October 3, 2009

2010 Snowbird Nationals – Update

2010 Snowbird Nationals - Announcement

The organizers of the 2010 Snowbird Nationals were in contact again to let everyone know that the 16th annual ‘Speed Week’ racing schedule is now posted. Featuring the first ‘RC Racing Golf Tournament’ and the first pre-race ‘Pool Party’ with band this year, both help kick off a great week of racing action. The ‘birds are 115 days away and the r/c world is counting down. Over 15 event sponsors are locked in and coming with their teams with more details to be finalized soon. Be sure to reserve your rooms now. Expect classes to be posted any day.

Check out the schedule at the official Snowbirds site here.


October 3, 2009

Protoform Type B & M F1 Retro shells

Protoform Type B & M F1 Retro shells

New from Protoform for the Tamiya F103 chassis are two new body shells, the Type B F1 Retro and the Type M F1 Retro shells. The re-released Type B body replicates one of the first F1 cars to be designed with a “high nose” and a suspended front wing. It turned out to be a championship winning car that influenced the design of many F1 cars since then. This body is made to fit the recently released Tamiya F103RM kit that’s equipped with the proper “high nose/wing” pieces. The Type M body replicates one of the most distinctive cars of an earlier era. It’s made to fit the ever popular Tamiya 103R F1 chassis and both body shells are pulled in .030 lexan and come with a protective film.

Click here to see the other body


October 2, 2009

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th Rd8

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th Rd8

Round 8 of the BRCA championship was held at the Mendip circuit for the second time this season. With Bristol airport being a small drive away and due to the completion of the Irish season, a small contingent from Ireland arrived, including the vastly experienced Clive Connelly (Mugen) and Ian Campbell (Shepherd). The entry of 48 drivers was one of the highest all season and with the addition of some old faces, the future is starting to look brighter for this section. The weather forecast for the weekend was bright which would allow a lot of testing to be carried out in order to find the perfect setup. With top 200mm driver, Kyle Branson making an appearance for the first time this season and the presence of the top Irish drivers would make it difficult for the usual top 10 to be sure of a main final qualifying position and so the pressure to perform was considerably increased.

Continue reading the report here


October 1, 2009

Chris Steele wins Final 200mm round in Ireland

Chris Steele wins Final 200mm round in Ireland

The eighth and final round of the Irish 1:10 200mm National Championships took place at the Ballymoney track in Northern Ireland over the weekend where Chris Steele took his Murnan Modified powered Kyosho to his 6th win of the season. Having already secured the 2009 title Steele continued his domination despite the welcomed return to racing of Mark Gilliland after an abscence of almost a year. Securing pole over Gilliland, Steele converted TQ honours in to victory to finish of the season in perfect style while Gilliland and the only other race winner of the championship, Chris Lawlor, completed the podium.  In the overall championship standings, with a drivers best 5 of the 8 rounds to count, it was Lawlor who took second with Darren Gibb third to make it an all Kyosho Top 3.

Click here to see the series podium


September 30, 2009

Jilles Groskamp confirmed at Team Orion

Jilles Groskamp confirmed at Team Orion

Team Orion have officially announced what we’ve known for a few months, that newly crowned European Champion and double ETS Series title winner Jilles Groskamp has joined the staff at Team Orion Asia. Now based in Thailand, Groskamp will support the research and development team of Team Orion and Team Orion Asia and will immediately begin using the ABI/CRF/Alpha engines from Team Orion in on-road 1/10 GP and 1/8 GP with Shepherd cars, a deal we announced a few weeks ago, and in 1/8 Buggy with Tamiya.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]


September 30, 2009

Caipang wins KSA National Race 2009

Caipang wins KSA National Race 2009

The 3rd Annual Ramadan National race took place in Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last weekend. The electric touring car race saw Alessandro Caipang Jr take the top qualifying spot with his Speedpassion powered Serpent S400. The finals went Alessandro’s way as well and he could win from the Tamiya pairing of Rolando Binas and Mike Messina.


September 30, 2009

Trofeo Città di Riccione report

Trofeo Città di Riccione report

Last weekend saw the Trofeo Città di Riccione take place at the Riccione track in Italy and was open to 1/10th scale as well as 1/8th 4wd and Classic chassis’. In the 1/10th scale 200mm class it was Giammaria Antonelli driving an Xray that took the win from Valerio Rossi in 2nd and Maicol Di Felice 3rd. The 1/8th scale 4wd class saw the win go to Massimiliano Bertozzi ahead of Shepherd team mate Massimiliano Mondini, while Dennis Pazzaglini took the final podium spot. The Classic race was won by Motonica driver Massimo Genestreti, in front of DXF driver Roberto Fabbri, while Hermes Campedelli took 3rd.

Click here to see the other podiums


September 30, 2009

Simon Kurzbuch wins final round in Switzerland

Simon Kurzbuch wins final round in Switzerland

The last round of the Swiss Championship took place last weekend in Langenthal in the north of Switzerland. On Friday the track was already very crowded and the organizer prepared the asphalt with 75 liter of CocaCola to improve the grip. Nearly all expert drivers attended this last event, among them also Shepherd driver Marco Müller, who secured himself the Swiss title already in the round before. During qualifying it was young Shepherd driver Simon Kurzbuch who took TQ honors. He already showed his talent during the World championship when he reached the 19th position after qualifying. Marco Müller claimed the 2nd place in the starting grid for the final.

Click here for the rest of the report