Red RC » Gas

February 7, 2007

Masao Tanaka signs to Motonica for 2007

Masao Tanaka signs to Motonica

Top Japanese racer and multiple World championship podium finisher, Masao Tanaka has been confirmed to race for Motonica for the 2007 season. Tanaka had previously tested the Motonica prior to last years 1/8th Nationals, but decided for the Mugen as he didn’t have time to learn the car, but obviously he liked the car enough to decide to race with it for the 2007 season. Tanaka has been out of a sponsored drive since Ninja motors were pushed upon Mugen team drivers last year which forced Tanaka to make a decision between staying with Mugen or with Kawahara where he works, who just happen to be the Novarossi importers for Japan, he chose to stay in employment. Whats also interesting is the close relationship now between Motonica and Novarossi, with suggestions that they are both pushing to build an all Italian dream team which could possibly include 7 time World Champion Lamberto Collari.

Image: Eco Model [ecomodel.it]

February 5, 2007

Billy Easton signs to OCM Racing & TQ fuels

US driver and former World Champion, Billy Easton, has signed to race for OCM Racing USA and TQ racing fuels. According to the report by Neo Buggy, Easton will not only be the teams star driver but will also head up the North American teams research and development for both brands.

Source: Neo-Buggy [neo-buggy.net]

February 4, 2007

Team Associated RC8 finishes 2nd on race debut

Team Associated RC8

The newly released Team Associated RC8 buggy has made its race debut at the Nitro Pit in Arizona. Ryan Maifield, who qualified the new car in 4th moved up two spots to take the 2nd spot behind Team Losi racer Mike Truhe who also set the fastest lap of the race over 1 second faster than Maifield. In third position was Jared Tebo who was racing the prototype O’Donnell buggy ahead of Jason Ashton racing the Sidorf who brought it home in 4th.

You can view the PDF of the Expert buggy results here. View a picture of the car in action here.

UPDATE: Neo Buggy have some more action shots of Maifields RC8 here.

Source: RC Tech [rctech.net] Image: Buggy-Sport [buggy-sport.info]

February 1, 2007

Manuel Huber, latest driver to race Xray NT1

Manuel Huber

Xray, never one to hold back, have signed yet another big European name, Manuel Huber, to race their new Xray NT1 200mm gas touring car. The multiple Austrian champion and WC/EC finalist will join the Slovakian team with immediate effect and will line up alongside Groskamp, Christensen, Peracho, LeMieux, Burch and Baker to make a formidable team.

The main reasons for my decision to move to Team XRAY are the independent self-production of every part of the car (the XRAY factory is really amazing!), the possibility for quick changes to different parts, and of course the really great teamwork. After driving the NT1, I found it is much faster than the car I was used to racing.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

January 30, 2007

Martin Christensen to race Xray NT1

In Xrays efforts to create a super star team they have acquired the services of Danish racer Martin Christensen. European champion in the now almost dead 235mm class, Martin has also won multiple Danish national titles as well the Nordic Championships on 2 occasions and is definitely a quick racer.

When I arrived at the track and testing area, I was met with a familiarly noise – nitro engines! There was an indoor track with enough space to hold big indoor nitro races. Seeing all this reassured my decision to join Team XRAY. XRAY has what it takes to make world championship cars.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

January 30, 2007

Travis ‘Peanut’ Amezcua joins Novarossi

Travis Amezcua joins Novarossi

2006 ROAR Nationals TQ and Team Losi team driver, Travis ‘Peanut’ Amezcua, has signed for Novarossi engines for 2007. Travis had previously run with Sirio up until now and ran with his new Italian power plants at last weekends Losi Winter Champs finishing on the podium in both the buggy and truggy classes.

Source: Neo-Buggy [neo-buggy.net]

January 29, 2007

Team Losi Nitro Off-Road Winterchamps

Adam Drake Losi Winter Champs

Last weekend saw the Team Losi Nitro Off road Winterchamps held at the Hurricane RC Club and until now, information has been annoyingly difficult to get hold off. The racing saw Adam Drake continue his winning streak taking the Factory Gas Truck class and the Truggy class but the main news from the event was that The Drake didnt win buggy, a slip up on the last lap saw Mike Truhe take the win.

The innaugural running of Team Losi’s new nitro nats saw some sticky weather, changing track conditions and lots of intense racing action. Team Losi was in force (of course), and the CEN crew made it to the show as well as other notables including Axial’s Paul Coleman, Associated racer JR Mitch, J Concepts hero Jason Ruona, and Kyosho’s Ryan Eckert.

You can see the top results from the main classes here… content

January 29, 2007

Yuichi Kanai wins first Chinese buggy race of 2007

Yuichi Kanai

Former World Champion Yuichi Kanai, driving his Sirio powered Kyosho has won the first buggy race of the year in China held in Shenzhen. Racing with 90 other racers from across Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia, Kanai could easily claim the pole position. In the final, Kanai could pull away, finishing 2 laps ahead of second placed racer Sam Poom, driving a Nanda NRB-3 with Nattom Soorapanthu rounding off the podium bringing it home in 3rd driving a Losi 8ight.

You can view the full results and more pictures here.

Source: RC Tech [rctech.net]