Team CRC – 2014 IFMAR World Champion!

** Marc Rheinard wins his 4th title **

** CRC wins the World Championship with the new Xti-WC and CRC 1/12th tires **

The World Championships occurs every 2 years. It is the one race with all the big teams in attendance. Drivers from all over the world. A new track to all, no home track advantage. In addition, rule “nuances” that can make the conditions variable despite a known and consistant race surface in an indoor venue. Performance, experience and knowledge are what it takes to be near the top of a World Championship event.

The 2014 version of the 1/12th scale Worlds got off to a bad start shortly after it was announced that the 1/12th portion would be held on asphalt. With most all 1/12th scale racing worldwide now held on carpet, holding a 1/12th scale world event on asphalt could be compared to running F1 cars in the mud. It is still a race, but it just isn’t the same. Carpet is the desired surface for 1/12th scale racing. Almost 6 months after the announcement, CRC officials met with the organizers of the IFMAR Worlds event at the 2014 Snowbirds race. After some discussions, we were happy to help bring new CRC Fasttrak racing carpet to the 1/12th World Championships. The various internet forums lit up with positive comments, however, some racers, despite the good news of carpet, had already cancelled any plans to attend causing the final turnout of the race to be somewhat low. While the overall numbers were down, the competition was not. Teams from the USA, Japan and Europe came with most all the big guns in the house.

The drivers.

CRC had a number of drivers on hand with Andy Moore, Marc Rheinard and Brian Bodine representing the USA-based factory works team. These drivers were using a new revision of CRC’s Altered Ego car unofficially dubbed the “6B” prototype (production car now called the “Xti-WC” in honor of the worlds win). The CRC Japan team was there in force under the watchful eye of team boss Kimihiko Yano. Also driving the new 6B prototype, drivers Kazuki Endo and reigning Japanese National Champion, Hayato Ishioka, were prepared and ready to roll. From Europe, the BlackArt/CRC team of Austrian young guns Dominic Vogl and Jakob Zundel joined European Championship podium driver from France, Alexandre Laurent. These drivers competed with CRC-based cars with the addition of Black Art’s sexy molded carbon-composite chassis.

Hayato Ishioka, 2014 Japanese National Champion. Running in the top 5 all week, the young Japanese driver ended up 8th in the overall results. Driving the new WC, Hayato found himself running near the top of all 3 mains only to have a late mishap drop him in the final standings. We haven’t heard the last from this young driver.

Another solid driver from Team CRC Japan, Kazuki Endo used the new CRC Xti-WC.

Marc Rheinard came to Florida ready to take that top step on the podium. With his friend Thomas Pumpler on the wrenches, Marc was relaxed and focused all week long.

Andy Moore came to the USA looking for redemption from the disappointment from the past championship. The fastest driver at the 2012 Worlds in Holland, Andy is an absolute professional R/C driver. Hard working in the pits, always taking care of his sponsors and deadly quick on the track.

Alexandre Laurent fresh from his podium at the 2014 Euro Championship. Very quiet and polite in the pits, the Black Art/CRC driver can really turn on the heat on the track.

The supporting cast of characters.

The 3 Japanese amigos. Left to right; Masayuiki Ishioka (Hayato’s dad), Kimihiko Yano(team manager) and Shizuo Tanaka(mechanic). Team CRC Japan played a HUGE role in CRC’s World Championship title. Hours of testing and practicing always followed by clear concise reports. A huge thanks to our Japanese team, without their input, it would have been a much different race.

With dedicated drivers Endo and Ishioka testing under the guidance of the team leader Kimihiko Yano, Team CRC Japan put a driver in the A main and provided key test data in the months leading to the event.

CRC’s Frank Calandra was on hand to support the team. In an effort to help the team, there were reports of him being a real ‘pit-bitch”, truing tires in the hot Florida sun. So far no pictures or videos to support the claim, although many witnesses seen Frank covered in foam tire dust.

Austrian Thomas Pumpler handled all the maintenance and setup on the World Championship winning machine. Pumpy did a wonderful job keeping up with the changing track conditions and responding to his drivers comments.

In this picture, Muchmore front man, Jihyun Jang casts a “Korean spell” on Marc’s car. Jang did a great job adjusting the speedo and motor settings to suit Rheinard’s driving style.

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The car – CRC prototype “6B”.

CRC released the “Xti’ platform at the worlds event in 2012. Like many of past CRC designs, the Xti platform brought fresh, new ideas to the 1/12th car; true inline battery placement (the “i” in Xti) as well as transverse battery placement (the “t” in Xti). Also new, the Xti featured our super adjustable and convenient rear “Slider Pod” that makes setting rear ride height a breeze. Another new feature on the Xti platform was the front sub-frame known as the U-plate with reverse servo mounting option. The U-plate allows the CRC Pro-Strut front end to “key” into the sub-chassis, locking it straight and true. In addition, the double-deck design created by the U-plate adds a lot of rigidity to the front of the chassis. The new Xti-WC, uses 6 screws (bolts) to fasten the U-plate to the chassis (hence the proto name “6B – six bolt”) whereas both the Xti and Xti-Altered Ego cars use 4 fastening points. The 2 new additional points are located wider, greatly stiffening the chassis. However, the car is designed to allow the user to remove those 2 fasteners, resulting in a more flexible front end when conditions warrant. The reverse servo mounting option allows for more room in the chassis for electronics and also enables the user to better balance the car.

In addition, we have added material to the chassis at the back of the new Xti-WC. The chassis now cradles the transverse mounted battery. We have also added more shock mounting positions going toward the front of the chassis. This allows the use of our optional shock extender and/or the optional extended top brace to bring more adjustments to the car. We have also added material around the front body post holes for those Xti owners that forgot to mount the front bumper and caused damage to the chassis after a hard frontal impact. (not an issue when using the CRC bumper). The Xti-WC has a series of small changes to make a a great car, even better. The while the “WC” is based off Altered Ego geometry, the new car has better performance, is more adjustable, more convenient and more durable.

Marc’s Muchmore powered CRC Xti-WC.

The Xti-WC features multiple battery positions; inline and transverse. The transverse position features forward and rearward mounting positions. Back for stock racing, forward for faster modified motors.

Bottom view showing the new front sub-frame. The chassis is wider at the front and across the back link area.

Front top view of the Marc’s World Championship winning machine. Marc used the reverse servo mounting method for better weight balance and more room in the chassis. Why the 2 antenna mounts? We built the car with 2 mounts to “reserve” that space on the chassis in case we decided to install the optional extended top plate (3263) or the shock extender.

Standard Altered Ego rear geometry on the Xti-WC, with CRC’s convenient Slider Rear Pods.

The man and the machine. CRC tires were found on 3 of the A-main finalists, Rheinard, Ishioka and X-ray driver Olly Jefferies.

Despite adding more material, the CRC Xti-WC remains the lightest on the market. At the Worlds event, while weighing our cars in technical inspection, we heard a number of times from the tech crew “must be a CRC car”. When we asked why they said that, the crew commented on how the CRC chassis was the only car flirting with the IFMAR weight minimum of 730 grams. This all while using our stock steel screws on the bottom of the chassis and a full foam bumper.

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Journey to a World Championship title.

World Championship titles are difficult to obtain and typically the work of a dedicated team of professionals. This championship was won through an entire team effort of all those involved with the racing program at CRC. From our drivers worldwide providing information a feedback regarding the cars and tires to our local racers at CRC Raceway who supply a vast amount of information about the products. Moving on to the Rome, NY based CRC crew of John Firsching and Brian Wynn building the team cars, preparing the tires and the spare parts. Then the works team in Japan, led by Kimihiko Yano, for their work and effort and finally onto the trackside crew that did the “hands-on” work on the car, tires, body, ESC and motor. And of course the driver, some guy named Rheinard that put together one of the most EPIC comeback drives in A#2 to win the event. A big thanks to all.

The winning team together with the coveted IFMAR World Championship trophy. Teammates; Thomas Pumpler, Frank Calandra, Marc Rheinard and Jihyun Jang share a moment with their 4 favorite new friends.