August 5, 2014

Chassis Focus – Darren Bloomfield

Tues-BloomCar-1

Chassis – Agama A8 Evo FR Cup
Engine – Bullitt 219
Tyres – Beat Freeride Super Soft
Fuel – Piranha
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Hitec
Body – JC Paint Arrow
Remarks – Having only just won the most recent round of the British Nationals, 2012 European Champion Darren Bloomfield comes into the Euros in good form with his updated Agama. While not the full new car, it does sport new parts on the car including lower shock towers and shorter shocks, new rear hub with options for 4 different lower mounting points and new anti-roll bar mounting points on the wishbones. The final car will sport a wider chassis plate and molded radio tray and when it goes on sale around September it will also include the aluminium steering rack as standard. Darren is running a new bodyshell from his painter JC Paint, called the Arrow, one of  three Agama drivers running the shell here in Germany.

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August 5, 2014

Chassis Focus – David Ronnefalk

Tues-RonnefalkMP9-1

Chassis – Kyosho Inferno MP9 TKI3
Engine – Team Orion RS
Tyres – AKA Catapult Soft
Fuel – Runner Time
Radio/Servos – KO Propo
Body – Kyosho Cab forward
Remarks – Reigning European Champion David Ronnefalk of Sweden is running a basic TKI3 here in Germany with the same setup he used to win the warm up race back in May. Choosing not to run the newly released harder front wishbones, preferring to run with what he is familiar with, compared to his standard setup back in Sweden the car uses the next step harder front grey spring on the car as well as laying down the rear shock towers one step. A point of interest on the car is the KO RSX2 servos with their metal case which are strong enough to enable David to run the car with basically no servo saver, the nut tightened down fully on the servo saver spring, with the plastic lever giving some give over the optional metal version.

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August 5, 2014

Track Focus – Steigerwald Ring (Sand am Main)

trackpano

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 14, 2014

Borkowicz & Rivkin claim runner-up spots

Muppets

Up & coming offroad racing talents Damion Borkowicz and Spencer Rivkin claimed the runners-up spots behind the big winner of the JConcepts Summer Indoor Nationals Ryan Maifield.   Setting the fastest lap of the race, Borkowicz secured the second step on the 4WD Buggy podium by finishing second to Team Xray’s Tyler Vik in A3.  Unfortunately for Vik, a podium finisher at the Spring Indoor Nationals, his win came too late and he missed out on the podium in Chico by 1-point to A-Main Hobbies driver Drew Moller.

Rivkin

In 2WD Buggy, a win in the closing race of the biggest event to be hosted at Outback Raceway gave Team Associated’s Rivkin second overall behind his mentor.  Finishing second to Rivkin, having swapped the lead with the 15-year-old and also seen off the challenge of Mark Pavidis, Vik would claim the final step on the podium.  Having his best run in A3 to finish third Pavidis would end up fourth overall.

4WD Buggy A-Main Overall Result
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 2 pts
2. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 4
3. Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (HB) – 6
4. Tyler Vik – Team Xray – 7
5. Brian Strange – Team Associated – 7
6. Derek Stephansen – Team Xray – 7
7. Eric Albano – Team Associated – 11
8. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 12
9. Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 13
10.Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 14
11.Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 19

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(3) Tyler Vik – Team Xray – 22/5:11.385
2.(4) Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 21/5:00.773
3.(8) Derek Stephansen – Team Xray – 21/5:09.762
4.(9) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:12.705
5.(10)Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 21/5:13.611
6.(5) Brian Strange – Team Associated – 21/5:13.913
7.(11)Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 21/5:16.138
8.(2) Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (HB) – 20/4:57.024
9.(7) Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 20/5:01.537
10.(6)Eric Albano – Team Associated – 8/1:59.650
11.(1)Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – DNS

2WD Buggy A-Main Overall Result
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – 2 pts
2. Spencer Rivkin – Team Associated – 3
3. Tyler Vik – Team Xray (AE) – 5
4. Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 7
5. Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (AE) – 9
6. Brian Strange – Team Associated – 10
7. Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 11
8. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 12
9. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 12
10.Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 14
11.Frank Root – Team Losi Racing – 18

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(2) Spencer Rivkin – Team Associated – 21/5:13.132
2.(4) Tyler Vik – Team Xray (AE) – 20/5:00.248
3.(3) Mark Pavidis – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:02.658
4.(10)Brian Strange – Team Associated – 20/5:05.484
5.(6) Drew Moller – A-Main Hobbies (AE) – 20/5:07.944
6.(11)Steven Hartson – Team Associated – 20/5:10.770
7.(8) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 20/5:16.245
8.(9) Frank Root – Team Losi Racing – 19/5:03.043
9.(7) Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 19/5:14.552
10.(5)Chris Jarosz – Team Associated – 18/5:05.112
11.(1)Ryan Maifield – Team Losi Racing – DNS

View the event image gallery here.

July 14, 2014

Chassis Focus – Ryan Maifield TLR 22 2.0 & 22-4

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Chassis – TLR 22 2.0
Motor – Orion VST2 7.5
ESC – Orion Vortex R10.1 Pro
Battery – Orion 4000 shorty
Tyres – JConcepts Dirtwebs Gold
Radio/Servos – Airtronics/Spektrum
Body – JConcepts

Sun-Maifield4w-1

Chassis – TLR 22 2.0
Motor – Orion VST2 5.5
ESC – Orion Vortex R10.1 Pro
Battery – Orion
Tyres – JConcepts Dirtwebs Gold
Radio/Servos – Airtronics/Spektrum
Body – JConcepts

Remarks – Ryan Maifield has made a successful debut with his Team Losi Racing rides and Team Orion electronics here at the 2014 JConcepts Summer Indoor Nationals in Chico, racing both his TLR22 2.0 and TLR 22-4 buggies (as well as his 22 SCT 2.0 truck) for the first time following testing in Florida with his new team mate Dustin Evans. Running stock cars with some basic optionals, he also ran the shorty LiPo pack in his 4wd in place of the conventional saddle pack.

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