September 21, 2012

Maifield sets early pace at JConcepts Clash

Defending JConcepts Clash Champion Ryan Maifield set the pace on the opening day of the sixth running of the annual event with the Team Associated driver fastest in all three of the classes he is contesting and hoping to retain his 2011 titles.  Putting most of his efforts today into his 1:8 Nitro Buggy, it was this class in which the Arizona driver looked to have the greatest advantage over his rivals at the Flowood RC Indoor Park in Mississippi.

Running 1-hour open practice sessions alternating between the 1:8 and 1:10 classes, no official timing was published for today’s action but there was no doubting Maifield was fastest with his rivals all agreeing he has set the benchmark for tomorrow’s qualifying.  Trying a variety of hand modified parts on his LRP engined RC8.2, Maifield said as its a World Championship year he is going to use every opportunity to test different ideas adding that today was a productive day not just for the Clash title defense but also for the upcoming Worlds.  Together with Associated team manager Brent Thielke and Jason Ruona of his tyre sponsor and creator of the Clash event, Maifield will fly out from Mississippi on Monday morning to Argentina to contest the Worlds Warm-up Race.

Running Associated’s new big bore shocks for the first time on his 2WD Buggy and 2WD Short Course truck today, Maifield described the change as dramatic.  Surprised at how big a difference the new shock made he said they gave the feeling of a soft set-up but in the corners could be driven like the car had a hard set-up allowing for a big improvement in corner speed.  Commenting on the track, the layout of which was designed by JConcepts Head of R&D Paul Wynn, Maifield said the track works well for both 1:8 and 1:10 and the traction has got better and better over the day and he is confident all three of his cars are dialed in for tomorrow’s opening round of qualifying.

Closest on pace to Maifield in 1:8 Nitro Buggy was team-mate Tanner Denney.  Running four classes at the event, the 17-year-old set the pace in 4WD buggy and 2WD Truck and declared himself happy with his day.  In 2WD Truck his closest challenger on lap times was team boss Brent Thielke while in 4WD Buggy his tyre sponsor Jason Ruona looks for now as being the his main rival for Q1.

In the TLR camp Dustin Evans declared himself happy with his 8ight and TLR22 but said his 22T still needs more work.  Team-mate JR Mitch echoed those comments saying his buggies both felt fine but he still had to find a set-up for his truck.  Having finished runner-up in all three classes last year to his then team-mate Maifield, Mitch said he was tired of finishing second and is determined to claim at least one win on a track which he added he is really enjoying.

A very relaxed opening day’s action at the Flowood Indoor RC Park, tomorrow we will get down to the serious business of qualifying with two of the scheduled four rounds of qualifying making up the timetable for the 6th running of the JConcepts Clash which is being supported by Reedy, LRP, Associated, A-Main Hobbies, P1 Brand, Airtronics, Durango, O’Donnell and Futuba.  Supported by JConcepts, Red RC will bring full coverage of the weekend’s proceedings starting with a full round up of all the action from the opening qualifier.

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September 20, 2012

Maifield & Evans preparing to ‘Clash’ in Mississippi

The main honours at the sixth running of the annual JConcepts Clash is set to be a ‘clash’ between Associated’s Ryan Maifield and Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans with the duo running head to head in 1:8 Nitro Buggy, 2WD Electric Buggy and 2WD Short Course at the unique and famous US off road event which caters for both 1:8 nitro and 1:10 electric classes. With all five previous Clash events having been held in Florida and outdoors, for 2012 the event has undergone two key changes. The first of these was moving it away from the East Coast where JConcepts is based over to the state of Mississippi with the second and more significant change being to run indoors at the Flowood Indoor RC Park where they have created an impressive large track for the unique event.  Commenting on the track following a number of practice runs this morning with his nitro powered RC8.2, defending champion Maifield said only that it is not ‘freezing cold’ it is very similar to the World famous Neo Race in the United Kingdom.

Traditionally held in the month of December, event organiser Jason Ruona was forced to bring this year’s date forward due to the 1:8 Offroad World Championships which takes places in Argentina the first week of December.  Having selected the new Clash date prior to the announcement of the Worlds Warm-up race the JConcepts founder said while this has reduced the international entry they have attracted a record number of pre-registrations for this year’s race. Describing the Clash as a ‘relaxed & fun event’ Ruona said having to contend with rain every year with the exception of the inaugural event they made it their aim to take that one ‘damping’ element out of the equation and after the first first rounds of practice runs today he is very pleased with the move, the tracks ventilation system handling the nitro fumes exceptionally well.  Ruona, who TQ’d 2WD Buggy last year, will again race himself competing in both 2WD & 4WD Buggy.

In terms of team line-ups Associated are the best represented with Maifield who is joined by young charger Tanner Denney and team boss Brent Thielke.  With last year’s 4WD Buggy Champion Joern Neumann unable to attend this year, Denney will be one of the favorites for the title having finished runner up to the German last year.  One of the busier drivers this weekend competing in four classes, the 17-year-old will also be a top contender for 2WD Truck honours which last year went to offroad legend Brian Kinwald.  Running big bore shocks on his T4.1 Denney was very happy with its performance in this morning’s practice runs.

2011 2WD Buggy National Champion and Reedy Race Winner Evans, who will not travel to Argentina for the Worlds Warm-up, is making his first appearance at the Clash. Having had some reservations about running both 1:8 Nitro and 1:10 Electric on the same day said the change between the two is proving no problem and he is really looking forward to a good event, with things getting underway in earnest tomorrow morning with the first round of four rounds of qualifying for each of the 14 classes that make up the program.  Joining Evans on the event is the team’s 2012 signing JR Mitch who having been runner up in three classes last year will be looking to go one better this time round.

View our event image gallery here.

August 11, 2012

Bloomfield gives TLR first European title

The 32nd 1:8 Offroad European Championships was a race of firsts in Fehring, Austria as Darren Bloomfield won a thrilling last lap battle with Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk to become the first British driver to win the title as well as securing his first ever European title and giving Team Losi Racing and his tyre sponsor AKA their first crown in EFRA’s longest running championship.  Bloomfield’s 1.9 second win over Ronnefalk, who retains his European Junior title, brings Mugen’s four year reign as manufacturers’ champion to an end as outgoing champion Robert Batlle had to settle for the final step on the podium.

‘It doesn’t feel real’ was Bloomfield’s first reaction to his historic win as fellow British racers Lee Martin, the current 2WD Electric European Champion, and former World Champion Neil Cragg where among the first to congratulate him.  2012 he said has been a very special year as along with winning the biggest title of his professional RC career he also became a dad for the first time back in February.

Going into the race Bloomfield said he knew he had the pace to win and with TLR team manager Kevin Gahan talking him through video footage of all his qualifying runs he said he also had the belief in himself that he could pull it off.  Having ran No.1 throughout the event the Top Qualifier for the event had, after his drama in the Semi, run the No.6 on his Novarossi powered 8ight and this was to cause him problems at the first fuel stop.  Having to move from position one to six on the drivers stand in correspondence with his race number the change of view caught him out on his first pit stop with his tyre just catching the wall and spinning the car.  Knowing that Ronnefalk had an extra fuel stop to do he said he didn’t let the incident and his bad start to the race play on his mind focusing instead on just pushing 100% as the 45-minute race was all going to be about the final 5 minutes. Running one of Adam Drake’s own development 8ight chassis’, which arrived with the American on Monday, Bloomfield said having the US Star as his mechanic this week played a ‘massive’ part in today’s achievement.

A driver who marked himself out as a star of the future when Austria last hosted the Euros in 2009 when he was just 13-years of age, Ronnefalk said it was ‘almost the perfect race’.  A former Euro B Champion and Junior Champion for the past two years, the Swede led the majority of the race and felt he was unfairly given a stop and go penalty by race director Dallas Mathiesen.  One of the closest 1:8 Offroad finals witnessed, Ronnefalk came together with Bloomfield three times but on each occasion he showed true sportsmanship & respect by allowing Bloomfield to retake position so he felt the penalty was harsh when the racing was so close and other drivers were allowed to come in the battle.  Also running AKA tyres, Ronnefalk said he made the wrong call on compound having went with super soft Enduro and in the last 5-minutes of the race he started to lose steering in particular through the concrete section where Bloomfield was particularly quick.   Clearly disappointed at having come so close to winning his first A Championship title he said tomorrow he will be happy with his performance, his Orion powered MP9 setting the fastest lap of the race, and it comes as a huge boost ahead of the World Championship’s which take place in December in Argentina.

Having won the title last year from the same starting position as Bloomfield did today, Batlle said a flame out during his 4th fuel stop which lost him around 10 seconds effectively ended his challenge to defend his title.  Running 7:30 stops, the Spaniard said it became apparent that he was too close on run time and rather than risk losing a lap by stopping out on track he backed off a little to protect his podium finish.  Describing 3rd as an ‘OK’ performance, Batlle who was also champion in 2008 said they have to work even harder as he and his Mugen team now turn their attentions to the World Championships.

Missing out on the podium and the winning-est driver in the final having held the title from 2008-2010, Team Xray’s Renaud Savoya said while a win was never on the cards a podium was within his reach and to come so close was disappointing.  The ‘Shark’ said an early incident with Bloomfield dropped him down the field and while his RB powered XB9 had good pace he lost a lot of time trying to work his way back through.  The Frenchman also also had to serve a Stop and Go penalty as he came together with Joseph Quagraine whose JQ ran wide coming onto the main straight as Savoya left the pitlane after refuelling.  A long time factory RB driver the rest of his package is new and he said this was for sure a disadvantage as the Top 3 all have years of experience with their respective manufacturers.  Joining Xray at the end of last season and Sweep tyres at the start of this year he said they have work to do to improve the package but said his relationship with both companies is very strong and he feels while others might make small steps forward he believes his team can make a ‘huge’ amount of progress.  With nitro racing much a team sport, Savoya wanted to thank his pitman Jerome Manu for his hard work and input.

Kyosho’s Jérôme Aigoin and TLR’s Miguel Matias completed the Top 6 but in 7th place and the only driver sporting a bigger smile than Bloomfield was Quagraine.  Founding his own company JQ Products less than three years ago the Finn was delighted with his first European final appearance with his ‘The Car’ and ‘Against the Odds’ he was able to take to it’s best ever finish going one place better than Matias achieved for the small but ambitious company last year.

So another European Championships is in the history books and Britain has their first every champion with Darren Bloomfield ending the five year title rivalry of Batlle and Savoya.  We would like to thank our sponsors, Serpent, Team C and Mugen Seiki, who made our coverage possible for this event.

Main Final Results
1. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi/AKA – 72/45:37.029
2. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion/AKA – 72/45:38.945
3. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi/Procircuit – 71 /45:22.914
4. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB/Sweep – 71/45:38.926
5. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi/AKA – 71/45:41.133
6. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB/AKA – 70/45:05.420
7. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ/AKA – 70/45:25.929
8. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray/nVision/AKA – 70/45:40.730
9. Christoffer Svensson (SE) – Kyosho/OS/AKA – 69/45:26.602
10.Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Associated/Novarossi/Procircuit – 69/45:29.811
11.Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha/AKA – 57/37:22.748
12.Elliot Boots (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi/AKA – 51/32:48.297

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

August 11, 2012

Bloomfield is European Champion

Team Losi Racing’s Darren Bloomfield won a thrilling battle which went down to the last lap with pole sitter David Ronnefalk to become the first British driver to win the 1:8 Offroad European Championship this evening in Fehring, Austria.  The win is also TLR’s first win in the championship’s 32 year history bringing to an end Mugen’s four year reign at the top.

Provisional Result
1. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi/AKA
2. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion/AKA
3. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi/Procircuit
4. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB/Sweep
5. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi/AKA
6. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB/AKA
7. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ/AKA
8. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray/nVision/AKA
9. Christoffer Svensson (SE) – Kyosho/OS/AKA
10.Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Associated/Novarossi/Procircuit
11.Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha/AKA
12.Elliot Boots (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi/AKA

Full report to follow.

August 11, 2012

Ronnefalk on pole at Euros

16-year-old reigning European Junior Champion David Ronnefalk will start the Main final at the 2012 1:8 Offroad European Championships from pole position after the Swede won his Semi in a faster time than that of reigning champion Robert Batlle’s Semi winning time.

Starting from pole Ronnefalk controlled the 20-minute encounter to take a comfortable win over the Xray of Renaud Savoya and his Kyosho team-mate Elliot Boots who had to recover from a first lap off that left in at the tail end of the 12 car field.  While the top 3 appeared to have everything under controlled in relation to their progression to the final the main battle of the race was over 4th, 5th and 6th position.  In the end having bumped up from the 1/4 final Team Xray’s Martin Bayer just pipped JQ’s Joseph Quagraine to the line for fourth while behind them LRP driver Borja Hernandez secured the final place on the grid having had to recover from an number incidents early in the race and a battle with Ignacio Candell and former 2 time Champion David Tortorici.

In terms of drama it was the first Semi which produced the biggest moment so far as Top Qualifier Darren Bloomfield’s TLR came to a halt while the British driver was out front.  Half way through the race Bloomfield looked as though he might suffer the same faith as last year when while also holding a bump place he suffered a flame out.  With his car stopped on the track when the marshal picked up the Novarossi powered 8ight a stone fell out of the rear wheel.  Turning the wheels backwards the car had drive again and he was able to resume in fifth position.  Setting the fastest lap of the Semis two laps later Bloomfield was able to recover to take fourth which puts him 6th on the grid, the first of the cars that will start around the corner of the split starting grid.

After Bloomfield’s scare it was the No.2 starting Mugen of Batlle that went on to win ahead of the man he beat to claim last year’s title Jérôme Aigoin. Having been Top Qualifier the last two years and started on pole 12 months ago, the French Champion will line-up third for this evening’s 45-minute title deciding encounter.  Two former champions to bump from the first Semi were TLR’s Miguel Matias who finished third and Yannick Aigoin who finished fifth and will be the sole Associated on the grid.  Finishing fifth to make Kyosho the most represented brand in the final with four MP9s was Christoffer Svensson who will line up 9th.

Having successfully defended his 4WD Electric European Championship title at the track just last month Team Durango’s Joern Neumann, who made the final last year, will not be adding to his trophy cabinet this evening as he could only manage 9th in his Semi.  Also missing the cut, finishing 7th in the same Semi, was former champion & Agama team driver Daniel Vega.

Main Final Starting Grid
1. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion
2. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi
3. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi
4. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB
5. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB
6. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi
7. Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Associated/Novarossi
8. Elliot Boots (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi
9. Christoffer Svensson (SE) – Kyosho/OS
10.Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray/nVision
11.Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ
12.Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.