Our Team Durango distributors in Russia have sent news of a large indoor off-road race they’re organising.

The biggest yearly Off-Road Indoor Race in Russia will take place on 13-15 of april 2012 as a part of the major Toy fair HOBBY EXPO 2012 in Moscow. Top racers from Russia, Bielorussia and Ukraine will fight in 11 classes:   OffRoad 1:18 – OffRoad 1:10 – OffRoad 1:8

Carpet covered track is 30X18 meters size and specially designed for this event. The race is organized by MicroRC.ru hobby-shop, with media partnership of the first Russian RC magazine RCRacer and the support of Federation of Automodel sport of Russia (FAMS).

Meanwhile we have 170 entries, with around 120 people

Registration and information: http://race.rcracer.ru/reg/105/main.php

On Sunday the 10th of March, Batley Buggy Club hosted the final round of their indoor winter series at Chadderton RC raceway. As usual the meeting was fully booked up with 140 racers in attendance.There was a lot to play for going into the last round with drivers being very close on points and fighting for their overall finishing positions. The track was laid out on the usual cork flooring with an added mixture of carpet and jumps. One particular feature that looked difficult to get right was the tabletop in front of the rostrum. The tabletop was directly followed by a jump which was angled to the left. Many cars were flipping on this section of the track during practice, the ones who got it right were able to make up lots of time.

Qualifying
Both 2 & 4wd are held on the same day at Chadderton with your best 2 of 4 rounds to count. The overall series was held over 6 meetings in total with your best 4 scores added together to give you your overall finishing position. In 2wd Team Durango drivers Craig Collinson & Colin May were leading the way in the series with only a few points seperating them. This final meeting really was a battle of the Durango boys to determine the overall winner! In 4wd Colin may had already secured the series win with some super fast and consistent racing. This is the first season Colin has raced the DEX410 and he has really taken to the car. His results over the last few months have really improved which goes to show how fast the DEX410 is! Eugene Galley recently joined Team Durango and has also jumped up a few levels since joining the team.

After the 4 rounds of qualifying were over it was again Team Durango leading the way, with Craig sitting on pole position in 2wd with his DEX210! Colin May was 2nd and Tom Yardy in 3rd.

After some really close racing in 4wd the TQ spot went to Colin with his DEX410! Craig Took the opening 2 rounds and Colin the last two. With both been tied on points it went down to fastest time which Colin achieved in the last round. Eugene Galley put in some good runs during the latter rounds to give Durango 1 2 3 on the grid!!

Finals
In 2wd Craig got off to a clean start with Colin in hot persuit. The first quater of the race saw the Durango boys pull away from the chasing pack and really became a battle between team mates for the overall series win. Colin looked to be piling the pressure on Craig and pushed his car hard, whilst Craig drove some really tight lines to defend his lead. Unofrtunatley the battle came to an end when Colin made a mistake which needed to be marshalled, giving Craig enough breathing space to crusie his DEX210 to victory! The win gave Craig the overall series win by just 1 point ahead of team mate Colin!

In 4wd it was very much the same sort of race but with Colin leading the way and Craig in 2nd. Just like Colin in 2wd, Craig also made a mistake on the difficult tabletop which resulted in breaking his car. Colin never looked back from start to finish and drove his DEX410 as he has done all series to another great win! Eugene Galley had been getting quicker all day and finished 2nd not too far behind Colin.

dBoots
A big thanks needs to go to dBoots for sponsoring the event, the tyres proved to be fantastic on the slippy cork floor in both 2 and 4wd.

With promised sunshine and the outdoor season rapidly approaching, the indoor events that have kept out thumbs and fingers in trim over the winter draw to a close. Once again the Worskop club have put on an excellent series which has weathered the worst that the winter weather could muster. Still, the series has been attended by 140+ drivers at most meetings and the competition has been as high as ever.

2wd.
After showing pace right from the early rounds, the DEX210 would end the season on a high with Nathan Waters taking TQ from the already championship favourite Neil Cragg. Adam Mackman with only his 2nd run out with a ‘Box Stock’ DEX210 would qualify 3rd with Eugene Galley 4th with his DEX210. Paul Bradby left himself some work to do in the final if he was to take the series win by qualifying 6th. Whilst Craig Collinson rounded out the top 10 with his DEX210 making it 4 in the final.

The final was one you couldn’t take your eyes off. Nathan lead from the tone with Neil pressuring him at every turn, in turn though Neil was under pressure from Adam Mackman and when Neil made a slight error, Paul Bradby was through the gap followed by Adam. Nathan started to eek out a small lead and the battle was now on for 2nd between Adam, Paul and Neil.  Neil made a few errors trying to close and pass Adam giving him breathing space to chase down Bradders. Adam’s pace soon told and Bradders made the error allowing him to pass to seal the 1,2 for Team Durango with Nathan taking a comfortable victory.

4wd.
Neil had already sewn up the series with a perfect score, so the race was on for 2nd and 3rd with 6 drivers still in the hunt for the remaining series podium spots.
Qualifying was very close with little room for error as a clean run was required for a top ten finish. Neil and Nathan traded blows, with Neil getting revenge and taking TQ from Nathan in the last round of qualifying. Adam Skelding and Craig Collinson also made the A main in 5th and 6th respectively, with Adam Mackman being in the unlucky BQ spot.
Neil made up for his poor (by his standards) 2wd final with a tone to tone victory, from 5th on the grid Adam Skelding closed the gap down early on after an early tussle between Nathan and Paul Bradby opened up a gap in the field, but Neil was able to keep the gap at a steady distance. Adam would also have a pretty uneventful race with all the action going on behind him in the tussle for 3rd which eventually went to Bradders.

Overalls
2wd
1. Neil Cragg        600
2. Paul Bradby        598
3. Danny McGee    590
4. Nathan Waters    590    DEX210
5. Craig Collinson    590    DEX210
6. James Helliwell    585
7. Richard Lowe        584
8. Eugene Galley    581    DEX210
9. Greg Williams    577
10. Keith Robertson    577

4wd
1. Neil Cragg        604
2. Nathan Waters    597    DEX410v3
3. Craig Collinson    590    DEX410v3
4. Paul Bradby        590
5. Greg Williams    589
6. Adam Skelding    588    DEX410v3
7. Richard Lowe        580
8. Keith Robertson    578
9. James Helliwell    577
10. Simon Moss        572

Coventry Model Car Club held the re-run of the 5th round of the MAM (Midlands Astro Masters) 1/8th Series at their Baginton facility. Conditions were poles apart from the cancelled round which was called off  as the track was under 4 inches of snow, for this round it would seem that summer had arrived early in the UK with temperatures in the high teens!
The MAM series allows for Nitro and Electric 1/8th cars to compete side by side in both qualifying (5minutes) and finals (20 minutes). With fast locals and National ‘A’ finalists in attendance the meeting had a strong field of 82 drivers.
Qualifying.

B Main
Chris Doughty (DNX408v2) had a strong qualifying with a 4th and a 2nd in round, his best round would ironically not be counted as his PT decide to ‘have a rest’ in the final round. Stuart Harlow (DEX408) would line 6th on the grid after some good consistent qualifying. Adam Skelding would line up in the B main after a topsy-turvy qualifying.
Lining up in the B main would mean uncharted territory for Adam, 20 minutes on high grip astro, how would the package fair, would there be enough juice in the tank to do a non-stopper? The final got off to a nightmare start as a crash on the first corner dropped Adam to the back of the pack. However, this might have been a blessing in disguise as with some clear track he was able to settle into cruise mode, not pushing the car and taking unnecessary power out of the cells. Quickly he moved up the leader board and was soon into the top 5. As the pit stops came round Adam was able to make use of the non-stop strategy to head the field. In cruise mode, Adam got the call to “Tease it to the finish” to which he replied “Fuel ain’t gonna help now”. As the tone sounded, Adam was already almost a lap up and the only one on the extra lap and coasted to victory and a Bump up into the A main.

A main
After a battery change Adam made it out for the A main joining Chris and Stuart. Chris got a good start and was soon upto 2nd behind Craig Drescher with Stuart 7th and Adam just behind in 8th. Adam made a couple of errors dropping him back from Stuart who was holding on to the Nitro guys who were running ‘flat out’. Chris then hit trouble on his in lap to his first pit-stop when his plug blew losing him around three laps. Stuart was steadily making his way through the field as the Nitro Guys pitted and was soon running 4th. Hardly making a mistake, Stuart was now on the tail of the top three and soon was running 3rd after Craig had mechanical issues.

During the second round of pit-stops, Stuart’s fast pace enabled him to take 2nd within touching distance of the win. Adam was now up to 4th and Chris was running again and putting some pain on his car. Soon, Stuart was in a battle for the lead which he soon took as Leon Goode succumbed to pressure. Adam was now up to 3rd and in touching distance of 2nd, with time running out Adam pushed on and within 2 laps was on the rear gearbox of 2nd. On the last lap Adam, was able to make a pass taking 2nd place and with Stuart clear up front a surprise 1,2 for the DEX408. Chris was able to battle back from his early plug fail to take 5th.

Stuart’s car was an almost ‘box-stock’ DEX408, whilst Chris and Adam were both using the new DPA front castor blocks and also soon to be released option springs.

The MIBOSPORT CUP presented and sponsored by Yokomo took place last weekend – dominated by young Team Durango star driver Charlie Novotny.

In 2WD it was clear two races previous that the Team Durango DEX 210 driven by Charlie Novotny has already taken the series. Things were a little more open in 4WD, with four drivers still able to win the series. Jiri Mara /Xray team driver but driving DEX410, Vaclav Strupek with the DEX410, Radek Flek – Yokomo team drive, and 2WD winner Charlie with his DEX410

It was Charlie´s very first indoor season and at the beginning he struggled due to a lack of power. A switch to Thunder Power for the indoor season worked out well and Charlie was clearly the one to beat. Charie won the previous two races easily, with the TQ as well.

In 2WD Charlie once again took his DEX210 to the TQ – winning the opening three legs of qualifying and sitting out the remaining two so that he could concentrate on 4WD.  With his DEX410v3, Charlie again took the TQ – winning four rounds of qualifying and finishing second to Vaclav Strupek driving another DEX410.

The finals couldn’t have gone better for Team Durango and Charlie Novotny – as Charlie was the fastest in morning practice and went on to win the opening two legs of the 2WD A-main for the victory.  Charlie sat out the final leg of the final. In 4WD Charlie won all three finals and secured the overall win in the series Team Durango DEX410.  Team Durango’s Vaclav Strupek finished second and Jiri Mara took his DEX410 to 4th overall.

Charlie Novotny and Vaclav Strupek

So it was Team Durango cars who dominated in Mibosport cup presented by Yokomo.

Overall results of the series after seven rounds:

2WD
1^st Charlie Novotny     Team Durango DEX 210
2^nd Vaclav Strupek        Team Durango DEX 210
3^rd Josef Novacek         Team Durango DEX 210

4WD
1^st Charlie Novotny      Team Durango DEX 410
2^nd Jiri Mara                     Team Durango DEX410
4^th Vaclav Strupek         Team Durango DEX410

Ryan Lutz took his Team Durango vehicles over to China recently – racing at the Alpha Plus event at KRC China. Hot and sunny weather greeted the 70+ participants, with temperatures hovering around 27c all weekend.

[View with PicLens]

Ryan took the overall TQ in both 8th Electric and 8th GP classes with his Team Durango DEX408 and DNX408v2 combo. The 8th electric class was no problem for Ryan and he converted the TQ into a win with his DEX408.  Bad luck in the 8th GP buggy final saw Ryan miss out on the podium this time.

The final round of the 1/10th off road MAM – Midlands Astroturf Masters – series took place at Kidderminster on the 25th March.  Team Durango’s Paul Robinson reports on his victory in the series with the DEX410.

I was out trying a complete new electric package, with the aim of also testing out and improving the setup on the DEX410 V3 big bore shocks.

Round 1.
I started out a bit slow with trying to get to grips with my new system and also finding the ride of the shocks to be a bit hard, proved this round to be a difficult qualifier. Only making 4th in the round, and leaving me having to make some changes and plenty of room for improvement for the next run.

Round 2.
With tweaking the drag brake and gearing up to try and tame the new system and changing the pistons in the rear end of the car improved the handling quite a lot. The car felt a lot more controllable and there was less kick up on the back end, but running brand new tyres caused a bit of grip roll. Fortunately I got away with the grip roll enough to hold onto 2nd in the round. This time showing that the car was more on pace and more controllable than before.

Round 3.
I was rather happy with the car from round 2. But to eliminate the grip roll that I experienced I decided to try a light roll-bar on the rear end. By doing this though, I felt it restricted the cars handling a bit and wasn’t so good mid corner or over bumps. I think it was just a case of getting used to the tyres in the previous round and bedding them into the track. But with this the car was still good enough to finish 2nd in the round.

Round 4.
Taking the rear roll-bar off in this round made the car feel better again and with the tyres warn a bit more made the car feel a lot better and felt I could push more than I could before. I was running well throughout the heat and in a comfortable 2nd position when on the last couple of laps my front wheel came off unfortunately giving me a DNF for the round, but luckily holding on to 2nd overall for the final based on my faster time.

A Final Results.
The final was challenging to start with, the front runner leaving the pack, with 3rd place pushing me hard; I had to try driving quite defensively to keep them at bay. After a couple of passing attempts on me, they seemed to drop off, allowing me to gain a bit of space to push on. I finished a comfortable 2nd in the end, not too far behind the leader once I got some track space, and with this result gave me 1st place in the series for the 4WD class.

Series Results.
1st = Paul Robinson (DEX410)
5th = Stuart Harlow (DEX410)
9th = Scott Whyman (DEX410)
10th = Steve Haskins (DEX410)

The DNX408v2 has arrived – with a host of updates included in the box, adding both strength and performance.  We’ve put together a new kit page for the buggy to give you the full lowdown – check it out HERE on the Team Durango website.

These updates improve the DNX408 platform and are what the team drivers have been using for quite some time to great effect.

Updated parts included in the ‘v2′ kit.

DNX408v2 kit page: http://www.team-durango.com/race-cars/dnx408v2/

www.area52.cc have done an in-depth build and track-test review of our new 1/8 electric off-road buggy, the DEX408.

With some stunning photography and detailed words, the review is well worth reading.

Area52 seem to be really up-to-date with news and reviews, so if you haven’t done so already, bookmark their site.

These new dual position C-Hubs for the 408 line of vehicles offer a quick and simple setup change, that can make a big difference on the track.  The new C-Hubs feature a new lower pivot point beneath the original pivot point, and were used to great effect by Carson Wernimont to out-qualify many big names at the 2012 Dirt Nitro Challenge. The lower pivot reduces chassis roll, keeping the front of the car flatter in the corners. It also sharpens the steering response.

After feedback from the team, these new dual position C-Hubs have been fast-tracked through the R+D process to give racers a great new option.

The new Dual-Position C-Hubs will be available in 10°, 12° & 14°. We expect to be shipping in April, ready for the summer season.

TD330475    DUAL POSITION C-HUB 10 DEGREE

TD330476    DUAL POSITION C-HUB 12 DEGREE

TD330477    DUAL POSITION C-HUB 14 DEGREE