New in the Pits – Reds Racing

Italian company Reds Racing, headed by engine tuner Mario Rossi, have unveiled their new carburettor with new horizontal high speed needle. Available separately for the R7 engine and also soon to be released as a limited edition combo with the R7 engine, the new position of the main needle gives the engine better top speed as well as making the engine tune more stable and have better idle. Due to the low end and high speed needles now being in line with each other it makes the tuning more precise and also due to its new location is also super easy to access the needle through the side of the body. Currently team drivers Cody King and JQ are using this new carb with their R7 engine, the 7 port motor offering smoother power delivery than the R5 which is being used by Elliott Boots. Reds Racing also have a new 2113 pipe adapted from on road but with a strengthened stinger made from a thicker material and featuring an elbow to reinforcement. Both items will be available in late October.

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The Worlds according to Ruona – Tuesday Qualifying

It’s funny how once something starts it’s hard to stop it. Tebo gets DQed from round 1…. That was the never ending story on FB today from the worlds. In real time Id say the whole issue took 30/40 minutes to resolve. Eventually they settled on it being a warning and Jared got to keep his 3rd for round 1. People loved that story on FB and commented on it all day even though in the end Jared got to keep the run and had already moved on to round 2.

Everyone has a voice now, that’s what Paul Wynn says and it’s true. All the social media and forums have given racers an avenue to state their case or complain. You can even hear my voice now and I’m still talking about the story…Sorry… Ha

There are the people that say, the rules are the rules and others that allow for a little flexibility and even hint that Jared was allowed by because of who he is. As far as I know he had trimmed 3 slots near the back of his body that are sort of molded in louvers on the Kyosho body and had asked if it was ok and he was told during practice that it was allowed.

What is he supposed to do here? Does he get out the rule book and trim his body while reading the book? Does he trim, ask if it’s ok and then rock it during the first round at the worlds? I guess you are supposed to read the rules and figure it out on your own and have the car to spec. However, at some point or another you need to confirm or bring your car along through tech to know in your mind it’s good. If someone tells you it’s good it’s good right? I don’t know what is right. I do know a similar type of scenario happened before at a ROAR nationals and it revolved around Ty Tessmann running a shorty battery in his prototype D413 when the rules stated it was illegal. They checked with tech before the race started and tech said it was ok even though tech never knew the rule existed and that it had been broken. Ty was the fastest and deserved the win. Anyways………..

I noticed that the other big “sharing” story on FB was that starting November 1st all FB users will have to pay $2.99 per month to continue use. People love this too… They comment. No way I’m paying for it. So long, good bye, it’s over, FB is horrible. I don’t pay for Jack squat. Doesn’t it say on the Facebook homepage it’s free and always will be? Of course that same person pays for coffee, cigarettes, TV, Internet service, adult pay per view, cell phone service, WWE entertainment Wrestle Mania, fantasy sports league, truck payment, jet ski, dirt bike, bark box, espn news insider, truck pull magazine, salt life decals and the Chuck Norris fan club. Facebook is killing him though… You know, I’m believing what it says on the home page until it’s changed.

The girl from Tampa, FL gets another breast added so she has 3 total. 3’s a crowd… Nice selfies though.

I also found out today that the IPhone 6+ bends in your pocket. Yes, according to several FB reports the hottest new items from apple that I just preordered will bend in my pocket. Thank goodness for FB, now I can cancel my preorder and get the new pocket iPad.

So you might have heard that Ty Tessmann dominated today. First 2 rounds in the bag, it’s done, over with and most have already moved on. Don’t bother coming, don’t bother going…this guy has it all locked down. It’s because of the new polycarbonate wing he’s been running, it’s 38grams lighter and immediately makes you a worlds TQ guy. Well, except for Jorn Neumann who went back to traditional in round 2 and logged his best finish of the weekend in 6th for the round.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this wing since I’ve been here and I actually like it. I’ll be making one and running it on my new AE car whenever it comes out. I think my RC career has slipped by me while I’ve been waiting for this new AE car. I’ll go back to the wing for a second. I wanted to make one of these for Maifield for the 2010 Worlds in Thailand but I didn’t. In the end I thought, everyone would laugh at me and say, oh sure, the electric guy wants to make his 1/8th more electric. Wait, until he crashes and blows the wing off the car, 1/8th cars need to be durable, built like a man, strong, tough and a little thick around the center.

They would have been right, I wanted to make my 1/8th more like my 1/10th 4wd buggy. You know why? The same reason Ty Tessman wants his like his 4wd electric buggy….you ready for this…because the more your 1/8th is like a 1/10th the better it will be on a….you ready for this….1/10th scale track. Boom….your mind is blown right?

I’m not saying these wings are here to stay in 1/8th off-road. There has been limited guys sticking with it here at the worlds and I think that will be the trend. The traditional wings are probably the way to go for the average racer. It’s safe and proven at this point.

We had an injury here at the track yesterday and the on site medical team got to do something. They have been here the entire time to protect us and it’s actually really nice to see. While pitting in the first qualifier Ryan Cavalieri brought in the new RC8 for his first stop and Kody Numendahl put his hand out and Pudge hit the brakes on his way in and pinched his hand between the asphalt paper pit lane material and the new bumper on the RC8. Ouch! Kody basically pulled a finger nail off I believe and was bleeding all over pit lane. He went to the medic, after the pit stop of course and got treatment. He said he passed out and they helped him wake up, gave him some water and he was up and out in 10-15 minutes. He was rebuilding the RC8 proto 20 minutes later.

It was a good day for team JC yesterday. Ryan Maifield took a strong 2nd in round 1 and 7th in round 2. The only issue was he seemed to lose a little speed in round 2 even though he ran mistake free. Maybe the track temperature changed and the car didn’t work as well…hard to say. I see Ryan getting 16 laps 10:04 or 10:05 when things are right and I think tomorrow we push for that. It’s hard to say if you should make changes when you have run a 2nd but we didn’t come to get 2nd. Time to push the envelope a little and attempt to get quicker.

Remember, 4 of 6 qualifiers count here so you can’t play around too much. It’s important to get that good semi starting position and starting up top is where you want to be. Remember we talked about contenders and impostors yesterday? The contenders stepped up and showed themselves. David Ronnefalk had a tough day though. He’s still doing well but for a guy that TQed practice day and half of the entire practice days he was struggling. Let me make this clear, he’s a contender though. He will get there. At this point he’s probably one of 2-3 guys that has a little something for Ty in speed.

Lee Martin, he is one of the better cars. I like his pace, his consistency and the pit program seems in check. He’s a contender.

Ryan Maifield, 2 runs with no crashes and a 2nd so far. He’s driving smooth, consistent and just needs a little extra out of his car, engine and tires. He’s been better than his package so far and he’s a contender. Traffic hasn’t been good for him. Waiting, driving around crashed cars, driving into the smoke a lot in round 2 probably cost him 3 seconds which is a huge difference.

Adam Drake, the only guy that hasn’t pitted in the qualifier successfully and pulled it off twice. We had dinner with Adam and he explained to me that Casey Peck, his pit guy, is calling him into pit and Adam is ignoring him and running it out. He said he crashed twice in round 1 and just felt the run was over either way so he went for it. Saved a top 10-12 run in the process too. Round 2 he drove awesome and didn’t pit which helped him to a 3rd in the round. So far, this is the best the TLR guys have ever done at the 1/8th worlds in qualifying. At least, that’s what my memory says.

Robert Batlle, he’s a contender. So far the only one able to run within 5 seconds of Ty and he did it with some bobbles. Remember, he’s the champ and guess who he beat to win it? Ty Tessmann… This should be interesting.

Can I consider Ty an American racer even though he’s from Canada? I think so. He runs the American tour and spends most of his racing time racing in America. He races for companies with home offices in California and is the golden boy for both of them. He’s an American racer with a kick azz work ethic and says….eh at the end of stuff. I was born in Marquette, Michigan which is close to Canada. Maybe I have the Canadian R/C touch? We will find out at Yatabe Arena in 2015!

Video – Qualifying Rd2 Heats 1, 2 & 3

Vegas to host 2016 1:8 Offroad Worlds

Las Vegas has been selected to host the 2016 IFMAR 1:8th Offroad World Championships.  With three tracks making submissions to host the 16th running of the IFMAR event, the new track was selected over 2012 1:10 Offroad World Championship track Silver Dollar Raceway and 2014 1:8 ROAR Nationals track Thornhill Racing Circuit.  With Vegas’ world famous strip visible from the drivers stand and the airport located across the street, the venue is sure to be a huge hit with racers & teams but Jared Tebo believes the track will put on a very worthy event.  Visiting the venue earlier this year along with Kyosho team-mate Cody King to test for the Silver State race, Tebo was childhood friend of the track owner Chris Tocco and after 10 years of not seeing him was reunited through r/c racing, reigniting that friendship.

A former Pro Motocrosser, Torro retired due to injury but has since worked on building motocross tracks and also being an RC racer himself Tebo believes he will build an awesome track.  Attending a bike show in Vegas two weeks ago AKA’s Joel Johnson and Mark Pavidis visited the track and while still in its early stages of development (photo above) believes it should make for a good World Championships.  The 2006 World Champion, Pavidis is also confident Tocco has the credentials to run the event.  In 2000 Associated’s Richard Saxton hosted the World Championships in Vegas where Kyosho designer Yuchi Kanai took the title.

Photos of the day – Tuesday

Tessmann ties up first day of qualifying in Sicily

Ty Tessmann made Day 1 of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Sicily his own, the Canadian backing up his Q1 run with another convincing performance in the second round.  Bettering his time by almost 2-seconds over 10-minutes the HB driver was 5-seconds clear of his nearest rival Robert Batlle, the defending champion having a much better Q2.  Again showing he is the master of run time going the full distance without a fuel stop, Adam Drake completed the Top 3 knocking close on 10-seconds off his morning time.  For qualifying top seed David Ronnefalk it was not to be a good day with Q2 proving worse for the Swede who did not even make the Top 16 this time round.

A pretty much perfect day for Tessmann, who once again set the fastest lap of the round, he said for Q2 he took a somewhat less conservative approach to his driving but still managed to keep the run free of mistakes.  Changing to thicker shock oil on his D812 the US National Champion said this gave him a more consistent car.  With little more to add regarding his ‘very good day’, his plan for the second of the three days of qualifying tomorrow is to leave everything the same and try repeat today, four from six heats to determine the final qualifying order.

‘Getting better’ was Batlle’s summary of Q2.  Only 9th fastest in the opening round, the Mugen driver said while he still had a few small mistakes ‘at least this time we had speed’.  Describing the handling of his MBX7R as ‘much better’ he said following a switch to softer springs & lighter shock oil it had more corner speed. Still looking to find more from the car he said they will make further changes for tomorrow but as yet wasn’t sure what they would be and he would discuss tonight with his team.

Changing to a harder centre diff, shocks and to a Pro-Line X1 compound Suburb tyre, Drake said while his TLR 8ight felt the same, to drive it was definitely faster.  Taking the same cautious approach to his driving he said the set-up change seemed to make it easier for him to go faster compared with his rivals.  For Q3 he is considering adjusting the rear toe out to try a get his buggy to rotate more fluidly.

Posting another Top 4 time Lee Martin described his day as ‘not too bad’.  Feeling he could have driven Q2 better he said he got caught out on his choice of tyre compound. Running a set of X1 Pro-Line Surburbs there was a big drop off in temperature as some threatening clouds passed over the track adding that if the situation arose again he would switch to X2.  Planning to run everything much the same tomorrow the British ace said the aim is to get another two good runs in before trying any big changes but added after the four days of practice they are pretty close now with the best set-up for the Naxos World track.

‘Alright’ was Jared Tebo response to his 5th for the round.  Third in Q1, he said a small set-up change in the front diff was the wrong direction to take and he would go back for tomorrow.  Catching traffic at the end of his run he said he let this get him out of his rhythm resulting in ‘one stupid mistake’ that cost him almost 3-seconds.

Setting the sixth fastest time Team Durango’s Joern Neumann put his improvement mostly down to his driving.  Suffering radio glitches before the start of Q1 he said this effected his driving for the run.  Top Qualifier at last years 1:10 4WD Electric World Championships, the German said small set-up changes and a switch from X1 to X2 Suburbs made his FX powered DNX8 easier to drive.  Happy with his car he said he would leave it the same for Q3 and focus on putting together another good run.

Taking a seventh for the round Ryan Maifield was content with his run saying he ‘didn’t make any mistakes so it was OK’.  Running JConcepts Diamond Bars he said maybe he could have made a better choice in terms of running a smaller pin or softer compound to match the qualifying tyres his rivals are running.  Happy with the tyre he has as he knows its going to be good come the finals, he said he might try some different tyres adding JConcepts boss Jason Ruona was working on getting something to try as a qualifier tyre.  Overall the TLR driver said it was a ‘good day’ and his two runs ‘take a little pressure off so its not looking too bad’ at the end of Day 1 of qualifying.

Setting the 8th fastest time making it two Durangos in the Top 10, Ryan Lutz said his run was ‘very good except for one crash’.  Losing over 4-seconds in the early mistake, the American ran a heavier front diff along with moving the shocks in one hole which helped to smooth out the feel of the car.  Also finding more consistency from his brakes this time round, he plans to stick with the same set-up for Q3.

Team Associated pairing Ryan Cavalieri and Neil Cragg completed the Top 10.  Describing his prototype next generation RC8 as ‘pretty good’, Cavalieri was a little frustrated by traffic.  Pitting for fuel early so as to avoid traffic he said it wasn’t long before he caught another pack of cars who he said didn’t want to give way and not knowing the drivers he said he didn’t want to force the issue.  Feeling he could improve the corner speed of the car on a few particular corners of the track he said he will discuss possible solutions with the team tonight, the cars chief designer Kody Numendahl on hand to support the teams three key drivers – Cavalieri, Cragg and Yannick Aigoin.

Outside the Top 10, newly crowned former European Champion & this year’s podium finisher Darren Bloomfield took his Agama to the 11th fastest time ahead of the Xray of Euros runner-up Martin Wollanka.  The man who beat both those drivers to the European title, Ronnefalk said the traction has got so high now it is not suiting either his car set-up or his driving style.  The 18-year-old said compared with practice today his MP9 is now ‘twitchy & edgy to drive’ something he is putting down to more concrete coming up through the dirt.  ‘Need(ing) to make changes for tomorrow’, he said hopefully they can work it out.

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