Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – Hobbywing XR10Pro G3
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3 5.5T
Battery – Team EAM 4200Mah
Tires – Gravity
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Sanwa PGS-LH II
Body – Xtreme Twister Speciale
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Kemp Anderson is the Top Seed at the Montech NYGP, the Awesomatix driver fastest in both Modified 1:12 and Touring Car after the two seeding rounds. The 6th running of the event at 360v2 in New Rochelle, New York, the US driver topped the AbsoluteHobbyz Modified 1:12 class from the Xray of Keven Hebert, the Canadian having set the pace in the first seeding round and unable to improve in SP2. Making a return trip to the NYGP having missed last year’s edition, Max Mächler would complete the Top 3. Based off drivers’ fastest 3-consecutive laps, New Yorker John Themelis would take his Excelerate RC Prodigy 12 to the fourth fastest time ahead of Josh Cyrul, the veteran US racer also at the controls of his newest design project. In the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class it was a similar story with Hebert taking the first round before Anderson upped the pace in the second one, the gap between the two rivals 2/10ths of a second.
Commenting on his 1:12 car’s performance in seeding, Anderson said, ‘It was good, I made a couple of changes for the second seeding round and it was good but I stripped a spur (gear) so I’ll have to replace that.’ He continued, ‘I am still trying to find more steering but overall it feels pretty balanced and not too hard to drive’. Asked about changes for Q1, four rounds of rocket round qualify on the schedule, he said, ‘I’ll change something else and replace the spur and see what we can do.’ On his Touring Car performance he said, ‘I made another change that time to get more steering in the 180s and it helped quite a bit there, the car overall feels pretty good.’ Asked about track consistency between runs, the 22-year-old said, ‘It pretty good. This morning after the track sat overnight it got a little tacky but now it’s back to feeling how it did at the end of the day yesterday.’
Reacting to his seeding performance, Hebert said, ‘It was a good first seeding. I was able to top the run by surprise because I haven’t had much time on the car yet. It was a good start for sure as we only came out with this car 2-weeks ago. I tested a little bit over the summer but I still need to fine-tune the set-up so every run I am trying something new to find what I like.’ Aiming to get a little more rear traction for SP2 as half way through the first run he lost a lot of rear grip, asked if he achieved that he replied, ‘Not quite, car didn’t have enough steering. (The set-up change) wasn’t the right direction so I need to back it down and go back to the set-up I had in Seeding 1 and also make another change to get better steering’. On his touring car, he said, ‘I just needed a little more steering still. I left the car the same as I didn’t have time to change it so now I am going to make some other change for Q1, I am going to make a shock oil change.’
Summing up his seeding attempt Mächler said, ‘It was pretty interesting. It’s big fun out there but hard to manage for a Stock guy but it’s fun with 3.5 turn over here and boost & turbo. I’m enjoying it.’ Asked if he has been doing much to the car in terms of set-up the German replied, ‘Actually no, I had a start set-up from Kemp and it feels pretty decent. I am right there with hot laps but it’s hard to manage consistent laps because it is very easy to overshoot and then you are directly losing 3, 4 tenths. The car is plenty fine, the driver needs more experience and practice’. Opting not to race Touring Car due to the upcoming World Championship, the 1:12 Spec World Champion is also racing in the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class in which he is seeded second fastest behind the similar car of NYGP host Donny Lia. He said, ‘It’s going fine. I am testing something different every run with the car just to get more knowledge with the new car on this carpet.’
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Having announced its entry as a car manufacturer in July with its Prodigy 12 1:12 pan car, Excelerate RC has brought its new 1:10 World GT-R class contender along to the Montech NYGP to display this weekend. With World GT-R WGT a popular class in the US, the second car release from the Wisconsin based company, which is aptly named the WGT-R, is based off much of the 1:12 car and is due to go on sale in around 3 weeks time – some of the car’s metal parts still in production. With Excelerate RC a partnership between Ken Lupi and veteran racer & car designer Josh Cyrul, it originally started out around 1-year ago to produce RC Drag racing tyres. Racing 1:12 himself at the NYGP, Cyrul said the WGT-R is essentially a big version of their 1:12. Like the Prodigy 1:12, it features a stiff high grip 2.5mm Aluminium chassis with a steel roll plate and steel pivot plate helping to lower the car’s centre of gravity.
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This weekend the 360V2 track plays host to the sixth edition of the annual MonTech New York Grand Prix where 2023 IFMAR 1:12 World Championship Top Qualifier Kemp Anderson heads the entry. The nearest thing RC will get to having a race in Time Square, the track just a 20-minute train ride from the centre of the City That Never Sleeps, the Montech NYGP is the vision of long time 1:12 racer Donny Lia. RedRC first got to know Lia when he was a leading contender at the 2014 1:12 World Championship in Florida where he would qualify third behind Top Qualifier & defending Champion Naoto Matsukura and Marc Rheinard who would go on to take the win. Rheinard would later also become a Montech NYGP Champion in Mod Touring Car at the 18,000 square feet 360v2 venue with other previous international visitors including Ronald Volker, Alexander Hagberg and David Spashett. Having attracted almost 300 entries at its peak until Covid broke that momentum, Lia is keen to build the race back up to its former levels. Although the proximity of this year’s IFMAR ISTC World Championship in California has ruled out a number of factory entries this year, with Anderson, Xray’s Keven Hebert and 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Machler among the entry an exciting weekend of racing is expected on a track which is proving a big hit with racers.
One of the expected contenders for a Mod double this year, racing both 1:12 & Touring Car, Kemp Anderson is a big fan of the race stating, ‘I’ve been to every NYGP Donny has had, I think 2018 was the first one. Donny always puts on a good race, it’s one of my favourite races of the year. You also get great food, you’ve New York city down the road, it’s a great atmosphere for sure and a top notch facility.’ Asked about the track, the factory Awesomatix said, ‘This is the biggest indoor track in America, and the grip is always good here. This year’s layout is very close to last year, the two 180s in the centre of the track make it that you have to work on the car set-up a lot to make it turn in there and still be stable everywhere else, I like it. It made for good racing last year.’
Another regular of the NYGP, Snowbirds Champion Hebert stated, ‘I believe I have been to all of them’ before continuing, ‘I think the Worlds really hurt the race entry this year, still it’s always good racing here, it’s a nice facility, you got lots of room, the track is nice and it’s the race that kicks off the carpet season over here. It’s good to be here for sure’. Chasing his first NYGP title, having run a number of practice runs in Thursday’s day of open practice, asked his thoughts on the 2024 layout he replied, ‘It’s almost identical to last year although it seems like it is a little bit faster, we are going faster lap times. Overall it’s the same layout, I think they just shortened the sweeper a little bit. It’s a good layout for sure.’ A layout Lia came up last year and which racer liked, they are trying to keep it now as the NYGP layout. One driver to take in the famous sights of New York City after setting up his pit area yesterday, taking the train into Time Square last night with other members of the Canadian contingent attending the race, Hebert added, ‘This is one of the biggest indoor tracks we have, the footprint is definitely the biggest but the sweeper rounded like that we kind of lose a little bit the length off it but it’s considered a big track.’
Racing here two years ago, taking a win in Spec Touring Car, asked his thoughts on the new layout Machler said, ‘it has a great flow, no stupid chicanes so it should make for great racing.’ With the track running CRC Fast track black carpet which is down about a year and a half, the German added, ‘You can build up a really good flow when driving especially in 1:12. Clearly some guys like a chicane for 1:12 but I am more a fan of an open layout. It’s quite fun here so I really enjoy this race.’ Entered for the Spec class at the Touring Car World Championships next month, Machler has opted to not run his A800R this year and instead will focus on a 1:12 double racing bot in Mod and 13.5T SuperStock.
Summing up his event with, ‘it’s the closest you’ll get to racing and seeing New York City in one trip – it’s a 20-25 minute train ride and you are there, Lia’s own RC story started with racing 1:12 as a kid with his father. While he would go on to race in various NASCAR series over a 20-year period, he said RC ‘was a hobby I never got out of’. Determined to build the race back up after Covid, he explain, ‘this year the Touring Car Worlds kind of hurt us in being able to attract a lot of the international guys because they have already been taking so many trips over here so to add another trip and the time frame didn’t make sense but we are hopeful next year we can bring in more guys from around the World and grow the event in to something special.’ With the track layout covering an area of 105 X 48 feet, 360V2 (the original 360 having been located in Long Island) is also home to Fordham Hobbies whose store serves local racers who get to use the facility twice a week, once mid week and once at the weekend, however there are plans to make it a full time track and store.
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Last weekend thanks to the support of Hobbywing, Red RC made a return to the TITC for the 20-edition of this legendary Bangkok race. The biggest one yet, it has truly become the most significant annual electric Touring Car race in the World. It was extremely positive for the category to see so much manufacturer support for the race. Of all the major car brands, only Schumacher had no official team presence but here’s hoping the British manufacturer gives us the opportunity to see Michal Orlowski take on the challenging RC Addict track conditions for the first time next year. Such was the quality of the field, the B-Main was full of World Championship Finalist drivers and it was great to see six different manufacturers represented in the A-Main of Modified. Call us old school, but putting the iconic Tamiya logo in our results graphic was a nostalgic moment. In another positive for electric touring car we had three new cars at the race. We had the latest prototype from Yokomo, the Japanese brand going for a name change as the BD name is dropped in favour of MS for Master Speed. Nicolas Lee did try to get us permission for a chassis focus but we couldn’t get it across the line. Kyosho had two prototypes of what is expected to be their TF8. That news generated massive excitement, so much so Kyosho requested we take down the story we ran on their return to the category. Finally Ryan Maker debuted his exciting new SP1 that will see him realise the dream of his RC Maker brand becoming a fully fledged car manufacturer. While both RC Maker and Kyosho allowed us to look at their new creations, we were not granted permission to photograph them for a Chassis Focus which we fully understand given the cars’ designs are still to be fully finalised. Over the event we did however photograph 12 cars from seven different manufacturers and we have compiled them all here in our latest Chassis Focus index.
Alexander Hagberg (2nd Overall) – Xray X4 ’24
Jilles Groskamp – Infinity IF4 II TE
Marc Rheinard (3rd Overall) – Awesomatix A800R
Ronald Volker (Top Qualifer) – Mugen Seiki MTC2R
Kato Kouki – Infinity IF14 TE
Akio Sobue – Axon TC10/3
Bruno Coelho (Champion) – Xray X4 ’24
Souta Goto – Tamiya TRF 421
Naoto Matsukura – Infinity IF14 TE
Lucas Urbain – Awesomatix A800R
Atsushi Hara – Xpress XQ11 “Hara Edition”
Open Brushless
Simon Lauter (Top Qualifier & Champion) – Awesomatix A800R
