Red RC

July 24, 2023

Maifield & Tessmann win ROAR 1:8 Electric Offroad National titles

Ryan Maifield and Ty Tessmann took the two main titles at the 2023 ROAR 1:8 Electric Offroad Nationals held at CRC Raceway in New York state over the weekend. In qualifying it was Xray’s Ty Tessmann who lead the way, the Canadian securing the TQ in both eBuggy and eTruggy. In eTruggy, Tessmann was able to convert that TQ into the championship title with wins over the TLR of second place qualifier Tater Sontag in the opening two A-Mains. In A3, having qualified 5th, Maifield would take the win to complete the podium line-up. In the eBuggy finals, while Tessmann won A1, third place qualifier Maifield was able to get his Tekno buggy passed his rival to win second & final encounters. This secured him his second National title with Tekno having become Nitro Truggy National Champion last month at AMain Hobbies’ Silver Dollar RC Raceway in California. A difficult race for second place qualifier Joe Bornhorst, who ended up P7, Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz took the final podium placing from 5th on the grid.

View Truggy podium here

July 24, 2023

Surpass Hobby GECKO Mini 18 brushless power system

Surpass Hobby has released the GECKO Mini 18 brushless power system which it has developed specially for the TRX-4M 1:18 rock crawler from Traxxas. Equipped with intelligent closed-loop control, it is especially suitable for low-speed climbing. Performance inertia brush and sensory force give better linearity and easy control and maintain a fixed motor signal under different loads and give excellent start-up, acceleration and linear output. The built-in sensor brushless motor of GECKO Mini 18 has strong current resistance and excellent CNC enclosure. The compatible ESC has a variety of protection functions, including: LIPO or NIMH battery power-off protection/ESC overheat protection/motor overheat protection/throttle signal loss protection/motor stall protection, built-in switch mode BEC 5V/500mA, compatible with high wiring and high voltage relays. All these and can be programmed using the Surpass Program card .

View spec & more images here

July 23, 2023

Rheinard wins ETS Austria

Marc Rheinard has the latest ETS round in Austria, the Awesomatix driver taking the win from 3rd on the grid ahead of Xray’s Jan Ratheisky and Mugen’s Erik Dankel. In qualifying at Aigen it was a Mugen lockout at the front of the grid with reigning Champion Ronald Volker securing the TQ from Dankel but in A1 Dankel made a brilliant start to get ahead of his team-mate to lead. With just under a minute to go and with Rheinard in pursuit, Dankel rolled out of the lead handing Rheinard the win from Ratheisky and a recovering Volker. In A2, with Volker flying off the track on Lap 2, Dankel was able to claim his first ever A-Main leg victory with Rheinard second and Xray’s Oliver Havranek third with Volker a DNF. It was all to play for in A3 and with Volker crashing out early, the stakes were even higher between Dankel and Rheinard in a winner takes all battle. Dankel again lead albeit under increasing pressure from the multiple World Champion and as the race approached the final minute Dankel would run wide in the sweeper at the end of the straight. Rheinard seized the opportunity getting up his inside but the two cars touched with Dankel suffering a body tuck that dropped him to fourth. Overall Rheinard secured his second ETS win as an Awesomatix driver, the first have come 11-months ago at his home track Arena33. For Volker it was another disappointing weekend as he left Austria with points for P8. Having missed the podium at the season opener in the Netherlands, where newly crowned 4WD Buggy European Champion Michal Orlowski took the win, the German is going to need a strong result at Round 3 to get his title defence back on track. In Pro Stock, Adam Iszay enjoyed the perfect result securing the TQ and win for Xray, a result he also achieved in the FWD class.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]

July 22, 2023

Orlowski regains European Champion title in 4WD Buggy

Eight years after winning his first European Championship title in the UK, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has regained the title with victory at the 4WD Buggy Euros in the Netherlands today. Having just missed out on his first 2WD title earlier in the week to the reigning 4WD Champion Marcus Kaerup, Orlowski would be the Top Qualifier for 4WD. Topping 2 of the five rounds at the challenge RACO200o astro track, he would start ahead of Team Associated’s Kaerup, fastest in Q1, Sworkz pairing Jöern Neumann, fastest in Q4, & Micha Widmaier with team-mate Daniel Kobbevik fifth ahead of Xray’s Bruno Coelho. In the opening final Orlowski produced a dominant performance to win ahead of the Yokomo of Burak Kilic who had a strong run to come through from P7. In A2, Orlowski came under a bit more pressure for the opening 2-minutes from 2WD Top Qualifier Neumann but a few moments from the German allowed the Polish driver to cruise to the win and the title. Winning A3 from Kilic, Nuemann would secure the runner-up spot with Kilic completing the podium.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

July 22, 2023

Volker heads Mugen 1-2 in ETS Austria qualifying

Mugen Seiki enjoyed a one-two in qualifying for ETS Austria with Ronald Volker the Top Qualifier in Aigen ahead of team-mate Eric Dankel. Volker would secure the TQ after topping the opening two of the four rounds of qualifying. Round 1 podium finisher Dankel would also top the times, doing so in Q4 to make it a Mugen lock out at the front of the grid at the second round of the championship. The only other driver to post a TQ run, Marc Rheinard took his Awesomatix to the fastest time in Q3 ahead of Dankel as Volker had a bad run. Overall Jan Ratheisky’s Xray will start fourth ahead of the Yokomo of Christopher Krapp with Oliver Havranek completing the Top 6 on the grid. In Pro Stock, Adam Izay is the Top Qualifier from Louis Kretschmer having posted 3 TQ runs with his Xray.

Image: Mugen Seiki Europe [Facebook]

July 22, 2023

Veseli is new European LS Touring Car Champion

MCD Racing’s Dario Veseli is the new European Large Scale Touring Car Champion, the multiple Large Scale Offroad Champion claiming his first onroad title at the Real80 track in the Netherlands after a late error from Genius Racing’s Bernard-Alain Arnaldi. Having set the second fastest time qualifying, the Croatian driver secured a direct place into the final alongside defending champion Edoardo Repetti who was Top Qualifier. An earlier mistake from the pole sitter would see the Italian Mecatech driver drop down the order and Arnaldi take the lead with the French driver looking set to add a fourth European title ahead of Veseli. With less than a minute to run in the 30-minute final, Arnaldi went off at the end of the straight allowing Veseli through to take the win by 1-seconds. Arnali’s car would later be found to have an incorrect flywheel diameter leading to him being excluded from the results. Sindre Undheim would be promoted to second with Repetti completing the podium. In the Formula 1 Final, Sébastien Marinot successfully defending his 2022 from pole position with his Genius Racing ahead of Nathan Brenot and Corentin Laville.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

July 21, 2023

Orlowski holds provisional TQ at 4WD European C/Ship

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski holds a very provisional overnight TQ at the EFRA 1:10 4WD Offroad European Championship after a challenging day for race organisers in the Netherlands. Fresh from his 2WD title win on Wednesday at the RACO2000 track, it was Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup who opened 4WD qualifying with a TQ run over 2WD Vice-Champion Orlowski. With rain arriving for the top heats of Round 2, Orlwoski was fastest of the top heat from 2WD Top Qualifier Jöern Neumann, but it would be Sylvain Gallo Selva from heat 4 of 11 that got the fastest time. With the rain delaying Q3, when action resumed it was Orlowski with the TQ run, this time from Micha Widmaier. With four of the five rounds of qualifying originally on today’s schedule, Q4 would be hit by a timing software issue. With a team-managers meeting called, after heated discussions, it was decided that attempts to re-run the penultimate round would take place tomorrow. With three rounds complete, meaning two would count, it puts Orlowski holding the overnight TQ.

Image: Michal Orlowski [Facebook]

July 21, 2023

Exotek ‘GTF’ 1:10 USGT/GT Body

New from Exotek is its new 1:10 GTF ‘retro’ bodyshell for the highly competitive USGT/GT classes. Based on a classic European GT stunner it features an aggressive splitter, muscular fenders, low slung hood, downforce inducing side skirts, large rear deck and large windshield for maximum traction on lower grip race tracks. It’s 194mm width allows you to run wider suspension or wheel hex set ups for increased corner speeds and less traction rolls. Designed with ample tyre clearance in the wheel wells to mount the body low without rubbing the tyres. A large wing and rear trunk deck provides maximum downforce on lower grip tracks. The original long rear body work is perfect to help prevent body tucks. Raised wing pedestals places the wing higher up into cleaner air. The body is made of high quality 0.7mm polycarbonate that is a proprietary custom produced polycarbonate only for Exotek that is much stronger and longer lasting than other similar thickness polycarbonate.

View more images here