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Naoto Matsukura has topped the first round of controlled practice at the 1:10 200mm World Championships in Florida.  Making his 200mm race debut at the event, the Infinity drivers was quickest over 3-consecutive laps by almost 2/10ths of a second from former World Champion Meen Vejrak and the reigning champion Dominic Greiner.  Despite yesterday evening’s rain, that forced the final practice to be cut short Matsukura was able to match his pace from yesterday which was the fastest of the day.  The first of four seeding rounds on today’s schedule, behind the Top 3 Tadahiko Sahashi would set the fourth fastest time ahead of Lamberto Collari and a much improved Toni Gruber.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

Naoto Matsukura has topped the first round of controlled practice at the 1:10 200mm World Championships in Florida.  Making his 200mm race debut at the event, the Infinity drivers was quickest over 3-consecutive laps by almost 2/10ths of a second from former World Champion Meen Vejrak and the reigning champion Dominic Greiner.  Despite yesterday evening’s rain, that forced the final practice to be cut short Matsukura was able to match his pace from yesterday which was the fastest of the day.  The first of four seeding rounds on today’s schedule, behind the Top 3 Tadahiko Sahashi would set the fourth fastest time ahead of Lamberto Collari and a much improved Toni Gruber.

‘Not so bad’ was Matsukura’s reaction to topping the times, however the Japanese driver admitted his car was ‘difficult to drive’.  He continued, ‘I don’t know if it is all the car or not or whether the traction is low but I think it is a bit of both.  I would like to get the car more stable for the next one but I will wait to see how the track is doing before deciding what to change’.  The former Electric Touring Car World Champion, a title he won in Florida,  added, ‘yesterday there was more wind on the track but today it is not so bad which makes things much easier’.

Vejrak was pleased with his opening run saying, ‘the car is better than 2-years ago in Gubbio.  I was only 30th or something in controlled practice but now I’m in the Top 10’.  Failing to defend his World title in Gubbio after a difficult start to the Italian event, the Thai driver continued, ‘I drive this track before in 1:8 but with 1:10 it is completely different.  Even since practice has started the track is completely different because of the rain’.  On his car’s performance, the Maxima team driver setting the fastest lap of the round, he said, ‘I need a little more rear grip for better forward traction.  My engine and power are a lot better the Gubbio and for the car I will try a different wing in the next one to see if it helps the rear grip’.

‘So so.  There is a little bit less traction I think because of the rain’, was Greiner’s reaction after CP1.  Picking up a pipe from his pit table, the Serpent driver explained, ‘I spun one time and Naoto hit me and my pipe got smashed.’  He continued, ‘I added more weight to the front of the car which was better but I made another change that was not better so  I will go back to what I had before’.  He concluded, ‘I think the next one we will be better’.

Reporting the traction as ‘different’ today, Infinity driver Sahashi said his car was not really set-up for the lower traction and he having left it unchanged from yesterday he would adjust his set-up for CP2.  Speaking through the translation from Matsukura, like the majority of the drivers, the former 1:8 World Champion said he needs to find more rear end traction.

Off to a strong start to his first attempt at a 1:10 200mm World Championship, Collari summed up the his first controlled practice as ‘good’.  The Italian legend of nitro onroad racing continued, ‘we just made a few adjustments for less traction.  We left the chassis the same and changed the rear diff and the feeling was good’.  Asked how much the traction had changed from yesterday before the rain, he said there was ‘not too much difference but there was a little’.  He concluded, ‘In the evening the track will be back to the same as yesterday’.

Reacting to his Top 6 time, 2017 European Champion Gruber said, ‘the last 3-days of practice was really difficult.  We totally don’t find the set-up for the track.  For the last one yesterday we made changes but because of the rain we could drive.  We decided to test it today and the car works better.  Now it was possible to run 18-second laps’.  Looking to the rest of the day, the factory WRC driver said ‘now we need to get consistency’.  Behind Gruber, reigining 1:8 World Champion Dario Balestri was 7th fastest ahead of JJ Wang, reigning European Champion Teemo Leino and newly crowned ENS Champion Jilles Groskamp.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

The third round of the Arrowmax Cup Singapore was held at the RCMC PA track last weekend. In the Touring Modified class the three A-mains produced a lot of action on the track with ARC’s PY Tang taking the overall win from Yokomo’s Nicholas Lee in 2nd. Xray’s Dominic Quek rounded out the top 3 results after some troubled A-mains.

In the 13.5T Blinky Touring class it was Daryl Thong with the overall TQ thanks to setting a good time in Q2, after having troubles in Q1. A1 then was a pretty challenging final between Daryl Thong and Kamen Koh as the gap throughout the 5 minutes was just about 1 second. However, Daryl managed to have a clean race and take the win. In A2 Daryl managed to run away at the start and maintain a gap of about two seconds over Kamen to the end of the race, again driving another clean final to take the overall victory for the day. Daryl then sat out A3 as Kamen and Sean Lee battled it out for the remaining podium spots. Young Sean showed a tremendous pace in this final as he kept it bumper to bumper for the first half of the final. However a mistake over the curbs in the chicane caused him to go wheels up and slide off into the grass and by the time he recovered, Kamen was well and clear in the lead by about half a lap to which he would hold on to the end of the race to secure 2nd overall.

In the Formula class, Dominic Quek took the overall TQ despite only running a single qualifier as he was focusing on the ISTC class. The finals were a lot more difficult. Dominic had a DNF in A1 due to a technical problem, and rain during A2 postponed the final. At the A2 restart, an incident pushed Quek off the track into the grass, dropping him to the back of the field. However, he managed to close the 11-second gap to the leader and passed him to take the win on the last lap. A3 was thankfully less eventful, as Dominic took the win by 12 seconds. Overall it was Dominic in front of Roy Chong and Andy Tan.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

Traxxas have given the popular Slash 4×4 Ultimate short course truck an overhaul, adding durability, performance and looks. The truck will feature new blue anodised aluminium big bore shocks with a larger oil capacity, an updated metal gear steering servo, new heavy duty driveshafts and suspension arms as well as alloy optionals such as C-hubs, steering knuckles and rear uprights. Also part of the package os the Traxxas Stability Management, a Bluetooth module and telemetry sensors. All that attaches to a new black-colour LCG chassis and is topped off by new wheels and new design ProGraphics bodies.

Key features:
– New High-volume, blue-anodised aluminium GTR shocks
– New High-speed metal gear servo (#2075R)
– New Upgraded Extreme-Duty driveshafts
– New Heavy-duty suspension arms
– Traxxas Stability Management (TSM)
– Performance-optimised low-CG chassis
– TQi 2.4GHz high output radio system with Traxxas Link Wireless Module
– Factory installed telemetry sensors
– Telemetry-ready 5-channel 2.4GHz micro receiver
– ProGraphix painted body
– Blue-anodised 6061-T6 aluminium C-hubs
– Blue-anodised 6061-T6 aluminium steering blocks
– Blue-anodised 6061-T6 aluminium rear hub carriers
– Blue-anodised 6061-T6 aluminium axle nuts
– Adjustable front and rear sway bars
– Included optional extra-stiff sway bar set

Source: Traxxas [traxxas.com]

The 1st annual Fall Brawl was held at Hal’s Hobby Warehouse Raceway in El Paso, Texas over the weekend. Mugen’s Adam Drake went on to TQ and win both the Nitro Buggy and E-Buggy classes with Casey Peck and Ronda Drake rounding out the Nitro Buggy podium for a full Mugen sweep.

Thanks to Adam Drake for the update.

Mauritius recently saw the running the of the joint 2018 Mauritian Championship and Mauritian Cup. Both were held in EP and GP classes such as Electric Touring 10.5T, 1/8th Buggy/Rallygame and 1/8th Brushless Buggy/Rallygame. As for the Championship race it was Jovanni Appasamy (Xray) with the win in the Touring 10.5T category from Danen Conjamalay (Spec-R) in 2nd and Adrien Philippe (Xray) in 3rd. In 1/8th Brushless it was Mosheem Caseem (Xray) with the win from Danen Conjamalay (HoBao) 2nd and Akheale Chinnayya (HoBao) on the 3 spot. The Mauritius Cup was held in three classes with the Touring 10.5T win being snatched by Jovanni Appasamy (Xray) from Serpent driver, Kevin Robert in 2nd and Damien Dardenne (Xray) in 3rd. The 1/8th Buggy/Rallygame class was won by William Tonti (Serpent) from Christophe Cazin (Kyosho) in 2nd and Yannick Mascareigne (Kyosho) in 3rd. Finally in the 1/8th Brushless Buggy/Rallygame class it was William Tonti (Serpent) with the win from Christophe Cazin (Kyosho) 2nd and Mosheem Casseem (Xray) in 3rd.

Thanks to Jovanni Appasamy for the report.

A round of the South German division electric on-road regionals was held at the SLR Ingolstadt club this past weekend. In the competitive 13.5T Touring class it was Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter with the TQ and win for a clean sweep. His Awesomatix teammates Christian Donath and Max Mächler would round out the top 3 in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Source: Awesomatix [awesomatix.com]

HRC Distribution have introduced the new Roapex Rhythm 1/8th buggy and Trigger 1/8th GT tyres. Both are moulded from a soft-compound rubber for exceptional traction in average track conditions. The buggy tyre features a multi-purpose knob tread especially for softer tracks while the on-road tyre sports a scale-looking tread. Both tyres are available on black or black-chrome wheels and in sets of two.

Source: HRC Distribution [hrcdistribution.com]

Yokomo have announced the signing of Hong-Kong-based touring car front runner, Kenrick Fong to their team. The former MTS driver already collected some impressive results at events such as the AOC, the IFMAR Worlds and at several Asia-based cup races, despite for being in the hobby for only a couple of years. Kenrick will be using the forthcoming BD9 at races in Hong Kong, China and all over Asia and he had the following to say:

At first, thanks Tom, Aso and Jackie providing me this opportunity to being a member of the Team Yokomo family. It is a big change in my RC career. In the following time, I will keep racing and promote Yokomo brand with Jackie. Can’t wait for the races coming and see my friends on the track. Once again, thanks Andy Tse and Derek Hung from MTS for giving me support in the previous years since I was young. Thank you very much and see you guys soon.

Source: Yokomo [teamyokomo.com]

The 2018 Halloween Classic was held at The Gate in Ohio over the weekend. In the competitive Formula class it was Capricorn’s Josh Cyrul with the overall TQ, however in the single 6-minute A-main it was Jeff Dayger (CRC) with the win some 1.2s in front of Roche’s Michael Hanulec. Josh Cyrul had to settle for 3rd another 2.5s down.

Source: CRC [teamcrc.com]

Yeah Racing have introduced new titanium turnbuckle sets for the Tamiya TB Evo 7 and M07 kits. The TB Evo 7 specific set includes three M3x22mm and four M3x32mm turnbuckles as well as 14 15mm ball ends while the M07 set includes six M3x18mm and a single M3x105mm link along an assortment of 10mm, 13mm and 15mm ball ends. Using the sets will reduce overall weight while offering improved visual impact and durability.

Source: Yeah Racing [yeahracing.com]

Rain halted the final round of practice at the 1:10 200mm World Championship in Florida.  A heavy shower stopped proceedings at Homestead RC Raceway half way through what was to be the drivers fourth practice of the second official day of the event.  Having also ran 4 rounds of practice yesterday, officially it is Mugen’s Robert Pietsch who has produced the fastest time of practice ahead of reigning World Champion Dominic Greiner and Jesse Davis.  With overnight rain washing away traction built up during the International Practice Days and yesterday’s first round of official practice, today’s times were slower.  After respraying the track with sugar water this morning it was Greiner who was fastest in the first round from 200mm rookie Naoto Matsukura.  The Japanese driver went to the top in the next round ahead of team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi while what was to become the last run of the day for the leading drivers produced an Infinity 1-2-3 led by Lamberto Collari from Matsukura and Sahashi with Greiner fourth.  For the day it was Matsukura’s FP6 time that was the fastest of the day registering a 53.890-seconds 3-consecutive lap time compared Pietsch’s 53.668 from the previous day’s rocket round FP4.

Commenting on his day, Greiner was frustrated to miss out on the fourth run having struggled with his car as the grip came up over the day.  The Serpent driver said, ‘today was very strange.  We had less grip because of the rain overnight (and in the first practice) my car was OK.  I was fastest and it was consistent but over the day the balance changed completely’.  He continued, ‘I had too much steering.  I changed it to make the it more stable in the rear but it got worse.  Now we have rain again when the last practice was going to be important for me as I was going to try a big change.  I’m a little frustrated because my car has oversteer but others in the team with the same set-up have understeer.  I think it’s the practice tyres so we will see tomorrow when everyone is on handout tyres.  It should be the same for everyone tomorrow but the traction is gone again with the rain so it’s going to be a new game’.

At the track where he took his biggest career win, the 2011 1:8 Onroad World title, Pietsch said, ‘yesterday was good but they had to spray the track today and it was different.  In the last run we did, it was almost the same conditions as yesterday but my driving today was not decent’.  Top Qualifier when the 200mm Worlds was last held in the US in 2010, the German hopes organisers have learnt from last night’s overnight rain experience saying, ‘they have some experience of the rain now so I hope they spray earlier because it was not completely dry when we started.  In my opinion they should run one free practice round before starting the controlled practice’.  On his car he said, ‘the car & engine are good so I will keep it the same for tomorrow and see what happens with the track conditions’.

Making his 200mm race debut in Homestead a year on from an impressive 1:8 Onroad debut at the Worlds in France last year when he won Super Pole to qualify into the final, Matsukura was very upbeat about the 200mm class.  The multiple Electric World Champion said, ‘It was first race in 200mm and it’s not bad.  I like it especially because it’s racing on foam tyres’.  After suffering ‘some problems yesterday in the first 3-rounds’ he summed up today’s performance as ‘very good’.  Having tested here last week, excluding him from doing IPD, the Japanese driver said ‘we went to the set-up from last week for today and I had a much better driver feeling but we still need to find more in the set-up.  I need to make a little more stable in the rear and get a little more steering’.  Asked what he thought of the track he replied, ‘It is more Japanese style, I like it.  You have to drive tight and there is a black line that is very important to stay on, because off it there is little grip’.

Not a track he has fond memories of in 1:8, his fourth consecutive title coming to an end here in 2011 when he retired from the Semi Finals, Collari summed up his practice performance as ‘not bad for my first important race in 1:10’.  Having made his 1:10 race debut in the opening round of the Euro Nitro Series this season, the 9-time 1:8 World Champion said his car was working good having had ‘some days (testing) here’ prior to the event along with some of his Infinity team-mates.  The Italian added that the testing had ‘improved my experience with the adjustments of the car’. Looking to tomorrow’s four rounds of controlled practice, two to count towards seeding for qualifying, he said, ‘the set-up of the car is good after today but it depends on the conditions in the morning so we might just change the diff oil if needed’.

Another former 1:8 World Champion in the mix today and making his international debut for Infinity at the event along with brother Yuya, Tadahiko Sahashi said he still needs to work more on the set-up but ‘today the result is good’.  Having tested at the Homestead track back in August, he said the track had more grip but part of the issue now is the handout tyre is of a harder shore.  Like fellow countryman Matsukura, he also likes the track’s similarity to Japanese tracks having to drive tight to the corners.  Something that requires a lot of bottom end power he said the 100m long straight then presents a challenge as top end power is also important.  During tomorrow’s controlled practice he will work on trying to get the car’s rear end more stable.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Track Name – Homestead R/C Raceway
Hosts – Franco Desiderio and Jose Sanchez Jr
Country – United States
Location – Homestead, Florida
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt

Seven years on from it hosting the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, IFMAR has returned to the Homestead R/C Raceway in Florida to for the 8th running of the the 1:10 200mm Onroad Worlds.  Situated at the back of NASCAR hosting Homestead-Miami Speedway’s main grandstand, the track is the typical US style parking lot set-up with boards determining the layout and the infield highlighted by green paint.  Featuring a 100m long straight the track has changed ownership since the 2011 Worlds with Franco Desiderio & Jose Sanchez Jr now in charge having taken over 3-years ago.  Both competitors in the event, the final entry expected to be around 120 drivers, in addition to being partners in running the track, Desiderio & Sanchez Jr are the Picco distributor for the US and dealers for Infinity through RC1 Racing.

Here to defend the title he won in Italy 2-years ago at the World class Gubbio circuit, Dominic Greiner described the HRCR track as more challenging than it looks saying, ‘It seems not so difficult but it is difficult’.  Liking the layout, the Serpent driver added it has a ‘good flow but the traction is low and we are also running a hard (handout) tyre’.  With any traction built up in the International practice days and the first official practice day washed away by overnight rain, the German also added that ‘very high wind’ was adding further to the challenge making it ‘not easy to be consistent’.  Asked the key features of the clockwise track’s layout he replied, ‘You must drive it tight but with this you risk hitting the rubber (boards).  There are dots in the chicane and you have to ride them to save some metres but they unsettle the car’.

Winner of the 1:8 World title here and featuring strongly in 1:10 practice having topped the first day of official practice  yesterday (Sunday), Robert Pietsch believes the track is better to drive with a 1:10 car.  The Mugen driver said, ‘The track suits better 1:10 than 1:8’.  He added, ‘the layout is good but grip is low and these low levels (of grip) means the car is not so easy to handle. The balance is not always perfect and so you are fighting this all the time.  Like Greiner, he also agreed that the chicane was a key place to making up time on a lap if the car ride the dots cleanly but it was also a place to very easily unsettle the car depending on how the car hit the dots.

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