26.12.2014   6 comments   Video: 1 available

Young Italian Team Associated factory racer Kevin Pignotti has successfully defended his 2013 title in 1:10 200mm nitro on-road class. Only Jeffrey Rietveld (NL) and fresh 1:12 champion Rick Yelle (US) managed to stay within 2 laps in the 1 hour A-Main to finish 2nd and 3rd.

A relatively poor semi final finish (only 6th) gave Kevin’s fellow competitors hope that the 2013 champ was perhaps a bit rusty, but Kevin showed no remorse in the 60 minute final. For the first 10 minutes young Ducth racer Jeffry Rietveld stayed very close with Kevin and the 2 tossed p1 several times, but after the 2nd pit stop Kevin showed a relentless pace and slowly drove away from Jeffrey and the rest of the field. All racers had opted for a tire change half way the 1 hour final, so there was no strategic advantage to be gained by trying to stay out for the whole race, all racers had done their homework well!

Kevin’s stats are impressive, as we know from the past:
fastest lap 00:17.850
slowest lap 00:18.752
avg.... read more

24.12.2014   9 comments   Video: 1 available

Not the fastest but the smartest and therefore the 2014 VRC World Champion 1:12 Open Class. Rick Yelle (US) had the patience to come out on top after the 16 minute A-Main, with Dana Bailes (US) 4 seconds and Martin Wollanka (A) one lap down completing the 2014 podium.

Rick knew that he had to come up with something smart for the double-length A-Main and to try to go the whole distance on just 1 battery charge as that could save you almost 20 seconds or about 0.3 seconds a lap on average. So he did a number of quarter distance runs to measure the amp usage with different settings on the speed controller, 97% power, low braking, optimized gearing etc. until he found a set-up that would get him to the finish on one charge. Also Atsushi Hasegawa, Graham Raistrick and Hiroyuki Shoda had opted for this strategy. Having a milder set-up than in his qualifying run (2nd), Rick had an incredible consistent run with just one small crash which cost him 3 seconds, to finish with a race average of 15.553 seconds with a f... read more

18.12.2014   11 comments   Video: 1 available

Surprise from 'down under': Chris Sturdy is the new VRC World Champion Open Class SC Trucks. Congratulations on a fantastic drive for this CLUB level racer, beating the very best PRO racers in this class! The 18 year old Aussie was a big unknown, finishing just 69th in the Season 3 Series, but at this Worlds he got his act together to finish 1 lap clear of Wollanka and Loriot who made up the podium.

The 2014 Worlds Open Class SC Truck Main final was a 15 minute long race, forcing a pit stop midway to change the battery pack. Sturdy was one of the first to go for a new pack, Wollanka, who had been tossing for the lead with Sturdy for most of the first haplf of this final, came in for a fresh LiPo pack 2 laps later, but saw his 3 seconds lead diminish to under a second. Sturdy charged hard, Wollanka answered in style but pushed it too hard, blowing his chance to fight for the World Championship until the last lap to pieces. Young Nicolas Loriot lost the race at the first few minutes of the main final, making... read more

05.12.2014   1 comment   Video: 1 available

This event is long passed but we did the video and now our commentator Mike Garrison from the US has added some spectacular commenttary to this exciting A-Main final.
Javan Candy wasted the star big time and for the whole 20 minutes he was driving his doors off to try to grab the lead. He came close but had to leave the win to Markku Honkanen who also took the Season 2 title with a strong season finish with 3 wins!

1 Markku Honkanen FI 28 20:13.563
2 Kirby Backemeyer US 28 20:23.026 +9.463s
3 Javan Candy GB 28 20:23.583 +10.02s
4 Dan Marson GB 27 20:13.672 +1 laps
5 Fredrik Boden SE 27 20:14.080 +1 laps
6 Marc Doucet FR 27 20:24.112 +1 laps
7 Claus Didriksen NO 27 20:32.729 +1 laps
8 Lee Queen US 27 20:40.197 +1 laps
9 Silvia Lukman ES 26 20:01.134 +2 laps
10 Antonello Parisi IT 26 20:07.857 +2 laps


2014 Season 2 final standings nitro buggy:

Pos. Member Total Net
1. Markku Honkanen 801 594
2. Javan Candy 891 582
3. Kirby Backemeyer 847 567
4. Martin Wollanka 56... read more