June 23, 2009

Kyle Branson takes BRCA 200mm Nats Rd4

Kyle Branson takes BRCA 200mm Nats Rd4

Round 4 of the BRCA 1/10th scale 200mm championships was run at the weekend at the Brooklands track. On Saturday the weather was dry all day but overcast, but on Sunday the weather was better with some sun around and not much cloud, however over the day it became a little overcast. In the first round of qualifying, current Champion Kyle Brandon TQ’d and held that until the last qualifier where he further improved and ended up TQ’ing by 5 seconds in front of Simon Wood. In the final Kyle got off to a good start, led the whole race and managed to win after 30 minutes ahead of Simon Wood, with Joe Kerry completing the top 3 and making it an all Serpent podium.

Click here to see the winning car


June 23, 2009

Grainger & Bowden take BRCA TC Rd2

Grainger & Bowden take BRCA TC Rd2

The second round of the BRCA National Championship saw the series head to the beautiful Halifax facility in the north of England. Chris Grainger dominated early qualifying with his GM powered Schumacher Mi4 choosing his new tires at the correct moments to get a perfect 3 TQ’s from the 5 qualifying rounds over the weekend with Rd1 winner Andy Moore with his Hot Bodies Cyclone 2nd and Xray driver Elliot Harper in 3rd. Pro Stock qualifying went the way on Jon Bowden in front of Lee Price and Byron Humphries. The first mod leg saw a flag to flag victory for Grainger but the second didn’t quite go to plan. Chris got dirt on his tyres before the delayed start, allowing Andy Moore to pip him on the first lap and take the victory on his fresh tyres compared to Chris’s used ones. With the tyres now all being equal going in the last leg Chris dominated the run taking a comfortable victory to secure the overall win in front of Moore, with Harper taking 3rd. The Pro stock was dominated by Bowden, winning all 3 rounds, with Lee Price a consistent 2nd, while Luke Thompson claimed 3rd spot.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]


June 23, 2009

Pedro Rombouts wins Rd3 Dutch 10th Nats

Pedro Rombouts wins Rd3 Dutch 10th Nats

Round 3 of the Dutch 1/10th scale Nationals was run last weekend at the tight and technical Gouda track in the south of the country. Despite it being dry all weekend, a lot of drivers found it a challenge to get their setup right and so after qualifying it was Maarten van Lierop on pole in the NK class ahead of Arco de Jong in 2nd, Pedro Rombouts 3rd and Sander Borghoff in 4th, while Euro B podium finisher Daan Jacobs could only manage 5th. In the Nomac class Marc Meijer took the pole position in front Michael Behnert and in the promo class Dennis van Lammeren TQ’d ahead of Luigi Pili. The NK main final was missing Daan Jacobs who won his semi final but failed to pass post race scrutiny with a too wide car. In the main race itself there were some good battles throughout the field but in the end Pedro Rombouts could take his 2nd National win in front of van Lierop, who made some mistakes in the race, with Bas Geurds, who was on a 6 minute pit strategy moving up from 9th on the grid to take 3rd at the end. The Nomac class was won by Michael Behnert in front of Davy Geraets and Rik Meijeren, while in the Promo class Dennis could win from Alfred van Dijk and Dick Doom.

Click here to see the other podiums


June 22, 2009

BMI Racing DB12RR LiPo Edition

BMI Racing DB12RR LiPo Edition

As the use of LiPo batteries in the 1/12th scale class has been gaining ground and sanctioning bodies and manufacturers have begun standardizing cell formats, BMI Racing have finally developed a new version of the DB12RR for this class. The LiPo edition features a lower chassis that has been optimized to locate and retain a 4000mah 3.7v LiPo pack.  The chassis has had the slot dimensions adjusted to match the pack as well as pocketing of the chassis to lower the pack for optimum center of gravity.

Click here to see the chassis plates


June 22, 2009

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th Rd4

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th Rd4

Round 4 of the BRCA championship was held at the Mendip circuit, just outside the seaside resort of Weston Super Mare. The weather was dry both days with overcast sky’s and a lot of drivers arrived early Saturday morning to start testing to find the perfect setup. Many drivers use the first couple of hours to run-in and set up engines which then allows the track to rubber in, making chassis setup work that little easier in the afternoon. The early indication was that Mark Green would again be the man to beat due to his consistent driving style every lap. Once the grip was good and black line started to form, it was apparent that Mark was struggling for a setup with his quickest lap time being 15.5 secs, but this was consistent. The other Championship contenders were soon starting to push this time hard and with fine tuning of chassis setup’s, Neil Diver (Velox) and Pete Hastings (Serpent) produced lap times of 15.3 and 15.2 respectively and now needed to work on consistency to have any chance to beating Mark Green in qualification. Andy North was testing geometry changes to the rear of his Mugen in the quest to find more steering and corner speed. This was beginning to work well and with lap times of 15.4 secs seemed to suggest that we are heading in the right direction.

Click here to continue reading the report


June 22, 2009

Xray T2R Pro FRP Chassis & Upper Decks

Xray T2R Pro FRP Chassis & Upper Decks

Xray have released this set of CNC-machined FRP chassis and front/rear upper decks for the T2R Pro. The main advantage of the FRP material is its flex allowance. Due to the flex, the chassis and top decks create more traction and stability on low-traction asphalt tracks compared to standard graphite material. Knowing that every small detail impacts the handling and performance of a high-performance car, Xray CNC-machines every chassis in-house using the most modern German milling machines. fully robotically-operated and controlled to ensure that every chassis meets the tightest manufacturing tolerances. Suitable for the T2‘009, T2‘008 and T2R Pro.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]


June 21, 2009

Team Magic G4RS 09 of Raimondo Gilletti

Team Magic G4II of Raimondo Gilleti

Back in February we brought you the first photographs of the new G4RS 2009 edition (formerly dubbed the G4II) from Team Magic, when we were shown Dario Balestri’s prototype car at the Toy Fair in Germany. Last month we showed you a video of that car testing at Gubbio, host of this years European Championship, at the hands of the double European Champion and now we have photos of the final G4RS 09 of Italian TM/Novarossi team driver Raimondo Gilletti. Basically in its production form, the car is very similar to the prototype with the exception of some different materials, such as the plastic front upper suspension brackets, aluminium chassis stiffeners in place of carbon and plastic rear lower suspension brackets. The prototype plastics have of course all been replaced with the final molded versions and overall the car looks complete. The car has some nice touches such as the super small diameter front and rear gear differentials, the low centre of gravity and centralised weight, the large scope for adjustment and the ability to change between a blade or wire type front ant-roll bar. Having been tested extensively by the Italian TM team of Balestri, Gilleti and Mario Spiniello, the car is expected to hit the market at the end of June, 3 weeks before it will attempt to defend its European title.

Click here to see the rest of the photos


June 19, 2009

Christophe Aygon wins French 8th Nats Rd4

Christophe Aygon wins French 8th Nats Rd4

Round 4 of the French 1/8th scale on road Nationals was run last weekend in Limoges, close to the the centre of the country. With the winner of the first 3 rounds, Adrien Bertin busy helping at the Euro ‘B’ Championships in Switzerland, the series would be sure of having a new winner this round. Qualfiying in the Elite class went the way of Serpent/RB driver Anthony Abisset debuting the new 966, followed by Stéphane Bouche, Romain Picard and Laurent Pageneau, while in the National class another Serpent 966 driver topped the time sheets, Arnaud Mathieu, in front of Jérôme Berthelot, Gérald Colinet and Damien Thirion. Following the semi finals, the Elite main final saw Bouche start from 11th having called for a delay. Abisset went off into the lead but on lap 5 came into contact with another car and broke his rim, loosing him a lot of time and dropping him down the order. Romain Picard took over the lead but a better tire strategy from the old guns Christophe Aygon and Serge Christiany saw them take over at the front and claim the win for Serpent and the new 966, with Stéphane Bouche recovering to 3rd by the end. In the National final Arnaud Mathieu sets off at qualifying pace and couldn’t be touched as behind Jérôme Berthelot claimed 2nd and a close battle for 3rd between Damien Thirion and Gérald Colinet is decided on the final corner with Colinet claiming the final podium step by 3 tenths of a second.

Click here for the final results