Red RC Events

June 2, 2011

Drake fastest in second Truggy practice

Adam Drake

Team Losi Racing’s Adam Drake has set the pace in the second round of controlled Truggy practice for the 2011 US Nationals this morning, topping the 7-minute run from former champion Ryan Maifield and A-Main Hobbies team driver Chad Bradley. Despite running on a freshly watered track which caused a little understeer on his AKA Gridiron shod 8ight-T, Drake said his truck was really good to drive and should get better as the track gets more packed.

After a troubled day yesterday Maifield was much happier after his team made the call to switch him from Reedy to LRP engines, AE being the distributor for LRP in the US. While the other members of the Associated team are happy with the performance of their Reedy engines, Maifield struggled for bottom end powered with his units and so the team made the decision to switch him to LRP for the remainder of the event. Running JConcepts Hybrid Green tyres on his RC8T, the 2009 Champion said other than changing to a softer front spring for CP3 he will leave the everything else as is.

Chad Bradley

Running a Losi in Truggy, Bradley said he put Drake’s set-up on his OS powered truck when they sent it to him and he has not had to touch it since. Running Proline M3 Holeshots he feels the biggest issue is the watering of the track which if done just before your run will cost half a second a lap for 3/4 of the run and its important that for qualifying that they either water the track between every run or not a all to make it fair for everyone.

Billy Easton

Setting the fourth fastest time, Serpent’s Billy Easton said he needs to find more steering and felt that the rear of his 811 Cobra-T was too stiff. Running the same set-up as team-mates Jared Tebo and Cody King, Mark Pavidis outpaced them both in overall time to be the top Kyosho driver with the fifth fastest time. In terms of fastest lap times however it is King who is setting the bench mark with a 29.583 while team-mate and defending champion Tebo is also quick with a 29.748.

The pace setter in yesterday’s opening practice Ty Tessmann could only manage 6th fastest. The Hot Bodies driver, who won the Warm-up race for the event, ran early this morning and said this meant the track was very loose but once the line cleared his Proline Holeshot equipped D8T was pretty good, however for the second of today’s runs he plans to run a lighter oil in the centre diff.

View our event image gallery here.

June 2, 2011

Amezcua & Tessmann top opening practice session

Travis Amezcua

A relaxed opening day to the 2011 US 1:8 Offroad Nationals at Thunder Alley saw Mugen’s Travis Amezcua and Hot Bodies Ty Tessmann top the single round of controlled practice for Buggy and Truggy respectively. Amezcua was fastest from Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri, Tessmann, Kyosho’s Mark Pavidis and the Losi of former US Champion Mike Truhe while in Truggy Tessmann set the pace over Adam Drake, Ryan Cavalieri and Chad Bradley.

Travis Amezcua Action

Running Ninja’s new JXB02 engine in his MBX-6, Amezcua said today’s run was all about learning the track, a layout which he feels is going to reward consistency. Very happy with the smooth power delivery of his new engine he doesn’t plan on changing anything for the first of the two practice runs that make up tomorrow’s schedule, after which stage track conditions should start to settle and he can work on fine tuning his set-up for qualifying.

Ryan Cavalieri

Second fastest in Buggy and third in Truggy Cavalieri said he was ‘pretty happy’ with the opening day describing the track as really fun to drive. Unfortunately for his Associated team-mate Ryan Maifield engine trouble in his buggy meant he spent a lot of time in the pitlane during his run forcing the Warm-up race winner to fit a new engine for tomorrow’s practice.

Ty Tessmann Action

Fastest in Truggy, which had to contend with the fresh track as they got the event underway today, Canadian Tessmann took his D8 around in the third fastest time. Having come directly to California from racing electric Touring Cars at the Reedy Race in San Fransisco last weekend, the talented teenager said his truggy was really good but he expects the track is going to change tomorrow and based on this he plans some changes to his D8 buggy.

Mark Pavidis

Despite having little or no time to prepare for the Nationals due to a heavy work load at AKA, former World Champion Pavidis was really pleased with his run. Fourth fastest, the Kyosho driver said the layout created by track owner Rob Jackson, father of top racer Levi Jackson, is really good as it caters for everyone and not just the Pro drivers. Kyosho team-mate Jared Tebo, the defending champion of both classes, did not feature high up on the time sheet but the Worlds Top Qualifier said everything ran very smooth and is looking forward to the track getting grooved up tomorrow. World Champion Cody King, who had a problem with the transponder in his buggy, said the opening run was just about getting in laps and learning the track and he was happy with how that had gone.

Describing his practices as ‘solid first runs’ Mike Truhe was fifth fastest in buggy ahead of his TLR team-mates Matt Castellano and Adam Drake while Associated’s JR Mitch, Xray’s Josh Wheeler and JQ’s Marty Korn completed the Top 10.

View our event image gallery here.

June 2, 2011

New in the Pits – Part 1

New in the Pits - Part 1

With these ROAR Nationals such an important race for manufacturers, a lot of companies have brought with them some new products to showcase. Local company Pro-Line, based only 10 minutes from the Thunder Alley facility, have two new tires on offer. So new they don’t yet have the name on the tire sidewall. There is the new Blockade buggy tire and the Revolver 2.0 for truggy. The Blockade is an all new tire featuring a larger block with wider spacing between the rows along the circumference, giving good traction levels. Fitting into the range between the Caliber & Revolver tires and is great for racers running longer finals where durability is important. The Revolver 2.0 for truggy is bringing the same technology from the buggy tire, of the same name, to the larger format and is again ideal for longer finals.

Losi Servo Config

The Losi team are run a new servo configuration on their 8ight buggies and truggies which sees the throttle servo mounted in front of the steering servo and which is connected to a lever system by a long track rod to control both the braking and carburettor. The new placement brings the weight balance of the car more to the front. There is no concrete plans for the release of this update but all the main team drivers are running this new layout.

Orion Neo11 engine

Adrien Bertin has made his way over from France to take care of the CRF drivers and he has brought with him the new Team Orion Neo11 engine, a 3 port motor released to commemorate Jared Tebo’s win at the recent Neo11 race. Compared to the previously released 5-port engines, this new liner configuration is ideal for shorter tracks, such as the one we are racing on this week, offering plenty of bottom end torque. Adrien also showed us the new CRF crankshaft which sports a new shape crank bell and which has been lightened around the fuel intake area of the shaft. This crankshaft is being supplied as standard since the beginning of the year in all of the Orion buggy engines.

View our event image gallery here.

June 2, 2011

US Nationals underway in California

The 2011 US Nationals for 1:8 Offroad have just got underway at the impressive Thunder Alley facility in Southern California where some of the best drivers in the World will battle it out in both the Buggy and Truggy classes over the next 5 days in search of the most important title outside of the World Championships. Entering the pits the importance of this event and market, the biggest in the World, is evident by the size of the team presence in what is one of the most colourful and well presented pit areas we’ve ever witnessed.

Thunder Alley

A little over six months ago at the World Championships in Thailand, American drivers dominated proceedings by first taking the TQ honours, then by securing over half the places on the grid of the final before Cody King went on to win the World title. With so many drivers of a World class caliber, the stage is set for a thrilling event on a track track layout which most of the top drivers feel will lend itself to close racing. 132 Buggy and 90 Truggy entries have been published for the opening day of the event which breaks the drivers in gently with just one 7-minute round of practice for each class.

Jared Tebo

Picking a favourite for the win come Sunday is near impossible due to the standard of drivers present. Kyosho’s Jared Tebo is the defending champion having won both the Buggy and Truggy titles last year in Colorado but at the Warm-up event at the beginning of April it was Associated’s Ryan Maifield who was victorious in Buggy while Hot Bodies young ace Ty Tessmann won Truggy. Thunder Alley previously hosted the Nationals back in 2008, when it was a Buggy only event, and on that occasion Team Losi’s Mike Truhe took the victory.

Ryan Cavalieri

Interestingly with Proline’s headquarters only ten minutes from Thunder Alley a number of their team drivers took advantage of the tyre company’s new test track yesterday to get into the groove for the event. Due to a ROAR ruling Thunder Alley was closed to practice so Ryan Cavalieri, Ty Tessmann, Chad Bradley, Marty Korn and Dylan Rodriguez used the fresh Proline track to evaluate Proline’s new Blockade buggy tyre and Revolver 2.0 truggy tyre, both of which are designed as a long wearing tyre and are expected to feature in the finals here on Sunday.

European Champion Renaud Savoya is here but the now US based driver will have to wait another year before he can contest the US Nationals. Under the rules for entering the championships competitors must be based in the country more than 12 months and having only moved out to Texas from France late last year he is not yet eligible to compete. Instead the three time European Champion and World finalist will provide support to RB customers and his American Durango team-mates. He also said he expects to learn a few things from watching his main rivals something he would not normally have the opportunity to do when he is competing himself.

View our event image gallery here.

April 17, 2011

Pietsch finally gets his title at third attempt

Robert Pietsch

Having proven himself to be the fastest driver in the World for a third consecutive time Robert Pietsch today finally went on to claim the crown of the World’s best racer as he lifted his first IFMAR title at the 2011 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Miami, Florida. The German headed a Mugen 1-2 in a rain shortened final at Homestead RC Raceway with Keisuke Fukuda finishing runner-up ahead of Capricorn driver Dario Balestri who completed the podium at the 18th running of the sports original World Championship.

Top 3 Finishers

Failing to make the podium when he was Top Qualifier in Lostallo 2-years ago and again when he TQ’d the 1:10 Worlds last July in Texas, Pietsch said his luck had finally stuck today but the reality of taking the sports greatest accolade was going to take a few days to sink in. Responsible for designing the MRX-5, which he already used to become European Champion, he was very proud of his work as not only did he win but the car made up half of the grid in the final.

Main Finalists

Over taken in the early part of the race by a blisteringly fast Balestri, Pietsch said he was not surprised by the speed of his European rival. Having spotted the Italian true three sets of tyres before the race he was pretty sure that Balestri was going to run a two tyre-stop strategy which would allow him to push harder than the rest of the field who all ran just single tyre stops. After Balestri made his second tyre stop the champion elect had almost a lap on his rival and started to pace himself although he said a bad second last fuel stop almost saw him come undone costing him 4 seconds in time. Ultimately the rain, which arrived with about 1/4 of the race to run, brought the race to an early conclusion as the cars started to slide around the track forcing its stoppage at 47-minutes.

Having been unable to play out his strategy in full, having pitted for his second set of tyres just 5 minutes before the rain, Balestri said afterwards he wasn’t sure if the win would have been possible. The 25-year-old said he knew his Capricorn/Novarossi package was fast, endorsed by his 15.767 fastest lap of the race, and they ran the two tyre stop to try to capitalise on the outright speed of the LAB C801, but they hadn’t predicted the rain. A former two time European 200mm Champion he said he was still very happy to come away with a podium finish.

Keisuke Fukuda

Knowing what its like to win a World title having won the 200mm crown in 2006, Fukuda said his car felt really good but he just didn’t have the pace to match Pietsch. One of an impressive line up of five Japanese drivers in the final, he thinks following Balestri’s strategy would have been better for him as the tyre diameter difference from when you stop to when you change is very large and makes the car very difficult to drive consistently.

Main Final grid

The only Kyosho in the final having qualified directly Takaaki Shimo was disappointed to miss out on the podium. Working to his 1-hour plan the highest placed OS Speed driver believes second was on the cards but the premature end to the race did not let his strategy play out.

Atsushu Hara Pits

Having qualified 2nd Atsushi Hara could only manage 5th after his Mugen felt like it had a transmission problem 5 minutes into the race. His 1:8 Onroad debut Hara said he tried to push hard at the start of the race but he was too slow. This being his first opportunity to see Pietsch in action he said he had a lot of respect for the new World Champion who he felt deserved the win. A World champion of 1:8 Offroad and 1:10 Electric Touring Car Hara said he hoped to be at the next 1:8 Onroad worlds saying he had a lot of fun racing in what is rc racing’s Formula 1 category.

Robin D'Hondt

Finishing last in the final in Lostallo, Robin D’Hondt improved on that this year to finish 7th behind Shinya Shimazaki but the Belgian ace said after a trouble free run in the Semis bad luck dogged him in the main event with his Motonica needing to make a number of unscheduled pit stops. Claiming Shepherd’s first 1:8 World finals appearance Swiss teenager Simon Kurzbuch was the final finisher in 8th with Takehiro Teraucho retiring his Mugen after 23 minutes. Unfortunately the joy of getting one of their new RX8 chassis’ into the final was very short lived for Xray as Paul Lemieux would retire during the warm-up with a suspected radio receiver problem. With Shimazaki having already called a 10-minute delay the only American in the Top 10 was forced to sit out the final.

Official Final Results
1. Robert Pietsch (D) – Mugen/Novarossi – 167L in 47:06.695
2. Keisuke Fukuda (JP) – Mugen/Novarossi – 166L in 46:53.593
3. Dario Balestri (IT) – Capricorn/Novarossi – 166L in 47:00.352
4. Takaaki Shimo (JP) – Kyosho/OS – 166L in 47:02.751
5. Atsushi Hara (JP) – Mugen/OS – 166L in 47:09.161
6. Shinya Shimazaki (JP) – Mugen/Novarossi – 151L in 47:11.611
7. Robin D’Hondt (BE) – Motonica/Gi-Mar – 145L in 47:15.396
8. Simon Kurzbuch (CH) – Shepherd/Max – 144L in 47:07.745
9. Takehiro Terauchi (JP) – Mugen/Novarossi – 85L in 23:57.205
10.Paul Lemieux (US) – Xray/Max – OL

View our event image gallery here.

April 16, 2011

Pietsch is World Champion

Pietsch World Champion

Germany’s Robert Pietsch is the new IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Champion winning a rain shortened race at the Homestead RC Raceway from Italy’s Dario Balestri and Japan’s Keisuke Fukuda. As the race entered the final 15-minutes the dark clouds which have shadowed the track all day finally brought rain forcing Race Director Bob Ingersoll to stop the race at 47-minutes which was over 3/4 distance meaning the order of the race at that time is the official result of the 2011 World Championships.

UPDATE: Following a very long delay in the issuing of the final result there has been a change for second with Fukuda taking the runners up spot and Balestri dropping to 3rd. We understanding the change is due to one lap count back from the time at which the race was actually stopped. As this official result had to be created manually the result was not available for almost two hours after the race.

Official Result
1.Pietsch – Mugen
2.Fukuda – Mugen
3.Balestri – Capricorn
4.Shimo – Kyosho
5.Hara – Mugen
6.Shimazaki – Mugen
7.D’Hondt – Motonica
8.Kurzbuch – Shepherd
9.Takehiro – Mugen
10.Lemieux – Xray

Full report to follow.