Articles Page 7

	Debut won for Losi Mini 8IGHT at Round 2 OF BRCA Micro Nationals Round 2 of the BRCA micro off road nationals took place in Telford on 6th November. This venue was agreed at a relatively late stage in the series organisation process because another venue had to withdraw their application to host the meeting. The host club presented the drivers with a slightly unusual track, made up of mostly flat polished wood sections with minimal carpet and only a couple of jumps. Opinions were mixed, but in fact almost everyone admitted to enjoying the challenge of racing on an unfamiliar track style, and the racing was close and clean all day. At this meeting, eyes were upon the new Losi Mini 8ight chassis, which was being driven by Horizon Hobby UK team drivers Mark Stiles, Andy Jones and Jim Davis. The Losi’s were immediately on the pace of the longer established Carisma and LRP cars at it was clear from an early stage that both Mark and Andy would have a chance to fight for the top positions. Phil Sleigh produced an electrifying last qualifying run to take pole position for the A final with his Carisma, but he would have Mark Stiles’ Losi for company on the front row. Mark is a double British champion in micro off road and is returning to the series this season to drive the new Mini 8ight after a year away from the class. Ben Elliott was impressive in qualifying and took 3rd ahead of the second Losi of Andy Jones and Andy Vincent. The A final saw at least 3 different leaders, with Phil Sleigh leading for the first part. Ben ran in second to begin with after a poor opening 2 minutes saw Mark drop to 4th behind Craig Harris. However, a small mistake from Craig allowed Mark to regain 3rd place from where he set about closing down the lead pair as the race progressed. With just over 1 minute to go, the lead trio were together on the track and separated by less than 2 seconds. Mistakes from Phil and Ben, followed by an opportunistic move from Mark, allowed the Losi driver to take the lead. The final minute saw Phil applying intense pressure to Mark in an attempt to regain the lead, but Mark kept his composure to take a well deserved victory on what was his return to racing this class, and the very first competitive outing for the Losi Mini 8ight. The winning margin was just 0.14seconds, with the top 3 covered by less than 1 second at the end! A video of the A final can be viewed here; http://www.youtube.com/user/TelfordHotTrax#p/a/u/1/RxKrklTFlEA Round 3 of the championship will take place at Dudley in 4 weeks time. Mark had the following to say about the new Losi car; “The Losi Mini 8ight is exactly what this class of racing and the model industry needs. What is essentially an RTR car can be used for national level competition pretty much straight from the box without modification; all I did was change the speedo, battery and receiver and fitted some racing tyres. The car is rugged and tough and looks just like its 1/8th scale brother. The handling is sharp and the car feels light and nimble to drive. I think it’s a perfect introduction to model cars as it is equally suited to both recreational and competition use. It’s great!” Equipment used by Mark: LOSB0224I – Losi 1:14 Mini 8IGHT 4wd RTR DYN3740 – Dynamite Fuze 1/18 Mini Brushless ESC DYN1422 - 7.4v 2200mAh 2S 25C LiPo
	Andy Jones Joins the HHUK Team Like to take this opportunity to welcome Andy Jones to the Horizon Losi Mini 8ight team. Now with a very solid UK based team we would like to wish all Mini 8ight racers the best of luck this coming season. Andy will use all Losi, Dynamite FUZE and Spektrum products suitable for the Mini 8ight
	Bloomfiled TQ's and Wins both Classes at MKGP 2011 With overal TQ and wins in both classes Darren was very much in control at the first big indoor race of the winter. Darren use the TLR 22 platform in 2WD and the TLR XXX-4 in 4WD to take him to this impressive result at the weekend.
	Stiles takes 10.5 Victory at Hereford National This weekend was round two of the 1/12 National champions held at Hereford Leominster. With great support from the BRCA committee the club laid out a great track for the weekends racing, little tight on pit space but none the less in true 1/12 racing style everyone made it work. The carpet looked like it had not been used for a while so the traction was a little sketchy and the start of the day but it soon grooved in to quite a high level making for some very close racing. Tyres were quite a big factor this past weekend as getting the right amount of traction but not inducing traction roll proved to be quite difficult. Parma Blackhawk Pink Rear and Magenta front were the teams choice with some going for Yellow rears at the end of qualification on the Sunday. 30minute rear additive with 10minute front additive seemed to give the best eight minute balance. During the weekend I bounced backwards and forwards from the EE1 and Zytec Parma bodies to see and feel the difference, for me the Zytec offers a better and easier balance to drive whilst the EE1 may well be quicker on an individual lap constancy is a little harder to find. In 10.5 Once again Mark Stiles drove a superb race to eventually take the win using Xcelorin 1s lipo and Parma Black hawk tyres with Dynamite accessories. In Mod it was the Olly Show taking all four rounds of Qualification and the final with great drives from Andrew Griffiths and Mick Farrell to round out the top three. The next round of the championship is on the 10th and 11th of December at Tamworth, get your self booked in and enjoy some racing this winter. Also the weekend after the national is Round two of the European Pan Car Series at Ardent raceway, Ardent always put on a good event and with two days of racing it is sure to be a good fun event for all classes. A good opportunity for those who don't want to do nationals to enjoy a two day event in the UK, for more information visit the following sites and watch out for the entry to go live. www.epsraces.net www.facebook.com/epsraces
	Lloyd Story Joins the Spekrtum Team We are proud to announce that Lloyd Story will be joing the Spektrum team for the winter and upcoming national season. Lloyd will be using Spektrum modules, receiver and servos to pilot his Schumacher vehicle and we would like to take this oppertunity to wish him the best of luck with his racing.
	Spektrum Dominate at Telstar Spektrum team-mates Kevin Lee and Lloyd Storey dominated the December round of the Telstar indoor Winter Series on Sunday. The pair overcame a challenging and tricky multi-surface track to TQ and win their respective 4WD and 2WD classes at the popular Milton Keynes venue. Kevin used the Spektrum DX3R Pro steerwheel transmitter along with the Spektrum S6070 low profile servo in his 4WD car whilst Lloyd used a Spektrum module in his transmitter along with a Spektrum S6040 servo in his 2WD.
	Ollie Crew wins at Apex Models Open Meeting Horizon UK and TLR driver Ollie Crew took his XX4 to a TQ and win at the 2011 Apex Models Winter Open meeting hosted by the Surrey and Hants RC Car Club on Sunday 4th December. The indoor meeting was held on a mostly carpet track that featured a couple of slippy sections and jumps to add to the challenge. After a tough first round of qualifying, Ollie made some subtle adjustments to his Losi XX4 which helped him to go on to take TQ in all remaining rounds to sit on pole for the 2 legged A final. The 1st leg started well and Ollie was able to manage a slight gap to second place until a mistake at about 4 minutes into the race left him in second place. Another good start in leg 2 saw Ollie quickly pull a big lead early on. Knowing that he had to set a faster time that the leg 1 winner, Ollie got his head down and never looked back lapping most of the field and taking the 2nd leg win with the only 24 lap run of the day to secure the overall victory for him at his first indoor carpet meeting of the winter.
	The 2012 LSOR Challenge Cup This is the first indoor arena off-road race for large scale radio controlled buggies. Held on a sand/fibre racing surface there are classes for 2WD, 4WD as per normal but there is the additional class of Stadium Trucks being added to the bill to cater for all aspects of Large Scale off road racing. With international driver attendance, excellent raffle, catering and licensed bar facilities this is sure to be a large scale event not to miss. Click on the link below to head off to the official website for further details; Ckick Here
	Stu Wood Joins the Team Horizon Hobby UK are pleased to announce the signing of the original 'Stuperstar' Stu Wood to their Horizon UK / TLR Race team. Team Manager David Spashett had this to say about his arrival: "Stu brings with him a wealth of experience and is a tremendous asset to any team and so we are obviously very pleased and excited that he wanted to be a part of our team and plans. He is a fiercesome competitor but is also able to find the time to help out and support anyone who needs it which is hugely important for us and all TLR / Spektrum owners. On a personal level, I've known Stu for quite some time and have been impressed with how he conducts himself both on and off the track. I am confident that he will integrate into our team immediately and will play an important part of our future plans." Stu himself had this to say about the deal “I would first like to say a very big Thank You to Horizon Hobby and David Spashett for giving me this opportunity. This is something I have wanted for a long time now and I hope my 22 years of experience can help in any way. I am over the moon with ALL the Horizon products and there was only one Team I wanted to be apart of. I will be using all of the Horizon products so if anyone sees me at any of the tracks around the UK please come and ask any questions you wish. I will be concentrating on 1/10th Off Road 2wd and 4wd in the UK National Series and the North West Regional Series and lots of testing around the Country. All I want to do now is get on the track and put the cars through some laps. I can't wait for this coming season! Thanks again Horizon Hobby and David for this wonderful opportunity.”
	Stu Wood takes Victory on Debut Outing We received this report from our newest team member after a successful first outing with the 22: "The track was mostly carpet with a piece of polathine on a full stretch of the hall. Its wasn’t too cold and it wasn’t warm enough to take your huddy off. The track had a few small jumps and a rythem section infront of the rostrum which was had to get correct every lap. Round 1 Finished 3rd in this but the car felt very good but understeery at the end of the main straight (need to cut rear wing down) and a bit over geared I think. Round 2 I TQ’d this round by about 5 seconds but still understeering at the end of the main straight. Round 3 TQ’s again and car felt really good and it is getting faster and faster now I am getting used to the car. Round 4 TQ’d again and even faster. Really happy with everything but I am still dropping the pinion down on every run as I must have been really over geared. Round 5 Matt Dodd TQ’d as I made a slight mistake and he had a very good run but this still leaves me on Pole for the Main. A Main Started off very calm as Matt was right behind me. I went wide on a slippy corner and he got through. I stayed with him until he made a mistake and I didn’t. Car was very good in the final as it was getting faster with the gearing but still not right. Very good over the jumps and very good roung corners with power on (which I like). Conclusion I didn’t expect this from the first outing as there was a lot of drivers there which are fast and had there cars for a while now. I have never been the fastest lap kind of guy but today I was!"