Red RC » Events

October 1, 2023

Salemi wins ENS Italy, Gruber takes title

Capricorn driver Mirko Salemi has won the season finale of the Euro Nitro Series where team-mate Toni Gruber was crowned the new 1:8 Champion. Racing at the Leno track in Italy, the Italian claimed his first ever win of the series with victory over team-mate & defending Champion Dominic Greiner with just 8-seconds separating them at the end of the 45-minute final. Completing the podium at the third round would be Serpent driver Andrea Catanzani who lined-up 6th on the starting grid. Securing the overall TQ from Dominic Greiner, Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch lead early on before hitting problems and would eventually retire at the 30-minute mark. Taking over the lead from Kurzbuch, ENS Germany winner Greiner enjoyed a long stint at the front before 4th place qualifier Salemi moved to the front in closing stages of the race which he described afterwards as ’45-minutes of racing at the limit’. Despite retiring from the final after 17-minutes, ENS Netherlands winner Toni Gruber would clinch the overall ENS title by a single point from Greiner with Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp completing the Top 3. In 1:10, Top Qualifier Kyle Branson took his Xray to the win by the narrowest of margins over new Champion Melvin Diekann who made it title double for Capricorn RC. The 1:10 podium in Leno was completed by France’s Quentin Leroux.

View Overall Championship podiums here

September 30, 2023

Berkan Kilic secures Nitro TQ at Buggyland X

Mugen Seiki driver Berkan Kilic is the 1:8 Nitro Buggy Top Qualifier at Buggyland X in Madrid, Spain. The German driver secured the top spot in qualifier ahead of World Champion Davide Ongaro and newly crowned European Champion Juan Carlos Canas. Qualifying for the 10th edition of Buggyland started with Sworkz driver & defending Champion Canas taking the first round from Ongaro’s Team Associated before Kilic went top in Q2 ahead of new WIRC signing Marco Baruffolo. The third round saw Ongaro post a TQ run ahead of Kilic and Canas but almost 4-seconds slower than Kilic’s best, it was the Mugen driver who claimed the overall TQ on tie break.

Image: Berkan Kilic [Facebook]

September 30, 2023

Kurzbuch & Branson Top Qualifiers at ENS Italy

Mugen’s Simon Kurzbuch and Xray’s Kyle Branson are the Top Qualifiers at season finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Italy. Racing at Pista di Leno in the north of the country, in 1:8 it was former World Champion Kurzbuch, who after problems in Q1, took control topping the next three rounds of qualifying to secure pole for tomorrow’s final. The multiple ENS Champion’s 20th TQ of the series, behind him it will be Capricorn’s Dominic Greiner, having topped Q1, who starts P2 with the Infinity of Francesco Tironi lining up third. Winner of the previous round in the Netherlands and the current points standings leader, Toni Gruber will start the final a lowly P9. Making it a TQ double for engine brand Ielasi Tuned, Branson completed a clean sweep of 1:10 qualifying going fastest in all four rounds. Behind the British driver, ENS Germany and ENS Netherlands winner Melvin Diekmann qualifies second ahead of Infinity’s Milan Holthuis.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

September 27, 2023

BRCA 2WD Onroad Nationals R6 Broxtowe – Report

The sixth & final round of this year’s BRCA British 2WD Onroad National Championship headed off to the undulating Broxtowe circuit in Nottinghamshire with both the titles still to be decided with F1 heading the way one of the Lee’s and the top three in FWD were all still in with a shot. In F1 qualifying it was the Luke Lee who took all three rounds of qualifying with his Xray to secure pole position. Lining up second was Michael Lee with his Schumacher courtesy of a pair of seconds, with James Greener’s Xray in third and Michael Friebel’s WRC rounding out the second row. The finals saw Luke taking all three legs for the overall win from Michael Lee with a brace of seconds. Michael F edged out James for third by virtue of his second place finish in the second leg. All of which gave Luke his sixth outdoor title.

Continue reading here

September 27, 2023

Hara’s World Championship winning buggy almost home!

All World Championship winning RC cars have history and a story to tell but Atsushi Hara’s 2008 title winning Hot Bodies D8 has gone the extra mile, literally, by adding an interesting twist to the tale 15-years after its big win in Charlotte, USA. At the beginning of September, the legend of the sport shared on social media a post that he found his ‘most memorial car’ for sale on eBay. Days later the ad was listed as ‘Ended’ dashing hopes Hara might be able to be reunited with the buggy. Soon however contact was made with the seller who agreed to sell the car to Hara which is where Australian racer Zac Ryan stepped in. Creating a Gofundme page, such is the level of respect & admiration for Hara’s driving skills and the influence he had on so many racers the money was raised to complete the purchase. Now the interesting part of getting the car back to Hara in Japan, which in Hara’s own words goes a little something like this – ‘My 2008 worlds winning D8 get back project is one step closer to completion. Mark Pavidis pick it up from Eric Anderson in the US, Andrew Gillott and Josh Pain received it from Mark, they took it to Australia and Ben Panic received it, and Ben will take it from Australia to Japan and back to me in early October!! I have to biggest thank to the many people who helped make this happen!!’. Well done to everyone involved in helping to get this well travelled piece of history back to Hara. Hopefully we might get to see it ourselves in person with Hara when Red RC are in Japan in October for our coverage of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships at Infinity International RC Speedway.

View car exchanges on its trip home

September 27, 2023

2023 Tamiya Championship Series Finals – Report

The 2023 Tamiya Championship Series season concluded over the weekend with his year’s National Finals again hosted by Hobbytown-Hobbyplex in Omaha, Nebraska. After a short hiatus, due to the worldwide pandemic pause, the long running Tamiya radio control car racing event returned with the master of ceremonies none other than announcing legend, and the 1996 TCS GT National 4WD Champion, Scotty Ernst. The racing action was competitive and nerve racking with plenty of battles testing drivers nerves. With a total of eight classes run, the next stop for the three winners from GT-2, M-Chassis, and GT-Pro-Spec will Shizuoka, Japan where the Tamiya World Championships will be held in November. In GT-2 Daniel Ho took the victory ahead of ChrisTyler with John Brown third. The win in M-Chassis was taken by Charlie Lydon ahead of Al Sodano and Ken McKinney while in GT-Pro-Spec Vue Vang was the winner with Tim Ski and John Incantalupo joining him on the podium.

Source: Tamiya USA [tamiyausa.com]

September 26, 2023

Woods heads Shepherd British Championship 1-2

Team Shepherd claimed a 1-2 in the 2023 British 1:8 Nitro Onroad National Championship headed by Tim Wood, the former champion taking a convincing win over team-mate Karl Dransfield at the season finale over the weekend. Racing at the Cotswold circuit, where the 6 round championship kicked off back in April, qualifying would see Wood secure his fifth TQ of the campaign before going on to take his fourth win of the season. Winner of the penultimate round in Adur last month, Dransfield’s second place would at Round 6 would see him finish runner-up in the overall championship. Having taken over Shepherd Micro Racing earlier this year through his company Zen Racing, David Spashett was on hand to share the championship success in what is now the new home of the long time onroad nitro manufacturer.

Image: Shepherd Micro Racing [Facebook]

September 25, 2023

Cruz wins 3rd annual 1Up Cup at CenCal Speedway

Mugen Seiki driver Jacob Cruz took the win at the 3rd annual 1Up Cup hosted by CenCal Speedway in Fesno, California, over the weekend. An event that attracted almost 100 entries, in Mod Touring Car it was the Awesomatix of Lex Tyler who took the TQ on tie-breaker with Cruz, each driver having a TQ and P2 while a TQ in Q1 put Aaron Lewis third on the grid. In the triple A-Mains, Cruz was able to get by Tyler in the first encounter and again win A2 to wrap up the overall win. With a DNF in A2, victory in A3 kept Tyler ahead of Lewis on the final podium. Cruz would enjoy a double victory at the event securing the win also in Nitro Touring Car having started as the Top Qualifier.

Image: Jacob Cruz [Facebook]