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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Novice: Team West go to War

All night long it was a battle of the West boys – Chris and Andrew going at it, sharing the wins during qualifying and then engaging in a race-long duel that also included rapid newcomer Matt Bonham in the final.  When the final flag dropped Chris was the one who held the #1 spot to duly take his very first finals win at Launceston R/C. Andrew was equally excited with second while Bonham did a super job all night and should be delighted to podium first time out.  Michael Taylor was fourth, Kade Targett a welcome returnee in fifth, first-timer Nicolas Wade went quicker and quicker all night for 6th with Carl Taylor rounding out the field.

Tourers: Mackenzie Lights it Up!

Andrew Mackenzie was just too good all night in the tourers class, top qualifying comfortably and then running away to a huge win in the final.  Second, and looking very speedy in a class that is still relatively new to him was Jade Chandler, with Peter Hutton finding his way with a new car tonight for third. Graham Viney won the battle of the Mini brigade over Ian Scott and Matthew Chandler, with Brad Mitchell back for another run, and Gene Newell making a first (if shortened by some car issues) appearance in the class.

Tenth Buggy: 4wd Dominance

Jarrod Painting continues to show improvement in leaps and bounds, and has his 4wd Kyosho Lazer working beautifully. He made the most of a grip and handling advantage to dominate qualifying, and then get over a lost shock retaining nut to recover and win the final ahead of Tom West. Tom’s T4 stadium truck is looking very racy in this class and Tom was quick all night, with Jade and Matthew Chandler battling over 2wd bragging rights and finishing in that order.

Short Course: Young Guns Step Up!

The best stories from tonight’s short course action were not written at the very front of the Calvin James moved into open competition after ‘graduating’ from Novice, and all three looked fast and comfortable in the open class. It’s a measure of how well the novice system is working at Launceston R/C that the guys who move on into the open classes are usually instantly competitive. These three, together with Chris Murray are excellent examples of that.  Calvin did a brilliant job first time out in the main game to take an A final starting spot, and then put together a solid 10 minute A final to finish 6th for the night.

Elsewhere Adam Beresford returned after a long absence to be right back on the pace, and Alexander Wade did a fantastic job to put his truck into the A final.  It was a night full of great promise for the young guns.

Up front in the A final Scott Guyatt had a little edge over Andrew Green, with Andrew Mackenzie getting home in front of Chris Madziara and Richard Green. Then it was James, Tom West, Derek and Adam Beresford and Alexander Wade (those last two both spending quality time in the pits during the A final).  Chris Murray was disappointed to miss the A but made amends with a comfortable B final win in a very rapid time ahead of a race-long duel between Mark Jones and Sam Leeder. Gene Newell, Ian Scott, James Atkinson and Philip Ferguson rounded out the field.

8th Big Bangers: A Small Affair

The biggest cars were the smallest class tonight, three starters turning into two finishers when Jarrod Painting stripped a gear in his DBX. Steve Madziara pushed his Kyosho hard all night in what would double as a warm-up for the upcoming Tasmanian Championships to take the win over Troy Taylor.

Drive of the Night?

For drive of the night tonight I can’t go past Calvin James. Calvin was fast, consistent and did a brilliant job first time out in the main Short Course field. Making the final was quite an effort, staying clean for 6th overall topped it. Congrats Calvin, job well done.

The End

We finish the night with a question before us. How did you like the reverse direction racing? There are a couple of track tweaks required if we were to run it again, but we’re very interested in your feedback. Did you like it? Should we run it again?

We’re now just two weeks away from our next race meeting (the first of our Autumn 2012 Championship Season) so stay tuned for all the news, get those cars ready and we’ll see you February 9th.  Good luck to Alex John, Sam Wells and Paddy Hume who are over in Melbourne this weekend racing at the Keilor Stock Shootout.

And if you’re looking for Tassie R/C action, there’s an offroad race meeting on at Latrobe (8th offroad Nitro plus 8th and 10th electric classes) and on-road (tourers and minis) on the all new track at Goodwood in Hobart. Both take place on Sunday.

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.

I want to stress that this is for committee members only, so if you are on the committee, try and make the meeting if you can.  So get your thinking caps on and we will see you at the meeting.

Championship Season – don’t forget its Tasmanian Championship time for both 8th Offroa and 10th onroad over the next month.  See the post below for more information and links. You’ll need to pre-enter both these events so get cracking. Don’t forget that as both are championship events, they’ll be a little tighter on rules than we are at our regular club events – so check that your car and gear (motor, esc, battery, body etc) all fit within the rules for the class you’re planning on racing).

New Tracks for Hobart:  Both the EP On-Road and EP Off-Road clubs in Hobart have put down ripper new track layouts over the past couple of weeks in preparation for the new season.  The Off-road guys start their new season next Sunday (22nd Jan) and the on-road guys the week after (29th).  They’ll then alternate week-about. Both tracks are in the model park at Goodwood – just down the hill from the horse racing track towards the Goodwood bridge. Definitely worth a trip.

Big Weekend for Launnie boys heading to Melbourne: Next weekend (28/29 Jan( Paddy Hume, Sam Wells and Alex John (I think that’s all?) continue their mainland race assault at the annual Keillor Stock Shootout – with classes for 2wd, 4wd, Stadium Trucks and Short Course Trucks at the Keilor club’s brand new circuit. Good luck guys!

LRC Committee meeting:  It’s short notice but we’re needing to have a committee meeting to get plans for 2012 underway. Meeting for committee members is next Tuesday 24th Jan, 7pm at 10 Cameron St – the offices of Ritchie & Parker, Alfred Green & Co. Committee members please make it if you can.

Over the next two months, the Tasmanian Championships for 8th Off-road and 10th EP On-Road will take place.

8th Nitro buggy, Nitro truggy and EP Buggy classes will race at the 2012 Tasmanian 8th Offroad Championships at Latrobe on Feb 10-12. It’s a brilliant race track and should be an excellent race meeting. If you have a suitable car get there for an enjoyable Championship weekend…at a time when the race track is at its best. More info at the NWRCCC site here, and to enter online go here.

And four weeks later, 10-12 March, the EP Touring and Mini guys will go at it for the 2012 Tasmanian Championship at STMCC’s Goodwood (Hobart) track. The team from STMCC are hard at work putting down a brand new track layout that looks fantastic. Again, if you have a mini or a touring car, get there for this one. The Friday is optional open practice – so you don’t necessarily have to be there that day. Go here for more info and entry forms.

Big races like State Championships are not just for the elite. They’re races for everybody, celebrations of the sport, and a chance to race on tracks that are usually at their very best. That’s definitely the case for these two events.

Let us encourage you to give it a shot, and know that at both events there will be plenty of Launnie R/C guys there – so you’ll be among familiar faces.