Mugen have officially announced the release of their new MTX4-R, an updated version of the car that won last years 1/10th 200mm World Championships in Brisbane. The ‘R’ is more of a pro version than a new car and mostly comes with optionals as standard, as opposed to new parts or geometry. A full list of those new included parts can be found below.
Click here to see more pictures and updated parts list… content
German Thunder Tiger racer Joern Neumann has won the Pro Line Indoor Challenge race after a strong race in 2nd position, which became the first position after then leader Scott Hughes had a mechanical failure just near the end of the race dropping him down the field and allowing Neumann take the lead. Second position went to Portugese Kyosho racer Miguel Matias with US racer Greg Dagani, driving a HoBao buggy in 3rd. Scott Hughes eventually finished 4th while pole position sitter Ryan Maifield had a difficult race finishing 5 laps down in 8th position and didnt finish the event.
In the truggy class it was a bit of an upset as Kyosho racer Linus Thern from Sweden took the win despite a late chase by HoBao racer Graham Alsop who finished only 3 seconds down on Thern after a mistake in the closing stages, Xray driver Lee Taylor came home in 3rd. Pole position man Scott Hughes was out after 21 minutes having broken a lower wishbone coming out of the pitlane while 2nd placed qualifier Joern Neumann had his engine stop before the start of the race, dropping him down the order.
Click here to see the final results… content
Last weekend saw the opening round of the 2007 Dutch Nationals take place at the very fast Rucphen track in the south west of the country. The event played host to the 2 Dutch National 1/8th scale classes, the NK class for the top guys and the Nomac class for slightly slower drivers or newcomers. In the NK class it was local driver and Serpent racer John Ermen that took the win ahead of another local driver and top international, Rick Vrielijnck racing for Mugen in what was a blisteringly quick event, with lap times 7 tenths of a second a lap faster than last year. In third position was Kyosho factory racer, Ilia van Gastel from Belgium, who having not received his Team Orion .21 motors in time ran the qualifying with Picco IDM motors and the main final with a Sirio.
In the Nomac class it was young Miguel Hereijgers that took the class win driving a Serpent 960, with Motonica racer and Red RC sponsor, Michel Nijman from The-Border in 2nd spot while 3rd place went to Mugen racer Arie Mante.
Click here to see the NK results in full Nomac class podium… content
Darkside Motorsports have announced that they are selling their 1/10th scale Oval Setup wheels, which like the Team Tamale wheels, offer the option of adjusting the virtual tire diameter by rotating the Octagonal wheel to the specified measurement.
They simulate eight different tire diameters from 2.31″ to 2.10″. Use these wheels to measure and adjust chassis ride height, track width, wheel offsets and stagger. When matched with a set of tweak scales, weight distribution can also be simulated and slight changes can be modeled with ease. The wheels are matched such that wheelbase dimensions can also be easily measured. Simply put, they provide a foundation for repeatable measurements and set-ups. Each set comes with 2 front wheels, 2 rear wheels and a re-usable storage case.
Source: Darkside Motorsports [darksidems.com]
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Our Australian friends, Rube Dude, have sent us this video from the recent AWJ Nitro Challenge that shows some truggy action from Race 1, Heat 2. This is where Ari Bakla broke the track record the first time and then came back the next day and broke that again. Check it out above.
Source: RubeDude [rubeduderc.com]
Japanese company, Team Azarashi, have announced their new lightweight rear buggy wing that will be available for sale in May. 20% lighter than the standard version this new wing will aid those racers that are looking for the smallest fraction of seconds to improve their performance. This product is sold as a set, that contains both the round-type (above) for technical courses and a straight type for high-speed courses.
Source: Team Azarashi [team-azarashi.com]
Qualifying is over for this years Proline Indoor Challenge, held at the Harper Adams agricultural college in the UK. The Team Associated RC8 which proved very competitive following timed practice yesterday has gone on to take the overall TQ at the event, in the hand of top US off roader Ryan Maifield. Equal in score with Mugen racer Scott Hughes, Ryan took the TQ thanks to an extra dropped 2nd place to break the difference of 2 wins and a second each. That leaves Hughes in 2nd position with another RC8 of current World 2wd Champion Neil Cragg in 3rd just in front of yet another RC8, this time belonging to US racer Richard Saxton.
In the truggy class it is Mugen racer Scott Hughes that takes the top spot for tomorrow with young German racer Joern Neumann, also driving Mugen in the truggy class, in 2nd spot with HoBao racer Graham Alsop taking the 3rd qualifying spot in front of Linus Thern driving a Kyosho.
Click here to see the full results… content
Today saw the finals run at the Spanish EFRA GP in Madrid, where the weather was playing a factor all weekend, with cold temperatures and rain causing distruptions to all racers and todays weather was not much better, with rain dispersed by sunny spells. With so many drivers far down the order after qualifiying there was a lot of action in the lower finals with Carlos Peracho, Teemu Leino and Darren Johnson, some of the drivers making their way up into the A-final from lower qualifying spots. The 45 minute main final was disrupted once more by rain showers, which made tire choice vital, and the one who got it right was eventual winner Darren Johnson, racing a Team Magic G4S, who won ahead of 2nd placed Xray driver Teemu Leino of Finland by 5 laps with 2nd placed qualifier Rafael Ortiz eventually claiming the final podium spot in 3rd, one lap down on Leino.
More pictures to follow.
Click here for the final top 10 results and a video from the event… content
