German company BSR have announced that they will be entering the ultra competitive 1/8 Buggy tyre market, with what looks like 4 initial tread patterns, rather well named after girls’ “Top Models” names – no comment just as to which ‘girl’ performs better… Quite the goldmine of material… ‘Jenny never wears out…’ etc.

“The tyres were completely developed and sketched in Germany by BSR and the team. With the practice sessions which were finished already in 2012 it was with priority about the perfect elastic mixtures for our European subsoil. After the best rubber was found and was selected, it went to this tyre profiles design of the BSR-Line where we could profit from countless years racing experience and could introduce all our knowledge in the design of the Tire-Line.  After the tyre forms and the first prototypes were with us, it was our matter to choose the best tyre insert, what we have mastered by long, detailed tests. All this to be able to offer to you the perfect tyre for the hard competition.

BSR-Line tyres are available in two elastic soft mixtures (softly and supersoftly), and they are stuck together exclusively ready, offered on white 84 mm disc rims. With the insert it concerns a black “Close-Cell” insert, with gutters in the outside and special milling grooves in the inside. At the beginning four different tyre profiles are available and a fifthly profile follows shortly.

The BSR-Line Tires experience the official premiere on this week-end at the same time with the “international warm-up” at Bischofsheim(Germany), as well as with the first run to the “Staatsmeisterschaft” in Fehring, Austria.

You find other detailed infos to every single BSR-Line of buggy tyres, as well as detailed descriptions to the profiles from the beginning of the next week here with BSR – then at that time the tyres are also orderable for everybody. In the following unites, you can see the first impressions of our new “top models” which hear on the names Betty, Conny, Jenny as well as Sandy

Pictured below is JConcepts reinvented tyre mounting rubber band. A uniquely moulded design, specifically developed for tire mounting, the rubber band is produced in a high-elasticity material capable of stretching to a full assortment of different sized tyres. Finely detailed array of handles are designed to ergonomically conform to your fingers so the user can deftly adjust the rubber band to the side wall of each tyre to apply the pressure where it is needed. The Satellite rubber bands are available in blue and black colours and will include 4 bands per package.
See: www.JConcepts.net

The Revolution Design 210 Series Aluminium Steering Plate R2 is specially designed for the Team Durango 210 series vehicles including the DEX210, DEST210 and DESC210. The plate is totally redesigned from scratch and sports a new vertical inner ball stud position. This in combination with a more central and lower position of the ball studs does away with the need to use countless shims on the outer steering blocks in order to achieve zero bumpsteer. The steering plate is a direct replacement for the stock part and is CNC-machined from aircraft-quality 7075-T6 aluminium and comes black anodised and laser-etched for easy identification and a cool factory look. The RDRP 210 Series Aluminium Steering Plate R2 is a direct fit on the Team Durango DEX210, DEST210 and DESC210.

After yesterday’s soothing introduction to the Asia Contest the mood amongst the pits was buoyant with an air of expectation, the BittyDesign guys Davide & Stefano arriving yesterday afternoon saw the track surroundings plastered with banners of the race sponsors. Naturally BittyDesign themselves along with their Thair distributor RC Pro and complimentary brands ProCircuit, JQ Products and a few NeoBuggy banners even!

Yesterday the track closed for maintenance at 3PM  which allowed racers a bit of time to regroup, work on their cars and time for a quick dip in the pool. Perhaps even a fair few venturing out for a walk along a street – experiencing some of the… colourful delights that Pattaya uniquely offers once the sun has set, stories the next morning of mixed fortune ranging from the epic to the disastrous in a Cup-ful of occasions…

Track Panorama Gallery

Back to the action at hand, 4 rounds of 10mins untimed practice today ending with one 15 min round of timed practice using the fastest three consecutive laps to seed for qualifying on Saturday. As the day progressed the track where the molasses had been applied continued to bake to a crispy Crème brûlée under the hot Thai sun. One of the major obstacles for drivers is flat landing the car – placing a huge amount of stress on the internals. The six pack has taken a bit of a beating, one only a few occasions did we see the odd car attempt the ‘orbit in space’ combo of quad – double, the most normal line hug the inside and triple landing wide for a single double – its rare to see even the best drivers make it through here unscathed for a whole 10 mins.

Fast guys – the usual suspects which wasn’t quite revealed until the last round of the day which was timed unlike the previous four practices, however that wasn’t the case for Atsushi Hara who suffered a break and only recorded a slow time which will surely put a bit of a downer before qualifying kicks off tomorrow. Stay tuned for an ‘Under the Hood’ edition with Hara-san and fast locals Meen V & Charlee P.

Pacesetter during practice was the Japanese driver Wataru Takashiro who knows this track well having taken 3rd at the 2012 FEMCAs held at Pattaya last year, Chavit S from Thailand 2nd, Jason Dyckhoff 3rd, Mongkolpan L 4th, Greg Degani 5th, David Simms 6th, Napatree Kaewjunun 7th, Yael Zurfluh 8th, Dai Hiroki 9th and Akarachai Boontham 10th, oh and Fredrick Cederberg 11th. See the results below. (notables: 21, The Cup, 25, Meen V, 28 Charlee P, 64 Kenji Osaka, 65 Shaun Howe, 68 Atsushi Hara)

Wataru Takashiro – Practice pacesetter

Atsushi Hara – specialist round Pattaya shows them how its done with a few laps in practice.
More ASIA Contest videos

With the sun slowly setting over day one of the ASIA Contest a surprise from Charlie & the organisers – free Sushi and a beer provided for all the racers – not to mention the huge BittyDesign blowup dome, doubling as a showcase of products and belting out tunes all day long. These details have helped to transform what started out as a race into an event with excitement, great atmosphere and enjoyment.

P3 man Aussie Dyckhoff’s aluminium recycling bin

Come lunchtime track owner and all round great guy Charlie recommended us to try one of his favourites – Mango and Coconut rice, tasted great! What other track owner would all of a sudden spray you cheekily with a water pistol when you lease suspect it! It all translates into PRC being one of the absolute great venues for Offroad RC Racing.

Atsushi Hara – specialist round Pattaya shows them how its done with a few laps in practice.
More ASIA Contest videos

One of the pre-event favourites, 200mm Gas Onroad World Champion Meen Vejrak turns some laps in practice at the ASIA Contest in Pattaya, Thailand.

The first round of the BRCA Mid-West 2wd regional series took place this past Sunday at Telford Model Car Club (Oaklands Raceway). It was Tom Yardy who claimed overall victory ahead of Tony Bishop in second and Chris Lake in third. RC-Area attended the event with their camera, photos of which can be found here.

 
DC interviews 1/10th BRCA Chairman/EFRA, Rep Paul Worsley on behalf of RC-Area.

It was a nice, warm and sunny summer day in Manila for the Philippine Off-Road Nationals in the E-Buggy Class! The early benchmark in qualifying was posted by Team-C racer Garet Santayana who was almost assured of pole position until a late charge by Team Losi Racing driver Emer Agero who snatched the TQ spot by posting some blistering final laps on his last run. The top 5 on the grid after qualifying were: TQ Emer Agero (Losi), 2nd Garet Santayana (Team-C), 3rd Mike Ang (AE), 4th Ish Montilla (AE) and 5th Joseph Salcedo (X-Ray). 

The 1st A-main was a battle between the top 3 protagonist. Exchanging leads with one another until Losi’s Emer Agero experienced some problems which opened the door for Mike Ang and his Factory Team RC8.2 and Team C’s Garet Santayana to continue the fight to the finish. It was a true test of nerves with some great wheel to wheel action on the dirt and in the air. Mike Ang then managed to pull away at the end for a well earned A-1 win.

A-2 began with an early escape by Emer Agero with Mike Ang having some traction issues. This allowed Garet Snatayan to do most of the serious chasing. Toward the end of the 2nd Main a hard charging Ish Montilla caught up and was in hot in pursuit of Garet’s 2nd spot. When time expired, Emer got the easy win with Garet taking 2nd by just 2 seconds over AE’s Ish Montilla.

The build-up and excitement for the 3rd and final Main was palpable throughout the entire Pit Area. The top 3 each had a realistic and legitimate shot in taking home the Championship. The 3rd A-main went off with a clean start from all the racers. Emer, Garet Mike and a few others formed an early train. The top 3 then slowly broke away from the group until Mike Ang crashed leaving Emer Agero and Garet Santayana up front. Garet was hounding Emer throughout most of the race. Emer managed to produce a little bit of a gap but Garet was not going to be denied. At one point, when Garet was practically side by side with Emer, he bobbled and crashed! Amazingly, with a minute remaining and a lot of patience, Garet then managed to pass Emer cleanly entering the back straight on the last lap. Garet secured his hard fought win and we now had 3 different winners!

RC Scoring Pro was left to compute and judge the tie break as the printout would be determine the winner. A bunch of racers crowded the driver’s stand and many eyes were glued to the printer. The Final Results showed Losi’s Emer Agero 1st, Team C’s Garet Santayana 2nd (both equal on points) with AE’s Mike Ang awarded 3rd and the final podium spot. It was a thrilling end to a perfect day of Off-Road racing!

This past weekend Team XRAY had an almost perfect appearance at the Portuguese 1/8th Off Road Regionals, by winning 2 out of 3 big races. The Portuguese Regionals are divided by 3 regions, North, Center and South; the team won North and the Center and dominated the South almost until the end of the race. North: Usually the biggest regional event in the country, in terms of affluence, the North race took place at the track of Bodiosa-Viseu, drivers went to race and in the end it was Pedro Miguel Sousa with his XB9 that won the race, final top positions were:

1. Pedro Miguel Sousa – XRAY XB9
2. Nuno Filipe Ferreira
3. Carlos Cardoso
7. Joel Soares – XRAY XB9

Center:

This race was held at the Modelis Track in Ortigosa with 19 drivers checked in to this one. Local driver Tiago Aguiar driving an XRAY XB9 was the man to beat this weekend and in the end he actually won and TQ’ed the race.

1. Tiago Aguiar – XRAY XB9
2. Gonçalo Melo
3. Helder Barros

South:

South Regionals took place on the track of the Modelismo Alentejo Clube in Évora and João Ramos with a Team XRAY XB9 Tq’ed into the main, but with 3 laps ahead of the second place, electronic problems ruined his domination and ended his chances to win and the chance for the team to achieve the complete victory in the Regionals.

1. Bruno Antunes
2. Rui Rodrigues
3. Vasco Rodrigues
6. Flavio Matias – XRAY XB9
11. João Ramos – XRAY XB9

Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st of April saw the second round of the Belgium Netherlands national championship take place at the Kampenhout’s track with free practice on Saturday and three qualifications and three final run on Sunday. Sunday morning the track was very wet and the weather was cold. The track was drying out throughout the day causing the grip level to be different in each run. During the qualification runs Bart Van Echelpoel showed a great performance and won 2 out of three rounds with his XB4, taking the pole position for the finals. Frédéric Fontaine was 8th and David Pauwels the 9th. After qualifications there were 3 XRAY XB4 in the A!

Bart Van Echelpoel went on to win the final (he won all 3 final runs), Frédéric Fontaine finished 8th overall and David Pauwels 9th. It should be noted that two other drivers have joined the XRAY family: Frank Devos, who finished 18th and Sven De Clercq who finished 30th (it was their first race with the XB4).

Final Result:

1. Van Echelpoel Bart – XRAY XB4
2. Michiels Eric
3. Debacquer John
4. Konings Jean-Yves
5. Van Echelpoel Kristoph
6. Smit Hans
7. Taijman Jean-Michel
8. Fontaine Frédéric – XRAY XB4
9. Pauwels David – XRAY XB4
10. Kempeneers Maarten

The story of qualifying at the Silver State Nitro challenge was Durango/AKA driver Ryan Lutz. Coming off a win at Psycho Nitro Blast, Lutz kept his momentum going earning a TQ in all four classes he competed in, Pro Buggy, Pro Truggy, Pro E-Buggy, and 4wd Short Course. AKA teammate and Kyosho driver, Jared Tebo was not far behind being 2nd qualifier in Pro Truggy, and 3rd in Pro Buggy.

The 45-minute Pro Buggy main started off with Tebo making a quick move to the front, but a second lap crash would put him in the back of the pack. Adam Drake took the lead with Tebo, AKA/Team Associated driver Ryan Cavalieri, and Lutz in tow. Drake would eventually give up the lead to Tebo where an ever so familiar battle shaped up between Tebo and Cavalieri. In the end, Tebo wins after a narrow 5-second margin over Cavalieri. Lutz rounded out the podium in 3rd place after making a las lap pass on Adam Drake for an AKA podium Sweep. All three drivers ran soft Impacts (part no14007S) in the main event. AKA Notables for the main – Josh Wheels 5th, Mark Pavidis 11th, and Carson Wernimont 12th.

Ryan Lutz took full advantage of his top qualifying position in Pro Truggy. He was able to stay in the lead lap after lap, from start to finish and bring home the win with his soft Impact (part no. 14117S) equipped Durango truggy. Jared Tebo finished just over 9-seconds behind in second and Ryan Cavalieri in 3rd making it another podium sweep by AKA! AKA notables for the main – Josh Wheeler 10th, Carson Wernimont 12th and Mark Pavidis 13th.

Ryan Lutz did some tyre durability testing in 4wd SC and they passed with flying colors. With a set of soft Cityblock2′s (part no. 13014S)used from Nitro Challenge, Lutz TQ’d the first two qualifiers and won the main on the same set of tires with plenty of tread to spare!

Mark Pavidis and Mike Battaile dominated the 40+ classes. Pavidis was able to TQ and win the buggy class followed by Battaile and Kyosho’s Yuichi Kanai, all of which were on AKA tires for yet another AKA podium sweep! Battaile dominated the truggy main starting from the TQ position, leading every lap and crushing the field with a 4-lap margin at the end of the race.

Source: Joel Navarro [YouTube], RC Car Action

Source: Joel Navarro [YouTube], RC Car Action

Panther Tyres are excited to announce the release of their latest product, the F800 Orange Closed Cell specifically for 1/10 Short Course tyres. The new F800 SC foam has a new thicker outer sidewall shoulder providing increased support to the sidewall providing increased stability going in and out of the turns. This new insert is precision cut with contoured channels that allow more flex in the insert providing more stability, consistency and faster lap times. The channels are reduced near the sidewalls to keep the sidewall stability to provide more balanced turning. Coming in at a lean 10 grams each, these inserts will help reduce rotating mass on your Short Course Truck.

The last weekend in April sees us back at one of the strongholds of RC racing in Asia – the PRC track in Pattaya, Thailand – hosts this weekend to the first ASIA Contest by BittyDesign. This is the third time coverting an event in Pattaya and whilst other interests take centre stage when the sun goes down, during the day the track is the main if not only topic of interest.

Links: Thursday practice photos | Video Playlist

Famed for its sometimes brutal unforgiving layouts – testing man and machine to both it’s limits for the ASIA Contest the layout according to regulars feels like a departure from the typical PRC style – some describing it as ‘onroad with a few bumps’. It should be noted that the track is in fine condition, countless man hours, sweat and scary fences have gone into this layout, the result however doesn’t seem to be setting the world alight amongst the drivers. The track is high grip but very hard on tyres, a set lasting maybe 10mins, given the amount of running, drivers are simply turning laps on slicks, saving tyres for when it really matters.

The straight is the same as before, winding up the hill, but rather than go 180 degrees at the top, we now continue the full length of the back – cars reaching their ultimate top speed potential and a massive 8 secs on on power, it might not sound like a lot but next time you’re at the track, time how long your straight is… A lot of track is covered in a very short space of time. The majority of corners are off camber presenting a challenge along with a couple of jumps which lack downsides, however the dominant feature of the track is the six-pack curved jump section – more of an obstacle meets ultimate cage fight according to the Aussie crew. Getting it right makes you feel hero-like, get it wrong and you case a jump or end up barrelling into the outside fence or risking a lower arm in the inside fence.

Understandably drivers are trying a variety of different approaches and the take off and landing are taking a severe beating, today’s practice saw the PRC crew lay down molasses last night and the track closes as they prepare it for Friday practice and racing on the weekend.

We caught up with former World Champion Atsushi Hara who shared his opinion on some of the track details including managing to do the 8 sec marathon straight – banker – straight only a handful of times without lifting, but telling us that it felt great when he got the line and speed perfect, catching a car almost 2sec infront. Hara is one of the high-profile favourites for this weekend’s event which also boasts several fast Thai drivers – Meen V, Charlee P, the Aussie Kyosho mafia of Panic, Ryan and Jones not forgetting Jacob ‘the Cup’ Wilson, and Wataru Takashiro – Japanese driver who finished 3rd at the FEMCA event here last year.

Hara opted against practicing today having run much of yesterday and simply admitting he didn’t have enough steel chassis plates and tyres to run all day long even going on to say that the track is so abrasive that it wears out the steel tips, a few drivers likening the track to sandpaper!

A few laps with Australia’s Ben Panic

And a few laps with JQ Products’ Robert Gustafsson

Pedro Enrique has joined INTECH Spain for the 2013 racing season. With many years racing experience the Intech family look forward to his continued success.

A brand-new, ground up design, the Silencer, has new elements created for the highest speed circuits. A narrowed, Finnisher stance cockpit allows more fuel tank access a smoother high-speed transition and increased flow around the engine heat-sink. A deep recess around the heat-sink area with dual channeling out the rear provides air escape along with rear-end stability. The Silencer side-pods have a clipped rear-end, narrowing the rear by angling just in front of the rear tires. The extended runner features are placed on the rear-end of the body enhancing the force placed on the rear pods during high-speed acceleration.

The main pods are heavily chamfered and a more heat-shrink design over the pipe, fuel tank and electrical / linkage make up the main pods.  The end result has the body looking extremely low-profile with heavy JConcepts edginess and appeal.    The Silencer is capped off with a cock-pit  “shark fin” for more high-speed tracking stability and increased roof stiffness.

Part # – 0256 | Retail price – $31.00 | See www.JConcepts.net

Alpha Plus has claimed victory at two separate race events this past weekend in South Korea. Firstly they TQ’d and won the 2013 JungWang Circuit Openning Race at the hands of Dani Choi. Followed by Ju-Hyun Park with his Ryan Edition engines who secured TQ and the overall victory in both the buggy and truggy class at the 2013 KCR 1/8 Offroad Challenge.

2013 JungWang Circuit Openning Race

1.  Dani Choi (Ryan Edition) TQ
2. Ryan Lee (Ryan Edition)
3. DongWoo Nam (A852)

The second round of the five-round JConcepts Indoor National Series, the Spring Indoor Nationals visited Mike’s Hobby Shop in Carrollton, TX and hosted some of the nation’s best off-road drivers. Dustin Evans, Ryan Maifield, Steven Hartson, and on-road ace Paul Lemieux were among the pros on hand to compete at the world-renowned facility. Ryan Maifield mosied into Mike’s like he owned the place. Fastest qualifier in both the 2WD and 4WD Modified Buggy classes with his Reedy-powered buggies, Ryan dominated the A Mains with wire-to-wire wins in legs one and two for the overall victory in both classes. Perfect after two rounds of the series, Ryan looks to make it three straight at the Summer Indoor Nationals in Chico, CA this July.