Top British gas driver Gareth Bell has been confirmed as a GRP driver for the 2007 season, where not only will he race the Italian foam but will help in the development of the companies products. Additionally Gareth, who forms a team with his mechanic and brother Martyn, will run the GRP made Falcon range of engines in both the 1/8th and 1/10th 200mm classes in which Gareth runs the Mugen chassis’.
Source: Mirage [mirageracing.com]
Last weekend saw the GRP Dirt Challenge race take place at the Deerdale Off Road club with 110 entries split between buggy and truggy. In the buggy class it was Bruce Thompson that took the pole position ahead of Kevin Brunsden and Simon Smith, whilst in the truggy class it was Kevin Brunsden that took to the TQ spot ahead of James Helliwell and Bruce Knight in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
In buggy Simon Smith took the early lead and battled with Bruce until the first round of pitsops. Kevin Brunsden had a terrible start with an engine cut and he was chasing back through the field. Some frantic racing and about 10 minutes later Kevin had moved into the lead and took the chequered flag from Simon Smith and Bruce Thompson.
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RCMag.com have some nice pictures from the all new Pro version of the HobbyTech STR8 1/8th scale gas off road buggy. We first showed you the standard version in February in our off road round up from the Nurnberg Toy Fair and werent very impressed with it, but the Pro version does look good and loses that OEM buggy look and feel that the non Pro version has.
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Team Losi have announced the release of their new starter box for their 8ight and 8T cars that has been designed to only work with these two platforms. Unlike a conventional starter, the 8ight Starter Box has no positioning pegs, which means no measuring or major assembly required like on most other starter box on the market.
In less than 10 seconds you can transform the starter box to work on either the 8IGHT Competition Buggy or the 8IGHT-T Truggy Race roller. Simply push a button on the front chassis brace location and it will telescope out and then rotate the rear swivel pegs to make the chassis platform long and it will accommodate the 8IGHT-T Truggy Race Roller chassis. Now perform the opposite steps and the starter box will fit the 8IGHT Competition Buggy.
Source: Team Losi [teamlosi.com]
French engine specialists JP Racing are showing this new patented 19x7x6mm front bearing for Novarossi based off road engines on their site. The new bearing features 2 dirt protector seals to stop all dust and grit getting into the engine whilst the seal caused by this new structure also aids the tuning consistency of the engine while still keeping the optimal freedom of rotation for the crankshaft.
Source: JP Racing [jpracing.com]
Serpent are reporting on their 1-2 finish at last weekends rain interrupted first round of the Irish 1/8th scale National Championships held in Raheny, just outside Dublin City. Serpent 960 racer Clive Connolly claimed the top spot in qualifying, but as the race was partially wet a number of drivers including Connolly became victims of radio gear trouble forcing them out of the race. This allowed the Serpent pairing of Dean Lacey and Darragh Fox to the field with Lacey leading until some radio problems close to the end of the race allowed Fox to take the lead and eventually the win, followed home by Lacey in 2nd with Mario Morelli in 3rd.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
We received notification that the organisers of this summers 1/8th Off road EFRA GP in Norway, have opened the event for entries. The event will take place on the 18th – 19th of August this year and will be run by the Grenland Modellbilklubb on their track in Skien, 2 hours south of Oslo. It should be a good event and has already, even at this early stage, attracted over 35 entrants with some top names among those.
Check out their website here for more information.
Just in case you didnt have enough specialised tools in your tool box, along comes MIP with this Tire Scuffer. What it does is roughen up the edges of your rubber tires enabling the glue to bond better with the wheel and therefore preventing seperation in this area when you least want it. Yours for $20, available now.
Source: RCCA [radiocontrolzone.net]
