Since LiveRC is the only place where you can watch the biggest races in the U.S. and around the world straight from your PC, tablet, or smartphone, it's no surprise that our traffic was dominated by those interested in IFMAR World Championships, ROAR National titles, and watching your favorite pro drivers in action. Between races, however, RC racing diehards head to LiveRC for the hottest news and weekly columns as their destination for what's hot in the industry we all love so much. Here are the ten stories you read the most in 2014.
In my weekly Wednesday column just a few weeks after the ROAR Fuel Off-Road Nationals in Hutto, TX, I wrote about how I thought track layouts were getting too extreme - which not only makes racing side-by-side more difficult, but encourages track surfaces that are increasingly sticky. The column was sparked by many of the top drivers complaining about the track layout at Thornhill Racing Circuit being too easy...yet the long main events to determine both titles came down to the last lap.
With the 4WD buggy class quickly transitioning toward shorty-specific chassis layouts, ROAR clarified a rule previously created to protect the RC industry from manufacturers creating cars built around a proprietary battery design. Whereas cars were previously required to accept a full-size stick pack or saddle pack, the rule was modified to provide clearance for chassis configurations that accepted only a shorty pack so long as a full-size pack was also an option. The rule change impacted the 2WD class as well, making it legal to install inline electronics that occupy what was previously the battery tray. The Team Associated B44.3 below is an example of a car that can be built to fit either a shorty or saddle pack.
The only on-road racing story to make the top ten LiveRC articles this year, our readers got excited about a teaser from Tamiya acknowledging that the TRF team would be racing the new 419 platform from the IFMAR ISTC World Championships onward.
The RC world was abuzz this summer with the news that multi-time National Champion Ryan Maifield cut ties with long-time sponsor Team Associated, especially since the announcement came just days after finishing a few feet behind Ty Tessmann for the ROAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy National Championship in Texas. We speculated that he was heading to TLR and Team Orion - both of which, of course, came true.
After announcing the successor to the 2013 IFMAR World Championship-winning B44.2 buggy, now outfitted with gear differentials and an aluminum chassis among its various updates, Team Associated invited me to SDRC Raceway in Miramar, CA - one of their engineer team's favorite test tracks - for an opportunity to drive the car before anyone else. AE engineer Kody Numedahl let me burn a few battery packs with his personal race car after the photo shoot and interview.
Team Associated dominated headlines in both electric and nitro this year, especially with the news that their design staff was working on its second completely different prototype 1/8-scale buggy platform. Ryan Cavalieri first drove the RC8B2 in public at Heritage R/C Park for a local points series, where the car's composure on the tricky off-road surface impressed everyone who watched - all the way until an engine failure knocked him out on the last lap of the final. Less than a month later, Cavalieri drove the prototype buggy to a second-place finish at the IFMAR Worlds in Messina.
After AKA and Pro-Line had both released 2.4" wheels featuring a bead design similar to 1/8-scale buggy tires, ROAR clarified that not only were they illegal for the Nationals, but adapter kits that could be glued to the tires in order to make them fit existing wheels were not allowed either. Both classes affected, 2WD and 4WD Modified Buggy, were won by Pro-Line drivers Dakotah Phend and Ty Tessmann using 2.2-inch versions of the Electron tire that are now available to the public.
Though race blogs were excluded from this list, the most surprising story from the IFMAR 1:8 Worlds in Messina, Italy was too popular to ignore. After the first round of qualifying, American Kyosho title hopeful Jared Tebo was disqualified from his heat for illegally cut body vent holes. What made the case more confusing was that Jared had asked an official for permission to run the body, even though the IFMAR rule states specifically which holes are allowed to be cut out regardless of the body's molded trim lines. In the end, IFMAR's emergency committee determined that Tebo's first round time should be allowed but that he needed to tape the holes closed for the remainder of the weekend.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I sparked a firestorm of conversation with a column calling for the RC industry to actively pursue battery technology that's safer than the LiPo cells currently in use by citing several instances in which accidents put private homes and commercial business in serious jeopardy, including two instances just days prior to the column's publish date.
While off-road tracks made of astroturf have dominated RC racing conversation over the last couple of months, the hottest stories of the summer were all in regards to the current climate of 17.5 and 13.5 class racing. The buzz boiled over at the Hot Rod Hobbies Off-Road Shootout when several racers were disqualified for a variety of infractions - from not activating blinky mode to running 13.5-turn stators in the 17.5-turn class.
TOP FIVE LIVERC RACE BROADCASTS in 2014:
#5: ROAR 1:8 Nitro Off-Road National Championships in Hutto, TX
#4: Reedy International Off-Road Race of Champions in Huntington Beach, CA
#3: The Dirt Nitro Challenge in Phoenix, AZ
#2: IFMAR 1:12 and ISTC Electric On-Road World Championships in Florida
#1: IFMAR 1:8 Off-Road World Championships in Messina, Italy
1/2/2014
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