Red RC » Gas

April 7, 2009

Jared Tebo wins Buggy at Silver State

This year marked the 11th Annual Silver State Nitro Challenge in Las Vegas, NV and like in years past the weather was always changing, with very windy conditions and temperatures up and down proving to be a big challenge for the drivers all week long. A new race format was constructed this year by race director Jason Ashton for the Invitational Class, which consisted of 3 qualifying heats with all of them counting, the first of which was 7-minutes, the 2nd 10-minutes, and the 3rd and final qualifier 15-minutes. After the 3 qualifiers were run, each heat would have the top 3 drivers with the lowest point totals advance straight to the main event. Then the lower mains would be run taking the top 2 drivers to bump into the next main. Team Orion/Kyosho/AKA Factory Driver Jared Tebo was on fire in qualifying winning both heats for Invitational buggy and truggy on the first day, with the second day only consisting of the 15-minute qualifier. Tebo went on to finish 2nd in both buggy and truggy to wrap up the overall TQ in both classes. In the 30 minute main final for invitational buggy, Jared Tebo got a great launch off the starting line and set off on a fast pace with Ryan Maifield close behind. After the first round of pit stops Tebo was still in the lead but now his team mate Cody King was in 2nd. After the second round of stops Tebo was still leading but now Adam Drake and Billy Fischer were battling it out for the second position and only quick refuelling kept Tebo in the lead after the final stop as he went on to win from Losi pairing of Billy Fischer in 2nd and Adam Drake 3rd.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]

April 6, 2009

Josué Artiles wins 1/8th scale opener in Spain

The opening round of the Spanish 1/8th scale National series was held last weekend at Club Pical Track in Valladolid. The race saw over 70 drivers registered and the sunny weather let the drivers enjoy a nice racing weekend. Following qualifying Sergio Montesinos got the TQ spot followed by Victor González, Oscar Cabezas and current Champion Josué Artiles. Oscar Cabezas had to fight against the clock to set up his brand new Motonica P81, having only received it a few days before the race. In the final Josué Artiles and Óscar Cabezas took the first and second position in the very first laps and the set a pace that no one else could follow. Both drivers were very close but the tire change was faster for Artiles, who won a few seconds to allow him to drive the rest of the race with some advantage. There was an interesting fight for the third place involving three drivers, which finally went the way of former Spanish Champion Victor González with Nacho López and Sergio Montesinos taking 4th and 5th respectively.

Source: Merlin Fuel [merlinfuel.com]

April 6, 2009

Kyle Branson takes BRCA 200mm Nats Rd1

The opening round of the BRCA 1/10th 200mm National Championships was held last weekend in Snetterton and as usual the Saturday was to be used for practice. The day started badly for current Champion Kyle Branson, who had radio problems all day, which hampered his progress. On Sunday under great weather conditions it was the Sirio powered Serpent driver Branson, who TQ’d round 1 of qualifying by 1 second in front of Mark Green, while in the 2nd and 3rd rounds Kyle had problems with back markers and lost time. Despite this, his earlier time stood and he was still TQ by 1/100th of a second after 3 rounds but was to go quicker still in the final round to take the pole position by 1 second from team mate Green. The start of the final saw problems for Kyle, who didn’t clear his engine enough and stalled, dropping him a lap before he could get going again. He managed to unlap himself from everyone and worked his way up to 2nd spot, 1 lap down on then leader Mark Green. Kyle got his way passed Mark and proceeded to unlap himself and when a back marker spun in front of Mark he unfortunately was hit by 3 following cars while trying to avoid it. This broke his car and handed Kyle the lead, from where he would go on to win from Peter Watt in 2nd and Adam Walker Catchpole in 3rd.

Thanks to Kyle for the report.

April 6, 2009

DJ Apolaro confirmed for BUMOD GP

The organisers of the Bumod Turkish Grand Prix, which takes place in Bursa, Turkey from the 4th to the 7th of June have been in touch to tell us that they have confirmed entry from top US racer DJ Apolaro. The winner of this years Florida Winternats will be competing in the event, alongside other well known gas racers such as Robert Pietsch, Patrick Schaefer and Dirk Wischnewski, with more really big driver announcements to come in the lead up to the race. Entry is now open for this event and you are guaranteed a warm reception from the Turkish hosts, who will also arrange transport and help find the best accommodation. Red RC will also be present throughout the event bringing live reports each day on our Events page.

For more information about the event visit the official site here.

April 6, 2009

Sotiropoulos takes Rd1 in Greece

Last weekend saw the opening round of the Greek 1/8th scale National Championships take place at the Arena racing track in Athens. No practice was done on Saturday due to heavy rain so the drivers had to go directly into the race on Sunday. Following a small delay in the morning to allow the track to dry, there were 4 rounds of qualifying and it was Sotiropoulos that took the TQ spot for Serpent ahead of team mate Farmakis in 2nd and Kyosho driver Totomis in 3rd. In the race the battle was between Sotiropoulos and Totomis until the rain came again to the track and changed everything. Fortunately it was just for a minute and grip was built again after a short while. Sotiropoulos held on for the win with Tortomis close to a lap behind in 2nd, with Arkoumanis Giannis taking 3rd.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

April 4, 2009

Surikarn wins KM Cup Thailand

We received a brief report from the 2nd KM Cup that was held at KRT Track in Thailand last weekend, with 70 Drivers in attendance from Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, China and the Philippines. The race used a Chrismas tree format and following qualifying it was Xray NT1 driver Meen V that took the TQ spot on Saturday. Following the 60 minutes Grand final on Sunday, it was new Xray signing Surikarn that took the win from Meen in 2nd, 2 laps behind, followed by Pinsan in third, a further 4 laps back. The 3rd KM Cup will be held in Shanghai, China in 2010.

Click here to see the final results

April 3, 2009

Patrick Schaefer confirmed for BUMOD GP

The organisers of the Bumod Turkish Grand Prix, which takes place in Bursa, Turkey from the 4th to the 7th of June have been in touch to tell us that they have confirmed entry from top German racer Patrick Schaefer. The man behind the Shepherd brand will be competing in the event, alongside other well known gas racers such as Robert Pietsch and Dirk Wischnewski, and we are told that there are some other really big driver announcements to come in the lead up to the race. Entry is now open for this event and you are guaranteed a warm reception from the Turkish hosts, who will also arrange transport and help find the best accommodation. Red RC will also be present throughout the event bringing live reports each day on our Events page.

For more information about the event visit the official site here.

April 1, 2009

Adam Drake joins Novarossi

Adam Drake has been in contact to confirm that he has made a move to Novarossi. The deal which is for 2 years sees ‘The Drake’ leave behind a successful partnership with GRP engines for whom he has raced for the past few seasons. Adam has the following to say about the deal:

I’m very excited to be running for Novarossi. The testing has been great and this past weekend was my first race with the new engines. The power and fuel consumption is amazing. I’m really looking forward to the Silver State Nitro Challenge this weekend. Thank you to everyone at Novarossi for this great opportunity.

Adam made his Novarossi debut last weekend at Revelation Raceway for the 3rd round of the Losi Winter Series in which he won both the Buggy Expert and Truggy Expert classes, the latter from the TQ spot. The buggy class was TQ’d by Ryan Lutz running the new Tamiya 801X buggy, and he finished in 2nd place behind Adam, with Mugen driver Jeff Guest taking 3rd, while in truggy it was Matt Screffler that took the runner up spot in front of Ryan Lutz in 3rd.

Click here to see Adam’s Novarossi powered rides