Red RC » Gas

June 1, 2009

Andrea Pirani wins Lostallo Open GP

Lostallo, Switzerland, hosts of this years 1/8th scale World Championships, recently ran an Open GP in preparation for the WC. While entry was low, a lot of top quality drivers were present, which featured 6 rounds of qualifying and a final of 60 minutes, just like the Worlds. Qualifying went the way of Alberto Picco, 4 seconds ahead of Andrea Pirani, Andrea Cristiani and Oliver Mack a further 8 seconds back in 4th, current World Champion Lamberto Collari could only manage 12th. The final went the way of Pirani, who took home the win by 2 laps from Oliver Mack in 2nd, Andrea Cristiani in 3rd and Mattia Pesenti in 4th, with pole man Picco hitting problems before retiring close to the end of the race.

Thanks to Mattia Pesenti for the report.

June 1, 2009

Colorado State Nitro Series Rd2

This weekend saw the 2nd round of the Colorado State Nitro Series held at Rat Raceway in Denver Colorado. Team Losi Driver Dustin Evans continued his dominant performance from Rd 1 a few weeks ago. Similar to Rd 1, Dustin again marched to the pole position after qualifying with the only 14 lap run. Dustin would go on to lead every lap and win the 35 minute main event unchallenged. Dustin has the points lead and looks to be the favorite for the Series Championship. Team Associated Driver Kody Numedahl Powered his RC8T to the front of qualifying in the Pro Truggy class over Losi Driver Lars Johnson. In the end Kody took advantage of his start and led every lap in the 35m Pro Truggy Class. Round 3 of the series will be June 13, at Colorado Fast Track in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

June 1, 2009

Richard Hicklin wins BRCA 1/8th Rd3

The 3rd Round of the BRCA national series was held at the Wombwell circuit, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The weather forecast for the weekend was for clear blue sky and hot summer temperatures which made sure that the damp tires where never a consideration for once. During Saturday practice it was Mark Green again setting the pace from a close chasing pack of Andy North (Mugen), Neil Diver (Volex), Richard Hicklin, Tim Wood and Pete Hastings (Serpent). With time restrictions due to the local residents enforcement policy, it made practice less than usual and ensured a busy track throughout the day. It was however apparent that the track at the end of the straight was starting to break up over the bump and it was therefore decided by the committee to form a chicane to slow the cars down. This was to become a further challenge to the drivers with regards to learning how quick to go through it, further set up refinement to allow the car to quickly change direction and gear ratio changes due to the main straight becoming considerably smaller.

Continue reading the report

May 28, 2009

Drake dominates Associated Memorial Race

Revelation Raceway played hosted to the Associated Memorial Race last weekend and it attracted all the big names from the SoCal area. The format was to run 10 minute qualifiers, with a 30 min truck final and 40 min buggy final. Adam Drake TQd both rounds of qualifying in both the buggy and truck class, snatching the buggy TQ by 6 seconds and the truck TQ by 13 seconds. In the finals it was the same story, with The Drake winning the buggy class with his Novarossi powered Losi by 7 seconds from Ryan Maifield, with Associated team mate Ryan Cavalieri in 3rd. In the truggy class, Adam took the win, this time by over a lap margin from O’Donnell racer Taylor Peterson in 2nd and Losi driver Chris Burling in 3rd.

May 26, 2009

Lee Martin wins BRCA 1/8th Off-Road Rd3

The 3rd round of the BRCA series was the annual 2 day race held over the Bank Holiday weekend.This year was the first time that the event has been held at a permanent venue and it was the Ware track that played host. Fantastic weather prevailed over the 2 days and some great racing was to be had. The big Ware track certainly provided a challenge with its high and low speed sections, coupled with the inconsistent surface which was there to catch out the unwary.

Continue reading the report

May 26, 2009

Hard & Andersson win Rd2 in Sweden

Årsunda, a village in the middle of Sweden, played host to the 2nd round of the Swedish national series. The track is very technical and a bit bumpy, so its demanding for both the car and the setup. Following practice, which was disturbed by rain Saturday saw four rounds of qualifying with the first three taking place in good weather and the last round unfortunately rained out. Qualifying went the way of Serpent driver Per Ola Hard, setting a new lap record on his way to TQ, some 7 seconds clear of 2nd placed Edwin Sunesson, with Markus Hellquist in 3rd. In the 1/8th scale class the TQ was taken by Magnus Bengtsson running a Mugen. The finals on Sunday say Peo get a a clean start and was able to work up a good lead and despite some errors in the middle of the race, was able to win by 2 laps ahead of young Markus Hellquist in 2nd and Thomas Livbom in 3rd. In the 1/8th scale class Stefan Andersson won the final driving his Serpent 966.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

May 26, 2009

Todd & Baird take Rd1 honours in Ireland

The opening round of the RCCAOI Irish National 1:8 Off Road Championships took place over the weekend at the well presented Navan Nitro Nuts Astroturf track where superb sunny conditions greeted the 40+ strong entry. In Qualifying it was Alan Bickerstaff, better known for his electric touring car exploits, that secured pole after TQ’ing 3 of the four rounds of qualifying with his Associated RC8. Second on the grid went to Team Xray’s Barkley Abernethy, who TQ’d the opening qualifier. Next up was Losi team driver Michael Todd followed by defending Champion Mark Harron and his Hot Bodies with Crono’s David Curtis and Kyosho’s Gary Baird completing the top 6 on the grid.

Continue reading the report

May 26, 2009

Jilles Groskamp to race gas for Serpent

Serpent have announced that top international electric racer Jilles Groskamp from the Netherlands, has made an agreement to test and race the company’s gas powered cars. Not a stranger to gas racing, the Tamiya Factory driver TQd last years 1/10th scale 200mm World Championships in Portugal and has competed at numerous other gas events, most recently the Dutch EFRA GP where he was a direct qualifier for the main final. As we already reported, he has tested the production prototype of the new Serpent 200mm gas car and, that along with DJ Apolaro, will run the car at the Turkish GP in Bursa next week. After that there will be a lot more test work and preparation to get ready for the European Championships for 1/10th scale that takes place in Gubbio, Italy in July. Jilles will be racing the Serpent 7XX with Max Power engines and continues to be sponsored by Xceed for tools a deal which will now include fuel and bodies.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]