The final marquee events of the racing calendar signal the beginning of a whole new series of competitions - the race to the desk to sign a new contract. The inner circles of RC racing at the highest level have come a long way in the last twenty years, as the fastest racers in the world no longer just do it for the thrill of competition and compensated travel but now garner salaries while playing a huge role in the marketing and development efforts of the industry’s prominent manufacturers. When contracts expire, drivers can stick with their teams or shop their services to other manufacturers looking for a better deal.
As the final IFMAR Worlds and other national and international championships for 2014 nearing completion, the often-titled “silly season” is in full swing. And while you’re likely to see official announcements in the coming weeks, the RC racing world is not very big - certainly not big enough to keep secrets. Here’s what we know so far:
HB/HPI Racing to snatch up David Ronnefalk and Renaud Savoya
The biggest news for 2015 comes out of what has been the most successful brand of the last couple of years. After competing for several seasons with the smallest team to make a splash at major races, it looks like 2014 IFMAR World Champion Ty Tessmann will finally be joined by some all-star teammates for 2015.
Both new arrangements may be at least partially credited to Team Orion as well - particularly French driver and Orion engine designer Adrien Bertin, himself an HB driver who has been quite the advisor for the young European Champion Ronnefalk. The young Swede has been vocal about his desire to make a career from racing, which almost certainly must include some sort of input on R&D or other means of providing value to a company rather than simply driving, and there’s a fair chance he’d have a better opportunity at finding just that with the smaller HB firm than with Kyosho.
Savoya’s entrepreneurial aspirations are nothing new, having previously spent a stint in the USA to head RB Products’ North American branch. His move to Team Orion in 2013 came along with the promise of assisting Bertin in developing the brand’s line of engines. There is speculation that Savoya’s move could impact HB/HPI Racing’s distribution in France, currently held by Avio & Tiger.
Reno hasn’t said much, other than posting these two cryptic photos with the captions “Almost ready for Pierrefeu!” (left) and “Decals for Pierrefeu ready!” - almost certainly excluding logos for any car brand.
Ryan Lutz to Tekno RC
Though no official announcement has been made, several sources have confirmed that this is a done deal. The move is big for both parties - Ryan Lutz, having previously raced for Mugen Seiki, Kyosho, Tamiya, and Team Durango, will be moving to another upstart brand looking to cut its teeth in the upper echelon of off-road racing. The move is huge for Tekno RC as well, who’ve dabbled into the pro racing circles but have yet to ink a perpetual A-Main driver. Two months ago, Tekno RC signed fast midwest racer Joe Bornhorst, but Lutz is their biggest signing yet.
Team Durango shake ups
With the huge decision that the Hobbico-owned Team Durango will be shutting down its pro race team to focus instead on grassroots representatives, an entire roster of drivers was sent scrambling. We already know where Ryan Lutz, one of Durango’s highest-profile off-roaders, is heading, and that touring car ace Elliott Harper is leaving.
The biggest questions then, of course, are the destinations of European Champion Jörn Neumann and former US champ Travis Amezcua. Early Friday morning, Team Durango and Jörn Neumann confirmed that the long-time team were splitting up. The future for Amezcua, however, may have come in a comment on LiveRC’s Facebook page when someone asked another European Champion, Project Coordinator Chris Doughty, about his future with the brand:
Just a few weeks ago at the IIC, Travis Amezcua was racing touring car with a Team Durango DETC410 and happily joking with several representatives for Hobbico. Maybe he's staying?
Associated to sign Kyle McBride and more
Call this one crazy, but one can only imagine that it’s not just coincidence that Kyle McBride’s father, Scott, shared these photos of another driver’s cool paint job with the AE logo on the roof on his son’s Facebook page. Kyle has mentioned his desire to expand further into 1/10-scale racing, and having confirmed his exit from long-time sponsor Kyosho there are only so many places a racer of his caliber would likely choose to go.
Would Carson be another one to make the switch? Team Associated certainly would have an opening for more drivers, with Maifield’s departure earlier this year and the rumor of Aigoin leaving. Carson has confirmed that he’ll be staying with AKA, O.S., and Futaba for 2015, as well as Reedy - which only strengthens the Associated possibility. Schumacher recently flew Carson to the opening round of the Euro Offroad Series, and he had a stellar 2014 with Mugen Seiki, but the young star has a few weeks to weigh his options.
SWorkz to add Aigoin and more?
We’ve heard grumblings of SWorkz adding new drivers to join Atsushi Hara on their 2015 race team, notably former European Champion Yannick Aigoin. We haven’t been able to confirm such rumors, especially since such a departure from Team Associated would require a big shake-up for Aigoin as a long-time employee of CML Distribution’s French side.
However, the brand’s biggest change may come stateside. Having announced the acquisition of Austin Blair about a month ago, and the brand’s U.S. distribution handled exclusively by retail giant AMain, it would be easy to see new drivers coming from their team, or joining their team in conjunction.
Tebo making moves?
One can’t help but imagine that a high-profile driver is leaving Team Orion - it’s difficult to grasp that Cavalieri, Evans, Maifield, Phend, Ronnefalk, Savoya, Tebo, and Tessmann would all stay on the same team forever. With Tebo’s return to Maxima fuel for 2014 after a brief stint with Byron Fuels, and Maxima having introduced an O.S.-based .21 engine, he would seem the most likely to make the switch - especially if he can remain with Orion for electric racing.
The same can be said for AKA, who signed Cavalieri for 2014 and added him to a team that already included Tebo as well as Lutz, Ronnefalk, Wernimont, and a collection of very capable international drivers. It’s no secret that AKA doesn’t want their drivers running other treads (they booted Martin Bayer off the team for doing so at the IFMAR Worlds), which has created an interesting environment in the pit area of some 1/10-scale races as many drivers all tend to flock to one specific tire across all brands. Could this be the riff needed to trigger a switch back to previous sponsors JConcepts or Pro-Line?
It’s only the first week of November, with several weeks yet before the start of 2015 and next year’s calendar full of big races. Stay tuned for more updates!
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