Red RC - RC Car News

X-Grip M3 aluminium washer sets

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 08:21 AM PST

Italian X-Grip distributors Mikimodel have announced the release of four M3 countersunk screw washer sets. The washers are machined from high-quality aluminium and they come in several colours including black, orange, bright gold and red. Each set contains six washers that are usable for a range of applications.

Source: Mikimodel [mikimodel.net]

MCD Racing RR5-Max Pro large scale gas buggy kit

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 08:04 AM PST

Following a first teaser image MCD Racing have officially introduced their new RR5-Max Pro large scale gas buggy kit. Based off of the popular RR5, the Max Pro variant includes performance parts such as a Barracuda G performance exhaust, a 1-piece CNC-machined 7075-T6 lightweight aluminium V5 long wheelbase chassis, softer spare A-arms to complement the standard fibre-reinforced items, anodised aluminium shock bodies, gear differentials with planetary gears as well as an improved front chassis stiffener, a CNC-machined engine carrier, a rear aluminium stiffener as well as the new CF Max body shell to match with the long wheelbase chassis. The kit comes without engine and radio gear and it will hit stores very soon.

Source: MCD Racing [mcdracing.com]

Xray Racing Series Germany Rd5 – Report

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 07:30 AM PST

The Arena33 in Andernach played host to the fifth and penultimate round of the Xray Racing Series Germany. A good amount of drivers made their entry for the second appearance of the XRS at the already famous indoor track and following an intensive days of practice, 51 drivers joined the competition. In the Touring Modified class it was Awesomatix’s Max Maechler with the overall win as the battle for the runner-up spot was on between Xray racer Patrick Mueller and Mugen racer Oliver Kaufmann. With lap times nearly identical, it was Mueller who ultimately earned the 2nd spot ahead of Kaufmann.

The Touring Stock class was run using Xray 13.5T hand-out motors and it was once again the most popular class of the weekend. Andreas Weyhoven took the TQ with an advantage of about a second over the couple of Melvin Diekmann and Jacques Libar. But in A-finals Diekmann was able to pass Weyhoven for the victory to take his second XRS win in the Arena33. Finally, Weyhoven came 1st in the third A-main ahead of Libar to secure a 2nd overall in front of Libar.

Touring Stock final results:
1. Melvin Diekmann – Awesomatix
2. Andreas Weyhoven – Awesomatix
3. Jacques Libar – Awesomatix
4. Tobias Hoefflin – Xray
5. Sven Soltau – Xray
6. Frank Hoeschler – Xray
7. Joerg Baldes – Xray
8. Marc Stuebben – Xray
9. Patrick Rebmann – Tamiya
10.Georg von Jeetze – Xray

The Touring 13.5T FWD class, run with WRC rally body shells, offered exciting bumper-to-bumper and door-to-door fights in all the six heats of qualifying and finals. Andreas Weyhoven, quite new in the group of this rising touring car class, captured TQ ahead of local hero Tobias Baumbach and Harald Schmittgen. This was also the ranking of the 1st and 2nd spot after the first main with Maximilian Rheinard in 3rd place. In the second main however things went wrong for Weyhoven who finished only 5th. Instead, Baumbach drove to victory followed by Schmittgen and Andreas Jacob. A tough fight for the overall victory was expected for the third leg. This time Weyhoven took advantage from his pole position and lead the field from the tone with Baumbach closely at his tail until the very last lap when his lost second position to Rheinard.

Touring FWD final results:
1. Andreas Weyhoven – VBC Racing
2. Tobias Baumbach – Yokomo
3. Maximilian Rheinard – VBC Racing
4. Harald Schmittgen – VBC Racing
5. Andreas Jacob – VBC Racing
6. Laurent Libar – Awesomatix
7. Thomas Heuer – HR
8. Bianca Schmittgen – VBC Racing
9. Ruediger Hepp – Xray
10.Andre Klink – Awesomatix

Jacques Libar from Luxembourg dominated the Formula class with the TQ and the overall victory after three wins in the mains. Although the 2nd position in this all-Xray class was a clear affair for Jan Bohlen. While Daniel Schober finished 3rd in the first main race, Davide Carbone from Italy relegated Schober to 4th in the finals two and three to catch the final spot on the podium.

Formula 21.5T final results:
1. Jacques Libar – Xray
2 Jan Bohlen – Xray
3. Davide Carbone – Xray
4. Daniel Schober – Xray
5. Henri Mannes – Xray
6. Eric Champion-Rieger – Xray

Bernd Wiesenberger was in a class of his own in the 1/12th 13.5T Stock category. With a third win in a row he left now chances for the other competitors and so Alexander Seitter pushed his car to a 2nd spot in qualifying and managed to capture the runner-up spot on the podium as well with Michael Holla in 3rd.

1/12 Stock final results:
1. Bernd Wiesenberger – CRC
2. Alexander Seitter – Xray
3. Michael Holla – CRC
4. David Ranft – Project Godspeed
5. David Streb – Xray

The developing class of 1/12th GT, run with 17.5T motors, attracted five entries this time. Tobias Schuster was the man to beat again and he brought home his third win from Jörg Mayers 2nd and Raymond Libar 3rd. Bertram Kessler in 4th and 10-years old Jody Müller rounded out the all-Xray top 5.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

Schumacher Indoor Masters Rd6 – Report

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 07:18 AM PST

This past weekend was the sixth round of the Worksop Series, there was once again a great entry of 14 heats of drivers, this was across the three classes of 2WD, 4WD and a vintage buggy class. As always it was round by round qualifying as the racing format, with the best two results from four rounds of qualifying counting towards the final position. Qualifying in 2WD was dominated by Craig Collinson who took TQ in three out of four rounds, so therefore he would line up on pole.

In 4WD it was Steven Pierce who was on form taking three out of the four rounds of qualifying, so he would line up on pole. In the Vintage class it was Mitch Fiddling who would try his hand at using his Dad’s car in a couple of rounds of qualifying and would take pole, there were a couple of drivers that had a stand in driver throughout the day, so we allowed this as it was taken in great fun by all drivers.

2WD Buggy final results:
1. James Hart – Schumacher
2. James Helliwell – Xray
3. Karl Marsden – Kyosho
4. Eugene Galley – Schumacher
5. Mitchell Fiddling – Schumacher
6. Craig Collinson – Team C
7. Edward Callan – Team Associated
8. Ben Jemison – Schumacher
9. Matthew Thompson – Kyosho
10.Ben Smith – Schumacher
11.Philip Carrick – Yokomo

4WD Buggy final results:
1. Steven Pierce – Xray
2. Mitchell Fiddling – Schumacher
3. Edward Callan – Team Associated
4. Karl Marsden – Kyosho
5. Mitchell Booth – Tekno
6. James Helliwell – Xray
7. James Hart – Schumacher
8. Daniel Austin – Tekno
9. Philip Carrick – Yokomo
10.Craig Collinson – Team C
11.Richard Coates – Schumacher

Vintage final results:
1. Phil Barlow
2. Lee Broadhurst
3. Mark Hazelden
4. Chris Slater
5. Sam Hunt
6. Richard Johnson
7. Dave Fiddling

With the result, young Mitchell Fiddling, based on results at the weekend, it means he has already wrapped up the overall 2WD championship with one round still remaining. Some superb results throughout the series and thoroughly well deserved drives by Mitchell has given him this fantastic result. Both the 4WD and Vintage championships are still all to play for between several drivers. The final round of the series is on Sunday 18th March, there are very few spaces remaining in all classes.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

2017/18 WBC Series Rd3 – Report

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 06:39 AM PST

The third round of the 2017/18 WBC Series was hosted by the Boras Miniracing Klubb and held in Viskafors, Sweden on a mixed track that offered both tight and technical sections as well as high speed sweepers. Saturday was 2WD day and in the mains it was Team Associated’s Jesper Rasmussen who had found a good pace and brought home wins in the opening two A-mains to snatch the overall victory early. Wilhelm Skjöldebrand (Team Associated) came in 2nd from Niclas Mansson, who grabbed the final podium spot from Alexander Landen (Xray) on the 4th spot.

The 4WD portion of the race was held on Sunday. In the opening A-main Elias Johansson would bring home the win some 2.5 seconds in front of Alexander Landen while P2 starter and eventual race leader, Nille, suffered a DNF following a crash. In the second leg Nille was able to win after battling with TQ holder Wilhelm for some time. Alexander was chasing down Elias in 4th place when Elias flipped his car going into a jump-fence. Alexander hit him and got stuck at the top of the jump and had to let almost the whole field pass before he could get marshalled and rejoined in 9th place. Nevertheless Alexander was able to work his way back up to 5th place in the second round. This meant that there were four drivers would be able to take the overall going into final A-main. Wilhelm was able to capitalise on the TQ spot and sailed off to a comfortable win while everybody else behind him was battling it out. Alexander was able to climb up the order and was battling for the 2nd place with Nille and Elias, came together and Alexander got past and finished 2nd in this round as well. This meant Wilhelm Skjöldebrand (Team Associated) brought home the overall in 4WD from Elias Johansson (Team Associated) 2nd and Alexander Landén (Xray) 3rd.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

Ethan Lefebvre wins at Thornhill Spring Series Rd1

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 06:21 AM PST

The opening round of the Thornhill Spring Series was held recently at the facility’s Jr. carpet track and in the 4WD Buggy class it was Xray’s Ethan Lefebvre with the win despite track building duties on Thornhill’s big track that weekend. Lance Myhre (Xray) would come in 2nd from 3rd placed Jason Christie who rounded out an all-Xray podium.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

Essex Winter Series Rd4 – Report

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 05:25 AM PST

The penultimate round of the Essex Winter Series took place this weekend. Despite both the titles being wrapped up at the previous round, Olly Jefferies and Zak Finlay led two quality fields, looking to keep as many wins under their belt as possible. In the Modified class, Schumacher’s Elliott Harper picked up the challenge, taking the fastest time, by just over two seconds, in the opening qualifier. Alexander Hagberg took second for Xray, in front of the Team Associated of Chris Grainger and newly crowned champion Olly Jefferies. Alexander, who since moving to the UK has raced at EWS whenever his hectic world-wide scheduled has allowed, then moved to the top in Q2, one second up on Olly, with Chris and Elliott both within half a second of the Xray driver. An intense fight in the third round saw Alexander just pip Elliott to the top spot by a mere five-hundredths, with Olly half a second back and Chris in fourth. This meant Elliott would need to top the last qualifier in order to deny Alexander his first EWS pole position, however the Swedish driver was firmly into his rhythm, and set the best time of qualifying, in front of Olly, Elliott and Chris, to ensure he would line up on pole for the single leg A Final. Elliott would start second, with Olly third and Chris in fourth, and Yokomo’s Harley Eldridge continuing her impressive run with another top-five starting position, tied on points with the Team Associated of Alan Bickerstaff.

Alexander led the A-final off, and quickly established a lead over the field, showing that his pace wasn’t resigned just to qualifying mode. Behind, Olly shadowed Elliott for the opening laps, until the Schumacher driver ran wide at one of the fast corners. This allowed Olly alongside and, at the next corner the two cars touched, resulting in Olly facing the wrong way and Elliott having to wait for him to recover. This allowed Chris to make up two places in one move, Harley up to a podium position and Alan into fourth. Olly quickly recovered to pass Alan and closed down on Harley. Meanwhile, Elliott made up places but couldn’t pass the Northern Irish driver, allowing Olly to focus on closing down the Yokomo of Harley. Harley did a great job of defending the position, but eventually the skill of the multi-time ETS A-finalist shone through and Olly slipped into third. Elliott eventually passed Alan with a nice move through a fast sweeper, and also set about catching Harley. Out front, Alexander and Chris had lonely races up front, as Alexander became the eighth person to take a win in the Modified class at EWS, with Olly trying to close on Chris but just coming up short, as Elliott got to the rear bumper of Harley on the final lap but was not quite able to make a pass, despite a do-or-die move at the final corner.

Touring Modified final results:
1. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Hobbywing
2. Chris Grainger – Team Associated/Reedy
3. Olly Jefferies – Xray/Hobbywing
4. Harley Eldridge – Yokomo/Maclan
5. Elliott Harper – Schumacher/LRP
6. Alan Bickerstaff – Team Associated/Reedy
7. Stefan Chodzynski – Schumacher/LRP
8. Matt White – Team Associated/Reedy
9. Ollie Payne – Destiny/GForce
10.Aaron Rose – Schumacher/Hobbywing

In the Super Stock class, Chris Grainger surprised the field by registering an entry for the class too, attracting interest to see how the multi-time Modified UK champion would get on against the best stock racers in the country. In case anyone had any doubts whether Chris’ skills would transfer to the slower class, he spent qualifying keeping the newly crowned EWS champion Zak Finlay honest. Whist Chris led every time, it was Zak who came through to take his Xray to a narrow sweep of all four qualifying rounds, with Chris taking his Team Associated to a brace of second places, never more than one second behind Zak. Behind these two, self-christened “EWS bridesmaid” Tony Broad took his privately entered Xray to third on the grid, after a tie on points with fellow Xray privateer Colin Jackson – both with two third-place scores. Lining up fifth on the A Final grid would be the Schumacher of podium finisher last time out Chris Ashton, with the Awesomatix of Ashley Wiffen lining up sixth overall.

Zak led off the A-final, looking to make it four perfect scores from four meetings so far and stay on track for a series white-wash. Chris and Tony gave chase, with Colin dropping off the back slightly, and holding a solid fourth place. Zak was able to control the pace at the front, but knew he couldn’t afford any mistakes as Chris and Tony were within two seconds for most of the race. The pressure on Zak was relieved somewhat as Chris had to then turn his attentions to defending the place from Tony in the second half of the race. Some fantastic driving from both Chris and Tony entertained the crowd and created one of the best battles EWS has seen this season, with Chris just prevailing to hold onto second, two-and-a-half tenths of a second in front of Tony as they crossed the line. The third place finish for Tony was all but good enough to secure second overall in the championship, however, with only a disastrous final round now able to prevent him from taking another Championship Runner-Up position.

Touring Super Stock final results:
1. Zak Finlay – Xray
2. Chris Grainger – Team Associated
3. Tony Broad – Xray
4. Colin Jackson – Xray
5. Ashley Wiffen – Awesomatix
6. Tim Hancock – Xray
7. Chris Ashton – Schumacher
8. Richard King – Awesomatix
9. Adrian Bidewell – Team Associated
10.Luke Hobson – Xray

The series concludes in mid-March, where the podiums will be decided, as will the inaugural Sportsman title in the Super Stock class, which sees a battle of “old versus young” as EWS’s resident DJ and stand-in announcer Mark “Dougal” Caton leading the standings over Paul Issacs, Barry Hughes and Dan Moorey, with young Oscar King sitting in fifth after being the second-best Sportsman at Round 4.

Source: EWS [ewsevents.co.uk]

Tobias Hepp teams up with Serpent

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 05:14 AM PST

Serpent have announced the signing of German 1/8th nitro on-road frontrunner, Tobias Hepp. The multiple “B” European Championship finalist and 2008 European Junior Champion will be racing Serpent’s 988 1/8th platform at all major races in Germany, at select ENS events and he has the following to say about the deal:

First of all, I want to thank Team Serpent for this opportunity and Im proud to back in the Team after 8 years. Im looking forward to working with the Team and I can‘t wait to race with my new Viper 988 car. See you on the track soon.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

2018 Keilor Invitational – Report

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 03:56 AM PST

The 2018 Keilor Invitational, Australia’s outdoor equivalent of the Reedy Race in the US, was held at the Keilor club in Melbourne, Australia. Racers battle it out in over five heats of 2WD and five heats of 4WD for the title of champion and unique to this event is that an invite class is also held for the popular 17.5T class while open classes allow racers to compete for direct invitations to the 2019 event. A junior class is also offered for the under 16 racers in the very strong junior scene. As always the club created a brand new layout for the event, with the 2018 track being very fast and flowing with lots of undulations. This created spectacular high speed freight train racing which required patience and aggression. Mother nature threw typical Melbourne changeable weather at the track, with everything from hot sun to wind and rain, but the track grooved up spectacularly throughout and kept racers on their toes choosing the correct tyre. Racers travelled from around the country for the event, with over 120 entries received.

Multiple worlds A-finalist Kyle McBride was the hot favourite for this event, and started strongly holding the overnight lead after the 2WD Invite races. Big surprise of the 2WD day was Lachlan Munday, the 12-years old taking a heat win and several top 3 places to finish only two points behind Kyle with his father “Old Man Munday” Ray one point further back. The 4WD day saw Ray claw back the three points to Kyle, with the two racers tied on points at the end of the event. By virtue of one more heat win than Ray, Kyle took the title for the 2nd time from Ray with Lachlan Munday finishing a popular 3rd after tieing with Cameron Zammit, who made a big comeback on 4WD day after some bad luck on day one.

The Stock field was also deep with current and past national champs and state title holders in attendance. But it was Mathew Parsey from the Sunshine Coast in QLD who laid down the law on 2WD day, pulling out an impressive lead to put himself in a virtually unbeatable position after day one. Day two in 4WD and locals Rob Jones and Ben Howard scored the best results, but Parseys lead was too big and he took the title from Ben Howard, local Gary Carvajal a popular 3rd after consistent results in both classes.

In the Modified Open classes qualifying was all about Jordan Isergin, the 13-years old rising star from Keilor took a clean sweep of qualifying in both classes to claim double TQ from Jon Philpot. In the 2WD final Isergin cleared out to take the win and seal his place in the 2019 Invite class, Philpot in 2nd and a big effort from Sam Savage to finish 3rd, racing a homebuilt 2WD converted Tekno.

In the 4WD final, Isergin bolted to a lead but had some technical issues allowing Philpot to the lead, chased hard by another fast youngster Carter Sims. In the end Philpot took the win to also get his spot in the 2019 Invite class, Sims finishing 2nd and Tasmanian Callum Mitchell rounding out the podium.

In 2WD Stock Open, Luke Chmielewski took TQ from Callum Mitchell and Drew Robson. Robson got ahead early in the final, but Luke reclaimed the lead on lap 4 and didn’t look back for the rest of the 7-minute main, taking the win from Robson and in 3rd place was another local junior Nathan Facciol, racing in his first major event since “graduating” from the Junior class.

In 4WD Nathan Krohn took TQ from Chmielewski and Facciol, and while they finished in qualifying order it was a very close final with all three leading at one stage and all three separated by only three seconds after seven minutes.

The Victorian racing scene has focussed a lot on junior racers in the past few years, and the hard work is paying off with strong fields of juniors at each event and a number of fast kids now running in the open classes. For this event twelve juniors raced hard, with the added bonus of meeting Aussie superstar Kyle McBride and getting a special prize of a wheel signed by the worlds best at the Reedy Race in January. The winner received a body which Ty Tessman used on his 4WD Xray at the Reedy Race. In qualifying it was a tie between Camden Camilleri and Brian Lawrence, TQ to Camden on tiebreak with Claude Camilleri 3rd. A big crash shortly into the final saw Camden drop down the order, leaving brother Claude to lead until lap 8 when Brian Lawrence took the lead and pulled out to take a well deserved 10-seconds win. Camden fought back to 2nd from Rob Holliday and Claude in 4th. Special mention to Shelby Bloss in 5th, a young lady who has been impressing people not only with her attitude and hard work but also her ability to sell raffle tickets.

Thanks to Ray Munday for the report. Images: Ben Howard

Fenix lightweight differential gears

Posted: 13 Feb 2018 03:31 AM PST

Fenix have introduced lightened ring gears for their pan car gear differentials. The parts come in handy in all low-stress applications where less rotating mass is beneficial, such as Formula, 1S and Oval racing, and they are a direct fit on Fenix’s gear differentials.

Source: Fenix [fenix-racing.com]