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October 31, 2023

Matsukura & Balestri top seeding rounds 2 & 3

With three rounds of seeding complete at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, three different drivers have topped the times with Infinity’s Dario Balestri the latest driver to top the times in Japan. Toni Gruber kicked off the first day that counts for anything when he took the opening timed practice but an hour & a half later Naoto Matsukura took the round with an even faster 3-consecutive laps. With ranking points from the drivers best two of four rounds determining the heat groups for qualifying tomorrow, Balestri threw his hat in the ring for the Top Seed honours when he went fastest in the third round, track conditions slowing due to the hotter midday temperatures. The latest round would also see reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata have his run so far as he posted a P3 run behind Mugen Seiki team-mate Simon Kurzbuch who was very lucky to survive a driver error during the 7-minute practice.

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October 31, 2023

WMH Racing motor tuning base

Donathen RC has announced the latest WMH Racing product to be added to the range, their base for motor tuning devices. This base is designed to be used with either the Load Master or Motor Test Stand and the Tunalyzer, Motolyser, or motor analyzer. When using the base it allows a great viewing angle of the motor tuning device, placement of your motor holding device, and even a parts tray for your test parts. A compact and robust design for traveling, it is available in 17 colours and has a handy parts tray for rotors, screws, shims etc.

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October 31, 2023

Gruber tops first time practice in Japan

Toni Gruber has topped the opening round of timed practice at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan. The Capricorn driver’s fastest 3-consecutive laps around the Infinity International RC Speedway gave him a 3/10th of a second advantage over his closest rival, the same margin of time then covering the next 7-drivers. Better known for his electric onroad exploits, it was Hayato Ishioka who was second fastest driving a Mugen with factory Mugen driver Simon Kurzbuch completing the Top 3. The best represented brand at this year’s World Championship with over half the field running the Japanese manufacturer’s car, it was Naoto Matsukura who lead their charge with P4 for the first of today’s scheduled four seeding rounds. Just 1/100th off, Serpent young gun Andrea Catanzani, who was up in the second last year to go on track, kick his day off with a P5 ahead of Dario Balestri and reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata.

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October 31, 2023

Team Associated RC10CC Classic Clear Edition Kit

Having teased us with pictures of a car for its SEMA Show display, Team Associated is now offering the opportunity to own the car that changed RC off-road racing forever in a crystal-clear collector’s edition! Having shown the SLA prototype race cars for years and how they use them for parts fit and testing, the iconic US manufacturer’s goal with the RC10CC is to provide you with the same look and feel as our SLA prototype display vehicles but more cost-effective and practical. They have taken the RC10 Classic and shot many of the molds in polycarbonate clear. While it is stronger than SLA and could be driven, it was manufactured as a display piece for your collection. The polycarbonate clear components will only be available in the kit which is due for release in December. They will not be sold individually.

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October 30, 2023

4 busy days of practice conclude at 1:8 Onroad Worlds

After four busy days of practice for drivers at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan, things are finally set to get official tomorrow with four planned rounds of seeding practice to determine the heat order for qualifying. Summing up how practice had gone, many of the international drivers getting their first taste of the Infinity International RC Speedway on Friday, it was mixed reports from some of the leading title contenders. The driver they all will be trying to beat over the next 5-days, reigning Champion Shoki Takahata was looking content and relaxed and reported being pleased with how he was working through his program. With no official timing being published, icon of the sport Atsushi Hara highlighted the Mugen driver as a driver looking strong over the four days. A 1:8 Onroad Worlds podium finisher himself, Hara felt Takahata’s new for 2023 team-mate Simon Kurzbuch was also looking strong. From his own team, Infinity, he thought Dario Balestri was leading their charge with the 2017 World Champion in confident mood when we caught up with him at the completion of the final practice.

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October 30, 2023

Bernadzik is Australian Champion

Alex Bernadzik is the new Australian 1:8 Nitro Buggy National Champion. Racing at the MORBC track, the venue of the 2018 1:8 Buggy World Championship, the Team Associated driver took the RCRA title with victory in the 1-hour final of the SpeedyRC supported championship. In qualifying it would be Kyle Ward-McBride who secured the TQ after he went fastest in 3 of the 5 rounds at the same track where he did his National Championship double in 2015. With one TQ run a piece, Bernadzik and Aaron Dexter completed the Top 3 in the qualification ranking, 74 drivers taking part in this year’s Nationals. While Ward-McBride would win his Semi from Dexter, an unlucky run for Bernadzik would see him finish 5th putting him 12th on the 15 car grid for the final. Coming from the back it wouldn’t take Bernadzik long to get to the front and with Ward-McBride retiring after 12-minutes, he cruised to the win by a comfortable 4-lap margin over the Tekno of Caleb Noble and Sworkz of Christian Wolhuter. In eBuggy, Noble would reverse that result taking the title from the Queensland driver with Jayden Edmunds’ Team Associated third.

Source: RC Race Media [Facebook]

October 30, 2023

Payne defends double Masters of Foam titles

Ollie Payne has successfully defended both his Masters of Foam titles, making it back to back wins at the annual Belgian event in both Mod and 13.5 Stock. In Friday and Saturday’s qualifying the Schumacher driver claimed overall TQ honours for both classes and was able to carry that form into Sunday’s triple finals. With Xray’s Alexander Hagberg lining up P2 on the grid, Payne opened Mod with a win but A2 ended in a DNF with Hagberg taking the win to set the stage for an A3 showdown between the pair. From the front however Payne lead from start to finish to win by 2-seconds from Hagberg who claimed the second step on the overall podium. Second behind Hagberg in A2 and with a P4 in A3 it would give Stuart Cartwright third overall, the Schumacher driver winning out on a tie break with Markus Mobers. In 13.5 Payne produced a clean sweep winning all three A-Mains for the overall title ahead of the similar Eclipse of Morgan Williams with Max Machler’s Awesomatix completing the podium.

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October 29, 2023

‘Without knowledge you can drive but you can’t win’ – Jilles Groskamp

It’s easy to think that the top drivers in the World have a special ability to just show up at an event and put their car on the track and be quick straight off the bat. While there are one or two exceptions who do possess this super power, for the most part the success comes from combining that natural talent with a lot of hard work, that mostly goes unnoticed, between races. Racing at the top level is relentless because when you are not putting in the work your rivals are, and they are making marginal gains that combined can be the difference between them winning or you not. One driver who has always stood out as one of the hardest working drivers in our sport is Jilles Groskamp. Even back in the dominant years of the Tamiya TRF team in electric touring car it was Jilles who was doing most of the ground work for the entire team. That effort was justly rewarded when he became the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion at his home track of Heemstede. Now at the age of 43, Jilles admitting himself ‘I’m not the youngest guy anymore’, putting in the work is even more vital than before and through that comes knowledge which he points out ‘without knowledge you can drive but you can’t win’.

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