Red RC » Gas

October 5, 2010

Tamiya USA sign Lee Martin to run TRF801X

Following the announcement last week that Ryan Lutz had left their team, Tamiya America have today announced the signing of World class off-road ace Lee Martin. In a partnership with Tamiya America, Inc. he will pilot the TRF801X at the upcoming IFMAR 1/8 Off-Road world championship being held at Pattaya, Thailand on November 7-14, 2010 as well as other major events around the globe. Lee, a well known driver from Great Britain, has already achieved great success piloting Tamiya’s newly released 1/10 TRF201 2WD buggy and the TRF511 4WD buggy. Sweeping the recent 2010 Euros by firmly establishing the TQ position in qualifying and winning both the 2WD and 4WD classes, expect to see a lot of Lee stateside as he pilots Tamiya’s state of the art R/C platforms in the coming months and into next year. Lee Martin had this to say about the deal:

After much success with my Tamiya 1/10th vehicles, I cannot wait to begin racing for Tamiya America, Inc. in 1/8th scale as well. The TRF801X shows great promise and I’m really looking forward to getting behind the wheel and hopefully achieve some great results at the coming World Championship and future races! I would like to thank David Jun and Tamiya America, Inc. for this opportunity and also thank Horizon UK and David Spashett for the help throughout the year until my move to the Tamiya Team.

Source: Tamiya [tamiyausa.com]

October 5, 2010

AKA sign German Champion Tim Bremicker

US based tire manufacturer AKA have added another top name to their driver roster with the signing of current German National Truggy and 2008 Buggy Champion Tim Bremicker. The German driver, who has joined the Associated Factory Team this year, has completed a deal that sees him join a team which includes current US National Champion Jared Tebo, US front running driver Cody King and top European drivers like Jerome Aigoin, Miguel Matias and Davide Tortorici to name a few. Tim will be running the complete line up of AKA tires on his Associated Factory Team Cars for 2011 and the rest of the 2010 season. Tim had the following to say:

I’m very happy to join the AKA Racing team and would like to thank AKA’s German distributor KYOSHO Deutschland for their trust in me. I can look back to a long relationship with them in the past and I’m proud to be a part of this team again. Testing the tires in the last couple of weeks was a pleasure and I can’t wait for the upcoming season to race and support the team as well as AKA’s and KYOSHO Deutschland’s customers with my know how and experience.

Source: AKA [raceaka.com]

October 5, 2010

JJ Wang & Howard Zou win at King Power Cup

The King Power Cup EP & GP touring car race was held at the RCP track in Southern China over the October Chinese National Holidays. King Power, makers of electric motors and batteries as well as other racing parts was the main sponsor for the race and racers from around China participated in the two day event with race organizer Energy-DL in Guangzhou managing the event superbly. In the EP Open class, JJ Wang took TQ and won the race with his HB TCX. In the GP touring class, Taiwanese Xray driver Howard Zou TQ’d and won the event edging out Shanghai Mugen driver JJ Wang in a heated battle that saw some very exciting qualifying strategies and racing displayed by both drivers.

View the GP podium here

October 5, 2010

Davis & Underwood win NZ Offroad Nationals

Jerry Davis and Craig Underwood took the top podium spots at the GO Racing 2010 New Zealand IC Offroad National Championships, which was held in Hamilton on a completely redesigned track, featuring a unique cross-over section. The Buggy final was full of action and a few lead changes but Jerry (Xray/MMods) who suffered from a tyre issue for a small period of the race held onto a 1 lap lead over 2nd place Chris Banham (Mugen/Ninja) with Dave Edhouse (Losi/Ninja) in 3rd. In Truggy, Craig Underwood kept his Mugen/GO MBX6T going through a race with a high attrition rate to take the win by 3 laps over Chris Banham (Mugen/Ninja) with Pearce Stephens (HB/Ninja) in 3rd position.

View the truggy podium here

October 4, 2010

King & Fischer win Byron Off Road Challenge

To beat the heat at The Nitro Pit in Phoenix this past weekend, racing for the Byron Off Road Challenge started at sundown and ran past midnight. The first under-the-lights racing format was a huge success for drivers and their fans. Despite a late announced practice schedule in Thailand for Worlds drivers, that kept the majority of Byron Team Drivers out of the race, Byron Fuel still took 3 of the top 6 podium spots in the race, with the absolute highlight of the event being a 0.4 second win in Expert Truck for Kyosho / Byron driver Cody King over Losi man Billy Fischer with Levi Jackson taking 3rd. In the buggy class it was Billy Fischer that won over Associated team driver Ryan Maifield in 2nd with Cody King rounding out the podium in 3rd.

View the buggy podium here

October 4, 2010

Wayne Joelson wins African Cup for 4th year

The 7th Annual African Cup for On Road Gas cars was held the last weekend of September at the TRAP facility outside Pretoria. Temperatures were in the mid 30 degrees Celcius and with a 1 hour final, this race would be the toughest in Africa. Current South African Champion Wayne Joelson with his Novarossi powered Mugen Seiki MRX4X finished 1st for the 4th consecutive year, with second place going to his team mate Steve Munslow, with EDAM driver Arnold Vermaak in 3rd.

Thanks to Wayne Joelson for the update.

September 30, 2010

Simon Kurzbuch wins again in Switzerland

The 6th round of the Swiss 1/8th scale Nationals took place in Langenthal last weekend. Even if the two Swiss Champions in the Amateur (Stefan Köhl/Shepherd Velox) and Expert (Mattia Pesenti/Motonica) classes were decided, a lot of racers still arrived Friday but the weather and the track was too wet for getting a good setup and just one driver tested his car in Friday afternoon. On Saturday the weather was again bad, but the race must go on and so all racers took part in qualifying and at the end of the day there were some unfamiliar drivers at the front.

Continue reading the report here

September 30, 2010

Pattaya Worlds track preperations in full swing

With the most anticipated event of the year, the 1/8th off road Worlds in Thailand, less than two months away and with a major test getting underway next week, the organisers have been flat out preparing the track for the event. As we can see from these photos, and as we know from models of the new layout, it is completely different from the Pre Worlds. Sporting carpet in areas, we talked with organiser Charlie Siribodhi when we were in Houston and he told us that they are preparing the most challenging track imaginable with off camber turns, large jump sections and other obstacles on this long lap. Red RC will be present throughout the entire event to bring you live coverage so be sure to stay tuned from the 7th of November.

View more photos from the track prep here