August 5, 2014

Track Focus – Steigerwald Ring (Sand am Main)

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Track Name –Steigerwald Ring (Sand am Main)
Club – Motor Sport Club Sand
Country – Germany
Location –  Sand am Main (190km East of Frankfurt)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Dirt with block & concrete sections plus astro covered jumps

Better known in r/c circles as Sand am Main, Steigerwald Ring this week hosts its second 1:8 Offroad European Championships in just three years, reigning World Champion Robert Batlle having taken the win in 2011.  Featuring a very unique ‘portrait’ layout, the main straight running perpendicular to the drivers stand, the track is also different in that it is built into the face of a hill.  The reason for this is that the track is in fact built on the start/finish line of an old motocross track, the Motor Sport Club having started out as an offroad motorsport club in 1951 before making the transition to radio controlled offroad racing and building the current rc track in 1998.  Thanks to its former motorsport background the club boasts a membership of 150 of which around 60 are active rc racers.  Apart from hosting this year’s Euros, and the warm-up race back in May which was won by reigning Champion David Ronnefalk, the club also annually holds two German National Championship races.

In terms of the track, the surface is mainly dirt with three cobble blocked corners sections,  two concrete areas and astro turf covered jumps.  Compared with the 2011 layout the track has undergone three main changes the biggest of which is the removal of the table top which has been replaced by a double, double, single jump section.  Asked about the track changes Batlle said overall it feels similar to drive as before.  Describing the track as ‘quite small’, a quick lap set to be in the high 20 seconds, he said the biggest difficulty is in fact the weather.  A wet day in Sand Am Main yesterday, it was a damp start to the 34th running of the championship this morning with the Spaniard saying it is going to be hard to predict how traction will be for each of today’s four practice runs.

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July 11, 2014

Track Focus – Outback Raceway

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Track Name – Outback Raceway
Owner – A-Main Hobbies
Country – USA
Location – Chico, California
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt

The 3rd & ‘Summer’ stop on the JConcepts Indoor National Series has travelled to Chico to the Outback Raceway, one of two tracks owned by online r/c retail giant A-Main Hobbies. Situated just 1-mile as the crow flies away from the Silver Dollar Raceway which last September hosted the 1:10 Offroad World Championships, Outback Raceway is situated in A-Main’s distribution centre from where it ships r/c products and soon bicycles to customers all around the world. Originally built as an onroad carpet track in 2008, in 2009 it was converted to offroad.

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The fifth year of the track hosting the JConcepts Summer Indoor Nationals, the event is the biggest race hosted at either tracks with this year attracting a new record of over 300 entries. Built using rice field clay, specially selected for its water retaining qualities and high bite, the track covers an area of 92 X 50 feet with a good 2WD Mod Buggy lap time being a high 15 seconds. Undergoing a full rebuild every 1/4, the track also gets a section modification once a month which Director of Race Events Kevin Jelich, who is responsible for all track works, says helps keep things interesting for racers. Commenting on the latest layout Ryan Maifield, who makes his race debut with TLR this weekend, described the track as ‘pretty cool’. He said the track is ‘really flowing with a lot of technical stuff at the same time’ adding that the ‘surface is better than last year’ too having been very rough previously. Set-up with pit spacing for 85 drivers, the arrival of the JConcepts race has seen Kevin have to extend things into the ‘overflow pits’ which has drivers in part of the warehouse among the vast stock which has been sensibly fenced off!

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Facility Co-ordinator Ruben Benitez, who looks after the day to day running of racing at the track, said while Summer is slow for racing, in the winter months the track attracts around 80 racers for its Friday night club races, a number that he is happy to report is continually increasing each year. Operating a monthly pass system for racers looking to use the track, it is open weekly Tuesday through Sunday. In addition to the JConcepts race, the two other key events on the calendar for Outback Raceway are the ‘Fall Brawl’ and ‘Outback Shoot Out’.

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June 19, 2014

‘From Race Control’ – Day 2, Seeding Practice

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An overcast morning at Thornhill Racing Circuit, Day 2 of the ROAR National Championships in Texas sees things get a little more serious with the day made up of two rounds of 7-minute timed seeding practice. With each round, starting with Truggy and running on through Buggy, the seeding counts a driver’s single fastest three consecutive laps to determine the order for the qualifying heats which will get underway tomorrow.

June 19, 2014

Chassis Focus – Cody King

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Chassis – Kyosho MP9 TKI III
Engine – Reds Racing
Fuel – Byron
Tyres – ProLine Blockade X3
Radio/Servos – KO Propo
Body – Stock
Remarks – Winner at last month’s warm up race, 2010 World Champion Cody King is back in Austin running what looks to be a pretty standard TKI III. While getting a closer look, though, it comes to attention the use of many lightweight parts that make the buggy really light: titanium turnbuckles, aluminium suspension balls and shock mounts and a full set of titanium screws. The car also features a coloured radio tray, using yellow base parts with black tops.

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