winning from Russ Williams in 2nd, who was well clear of Chris Kerswell in 3rd.

Source: Mirage [mirageracing.com]


November 25, 2007

Valencia to host 2008 1/8th Euros

 Valencia to host 2008 1/8th Euros

Following on from the announcement that Belgian club Roeselare would not be able to host the 2008 1/8th scale European Championships, due to problems from the locals about noise levels, EFRA have selected a new venue for next years race. A call was made for alternative venues from within EFRA and then with votes taken from all the governing bodies it has been decided that the Associacio D’Automodelisme Autet Almussafes in Valencia, Spain will be the host of the prestigious event next year. This is a great modern track which has a history of hosting rounds of the Spanish Nationals and has even played host to the first Serpent Nations Cup event in 2005. We believe that the event will be run on the same weekend as originally planned for Belgium, and so will take place on the 26th-27th of July.

Find out more information about the club here.


November 21, 2007

King & Lutz take 1-2 in RC Pro Series

King & Lutz take 1-2 in RC Pro Series

Kyosho America have been in touch to let us know that Cody King has won the popular RC Pro Series National Championship, followed in second place by Ryan Lutz, both running Sirio-powered Kyosho Inferno 777 WC Edition buggies. Even though he trailed in points coming into the Championship final, King led the most laps and won the final round, giving him enough points to capture the National Championship. Ryan Lutz, who TQ’ed both truck and buggy classes with wins in seven of the eight qualifying rounds, scored a third place finish in the buggy class. This gave Lutz enough points to secure the second position for Pro Series Championship, while Kyosho scored the top two spots in the championship with the Inferno 777 WC.

Source: Kyosho [kyoshoamerica.com]


November 20, 2007

Bloomfield wins Panther Winter series Rd1

 Bloomfield wins Panther Winter series Rd1

We received a report from the first round of this years Panther tyres and products supported Herts Nitro Winter series. With no practice in the morning and only 3 rounds of qualification with 2 counting, making no mistakes was very important. Darren Bloomfield took top honours with the quickest run of the day in round three with fellow Losi driver Mathew Perry in second and Karl Jackson for Kyosho in third. With the day light fading towards the end of the finals the racing looked incredibly fast. A bad start to the final from Darren put him to the back of the pack and this left Karl and David Crompton to battle for the win. At about the five minute mark Darren found himself back on equal terms with the top two fighting for the lead. Wheel to wheel racing with Karl down the main straight gave Darren the lead and he never looked back. Bruce Thompson took the chance in the ten minute final not to stop and this gave him the extra time he needed to take second spot in the final for Losi and Novarossi. The majority of drivers chose to use Komodo Dragon 2 tyres in soft compound but Darren preferred the additional steering gained from the Hedgehog.

Click here to see the final results… content


November 19, 2007

Federations react to Exploding cells

Update on the Exploding cells

Following up on the decision by the Norwegian federation to stop all EP racing until the new year in response to the safety hazard of exploding NiMh cells, a number of other countries have also reacted, however so far not as strictly. Neighbours Sweden decided to just ban a certain batch of the offending IB4200 cells, as have Belgium, and racing will continue as normal, while the BRCA in the UK have advised their members on the best way to handle, use and charge NiMh cells. In the meantime the Intellect Battery Co. have now supplied the batch numbers which may contain cells that could potentially explode when subjected to race type conditions.

Click here to read the list of affected cells and also the BRCA recommendations… content