Launceston R/C Racers

R/C Motorsport returns this week for round two of the Autumn 2012 Championship season for Launceston R/C.

Doors will open at Rutherglen by 6pm, nominations close at 6.45 with racing underway by 7pm.

As usual we’ll have classes for electric powered on and off-road cars, with Short Course, 10th Buggy, 8th Buggy and Tourers joined by our normal 10th offroad Novice class.

With the Tasmanian Championship for 10th Touring Cars and Mini just a few weeks away, we can expect some serious practice going on in the Tourer class.

Whether its your first time with us, or your 101st, come and join the fun.

Here’s a little video from last year’s Launnie Cup. Thanks harlyquin!

Personal Transponders Available Now

Lap counting at Launceston R/C is by the use of small electronic transponders fitted to your car.  These devices are called “Personal Transponders” and link to our computer system.

We’ve just received a new shipment of transponders which are now available to club members and visitors at our cost price of $100 each.

New racers and occasional visitors are welcome to hire a personal transponder (PT) for a cost of $5 per race night, subject to availability.

If you’d like a transponder, please see Greenie at a race night, or leave a message here in the comments and we’ll hold one for you.  If you’d prefer to source your own (either new or second hand), the suitable transponders are:

• AMBrc Personal Transponder
• MyLaps RC4 Personal Transponder (the model we sell)
• MRT PTX

Track Access

As far as Launceston R/C is concerned, the track is only available for use at organised club events.  For 2012 this includes our regular 2nd and 4th Thursday night club races, organised practice nights on any 5th Thursday nights, and for the special Launceston Cup event.

Outside these events, the track is closed. Please assist us to maintain good relations with our landlords by not seeking access to the track outside those events.

Tasmanian Championship Results

Club members had a successful foray to the Tasmanian 8th Off Road Championship event over the weekend.

In 8th Electric (EP) buggy, Andrew Mackenzie finished second behind Queenslander Dean Ross, with NWRCCC’s Sion Reid 3rd.  Steve Madziara finished fourth, Alanna Hodgetts 5th, Aaron Peck 7th and James Atkinson 8th.

In 8th Nitro (GP) Truck, regular Matt Hodgetts took the win over Victorian Ron Maya, with Scott Guyatt 3rd. Graham Viney was unfortunately unable to start the final after earlier damage.

In 8th GP Buggy South Australian Glenn Breugem was the winner over NWRCCC’s Tim Parsons, with Scott Guyatt again third. Justin Strickland finished fourth, Steve Madziara an excellent 6th, Alex John 7th after missing practice and some qualifying.  Mark Rayner qualified for the final but was unable to take the start line.  Graham Viney finished 16th overall, Shaun Whatley 19th.

For full results head for nwrccc.com or to Action R/C for daily race reports.  Congrats to all who took part, to the NWRCCC club for an excellent track and event, and to the Champions.

Launceston R/C goes racing again this Thursday 9th Feb for the first round of the Autumn 2012 Championship Series.  The series continues until June with points being accrued by club members along the way.

Non-members are of course still welcome to race with us during the championship series.

Classes as usual will include 2wd Short course Trucks, Tenth Buggy, 8th Buggy, Touring Cars and our novice offroad class.

With several of last season’s front running novice drivers moving into the open classes, the Novice field is looking wide open.

Sam Wells finished the 2011 season off strongly and will start as the man to beat in SC Truck, chased hard by Scott Guyatt, Andrew Green, Rocket, Andrew Mackenzie, Mark Rayner a newly truck-equipped Justin Strickland and plenty more. It’s sure to be a big field with great racing right through the field.

Jarrod Painting has been quick lately in tenth buggy and it will be very interesting to see the battle between he, Paddy Hume and Damien Betts.

Rocket has been seriously pressured by Andrew Mackenzie at the sharp end of the touring car field lately, and with both drivers joining a heap of others in tuning up for the 2012 Tasmanian Championships (now just four weeks away) they’ll be going at it again. An emerging Mini field includes a good fight between Graham Viney and Matthew Chandler.

The big 8th scale buggies are definitely spectacular, battling to deal with all that power on a track that isn’t ideally suited to them. Expect Steve Madziara to continue his dominance in this class, with Ben Wilson and Johhny Silczak in hot pursuit.

Lots to look forward to this week, and in the weeks to come.  Remember it’s also Tasmanian Championship time and we wish the best of racing luck to all our club members and regulars who are running in this week’s Tasmanian 8th Offroad Championships.  We’ll post some results, or keep an eye on Scott’s website at actionrc.com.au for daily updates Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

As a member club of the national association, we from time to time have the opportunity to vote on rule changes.  These rules relate only to sanctioned state or national championships – not to club racing.

We’ve received a proposal to which we have to respond by Wed 29th. Your input is welcome.

The proposal relates to the nitro offroad sector of the sport (which also includes 8th EP Buggy) and specifically to changing the number of cars in the A final at National Championships from 12 to 15, and includes a small change to the way in which those 15 advance from semi finals (top 6 from each of two semi finals, plus next 3 fastest).

We have three options:

1. Vote Yes to support the change
2. Vote No to oppose the change
3. Choose not to vote.

Making this change will align national championship finals numbers with those of state championships, and give an extra three drivers the chance to battle for the overall win.

The downside is the need for tracks to cater for 15 drivers (but that’s already a requirement for tracks hosting 8th offroad state champs – so it’s just extending it to nationals).

The rule would go into immediate effect, including the 2012 GP Buggy Nats in March, and then the Truggy/EP Buggy nats in December.

The exec are inclined to vote Yes. Your input is welcome (as is your right to be uninterested!).

peace

scott

We came, we saw, we raced backwards!  Thanks to all that made the journey out to Launceston R/C tonight for some Australia Day fun.  The result was some great racing, a real challenge of learning a new track (backwards…it was totally different!) and a nice way to end the day.

Class wins went to Chris West (Novice), Andrew Mackenzie (Tourer), Jarrod Painting (Tenth Buggy), Scott Guyatt (Short Course A), Chris Murray (Short Course B) and Steve Madziara (8th Big Bangers).

Full results from tonight are online here, or read on for some reflections on tonight’s action.

Continue reading →

If you survive the lunch-time BBQ, get down to Rutherglen this Thursday night for our Australia Day race. What better way to celebrate our nation than by playing with toy racing cars .

We’re working up something special for this week’s race…so get down for a good time, and something just a little different.

It’s a non-points night, so that makes it ideal for testing and tuning.  And being school holidays, it’s an ideal time to drag the kids out for a race.

As usual, doors open by 6pm, and racing underway by 7. All the normal classes – Tourers, Short Course Trucks, Tenth and 8th Buggies and our Novice class.

Look forward to seeing you there.