May 24, 2019

Volker & Vejrak open Reedy Race with wins

The 22nd running of the Reedy Race of Champions is underway, with the sun finally turning up after rain washed out yesterday’s practice day.  With just two heats of racing per round for the 22 car field, it was Meen Vejrak who registered the first win on the events debut at the Steel City RC Speedway.  Starting from pole, the Yokomo driver managed to stay out front throughout the more stacked of the two races despite pressure from Viktor Wilck who made contact with the Thai driver on more than one occasion.  Behind them defending champion Marc Rheinard would open his campaign with a P3 after Jan Ratheisky got the jump on him at the start that saw a good battle between the two Germans.  In the other encounter, which featured no less than 8 US drivers, it was the visitors that came through to complete the Top 3.  Starting 10th on the grid Ronald Volker was up to third by the hairpin on the opening lap and soon after was out front for a dominant win.  Lining up 11th for the start, RROC debutant Lucas Urbain would take his Awesomatix through to second with young up & coming Japanese star Takuma Sasaki third.

Commenting on his win, former podium finisher Vejrak said, ‘it is great to start the Reedy Race with a win but I had a lucky draw’.  He continued, ‘starting from pole was super risky because its our first time here and we have very little running so the track is different every time’.  On his battle with Wilck, he said, ‘me and Viktor were super close but I was able to control the race until 3-minutes. Then my car slowed down and I had to block him’.  With a new format putting the race winner of the previous round in the same race for the following round, Vejrak will line-up alongside team-mate Volker for Round 2 saying, ‘I hope we can both get a good result’.

On his race Volker said, ‘I was drawn to start 10th on the grid but at the first corner I was able to gain 7 spots around the outside line and I was up to 3rd by the hairpin.’  He continued, ‘It was great team start with Meen winning his heat which had the stronger line-up.  On his car, the former champion said, ‘it was good but the grip was a little down again because of the gap between the last race and the wind.  We will make a small adjustment now to get more stability in the rear’.

Chasing his 8th Reedy Race title this weekend, Rheinard summed up his 3rd place by saying, ‘I lost the start to Jan (Ratheisky) and then got stuck behind him.  We had a good battle but by the time I got passed the others were gone’.  A huge fan of the Tamiya track, the Infinity driver said he didn’t get the Reedy Race feeling from the opening race but is hoping for a better second run.  He said, ‘I am still struggling with the car. It doesn’t feel right.  The grip is strange but I have a big change I will try for the next one’.

View the event image gallery here.

May 24, 2019

Track Focus – Steel City RC Speedway

Track Name – Steel City RC Speedway
Owners – Phil & Kyle Goodwine
Country – USA
Location – Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt

Opened just a little over a year ago, the brand new Steel City RC Speedway located at the full size Auto Club Speedway has quickly risen to prominence after being chosen as the replacement home of the legendary Touring Car Reedy Race of Champions and also securing the 2019 1:8 Onroad World Championships.  Following the announcement that the 21st running of the Reedy Race would be the last at one of the sport’s most iconic tracks, Tamiya Raceway, the search was on to find a suitable new home for the most prestigious touring car race to be held on American soil.  Step in Phil & Kyle Goodwine, the father and son creators of Steel City RC Speedway, a track that is very distinctive in its red coloured infield.  With the small Tamiya track’s super popular layout and infamous kink always going to be a benchmark that would be hard to replace, the nitro oriented Steel City track would not seem the most logical choice.

Build on an area 250ft wide by 150ft deep for a track length of 1000ft, the track has been reduced by about 25%.  To put the scale of that in to prospective, the piece they have cut out of the track layout is the size of the entire Tamiya track.   The story behind the track name and its coming to be is an interesting one.  Originally the land on which the track is build was part of the Kaiser Steel, the 2nd largest steel producer in the world during World War 2.  The company eventually went bankrupt and was bought by Penske who built the full size motor speedway.  Running an electric touring car race in one of the parking lots during the Indycar weekend at the track, that was the start of the relationship between the real track and  Goodwines who then negotiated a lease to build the impressive looking track that is now Steel City RC Speedway.

With rain on Thursday limiting drivers to just one damp practice, and just two dry 4-minute practices this morning (Friday) before the first of the heads up races, defending champion Marc Rheinard’s first impressions of the track layout was, ‘its ok, but for Reedy Race I thinks it is too open and too fast’.  Former multiple Champion Ronald Volker echoed those thoughts saying, ‘it’s not a difficult layout however it is high speed, so for heads up racing it’s going to be tricky. I’m not sure what to expect for racing’.

Image Gallery

May 24, 2019

Reedy Race practice rained off in not so sunny California

Sunny California didn’t live up to its billing today with practice for the 22nd running of the Touring Car Reedy Race of Champions being rained off.  With this year’s event the beginning of a new era for the legendary race as it moves from the famous Tamiya RC Raceway, which is no more, to Steel City RC Speedway, invite drivers got just one run in less than ideal conditions, before shortly after lunch the rains returned and the decision was made to call an end to official proceedings.  With cars struggling for traction, reigning 7-time RROC Champion Marc Rheinard joked from the drivers stand it felt like playing Super Mario and running over banana skins. With weather for both Friday and Saturday set to deliver the shorts & t-shirts weather associated with California, Race Director Scotty Ernst issued a new schedule which will see the invitational drivers get two practice runs in the morning before getting down to the real business of 5 rounds of the events unique heads up racing.  A further 5 rounds are planning for Saturday but with rain forecast to arrive again on Sunday afternoon, a call to run the final two rounds of racing on Sunday morning will be made based on the the latest forecast given on Saturday.

October 28, 2018

Matsukura adds first nitro title to World Championship tally

Multiple Electric Onroad World Champion Naoto Matsukura has added a Nitro Touring Car World title to his tally with a very convincing performance at the 1:10 200mm World Championships in Florida.  After a messy start which saw Top Qualifier Dario Balestri, Super Pole winner Robert Pietsch and reigning champion Dominic Greiner receive penalties, the Infinity driver quickly stamped his authority on the 1-hour final.  By the first round of fuel stops the 200mm rookie, who stopped early at 4:30, had already pulled out over a 6-second lead and such was his lead at the mid race tyre change his crew was able to switch to 4:00 stops ensuring his massive lead was never at risk.  At the end the Japanese driver becomes the 8th different World Champion of the class by almost 2-laps.  Battling with Tadahiko Sahashi for second place before the Infinity driver suffered a flame out in the final minutes of the race Capricorn’s Kyle Branson would finish second with Team Shepherd’s very quick Eduardo Escandon coming through from the back of the grid to complete the podium at Homestead RC Raceway.  Half a lap back Pietsch would recover from his penalty and a bad tyre stop to finish fourth ahead of Mugen team-mate Jeff Hamon, with Greiner, who got a second penalty completing the Top 6.  Ending up 9-laps off the lead after running out of fuel, Balestri ended up 7th but his biggest frustration was the length the cars were held on the starting grid.  He said his penalty was a result of him trying to make sure his engine didn’t cut.

‘Perfect.  Perfect car, perfect speed, perfect mechanic’, was how Matsukura summed up becoming the nitro touring car World Champion at his first attempt.  The former Electric Touring Car World champion, who also won that title in Florida at the nearby Kissimmee track, continued, ‘We made a really fast tyre stop and after this the gap more than a lap so I then just tried to control my race.  Before we were refuelling at 4:30 but to be save we make 4-minutes’.  Having led the final on his 1:8 Onroad Worlds debut in France last year, but succumbing to a flat receiver battery, he said ‘around 55-minutes I started to get nervous and starting think about things going wrong.  I even asked Miura if we could go to 3:30 for the last fuel stops but he told me don’t worry.  Miura and Bank did a perfect job.  I also want to thank my boss Mr. Kenji and my family who all stayed in Japan to watch the race’.

Reacting to his race, having bumped up twice after starting the day in the 1/4 finals, Branson said, ‘I didn’t expect that’.  The British driver continued, ‘We were all bunched up for a while at the start and I had to hold back.  I didn’t want to do anything stupid so I waited for the pack to spread out.  I know I had to do 2 extra (fuel) stops I think but for the final my car was perfect.  I could drive it so easy.  I didn’t have to push to be in the pack’.  His first Worlds podium having made his first worlds final last time out, he added, ‘thanks to everyone who has helped me and congrats to Naoto.  Fair play to him, he was on another level’.

‘First I have to say a massive thank you to Shepherd Micro Racing and Coten Escuderia because I am only here because of their support.  Without it I would not be celebrating this podium’, said a delighted Escandon.  The Spanish driver, who first made a name for himself in the ENS after joining Shepherd last season started out the day in the 1/4 finals, continued, ‘ (Takaaki) Shimo hit my car in the last lap of the Semi so we had to rebuild the car and I had to get a bodyshell from Thilo.  After that my plan was to have fun with the top drivers in the World for 1-hour but when I realised I was running in the main pack I started to push and at the end I am third place.  It’s amazing from where we started the week struggling to what we finished. For sure this was a team effort’.

Asked about his fourth place in the final, Pietsch replied, ‘the start was a big problem.  Dario jumped the start and I followed him so I also got a penalty.  Then after Dario took his penalty he touched me at a bad angle and I rolled’.  Winner of his 1:8 World title at the same track 7-years ago, the German continued, ‘The tyre stop was bad and we lost 6-seconds but the car was also difficult to drive.  It was not on the same pace as before’.

Summing up his race outgoing champion Greiner said, ‘I don’t know what happened at the start.  I didn’t jump the start but I got a penalty.  They said I put my car too early on the ground so I got a penalty’.  Not happy with the decision, the German said, ‘I don’t know what Masami was doing.  I touched a guy and rolled my car and got a penalty.  Dario hit Robert and got no penalty’.  Ultimately running out of fuel would end Greiner’s chances of retaining his title.  He said, ‘At the second fuel stop we ran out of fuel and then it was over.  For sure Naoto was fast but out front he could drive his own race’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.