Castle Creations TQ's British 1/12th Scale Nationals

Horizon Hobby UK team driver Mark Stiles drove superbly last weekend to give Castle Creations their first TQ at a BRCA 1/12th Scale National.

Mark was using a Castle Mamba Max Pro 1-Cell Edition speed controller in his car and set the fastest time in qualifying for the open modified class at the Plymouth event.

Mark utilised the C.H.E.A.T. mode function of the speedo to give his car improved top speed without overheating the electrinics. The result was a fastest lap almost 0.2 seconds faster than his nearest competitor; multiple British Champion Andy Griffiths.

In the A final, Mark led for almost 7 minutes until a tiny error allowed Andy to sneak past for the win. Mark retained 2nd position though to finish off what was still a fine performance in an ultra competitive field.

Mark will be looking to carry this crest of good form into the penultimate round of the British Championships next month, and then the European Championships in March.

Bloomfield and the TLR22 make it 2 from 2 in Europe

Following on from his impressive UK debut, TLR's Darren Bloomfield flew to the CS Race meeting at 'MiniMobilWelt' near Dortmund Germany to contest the TLR22 at the impressive permanent indoor venue.

Driving the 22 in Mid-motor configuration, Darren and the TLR22 totally dominated qualifying and finals taking TQ and the meeting win ahead of the respected Christopher Krapp (Kyosho). TLR / Horizon UK driver Simon Reeves made it a near perfect weekend for the team by guiding his TLR22 into 3rd place overall.

Videos from the A final can be found at http://race.cs-electronic.com

Images courtesy of Area52 – www.area52.cc

1st Round of the Portuguese Nats

We recieved the following report from Luis Freitas on their first national of the year;

"Last weekend we have the 1st. Round of Portuguese Nats 1/8 Off-Road.
5 TLR  and 3 Spektrum in the A Main Final. In the semi-final A and B we had more 3 TLR and more 3 Spektrum.

Ricardo did a very good race. He made 3rd. time in the heats and was 2nd. in the semi-final A. In the A Main Final he was number 3 and was alwyas running in 3rd. position, just behind the2 first (always Bruno Coelho and Carlos Durães). His strategy would be to refuel 9 minutes, it means less 2 times than Bruno and 1 time less than Durães. With this strategy he would win. Nevertheless, he runned with a completely new engine and it was very cold. After the minute 20, the engine temperature became very cold (60º) and the engine stopped 2 times in high RPM. After that he managed only to finish the race.

A special word to the 6th. - João Lopes. A very young driver (12 years old) that we are sponsoring. He is Regional North 2010 Champion and is a real talent. He will be in Euro Champs B. "

Mike Daniel and Jonathan Warburton place well in Junior Championship

This years British winter has been quite harsh but the Slough Remote World club have done an excellent job Completing their championship. Supported by W.J Daniels Mike Daniel and Jonathan Warburton finished 3rd & 2nd in the Junior Championship. Both up and coming stars using the Losi 8ight Eu are now looking forward to their summer series and a few rounds of the SRS, Good luck !

Rebelo and TLR win Oporto Regional

Last weekend, in Trofa track, near Oporto (Portugal), was the 1st. round of the Portuguese Regional North Champs.

92 drivers attended to this event.

Nuno Rebelo did a perfect race all over the weekend, being always the most eficient. He won his semi-final and leaded all the Main Final. No mistakes. A perfect winner.

5 TLR in the Main Final.

Thanks to Luis Freitas for the picture and short report.

Mark Stiles Wins 1/12th Chesterfield Modified National

Horizon Hobby UK team driver Mark Stiles finished the BRCA 1/12th Scale Nationals season in style last weekend when he took TQ and won the A final at the final round of the championship in Chesterfield.
After feeling disappointed with qualifying 11th at the EFRA European Championships 2 weeks previously, Mark bounced back in fine style to TQ the open modified class by more than 6 seconds at Chesterfield.
Mark also TQ’d the 4th round of the championship in Plymouth back in January, but on that occasion a small mistake in the A final prevented him from taking victory. There were no such mistakes on this occasion though, and Mark led the A final from start to finish, eventually winning by half a lap and lapping all but the 2nd placed car of visiting Finnish driver Vesa Yli. Chris Kerswell finished 3rd ahead of Andy Griffiths, who took his 13th BRCA 1/12th Scale national title.

Mark has been using a Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro 1-Cell edition speed controller in the open modified class this year and has been extremely pleased with its performance. Its user friendly adjustability and high efficiency levels mean that Mark is never short of power or runtime in his races. Mark also uses Parma Blackhawk foam racing tyres to compliment his other equipment

Bloomfield on form at EPR

At the weekend we were down at EPR for a rescheduled winter series round that was unfortunately cancelled a while back. Our TLR team were out in force with Darren Bloomfield making his second appearance outdoors with the new car, Darren took TQ in the 2wd class with his TLR 22 built in mid motor configuration, as this was an all AstroTurf track with 10% concrete, mid motor was the main choice for all the 22 users.

The weather was great all day meaning for some good fast racing. There was a good turn out of TLR 22’s on the day, 4 of which made the A final in the hands of Darren Bloomfield, Kevin Moore, Andy Carter and Kit Jones With a little twist to the finals with extended run time to 7minutes it was a race to the end to see who could concentrate for the extra 2 minutes. For Darren this was easy as just one week ago he was racing his usual class of 1/8th Rallycross enduring a 30minute final. Darren took the win in the A final with a comfortable lead to go home with TQ and the win on the day with Kevin Moore taking the second spot on the podium after an impressive drive from 4th on the grid.

Edd Kerry TQ's and wins the Champion of Champions series Finale

Edd Kerry takes TQ and the win at the champion of champions series finale. Racing against the best regional qualifiers in the Country Edd kerry put on a dominant performance to win the overall series championship. Followed up by fellow team mate Darren Haydenball and with four TLR 8T's in the top four it was a superb event for the TLR race team.

Carlos Silva Wins 2nd Round of Portugal North Champs

Nuno Rebelo, the winner of the 1st. Round was TQ, but in his Semi-Final, when was leading had a big crash with another driver and was obliged to pass to the pit box, losing a lot of time, putting him out of the A Main Final. Bad luck to the fastest guy of the weekend.

In Main Final, the Portuguese young star, João Lopes, was the first leader and was fighting with Gabriel Magalhães, changing positions lap by lap. Then João Lopes went away, but a problem with the fuel tube obliged him to go to the pit box. João Gonzaga got the 1st. place and was there until minute 43. Carlos Dias, that was always in first places was faster and faster in last minutes and suddenly was in back of Gonzaga, passing him in last minutes to win the race. João Lopes that went to 10th. place after the issue with fuel tube made a tremendous race, going up and up until the 3rd. place, after a fantastic "war" with more 6 drivers (3rd. until 8th. finished in same lap, with very small gaps). Fantastic.

Thanks to Luis Freitas for the report.