July 29, 2011

2012 IFMAR 1/8th Buggy Worlds to be in Argentina

2012 IFMAR 1/8th Buggy Worlds to be in Argentina

Having provisionally awarded Funchal, Brazil with the 2012 1/8th scale offroad World Championships in Pattaya last year, under condition that they meet certain criteria, IFMAR have announced that Argentina will instead host the bi-annual championships. The decision was made at the IFMAR AGM which took place last Thursday at the World Champions in Vaasa, Finland during the break between 2wd and 4wd competition. The official word on the actual location in Buenos Aires and the date will come in the next few days but we were told by IFMAR vice president Carlos Gomez that the track will be located 10 minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown Buenos Aires. Having covered the last IFMAR Worlds in Argentina in 2007 we are very much looking forward to going back next year. We were also told that testing on the definitive layout for the Worlds will not be allowed prior to the event but the event will be extended to allow for more track time.


July 28, 2011

Fábio Ramos wins Portuguese Regional Rd4

Fábio Ramos wins Portuguese Regional Rd4

The 4th round of the Portuguese Regional championships for 1/10th 200mm took place last weekend in Lisbon. In the semi finals it was Fábio Ramos who took the win in semi-final A, having battled for the top spot all the way to the last lap with Bruno Pereira. Jorge Brito won semi-final B followed by Pedro Sousa and Filipe Rodrigues. In the final there was a big battle for the podium, with the positions changing every lap. Bruno Pereira crashed 3 minutes from the end gifting the first place to Fábio Ramos, followed by Filipe Rodrigues in second and Bruno Pereira finishing in third. The result gives Filipe Rodrigues (TeamZero) the Portuguese Regional Championship with one round still to be run.

Source: TeamZero [rcteamzero.webs.com]


July 27, 2011

Morganti & Burch win Timezone Gran Prix

Morganti & Burch win Timezone Gran Prix

Last weekend saw over 110 racers converge on the famous Timezone Raceway Park for the 3rd annual Timezone Gran Prix, located in Battle Ground Washington. The track is located on private property and only hosts one large event a year. This year’s entries included some of the top drivers from the Northwest, along with the factory pilots Paolo Morganti and Scott Kimbrow from Serpent, the current IFMAR 10th Scale World Champion Ralph Burch, Mike Swauger and Dave Ehrlich, along with Mugen drivers Richard St. Cyr and JJ Wang from Shanghai China. This was by far the largest and most competitive race ever held at Timezone with the freshly re-sealed track surface, the lap records fell all weekend. The European style ribbon track with banked corners and grass infield presented quite a challenge to all of the drivers and it was interesting to watch the drivers tune their cars and skills to adjust to the true road course conditions. After three rounds of qualifying on Saturday, it was Paolo Morganti that took TQ honours in 1/8th Open, Scott Kimbrow in 1/10th sedan and Ryan Newbury in 1/8th scale GT. In the 1/8th scale Open class it was pole man Paolo Morganti that took the win by 2 laps ahead of Richard St.Cyr, with Mike Swauger coming home in 3rd, 2 laps further back. In the 1/10th Sedan class it was WC Ralph Burch that won by 5 seconds from Scott Kimbrow with JJ Wang in 2nd, while in the GT class Jeff Holt won ahead of Ryan Newbury and Try McKune, the top 3 all on the same lap.

Source: Time Zone Racing [timezoneracing.com] / Image: Serpent


July 26, 2011

Takaaki Shimo wins Japanese 1/8th Nationals

Takaaki Shimo wins Japanese 1/8th Nationals

The JMRCA Japanese 1/8th scale on road Nationals were held last weekend at the Boss Speed track in Tokyo. Qualifying went the way of Serpent driver Masao Tanaka with Keisuke Fukuda and Takaaki Shimo completing the top 3. In the finals it was a close battle for the win between Fukuda and Shimo, with the Kyosho driver Shimo just taking the victory by a second ahead of the Mugen of Fukuda, while Kyosho driver Takahata took 3rd spot a lap further back with top qualifier Tanaka taking 4th. The win for Shimo is his 10th Japanese title.

View videos of the main final here


July 26, 2011

Martin Bayer wins 2011 1/5th European title

Martin Bayer wins 2011 1/5th European title

Last weekend saw the European Championships for large scale touring cars held in Leipzig, Germany. Qualifying would see Czech driver Ales Bayer take the pole position running the prototype RS5 Rx12 chassis ahead of Lauterbacher driver Markus Feldmann, but following the semi finals, in which Ales would run out of fuel while leading, it would be the German on pole starting just ahead of Martin Bayer in 2nd. In the final Feldmann would lead but after only 10 laps engine trouble would take the reigning champion out of the race allowing BA Arnaldi from France to inherit the lead. A later battle with Martin Bayer saw the Czech driver get past and bring home the win at the end of the 30 minute main to claim the European title ahead of Croatian Dario Vesali in 2nd with Arnaldi finishing in 3rd.

Image: RS5 Modelsport [rs5-modelsport.com]


July 23, 2011

Tony Knauth wins Aussiemove Rd2

ORCAussiemoveRd2

Tony Knauth has won the recent second round of this year’s Aussiemove off-road series at the OCR circuit. The Mugen driver was hard chases for the win by Marc Christianson (Mugen) and Serpent driver Tim Nicol. Fourth place after five rounds of running went to Nathan Tampe (Hyper) with Daniel White  (Mugen) in fifth place.

Source: OCR Raceway [ocrraceway.com]


July 22, 2011

Video – 2011 Futaba/O.S. Engine Nitro Challenge

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpEwis8KIIU[/youtube]

Check out the highlights from the 2011 Futaba/O.S. Engine Nitro Challenge “Dash for Cash” at the Dirt Burners Greentree R/C Raceway in St. Louis, MO by clicking the video above.

Source: Hobbico [hobbico.com]


July 22, 2011

Merril Myers wins @ Blue Diamond Park

Merril-Myers

Merrill Myers has won the 1/10 touring 200mm class at the 3rd annual Pete Johnson Have a Nice Day memorial Race at Blue Diamond Park. Merrill Myers (Shepard Velox v11) took down the win, sweeping two of the three legs with Mike Keely (Xray NT1) in second, and Irvine Cole (Capricorn Lab-C01) finishing third seven seconds over the TQ driver Juan Amador in fourth. It was a hard fought battle for third and fourth with the position changing many times of the course of the triple A’s. Merrill and Mike couldn’t be touched in first and second respectively.

Source: Sky Rocket Racing [skyrocketracing.com]


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