2007 World Championships in Italy. 7/8/9th September. Info HERE
 

A contingent of British 1/5th scale bikers took on the best in the world, in Italy recently.

Full report and photos coming soon in RRCi, but here's a small
  "Atmos" Gallery Here, 
thanks to Peter Gray for his additional camera work.

With sweltering weather and an even bigger grid, the bikers took Tibshelf by storm for round 3 of the BRCA Nationals.

The Moto GP in Mugello had seen wet qualifying, the F1 TT had been rained off but the Two Wheelers were to enjoy perfect conditions at Tibshelf all weekend and revelled in every second.

Concourse was a walk over for the Barry Sheene replica of Superstock rookie Scott Adderson utilising the latest  "Nitro Nev" Suzuki body set , simply the best!

All three classes saw the race record fall. Graham Clarke took Superstock, Pole, A Final and Race Record, though he had some serious company this weekend. 

Dave Scouse was on a mission and took the outright lap record in the final, before his aerial tube was ripped out as he tagged a back marker whilst leading, interference dropping him back from what looked like a famous first A final win. He'll be back !! Chris Douglas re-emerged to give the class a good shake up, and helped push the limits and track records throughout the day, his battles with Graham and Dave were just a joy to behold.

In Superbike it was Dave Andrew with a dominant display, as he took Pole, the A final win and set a new race record in round 3, just falling short of beating the lap record in the process.

In Nitro Bike it was that man Colin McCabe and his four stroke FS1 Dineen Machine that smashed the race record in Round 2 and set pole position, narrowly missing out on a new lap record in round 2. The A final went to fellow FS pilot John Veal, narrowly holding off top two stroke of Allan Waterfall with a late come back to snatch victory from the local smoker who was seen pulling power wheelies half way along the main straights throughout the day!

Congrats to all, especially the new faces that came to learn what the track has to offer, improving round after round as their confidence grew. Hopefully they'll be back for more, having shared the knowledge and experience of all the regulars.

  Photo Gallery HERE

 

Well done to everyone that made the effort, great fun and a good demonstration for the RC bikers, the Oohs and Arghs from the crowd made it all worth while. 
The Nitros and Superbikes were definitely the crowds favourites, the noise and smoke of the two and four strokes, the power slides and wheelies (and spectacular crashes) of the Superbikes. The "Silver Dream Machines" Silver Can class was tested in a bunch of demo bikes and found to offer close fun racing, we had a scream but I don't think it held the crowds attention as much as it did ours. The Stockers had the best turn out and biggest grids, with some good action all around the track, and drifting on the brakes into the hairpins raised a lot of smiles !! 
We had real bike racers like John Reynolds, the Ducati and Suzuki crews watching most of the day, plus Chris Walker came over and signed the photos of Jako's Suzi in action, as did his team mate, Cal Crutchlow, great guys. 

Ron Haslam came by a few times, loving every minute of it, talked him into having a go, didn't take much persuading, but was harder to wrestle the transmitter from his hands, only giving up when all three bikes he used were flat, my NF Nitro bike proved too tricky as a learner, so Anthony Barrass donated his stocker and that worked the charm from there he progressed top Colin's Superbike and then onto a silver can machine. On the rostrum for the best part of an hour getting ace instruction from Colin and others until he's go the hang of it. Now we know what's on Ron's Christmas List !! 

Thanks to Kris Kennedy for the ace commentary, kept everyone amused and he even got chance to talk to the whole of Donington Park over the organisers mic and tell the two wheeled world about the RC bikers. 

Cheers to Mike Chilvers for waving the BRCA flag all day and handing out fliers and info, top job. 
Many thanks to Nigel from HSS for the safety barriers and Scaffolding Rostrum, at a great discount, cheers to the BRCA for supporting the demo so well, much appreciated. 
Biggest thanks to Glyn Morgan from Frankley Rally Cross club for organising, loading, renting and buying all the hosing we needed to lay the track out, then delivering and collecting to Donington Park, we simply couldn't have done it without you, cheers mate! 

A great day, thanks to all that made it happen and turned out to support it. I know it's hard on body and bikes so it's all very much appreciated. 
We have had interest from several more bike shows that wants us to run demo races, including the Donington Moto GP, more info on that to come.

Thanks to Rob Last and Giles Butcher of Future Publishing Limited who saw us in action at the Alexandra Palace Superbike show, for the invitation to demonstrate at Donington Park at such a big event. A marvellous opportunity we just couldn't miss.

A small gallery of pics here from the day - HERE

Some video of the wheelies and fun here - by John Veal, BRCA Bike Section Sect.

Thanks to everyone that made a great meeting and welcomed all the new faces into the section, always good to see fresh faces young and old! The numbers are growing round by round which is always a good sign, keep spreading the word chaps! Also nice to see some Rookies giving the regulars something to worry about !!

The weekend was dry but breezy, cool and mostly overcast. The grip was down a little but thanks to the latest technical developments in chassis and tyres, all race and lap records were broken, apart from the Superstock lap record, but that was shaved real close wasn't it Graham !! Well Done to Shane and his team for preparing the Brookland track, it looked awesome and to Steve Newey for manning race control again to save the day, sorry it affected your race results so badly, but it was very much appreciated by all.

Concourse was won by Rookie Peter Chang, as chosen by round 1 winner Matt Timms. A lovely Yamaha tribute shell on his NF hybrid at his very first big race meeting after a couple of club meetings at his local Aldershot track. Well done to all three pole positions who converted them into wins by very slim margins, typically 2 seconds covering the top three finishers in all finals. Exiting stuff both for the paddock crowd and the fence lined with spectators from the adjacent football festival.

The A Final winners were:- Colin McCabe in Nitro Bike (FS-1 Four Stroke), Graham Clarke in Superstock (KP07) and James Crunden in Superbike (KP07)

All Heat and Finals Results, more Photos and even a bit of Video can be found here with full report coming in RRCi soon.

 Fingers ready??

NOTE 1 :- Late rule change, the system has been modified to allow multi-class entries on the day, so now you CAN run nitro and supertstock etc if you want to, but you'll need separate accounts, which you can set up from a single email account, just do it so you can track it i.e. set up one account called Bob-SB and another Bob-STK and another Bob-NTR to aid entry tracking and enable the system to reimburse you the £5 discount on second/third entries at each round.

NOTE 2:- ALL entries MUST be pre-book and pre-paid, there is NO BOOKING IN ON THE DAY! If you really can't book in on line, have no email address etc etc, so long as you have a credit/debit card an account can be set up for you and your entries confirmed before each meeting by Mike Smith at Modeltech 01933 225 417, it simply takes a phone call with your details. Thanks Mike.

The RC bikers put on a great show over the three days, fully supported by the Superbike Mag crew that invited us along and gave us all the help and space they could spare whilst organising a massive road race show indoors which can't have been easy!

Over the course of the three days we spoke to literally thousands of people from all walks of life but sharing the same passion for two wheelers of all descriptions and for many the RC Bike Racing demo was the highlight of the show, something they'd never seen or even contemplated before.

We rounded off the event with two solid hours of 5 lap sprints with full commentary that got everyone revved up. Every time a bike crashed, wobbled weaved, wheelied or ploughed straight through a barrier the response was always audible, and usually spurred the guys on to do it again, and again.

Several changes of lead per lap is what makes the bike racing such a spectacle, and having a mix of Superstock, Superbike and Nitro bikes on track kept it 

We had the pleasure of the likes of Leon Haslam, Michael Rutter and James Toesland who came into the arena and were granted permission to have a go, and to our amazement they gave us a real run for their money, before confessing they had done this before and loved every minute of thrashing my TT ,18 Nitro and NF .12 Rossi replicas around for a couple of tanks each. To get my own back I rolled out the jump ramps and had them and their ladies, pit crew and volunteers lay down and jumped them with the E Savage Quad to a round of applause from the crowd. All great fun and good sports!

The contacts made will see us potentially doing 5 more demo shows this year, including the NEC Bike Show !

BRCA AGM Minutes, New Rules and Regs, are now available in the downloads area, in the menu above.

The first annual Tibshelf GP was a huge success, with great racing, brilliant atmosphere and generous sponsors producing an enormous raffle that kept everyone glued despite the early morning drizzle.

What a stunner! Lap and race records broken in the best bike meeting Tibshelf has ever seen. Early morning rain produced some fun, but once the track dried the lap times came tumbling down. Stock was it's usual close affair, with some new drivers getting quickly on the pace and challenging the established runners, but Graham Clarke was the man to beat, putting in some faultless quick laps and excellent driving to take the race record and A final win. Superbike was as peculiar as ever, lots of different battery / motor combos and different bikes including 3 of Patrick Alleven's V3s driven by Colin, Shane and John. But the A final winner was Dave Andrew with a modified motor and no front brake! The Nitro class was dominated by Colin McCabe with Ken Dineen's fantastic and well set up 4 stroke, taking the race and lap records, but the gap was a little less than at Mendip with Dez and John in hot pursuit for most of the day. Col was having problems in the A-final leaving Dez and John to battle for the lead, John made a mistake at the hairpin leaving Dez to complete a perfect and well deserved race win by just 1 second at the flag as John closed him down on the last lap. Overall it was a great day for all who came, the raffle made sure no-one went home empty handed, some even with nitro bikes! 

So it looks like we may have 3 more entries for the Nitro class soon! So, many thanks to the sponsors, Ben Racing, Aurorra Ltd, Formby Models, Ted Longshaw, Real RC, RRCi, Tornado Racing and Mtroniks., More details and pics etc are listed here. Huge thanks must go to the Tibshelf club and committee, particularly Allan Waterfall, who has put a great deal of time and effort into this event and all the drivers for attending.

Congrats to the Tibshelf Club and Allan Waterfall for organising such a great event. See you next year !

All about 1/5th Bikes

These 1/5th models are raced on large scale permanent outdoor tarmac tracks and provide something a little different from the usual car racing. They look fantastic on the track, with extreme lean angles, powerslides and wheelies. Weighing in around 2Kg and reaching speeds in excess of 70 kph they offer an amazing spectacle in any weather, wet or dry you will see them battling for every inch of tarmac.

Piloting a 1/5th bike is an acquired skill, as is setting one up to be on the pace of the leaders, but that is the main attraction. Many RC Bikers are real bikers, some are even Ex-Racers still looking for the ultimate thrill but with that extra safety factor !!

Superbike allows virtually unlimited modifications with only a scale appearance, 7.4V power source limit and the laws of Physics holding them back, real mean machines that are a challenge to tame. Most pilots run insane winds of brushed and brushless motors, Quality Nimh or Lipo power packs, but the right set up and ultimate control are still paramount to success in this class. This is where you'll see insane wheelies even at the end of a 7 minute final !!

Superstock is a BRCA motor regulated class for rebuildable 27 turn stock motors (but with ball bearings allowable), 6 cell Nimh and a 1.9Kg limit to create a level playing field. 
Someone with the right approach could take a box stock bike and win the A final, and that's the way they like it !
All mods are allowed apart from a front brake so some of the closest battles are fought in this class where the best pilot with the cleanest lines and the most efficient machinery will be the winning combination.

Nitro bikes are limited only by a .21 engine ceiling, apart from that the sky's the limit. Most bikes come with a sports .12 motor and even a .15 can be too fast for the majority of drivers. and anyone that can tame a .21 powered bike will be very talented indeed.