September 17, 2011

Evans tops opening 2WD qualifier in Dallas

Dustin Evans

Losi’s Dustin Evans has topped the opening round of qualifying for 2WD Modified at the fourth and final event on the Short Course Showdown Nationwide Tour which is taking place at the amazing Mikes Model Shop facility in Dallas, Texas.  The US 2WD Buggy Champion took his Orion powered Losi XXX-SCT to the fastest time ahead of Team Associated’s Brian Kinwald and Randy Pike’s Tekin powered Losi.

Winner of the second date on the Showdown tour when it stopped off at Trackside Hobbies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Evans was the only driver to record 16 laps as he set the fastest lap of the opening qualifier.  Not happy with the performance of his 2WD truck recently, the factory driver said yesterday’s open practice was very productive and he is really happy now with his set-up.  Running AKA super soft Wishbones Evans will leave everything as is for the second of the four qualifiers.  Asked about the track Evans said it worked well for Short Course and while it looked easy the centre double double was hard to pull off every lap.

Brian Kinwald

The man with the most wins of the tour in 2WD and a legend of Off Road racing Kinwald described his run as ‘loose’.  Running JConcepts Barcode tyres on his SC-10 the multiple former World Champion put the lack of grip down to the sauce he used on his tyres and plans to try a different sauce for his next run.  Really impressed by the facility here at Mikes Hobby Shop, the ‘Dirtinator’ described the track as ‘pretty simple’ but hopes in Q2 he can mount a stronger challenge to Evans.

Randy Pike

The team manager at Tekin electronics, Pike ran a fresh set of Panther tyres which he said took a few laps to come in but overall it was a solid first run.  Looking to find a little more steering on his XXX-SCT, the racer from California is planning to add some extra weight to the front of his truck.

Quincy Hughes

Also driving a Tekin powered Losi, local track hot shot Quincy Hughes set the fourth fastest time just 6/10th shy of Pike’s time.  Making his Short Course Showdown Nationwide Tour debut, Hughes was happy with the performance of his AKA shod truck and says he has no plans to change anything for Q2.

Paul Wynn

Advising Kinwald on his tyre choices here in Dallas, JConcepts’ Paul Wynn took his Reedy powered Associated to the fifth fastest time.  Also finding the track a little ‘slick’, the man responsible for body design at JConcepts has been an A finalist at all previous tour dates and is hopeful he will qualify directly this time round having had to bump up from the B Main at the last two events.  Running his latest body creation, the Highflow, which features some nicely moulded air escape holes, Wynn said the size of the track doesn’t realise the full potential of the holes but instead the benefit is the lower weight helping to reduce body roll.

Completing the Top 6 for the opening qualifier was 18-year-old Cody Hollis. Driving a Kyosho Ultima SC, the Oklahoma driver said his truck was not great to drive but by keeping his run clean he was pretty pleased to take sixth.  Lacking forward traction he hopes by lengthening the rear camber links he will have a better package for Q2.

In the other 2WD drive classes Kevin McCoy topped the Stock class from Brian Butts while Kent Everett and Ron Simpson set the pace in the Novice and Traxxas Slash Spec classes respectively.

View our event image gallery here.

September 16, 2011

Record ‘Showdown’ for Short Course in Dallas

Track

It is fair to say that as a sport rc racing has not been great at finding ways to open itself up to new audiences but over in the US one class that is changing all that is Short Course.  As a full size motorsport this form of off road truck racing enjoys huge popularity and TV exposure in America and in a trend started by Traxxas the r/c industry has been able to create a partnership with full size teams that has benefited both the team’s big brand sponsors and more importantly hobby shops across the States who now have a product that the general public can instantly recognise.

Traxxas

With the creation of the Slash, Traxxas opened the door for fans of the full size trucks to emulate their favourite drivers with a radio controlled scaled replica that was durable and fun to drive and came ready to run at a price that was affordable to the masses.  Now title sponsors of the full size TORC Short Course Championship, Traxxas have created a hugely successful marketing program with a massive presence at each event which exposes the rc sport to a potentially huge new audience.  Two of the pioneers of rc offroad racing, Team Associated and Losi have also realised the benefits of being linked with the success of 1:1 scale Short Course racing and have developed their own marketing programs with various teams.

While the manufacturers are enjoying strong sales of Short Course trucks, the big winner is the club racing scene.  With the majority of Hobby Shops in the US housing their own tracks, attracting new blood into the sport is vital to their survival and many shop owners have hailed Short Course as one of the greatest things to ever hit the industry.

Scotty Ernst

Looking to raise the profile of the class, well known international race promoter Scotty Ernst this year created the ‘Short Course Showdown Nationwide Tour’ and having heard plenty of hype about the racing Red RC have traveled to Dallas, Texas, for the fourth and final date.  Arriving at Mikes Hobby Shop we were immediately blown away by the huge facility. A legend of the sport, Team Associated’s Brian Kinwald summed up just how impressive the place is by saying ‘I could live here’. Making his first visit to the track Losi’s Dustin Evans said the place just blew every other venue in the country away.

Dustin Evans

Having previously stopped off in Maryland, Wisconsin and California, with Mike Truhe, Steven Hartson, Evans and Kinwald among the winners, the tour has gone from strength to strength with this weekend on target to have over 200 entries booked in. In the premiere 4WD Modified class the large entry is set to make this the biggest Short Course race ever run.  In addition to the top category there are also classes for Traxxas Slash, 2WD Novice, 2WD Stock and 2WD Modified.  Having today to learn the superb track which shop owner Mike Darnell prepared especially for the Short Course Showdown’s visit, the event gets fully underway tomorrow with the first of three rounds of qualifying.

Supported by Horizon Hobby, Losi and Spektrum, we will bring full coverage of the weekends proceedings starting in the morning with a full round up of the action from the opening qualifier.

View our event image gallery here.

August 20, 2011

Pietsch completes dream debut for MTX-5

Winners

Having won his first 1:8 European Championship title when he debuted Mugen’s MRX-5 in 2009, Mugen designer Robert Pietsch pulled off another dream result for the Japanese company when he lifted his first 200mm European Championship title today in Germany on the debut of the new MTX-5 touring car.  Top Qualifier for the event and starting from pole position for the 45-minute main, having dominated his Semi, the 1:8 World Champion lead every one of the 191 laps with former champion Dirk Wischnewski the only driver with the potential to deny him failing to mount a serious challenge. The Xray driver had to settle for second with team-mate Teemu Leino, who finished four laps down, completing the podium in Ettlingen.

Pietsch MTX-5

Very proud of securing for a third time a major title for a car he was responsible for designing and bringing to fruition, Pietsch said the race went pretty much to plan and without drama.  Having a small moment when he got spun by Adrian Bernsten while lapping the Norwegian, he said having had issues in the past with the MTX-4 he was really pleased with the reliability of its successor. Having lapped the entire field at one point Pietsch said after an early final stop he started to lift off on the straight to ensure he had fuel to go the full distance which allowed Wischnewski to close back to within half a lap of him. After a week that started off under a cloud of controversy of trying to control the use of tyre additive, Pietsch wanted to pay compliments to the efforts of race organisers for making the tyre impound work and in the end putting on a good & fair event.

Wischnewski & Pietsch

Clearly wanting the title he won in 2009 back, Wischnewski said in the end finishing second was ‘OK’.  The German said he struggled with a bad first set of tyres and trying to keep up with Pietsch pushed too hard resulting in a mistake coming onto the straight that lost him four seconds and gave his rival a big enough break to take control of the race.  Pitting on the same lap as Pietsch for his tyre change that gap grew to almost a full lap when his engine flamed out as his car was set down to leave the pitlane.

Leino & Pietsch

Having always had trouble in finals in the past, former Top Qualifier Leino was very happy at claiming his first podium finish.  Calculating his tyre wear after the Semi finals the former European electric touring car champion opted to just change his outside (right) tyres during the race.  Hoping the saved time would give him an advantage the Xray/LRP team driver said the car was ‘horrible’ following the change.  Battling with 2009 finalist Biagio Spataro for third position, Leino was eventually able to cruise to third when the Italian teenager retired with fuel in his electrics.

Spataro

Spataro was the only driver running a two stop tyre strategy and it came close to rewarding him with a podium finish.  Deciding to run the same tyre set-up he used in qualifying allowing him to run just 7/1000ths off Wischnewski’s fastest lap of the race, on his penultimate pitstop his mechanic over filled the tank causing fuel to get into the electrics ending the 16-year-old’s race.  Some consolation for Spataro was that ninth overall was good enough to secured him the European Junior Championship title.

Dario Balestri

With Spataro out fellow Italian and former two time champion Dario Balestri moved up to fourth.  Having called for 10-minutes after problems with his radio receiver in the warm-up, the factory Novarossi driver started the race from 11th on the grid.  Changing the shock oil and springs on his KM Racing H-K1 having not been happy with it in the Semi, Balestri said it didn’t improve things.  His first major race with the car, he had a heavy off which caused his receiver to come unplugged.  Loosing over a minute as his team got the electric working again he dropped to seventh which was where he would be classified for the race.

Rico Kröber

Making the final for the first time Germany’s Rico Kröber said he was very happy with finishing fourth. Struggling with the larger tyre diameter at the start of the race, the Xray/Novarossi driver changed tyres one stop later than the rest and with his second set having a smaller diameter he had a better second half to the race.  Behind him Austrian Manuel Huber, a podium finisher in 2009, had a problem with the oil leaking from his rear shocks but said considering this and some issues with his Max engine fifth was ‘OK’.

Michael Derderian

The only driver to do the full race without changing tyres, France’s Michael Derderian saw any advantage it might bring disappear with his RB engined Xray running out of fuel twice. Another driver making his first European final debut he would complete the Top 6.

Eric Dankel

One of the driver expected to win the race from third, Eric Dankel suffered two glow plug failures and was the final classified finisher in 8th.  The versatile German racer said his Novarossi powered Xray NT1 felt really good but with his engine problems it just wasn’t to be.  Along with Spataro the only other retirement in the final was talented Norwegian Champion Adrian Bernsten who suffered an engine failure coming up to the 1/3 race distance.

Finalists

So the eighth running of the European Championships for 1:10 200mm touring cars is in the history books with Robert Pietsch becoming the 6th different champion.  While the use of tyre additive looked set to the dog this event early in the week today’s racing, especially in the 1/4 and Semi finals, showed 200mm at its best and Red RC would like to thank new champions Mugen, Team Shepherd and Matrix tyres for making our coverage of this event possible. With rumours of a new high profile series for both onroad nitro classes doing the rounds in Germany the future of nitro onroad is thankfully starting to look brighter.

Final Results

View the full event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

August 20, 2011

Pietsch takes European title on MTX-5 debut

Pietsch takes European title on MTX-5 debut

Robert Pietsch has given Mugen’s new MTX-5 the dream debut by convincingly winning the 200mm European Championships in Ettlingen Germany. The race was only ever between Pietsch and Dirk Wischnewski but a flame out during the former Champion’s tyre stop in the middle of the race effectively put the Xray driver a lap down on his fellow countryman.  After a long battle with Biagio Spataro, who retired after fuel got into his electrics, Finland’s Teemu Leino completed the podium.