Sweep Challenge Greece 4th round 1/12

On Sunday, 13 April 2014, the 4th round of Greek Sweep Challenge was held at RcRing for the 1/12 Mod Class.

With the first national race approaching, every club race until May 11, could be considered as a warm-up race, with the same race format, 5 qualifying rounds and 3 finals.

Thanks to Markus Mobers, my MOBGUMS arrived on Monday before the race, so I had enough time to test them and practise for the race.They came in new yellow dish wheels with new compounds that seem to work perfectly!

 QUALIFYING

During qualifying, I managed to win 4 out of 5 runs and secure the TQ spot, with my car being very fast and consistent.My 25mm wild turbo fan did a great job, keeping my cs speed control cool enough, to power my Muchmore Fleta ZX 4.5T motor. Boca Bearings performed great for another race, with zero vibration and full speed!

Mimis Papadopoulos with his Yokomo was the runner up, being very fast. We had a great battle, and with a little bit more practise he will be ready for the Nationals.

 

Nick Nikolakopoulos would start 3rd in the finals, being the track owner, thus have not practised at all! He run with his old 2008 vdesign crc, as his TOP Rebel was not ready, due to lack of time. Well done Nick.

TOP team mate Vaggelis Yfantidis was 4th qualifier. As everyone can see, he is a super cool guy!!!

5th qualifier, Aggelos Mpampas, has to practise a lot more, but his Yokomo looks nice.

6th qualifier, George Glianas driving for Xray

7th qualifier was Andreas Aggelakopoulos, son of Fotis Aggelakopoulos, Mr Fanatix Models, who came to the race for support on his drivers. Andreas took advantage of his dad, and was relaxing as Fotis was wrenching all the time on the car!

FINALS

First final was a tone to tone win for me, as Mimis was fighting with Nick and didn't bother me at all.Nick passed and finished 2nd, while Mimis was 3rd, with team mate Vagelis 4th. George Glianas made a pass to 5th leaving Aggelos and Andreas behind.

Second final was more interesting. At about 2min mark, when lapping a slower guy, we touched and Mimis passed me. After marshaling, I was 5 sec behind him, and pushed really hard to catch him. With two laps to go, I was on his tail, but he didn't left an inch for me to pass, so we finished with 0.3sec difference, Mimis first and me second. Nick was third again, with George 4th this time, as my cool team mate made some mistakes and lost positions to George and Andreas . Aggelos was 7th, after some crashed as well.

In the third and deciding final, after a good start and 2 sec lead at 1min mark, Mimis made a mistake trying to push, and lost the chance to challenge for the win.I won, leaving Mimis in second and Nick in third place.Vagelis (the cool guy!) was 4th, George 5th, and Andreas managed to pass Aggelos for 6th place.

It was a very nice race, after a while of not racing 1/12. The new track layout seems perfect for this class, and its outstanding performance.

Final Results:

1.Dimitris Mitropoulos - TOP Racing/Muchmore/WTF/MOBGUMS

2.Dimitris Papadopoulos - Yokomo/Hobbywing

3.Nick Nikolakopoulos - TOP Racing/Vdesign/Muchmore/CRC

4.Vagelis Yfantidis - TOP Racing/Hobbywing

5.Glianas George - Xray/Turnigy

6.Andreas Aggelakopoulos - Xray/HPI Flux

7.Aggelos Mpampas - Yokomo/Yokomo

Wtf - Wild Turbo Fans

Looking for wtf, someone can easily understand that its a serious company, with its main target to cool down our rc powerplants.

I was really interested in trying these fans from the first time I saw them on a photo.


After a while Idecided to make an order through www.wildturbofan.com, just to test and see the results.

My order arrived, and a bonus T-shirt was included!

All the fans come in small packages with extra wires and plugs, and also bodyshell decals.

Installing the fans on the car is easy, and you get really surprised when connecting the battery for the first time. The fans are high rpm, and the airflow is massive!

After a complete run, esc and motor are just warm, and never have failed, even in high speed tracks, since I have been using wtf.

After 2 months of full racing with wtf, they work perfectly like new.

Only bad thing is that the new wind trumpet fan was released after I had received my fans, and now I have to order that as well!!!

Last, but not least, is the new wtf 190mm TC bodyshell, named DLS, with the following details:

1. Very very durable Poly carbonate material (0.75mm) (crash test proven)
2. Marked body post line front and back, you will always get a prefect center
3. Deep molded line to give better structure rigidity
4. Reinforced rip been placed in all critical location to prevent BODY TUCK !!!
5. First stepped front air dam, so that it will not deform as easy !

I can't wait to test it on carpet and see for myshelf its advantages over the mazdaspeed 6. 

GRAVITY RC

Gravity RC is a growing company, owned by the well known rc driver, Paul Lemieux.

Looking at www.teamgravityrc.com I found many interesting accessories, so I placed a small order, just to test some of them.

Communication with Paul was more than fast and helpfull, and soon my package arrived:

1.Tire Storage Can - These two chrome cans than fit a set of four 1/12 tyres each.Really cool!

2. Old School weight - Come in black, silver and chrome. Each weight is 7.5gr and really small in dimensions making them perfect for fine tuning your car in terms of balancing.

3.All Purpose polish - Ideal to polish any moving part, like shafts and balls.

4.Gravity Propel Rechargable Motor Spray Canister - This one is the coolest accessory I ve ever had!
It is an alternative to motor spray. You just have to add denatured alcohol and charge it with air up to 200psi using any standard tire attachement and air hose, and you are done! You have motor spray for just 0,80euros each time and you can refill at any time!!!Highly recommended!
 

Sweep challenge Greece 2nd round

On Monday night 3 feb 2014, it was the second race for the 2014 Sweep challenge (1/10 TC)  in Greece, held in Rcring.

I was lucky, with my new sabre arriving on Sayurday morning, so instead of practicing I spent all day building my new car and used Sunday as a practice day, making 5 or 6 runs, without making any changes to my starting setup, which proved to be very fast. I was ready and exited for Monday's race more than any other time!

 

QUALIFYING

From the first qualifying, my Sabre once again proved to be very fast, and I managed to win all the qualifying rounds, which gave me the overall TQ spot. Second was Michalis Kuriazis (Yokomo BD-7) how was also very fast, and third Sakis Sikianakis(Xray T3).
Nick Nikolakopoulos (TOP SABRE S4)  was starting fourth after some bad luck during the qualifyings with Likourgos Danelis (Yokomo BD 7) just behind his tail. John Eleutheriou (Tamiya TRF 417 V5) and Dimitris Mpakirtzis (TOP Photon EX) were sitting 6th and 7th.
 

FINALS

In the first final I suffered twice from a traction roll, and Michalis Kuriazis passed me, giving the spectators the opportunity to watch a very nice battle till the 4min mark, when he also made a mistake and I passed again to secure the A1 win. Sakis Sikianakis finished second and John Eleutheriou third.

Second final was a tone to tone win for me, securing the overall win, as Michalis Kuriazis had an early crash which resulted in a DNF, and Sakis Sikianakis who was involved in the crash stayed 5sec behind me for 3mins, before Likourgos Danelis passed him to take second place in A2.

In the third final, I decided to take place, and make a setup change to see if it would work. I switched to a softer shock oil (450 Muchmore instead of 500 Muchmore) which proved to be much better. The car was quicker and did not traction rolled even though I pushed it harder than before. It was again a tone to tone win, with Michalis Kuriazis in second, and Sakis Sikianakis in third place.

Final  Result:

1. Dimitris Mitropoulos - TOP Sabre S4

2. Sakis Sikianakis-Xray T3

3. Michalis Kiriazis-Yokomo BD7 2014
4. Likourgos Danelis-Yokomo BD7

5. John Eleutheriou - Tamiya TRF 417 V5

6.Dimitris Mpakirtzis-TOP Photon EX

7. Nick Nikolakopoulos-TOP SABRE S4

Next race For Sweep Challenge will be in February 16 for both classes, 1/10 TC and 1/12 Pan Car, with many more photos!

T.O.P Racing Sabre s4

After a successful racing season, the time has come to change from my beloved TOP Photon EX to the all new Sabre S4.

The new car is absolutely a piece of art, with the same high quality, and many new parts.

• Chassis and upper deck are of new material with different flex characteristics and shock towers are thicker. Generally all carbon parts look better and the matt finish is really nice.
• Suspension mounts are "in fashion", and look stronger with zero play.
• Motor mount...Awesome! Old fashioned Tamiya style motor mount looks a lot stronger.
• Bulkheads are also new, with built-in sway bar holders. Upper bulkheads have now four holes to adjust the roll center.
• Aluminum floating servo mount is now standard.
• Front spool is new, red, aluminum, elegant...

Other than the above, the rest of the car is the same as the EX. The result is an awesome car of high quality and perfect fit, that runs smoothly and seems to be really fast.
For the next two months I will be running it on carpet(10.5t), and from April till November on asphalt, participating in the Greek National Championship.

My building time was very limited, as I had to build it when I was on the track and so I could not make a full presentation at the moment.

Nevertheless, I managed to take some photos just before its first run. Although their quality is not the best, I hope you enjoy them:

Sweep challenge Greece 1st round

On Sunday 19/1/2014 it was the first race for the 2014 Sweep challenge in Greece, held in Rcring.

The two classes, 1/10 TC and 1/12 Pan Car were held in a new layout, and everyone was excited.

1/10 TC

From the first qualifying, it was more than obvious that Michalis Kuriazis (Yokomo BD-7), Sakis Sikianakis(Xray T3) and John Kotsias(TOP Photon EX) were on pace for pole position. These three were fighting with each other for all five qualifyings. Fillip Isaakidis(TOP Photon EX) and Nick Nikolakopoulos (TOP SABRE S4) could only threaten them, with Nick setting the fastest qualifying run, but with 2 out of 5 runs counting, he just couldn't beat them on points.

Starting Grid:

1. Michalis Kuriazis-Yokomo BD7 2014

2. Sakis Sikianakis- Xray T3

3. Fillip Isaakidis- TOP Photon EX

4. John Kotsias-TOP Photon EX

5. Nick Nikolakopoulos-TOP SABRE S4

6. Michalis Pardalakis-Xray T3

7. Dimitris Mpakirtzis-TOP Photon EX

8. Chris Vasilopoulos-TOP Photon EX

9. Likourgos Danelis-Yokomo BD 7

Michalis Kuriazis Car:

Finals:

In the first final Michalis Kuriazis took an easy win, with Sikianakis second and Isaakidis third.

In the second final Sikianakis passed Kuriazis, but after an incident between these two, Kuriazis took the lead back and they both finished like that till the end of the race. So, he secured the overall win. Nick Nikolakopoulos finished third in this final.

In the third final it was John Kotsias that took the win and secured third place overall.Sikianakis and Isaakidis finished behind him having a great battle with Nick Nikolakopoulos.

Final  Result:

1. Michalis Kiriazis-Yokomo BD7 2014

2. Sakis Sikianakis-Xray T3

3. John Kotsias-TOP Photon EX

4. Fillip Isaakidis-TOP Photon EX

5. Nick Nikolakopoulos-TOP SABRE S4

6. Michalis Pardalakis-Xray T3

7.Dimitris Mpakirtzis-TOP Photon EX

8. Chris Vasilopoulos-TOP Photon EX

9. Likourgos Danelis-Yokomo BD7

1/12 Pan Car

The 1/12 mod class started the 2014 season lookin promissing for the future, with many new drivers starting to build their new cars. Unfortunatelly most of them were not ready for the race.

My new TOP Rebel 12 was extremely fast and consistent through the entire runs and it was a real pleasure to drive, while I was experimenting with tyre diameter.The five qualifyings proved that, with me winning four of them, setting also a fastest lap about 4 tenths quicker than anyone else. Mimis Papadopoulos was also very fast with his new Yokomo, John Fokianos always fast with his new On-Point, Michalis Pardalakis stable on his CRC. Jonh Kotsias found the right tyre combination for his TOP Rebel 12,while Vagelis Nikolopoulos was struggling with speedo issues.

Starting Grid:

1. Dimitris Mitropoulos-TOP Rebel 12

2. Mimis Papadopoulos-Yokomo

3. Michalis Pardalakis-CRC GEN XL

4. Giannis Fokianos-On point

5. John Kotsias-TOP Rebel 12

6. Vagelis Nikolopoulos-TOP Rebel 12

Dimitris Mitropoulos Car:

 

Finals

In the first final it was a tone to tone win for me, but experiencing a battery failure just on the finish line made be anxius. Mimis Papadopoulos was second and John Fokianos third.

In the second final, I was driving in safe mode from the first lap. Nevertheless, we had a great battle with Mimis, and the lead changed between us a few times.In the end I was able to take the win just in front of Mimis, and secure the overall win.

In the third final I decided to push the car hard so as to see if my battery would last for the entire race and experiment with some small changes. Of course I hit the barriers many times, trying to set a faster lap than before, Mimis passed and at half way through the run I was dead last!Working my way through the field, I was stuck behind John Kotsias who was in second place at the moment. We had a great battle, as he was waiting for me to catch him but he was realy fast.We passed each other some times and at the end we finished first (John) and second (me), as Mimis had crashed two laps before the end of the race.

Final Result:

1. Dimitris Mitropoulos-TOP Rebel 12

2. Mimis Papadopoulos-Yokomo

3. John Kotsias-TOP Rebel 12

4. Giannis Fokianos-On point

5. Michalis Pardalakis-CRC GEN XL

6. Vagelis Nikolopoulos-TOP Rebel 12

Next race For Sweep Challenge will be in February 9, in the same track layout!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

Dear all,

 

Welcome to my new blog. Among others, I will share my rc interests with you. I will do my best to upload race reports, photos, car presentations, setups, and anything you would like to read. I hope you enjoy reading my blog, as much as I enjoy writing it.

 

Here is a "classic" rc video for you to watch: