February 21, 2020

Chassis Focus – Atsushi Hara (HB Racing)

Chassis – HB Racing Pro XX
Motor – P1 Performa 4.5T
ESC – Orion HMX
Battery – Orion Ultimate 7000mAh
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servos – Futaba
Body – Xtreme Twister

Remarks – Former World Champion Atsushi Hara is using the TITC to test different configurations of HB Racing’s new Pro XX platform. Based on the now 6 year old Pro 5 chassis, the car has been converted to a mid motor car thanks to a Zero Tribe conversion. Continuously evaluating the car, Hara says he has multiple different configurations still to test but will focus on the currently installed one for now to try and get the most out of it. An optimistic release date for the new car is August this year with the final car set to also have new plastics.

Updated – Atsushi gave us a close up look at the second Pro XX configuration, one which has been created specifically for the car rather than an adapted conversion kit which is what he is currently running. In this you can see the single piece central motor mount and spur gear holder as well as the new bulkheads, chassis plate and servo mount. 

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February 20, 2020

Sobue tops seeding at TITC

Akio Sobue has topped seeding at the TITC, with the Infinity driver quickest from Yokomo’s Souta Goto over 3-consecutive laps of this year’s high speed layout at the Infinity Addict Circuit.  In the first of the two controlled practice runs, the 2018 Champion was fastest from team-mate Naoto Matsukura but rocket round conditions for the second round produced a big improvement in times as Sobue went almost half a second clear, this time ahead of Goto who was placed in the slowest of the much depleted Modified field.  Jilles Groskamp completed the Top 3 ahead of Viktor Wilck, while Matsukura, unable to better his opening time, dropped to fifth with Atsushi Hara completing the Top 6.  Unfortunately the coronavirus has impacted hugely on the international entry at the 18th running of Asia’s most famous RC. Concerns over the health of their drivers in travelling to Asia means multiple champions Xray are not in attendance meaning we wont get the opportunity to watch Alexander Hagberg attempt to defend the title he won here last year.  Also missing from the entry are TITC regulars and World Champions Bruno Coelho, Ronald Volker and Marc Rheinard.

The first big race for the IF14-II, Sobue was quick to compliment the Japanese manufacturer’s progress with the new car saying, ‘the new car is very good, the first lap is good and 5-minutes is good, the balance of the car is really good.  I was happy with the car in practice all week so today I just made small changes which improved the balance even more’.  Asked about this year’s track layout, he replied, ‘It’s not a difficult layout.  It is super high speed so tyre management is important. It is always difficult here but now it’s even more challenging to make sure the tyres don’t get too hot’.  With 4 rounds of qualifying on the schedule over the next two days, looking to tomorrow’s opening qualifier, Sobue is confident he is ‘ready to go’.

Making his TITC debut, Goto is pleased with his pace over 3-laps but feels there is improvement to come from his driving.  Heading the early Yokomo challenge, with team-mate Meen Vejrak their next best placed driver in 7th after seeding, the 19-year-old said, ‘I’m happy with the car set-up. I am running the car very much like how I run it in Japan just with a few tweaks for the layout.  The layout is high speed which is what I like’.  Vejrak who will be joined in the top heat of qualifying by team-mate Nicholas Lee who was 10th fastest, has ended the day running a car borrowed from the 2017 Vice Champion.  A speedo shut down saw the Thai driver hit the barrier in the middle of the track launching it rocket style to a spectacular vertical height, the impact destroying his race car.

Summing up his P3 in seeding, Groskamp said, ‘The rocket round was not as fast as I expected and I was on used tyres. I tried them in free practice yesterday and they felt better but today they were not better and I pulled in after 2-minutes’.  The Dutch driver who once used to call Bangkok is home continued, ‘with the rocket round its always scary that some guys might get 3-laps and push you out of the top heat but the gap with our new car over the other teams is quite big which is nice’. Happy with his car, he said the biggest challenge for qualifying is going to be the track, ‘conditions are different every time so you don’t always know how it is going to work’.

Commenting on his practice pace, Wilck said, ‘It’s OK. It is not super fast over 3-laps but 5-minutes is pretty good’.  The Swede added, ‘I tried a set-up change in the last round which caused the car to spin out sometimes so I will go back for Q1.  On the track he echoed the general feeling about the layout, saying, ‘the layout is a little more easy this year but it’s fun to drive.  You use a lot more power.  It’s fast’.

Last year’s runner-up, Matsukura said his second seeding run was hampered by a lack of traction in the first laps with him explaining, ‘I had no traction the first minute.  I don’t know why.  I did make a set-up change but this should not have caused this. After the the first minutes it was good’.  Describing the chassis on his car as ‘old’, he said, ‘I think this might be causing it to flex too much so I will fit a new chassis for tomorrow’.

Asked about his P6 in seeding, Hara said, ‘this is my first time racing the HB Racing Project and Zero Tribe is helping me with the development. So 50% of the car is from him’.  Having taken up a sales role with HB Racing, and therefore racing less, the RC Racing legend said, ‘before the race I tested the car but couldn’t get a set-up.  I need to figure out the current situation for touring car.  It’s been a long time that I don’t race touring car’.  With the car, internal code named the Pro XX, now fitted with a Zero Tribe mid motor conversation, Hara said he has already designed the next stage in the car’s development but didn’t have the time to get it ready for the race’.  On his own performance, given his lack of competitive action, ‘I have Top 10 pace so I am happy, I just need to figure out small details now’.

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January 27, 2020

2020 Reedy Offroad ROC Winner – Ryan Maifield

4wd Buggy

Yokomo YZ4 SF – Hobbywing XR10 Pro Elite – Hobbywing Xerun V10 5.5T – Protek 4100mAh battery – Sanwa M17 Transmitter – Protek160TBL Servo – JConcepts S1 body

2wd Buggy

Yokomo YZ2 DTM3 – Hobbywing XR10 Pro Elite – Hobbywing Xerun V10 7.5T – Protek 6100mAh battery – Sanwa M17 Transmitter – Protek160TBL Servo – JConcepts F2 body

January 27, 2020

Maifield claims 2nd Reedy Race title

Ryan Maifield has claimed the Reedy Offroad Race of Champions title for a second time, the Yokomo driver becoming the 7th driver in the famed race’s history to become a multiple champion. While Maifield would set out his stall early in the event and leading the points at the end of each day, the 26th running of the event would go down to the 12th & final round of racing with Spencer Rivkin in with a stab at his first win. Needing to win the final round to keep the pressure on Maifield to perform, the World Champion was held at bay by CJ Jelin meaning Maifield’s final result didn’t matter but after a 5-year wait he wanted to regain his title in true champion style clocking up win No.6 of the weekend.  Coming away with his best Reedy Race finish, Rivkin would end the event 4-points down on Maifield with the podium completed by Ryan Cavalieri who wrapped up the 2020 event with a win in the 36th & final heads up race.  Maifield’s closest challenger at the completion of 4WD, former champion Dakotah Phend would claim fourth ahead of Broc Champlin, the teenager putting in some very strong showings against the establishment.  For last year’s champion Jared Tebo, what had the potential to be a good day didn’t turn out that way and he dropped to 7th behind Ty Tessmann in the final standings having started the day in a fighting second.

Reacting to his win, Maifield said, ‘It has been a good week. My cars felt great all weekend, we just made small adjustments here and there. It was a great win for the team’.  Yokomo’s first Reedy title since 1999, he continued, ‘We have been busting our asses to get the car easier to drive.  They have always been fast.  We applied a few things this weekend that we have been working on and they worked’.  Reflecting on the race, which given the amount of heads up racing is not just about being fast, he said, ‘This is a hard race to win.  I had a lot of luck on my side but I also had the fastest cars all week.  It’s also my first race with Hobbywing so it’s nice to win it for them too’.

Rivkin said, ‘It was awesome I had a shot at the title. It made it interesting with Ryan going into the last round’.  The Team Associated driver continued, ‘I’m definitely going to have to wait another year but I think it took Maifield five or six years to get his first title. Congratulations to him, he drove the best this week’.  On his final encounter, for which he lined up 6th but unable to get by pole sitter Jelin, he said, ‘It was an awesome race with CJ. I gave all I had. He drove really good. That was all I had’.

Returning to the podium having finished 6th last year, 4-time Champion Cavalieri was pleased with the result saying, ‘It was a good weekend of racing’.  The Sworkz team driver, who ran a TLR in 2WD, continued, ‘I could have had a couple of races go better and I could have finished even better but it’s a good start to the year’.

One of the big talking points of this year’s Reedy Race after some impressive performances, Champlin summed up the event saying, ‘The weekend was good. I drove as good as I could and my cars were as good as they could be’.  Sitting second in the points half way through 2WD, he continued, ‘My luck was out with some of the starts I got and I was really unlucky today, that capped off any chance of a podium but 5th overall was good. I finished 10th last year’.

Summing up his weekend, outgoing champion Tebo said, ‘Overall it was pretty good, I just had a really rough day today’.  The Tekno driver continued, ‘I made a few errors from my own side but also got caught up in other’s crashes. It was a really tough day. Before that it was going alright’.

Booking the opportunity to race the world’s best drivers in Invitation next year, both 2019 Open Champions registering wins this weekend, Team Associated driver Aydin Horne took the 2WD honours over his brother Austin with Tom Rinderknecht third.  In 4WD it was TLR’s up and coming star Rinderknecht who took the win to book his place on the grid for the 27th running of the legendary Reedy Offroad Race of Champions.

View our event image gallery here.