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| Several RC magazines around the world have asked us to write a monthly column. With the kind permission we will re-publish the column at our web site too so all of the XRAY fans can read the latest news and behind the scenes information. Enjoy. |
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It is summer 2013 and the main racing season is finally over; this will be the first free weekend Iâ™ve had this year since January. As I was out of the office at races around the globe for the last two months, this installment of my column comes with a bit of a delay. Sorry about that!
So what has kept me busy? The 2013 racing season was extremely intensive (and exhausting) with so many races on schedule, along with plenty of testing with the team before and after the races. I had really great times during all the races this racing season, and I enjoyed a lot of thrilling moments. I am very happy and very proud of our achievements, victories, and titles that we have earned this year, including several European Championship titles, US Champion titles and dozens of national titles all around the world. All the achievements are the result of very hard and dedicated work of the entire racing and R&D team. And so I want thank everyone in the team for their efforts, activity, and on-going support.
Every race during the season is a culmination of all the work and activity that the team has to perform for months before the main race events, which includes a lot of testing, set-up work, analysis & evaluations of recorded data from tests, experience exchange and comparison, discussions, planning, logistics, travelling, wrenching and working on plenty of prototypes. Of course there is a LOT of work going on in factory behind the computers and in production in order to manage all the prototype manufacturing. The entire racing team and R&D team spend many months in preparation for every class, something that the general public does not realize. To the private driver this is a hobby, while for a factory racing team like ours it is a daily morning-till-night work. As such the few days of races at the end is just the absolute finale of the work done months before, and these few races prove whether or not you did your homework properly (all the while hoping that good luck is on your side, too).
With so many classes that we are active in, the amount of work has increased significantly within the last few years as more and more classes were added to XRAYâ™s portfolio. The new internal strategy that we chose and set was very smart and successful, and I cannot imagine how we could have handled it somehow differently. It will be almost two years since we decided that we needed to split responsibility for further product development, whereas I take full responsibility for the off-road classes while Martin takes care of all on-road classes. This strategy has been working very well, and we are much faster and more flexible and more effective with further developments than ever before.
Of course it does not mean that I have no idea what is going on with the on-road classes or vice-versa! With every new project and development we have an internal meeting with Martin and rest of the R&D team, so all planned changes and developments are mutually discussed. During the entire process we keep each other regularly updated so we can substitute for each other if needed.
We choose this strategy in the right time, as market forces are constantly pushing for shorter and shorter lifecycles of the cars. Translation: âśWe need to work faster and faster all the time.âť Right now Martin has full responsibility for the development of the T4, NT1, RX8, X12 and X10; while I have responsibility for all the off-road cars XB9, XB9E, XT9, XB4 and the upcoming XB2. Even if every one of us has âśonlyâť one class to take care of, there are still a lot of cars you have to take care of with further development and plenty of races to attend. This year we have worked with Martin and rest of the racing and R&D team and brought to market new versions of NT1, RX8, XB9, XT9, XB9E and now for the winter indoor season the 2014 versions of T4, X12, XB4 and XB4 2WD will be coming out. The constant push of the market and competition does not give you time to rest. When we were not in the factory working on new cars, we and our racing team are travelling around the world to attend races. With the main racing season finished there is time to take a quick look back to summarize the ups and downs of the 2013 season.
January:
EOS Rd2, Germany, 1/10 off-road
The first weekend of 2013 we raced in Germany with the prototype of the 2WD buggy for the first time, and we were very successful with Martin Bayer getting into A main final. In 4WD class, Martin finished 2nd. |
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| DHI Cup, Denmark, 1/10 touring & off-road |
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The first major international touring car race of the season could not be more successful for us. The team won both Stock and Modified classes, and Martin Bayer finished 2nd in the off-road class.
1/10 Touring Stock
1. Zdenko Kunak - XRAY T4
2. Martin Lissau - XRAY T4
3. Marek Cerny - XRAY T4
6. Tony Streit - XRAY T4
1/10 Touring Modified
1. Adrian Berntsen - XRAY T4
4. Alexander Hagberg - XRAY T4
8. Martin Hudy - XRAY T4
10. Magnus Vassmar - XRAY T4
1/10 Off-road 4WD
2. Martin Bayer â“ XRAY XB4
Report
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| ETS Rd2, Czech Republic, 1/10 touring |
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The next weekend we were back with the team at the ETS in Czech Republic, where Marek Cerny won the Stock class.
1/10 Touring Stock:
1. Marek Cerny â“ XRAY T4
3. Martin Lissau â“ XRAY T4
4. Zdenko Kunak â“ XRAY T4
Report |
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| Snowbirds Nationals, USA, 1/10 touring & 1/12 pan cars |
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In the last decade, Team XRAY has collected probably the high number of victories in various classes at the Snowbird Nationals, and this year was no different. Alexander Hagberg won the Modified class, Eric Andreson won the Stock class 17.5, Andrew Hardman won the Stock class 13.5, and Alex got on the podium with the X12 in the 1/12 class as well.
1/10 Touring Modified
1. Alexander Hagberg - XRAY T4
4. Andrew Hardman - XRAY T4
7. Martin Hudy - XRAY T4
9. Francesco Martini - XRAY T4
10. Paul Lemieux - XRAY T4
1/10 Touring Stock 17.5
1. Eric Anderson - XRAY T4
2. Chris Adams - XRAY T4
3. Cory Parsons - XRAY T4
4. Austin Harrison - XRAY T4
5. Robbie Dodge - XRAY T4
6. Francesco Martini - XRAY T4
7. Craig Xavier - XRAY T4
8. Sal Amato - XRAY T4
10. Brian Busse - XRAY T4
1/10 Touring Stock 13.5
1. Andrew Hardman - XRAY T4
4. Cory Parsons - XRAY T4
5. Drew Ellis - XRAY T4
8. David Bowser - XRAY T4
9. Francesco Martini - XRAY T4
10. Austin Harrison - XRAY T4
Report |
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| February 2013: |
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GP Montpellier, France, 1/8 off-road
The European off-road season started with the EFRA GP in Montpellier. Reno Savoya had a great race battle, finishing in 2nd place with his XB9.
Winternats, USA, 1/8 & 1/10 nitro on-road
The annual famous nitro on-road Winternats was held early in February, and it started the on-road nitro racing season. Team XRAY was successful in all classes, with podium finishes and Chuck Moon winning the Masters class:
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1/8 On-road Masters
1. Chuck Moon - XRAY RX8
2. Skip Starkey - XRAY RX8
6. Billy Bowerman - XRAY RX8
7. Brent Gottfried - XRAY RX8
8. Jim Rice - XRAY RX8
9. Dan Louis - XRAY RX8
1/8 On-road Open
2. Mike Swauger - XRAY RX8
5. Rick Vrielijnck - XRAY RX8
6. Ralph Burch - XRAY RX8
1/10 Nitro
2. Dirk Wischnewski - XRAY NT1
3. Mike Swauger - XRAY NT1
5. Loran Whiting - XRAY NT1
7. Ralph Burch - XRAY NT1
Report |
| Dirt Nitro, USA, 1/8 off-road |
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I travelled to the USA with Reno Savoya & Martin Bayer to one of the most competitive off-road races. We spent a few days prior to the race at private testing, and again made great progress with the next development of the off-road platforms. At the end, Martin & Reno got into the A main finals in different classes, but this time there were no podium finishes.
Report |
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| TITC, Thailand, 1/10 electric touring |
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On the other side of the globe, the annual TITC race was held in Bangkok. PY James made it to the podium in the Open class.
1/10 Electric Touring Open
2. PY James - XRAY T4
4. Natee Tirapipattanakul - XRAY T4
8. Kittipong R. - XRAY T4
10. Chan Chau Man - XRAY T4
Report |
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March 2013
ETS Rd.3, Spain, 1/10 electric touring
The ETS series continued with the race in Grand Canaria. Marek Cerny continued his unbeatable performance and won the Stock class again.
1/10 Electric Touring Stock
1. Marek Cerny â“ XRAY T4
6. Bart Wubben â“ XRAY T4
Report |
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| EOS Rd.3, Austria, 1/10 off-road |
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With new and new experiences with the 1/10 off-road class we successfully got 3 cars in the A main final at the 3rd round of EOS in Austria with Martin Bayer making it to the podium in 2nd place.
1/10 Off-road 4WD
2. Martin Bayer â“ XRAY XB4
7. Renaud Savoya â“ XRAY XB4
9. Jiri Mara (CZ) â“ XRAY XB4
Report |
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| European Championship, Finland, 1/12 pan cars |
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At the same weekend when we raced in Austria the European Championship in 1/12 scale took place in Finland where Alex represented the team with a great performance of the X12. Alex got to the A main and won one of the finals and finished in 3rd place overall.
1/12 pan car
2. Alexander Hagberg â“ XRAY X12
Report
April 2013
Psycho Nitro Blast, USA, 1/10 off-road
This was the first major race for the XRAY off-road team in US with the XB4 with a great accomplishment at the end, taking the whole podium!
1/10 Off-road 4WD
1. Eric Anderson - XRAY XB4
2. Aaron Breuer - XRAY XB4
3. Jordan Born - XRAY XB4
Report |
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| EOS Rd.4, Germany, 1/10 off-road |
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The last round of EOS 2013 was held in Germany and we continued the excellent performance of the XB4 with Martin Bayer making it again to the podium. Like at the previous EOS, we did a lot of testing and experimentation with the 2WD version of the XB4, tested a lot of prototypes and different ideas, some of which worked great while others did not. At the end Martin was able to qualify with the prototype into the main final as well.
1/10 Off-road 4WD
3. Martin Bayer â“ XRAY XB4
8. Renaud Savoya â“ XRAY XB4
Report
LRP Masters, Germany, 1/10 touring
The annual event was this time moved to a new hall which some people liked, and some did not. But as usual all the best touring car drivers gathered together for a competitive race. In the Stock class, Marek Cerny continued with his performance making it to the podium in 2nd place.
1/10 Touring Stock
2. Cerny Marek â“ XRAY T4
4. Vogel Tobias â“ XRAY T4
9. Hettrich Valentin â“ XRAY T4
Report |
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| USA Carpet Nationals, USA, 1/10 electric touring |
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Team XRAY USA has been by far the most successful team over the decade, gaining the majority of US national titles. At the carpet nationals, the team added another valuable trophy to its list of achievements.
Report |
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| US ROAR Paved Nationals, USA, 1/10 touring |
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Following the recent carpet nationals, the outdoor USA nationals were once again successful for the USA team who added another three US national titles.
1/10 Touring Modified
1. Lemieux, Paul - XRAY T4
2. Burch, Ralph - XRAY T4
4. Hardman, Andrew - XRAY T4
7. Tabush, Cristian - XRAY T4
10. Adams, Chris - XRAY T4
1/10 Touring Stock 13.5
1. Parsons, Cory - XRAY T4
4. Adams, Chris - XRAY T4
5. Bowser, David - XRAY T4
7. Tabush, Cristian - XRAY T4
8. Ellis, Andrew - XRAY T4
10. Anderson, Eric - XRAY T4
1/10 Touring Stock 17.5
2. Gray, Scotty - XRAY T4
3. Anderson, Eric - XRAY T4
4. Cooper, Robert - XRAY T4
5. Parsons, Cory - XRAY T4
6. Bowser, David - XRAY T4
7. Jenkins, Danny - XRAY T4
8. Spence, Billy - XRAY T4
9. Eden, Kyle - XRAY T4
1/10 Touring Vintage
1. Parsons, Cory - XRAY T4
4. Parsons, Jarrett - XRAY T4
5. Pendergraph, Steven - XRAY T4
6. Potter, Tim - XRAY T4
Report |
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| Astra Cross, Czech Rep., 1/8 off-road |
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To take a short break from on-road, I travelled to Brno at the end of May for the Astra race in both nitro & electric classes. Martin Bayer did not give any chance to anyone and won both classes.
1/8 Off-road Nitro
1. BAYER Martin - XRAY XB9
3. WOLLANKA Martin - XRAY XB9
4. ZEMAN Lukas - XRAY XB9
8. MAREK Tomas - XRAY XB9
9. KUKLA David - XRAY XB9
1/8 Off-road Electric
1. BAYER Martin - XRAY XB9E
7. HUDY Juraj - XRAY XBB9E
Report |
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| European Championship B, Italy, 1/10 nitro touring |
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The first European Championship of the summer season was in Italy at the very nice Gubbio track where we captured our previous European Champion title with the NT1. Within the highly competitive field, four NT1 got into the main final with Luca Redaelli winning the European Champion title.
1/10 Nitro Touring
1. Luca Redaelli - XRAY NT1
3. Simon Balk - XRAY NT1
9. Salvatore Gilberto - XRAY NT1
10. Alessio Forte - XRAY NT1
Report |
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| ETS Rd.5, Austria, 1/10 touring |
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The next round of ETS was in Austria where we have travelled with the entire team. Marek Cerny took another win, making him a favorite of the overall series.
1/10 Electric Touring
1. Marek Cerny - XRAY T4
5. Valetin Hettrich - XRAY T4
8. David Nemcek - XRAY T4
10.Tobias Vogel â“ XRAY T4
Report |
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| Nordic Championship, Norway, 1/10 nitro touring |
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The team has done a great job at the Nordic Championship by placing eight NT1 into the main final and taking the whole podium.
1/10 Nitro Touring
1. Markus Hellquist - XRAY NT1
2. Georg Ellingsen - XRAY NT1
3. Oyvind Andersen - XRAY NT1
4. Frank Andersen - XRAY NT1
5. Oyvind Stusdal - XRAY NT1
6. Claus Ryeskov - XRAY NT1
9. Adrian Berntsen - XRAY NT1
10. Bjorn Dahl - XRAY NT1
Report
Asian On-road Championship, Australia, 1/10 electric touring
On the other side of the globe, the new racing series organized by Scotty Ernst took place in Australia where our Australian team did a great job in the Stock class with a double podium finish.
1/10 Electric Touring Stock
1. Keith Chui - XRAY T4
2. Corey Broadstock - XRAY T4
9. Chui Kang XRAY - T4
Report |
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| European Championship, France, 1/8 off-road |
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I was little bit nervous travelling to this European Championship as it was the first race where we should debut the new prototype of the XB9. As our previous initial tests were extremely positive, the team was convinced that we should use the new car for the Euros and at the end I agreed. Luckily this was a good decision as the new prototype really worked well. Both Reno & Martin qualified into the main final and Reno was battling for the overall win and was swapping the lead several times. In the most exciting and most matched off-road Euros, Reno finished 2nd only 0.7sec behind, with Martin finishing in 3rd place. I was very happy for the performance of the new car and even more for the double podium finish which raised our motivation level for the next development even higher.
1/8 Off-road
2. Reno Savoya - XRAY XB9â 13
3. Martin Bayer - XRAY XB9â 13
Report |
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| European Championship, Spain, 1/10 off-road |
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Coming home from the Euros in France, the team just re-packed its bags and travelled to the 1/10 off-road Euros in Spain. This was the first major race for us on a clay surface. The 2WD prototype worked fairly well, and both Martin & Reno worked very hard on testing plenty of new parts that we produced. Martin was able to qualify into the A main and finished with the prototype in 6th place.
It was a great performance for the XB4 at the very first European Championship on clay, and allowed Martin to qualify into the main final to eventually win the European Championship. It was a great result considering this was first outdoor race for Martin and the XB4. I hope for more great results will come.
1/10 Off-road 4WD:
1. Martin Bayer - XRAY XB4
8. Lorenzo Crolla - XRAY XB4
1/10 Off-road 2WD:
6. Martin Bayer - XRAY XB4 2WD prototype
Report |
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| ETS Rd.6, Slovakia, 1/10 electric touring |
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The final round of the ETS series was held at our factory racing track at the Hudy Arena. Despite having organized several XRAY races already, this was the first major international event. Everyone coming to the track was amazed with the high-tech and modern RC facility, and the race itself was running smoothly with a great friendly atmosphere. As Marek Cerny had a nice lead from the previous rounds, he finished the final race taking home the overall ETS 2013 champion in Stock class.
1/10 Electric Touring Stock â“ overall results
1. Marek Cerny - XRAY T4
7. Tobias Vogl - XRAY T4
8. Valentin Hettrich - XRAY T4
Report |
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| European Championship, Portugal, 1/10 electric touring |
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We flew to Portugal for the next Euros on the schedule. We decided to use the prototype 2014 T4, and as usual I was fairly nervous because to race a prototype at such highly-competitive races like Euros is always risky. At the end I was happy with the decision as the new car worked extremely well, and in the very competitive race we managed to get 3 cars into the A main final. In the thrilling finals, Alex finished in 2nd place. A podium finish at the Euros in such a highly-competitive field with an all-new prototype is an excellent result.
1/10 Electric Touring
2. Alexander Hagberg â“ XRAY T4
9. Bruno Coelho â“ XRAY T4
10.Marco Kaufmann â“ XRAY T4
Report
Besides the listed races, the entire team and I have participated at plenty of other races; the list is just too long to mention them all. During the year there was no free weekend for us and we have travelled all around the globe not only to race but also to support our national and local teams and to provide technical service & support. After the busy season, I am now finally in office and watch all the national championships which finish up these days, and I am very happy and proud for the excellent results coming from around the world. In just the last few weeks we have added to the extensive list of National Champions some new fresh 2013 national titles such as:
2013 Italian Champion - RX8
2013 Maltese Champion - XB9
2013 German Champion - NT1
2013 French Champion - NT1 - National Category
2013 French Champion - NT1 - Elite Class
2013 Dutch Champion - RX8
2013 Norwegian Champion - NT1
2013 Swedish Champion - RX8
2013 Norwegian Champion - T4
2013 Portuguese Champion - NT1
2013 Portuguese Champion - RX8
...and more to come. |
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See you around the tracks!
Enjoy the ride and 'til next time,
Dipl. Eng. Juraj Hudy
XRAY Chief Designer |
| Archive: |
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Column #1 - Behind the Scene Stories
Column #2 - Worlds Flashback
Column #3 - T2'007 Debut
Column #4 - Designing the T2'007
Column #5 - Worldcup Review and NT1 Testing
Column #6 - Developing and Designing the NT1
Column #7 - Developing and Designing the NT1 - Part 2
Column #8 - Back to the Races
Column #9 - XT8 Truggy Development
Column #10 - Touring Car Development
Column #11 - Bling-bling Mentality
Column #12 - Hot Summer Washout
Column #13 - New Electric Touring Car
Column #14 - Off-road Development
Column #15 - My micro love
Column #16 - Back in the Dirt
Column #17 - Worlds Preparations
Column #18 - 808 Tests & Stress
Column #19 - Excited for the Worlds?
Column #20 - Statistics, Expenses Sheets, Production Analysis, Calculationsâ¦
Column #21 + Column #22 - Euros + Euros + Worlds
Column #23 - The Busiest Season Ever
Column #24 - In Between the Worlds
Column #25 + Column #26 - Well Developed or Overdeveloped?
Column #27 - Back to The Future
Column #28 - 2009 Kick-off
Column #29 - Crazy what?
Column #30 - Last indoor race of the season
Column #31 - Getting into summer season
Column #32 - Heading for the Euros
Column #33 - Testing - Always last minute, always new ideas
Column #34 - European Champion - title celebration
Column #35 - Time to move on
Column #36 - National Heroes
Column #37 - 2010 ready
Column #38 - Decade of Triumph
Column #39 - 2010 Racing Calendar
Column #40 - DHI, ETS & NĂĽrnberg Show
Column #41 - World Championship Practice
Column #42 - EC indoor, EC 1/12, Silverstate, LRP Masters, Neo
Column #43 - Nationals All Around
Column #44 - Warm Warm-ups, Challenging Challenges
Column #45 - Electric Touring Worlds 2010
Column #46 - Team XRAY - World Champion!!!
Column #47 - Summer Vacation, 30x USA Champion Title
Column #48 - T3 Saga Continues
Column #49 - RX8 â“ What? How? When?
Column #50 - The Making of the RX8 â“ Part II
Column #51 - Shake It, Baby, Shake It...
Column #52 - Racing Season â 11 Full Running
Column #53 - From On-road to Off-road
Column #54 - Testing and Once Again⦠Testing
Column #55 - Half of the EC Championships â“ Done!
Column #56 - Summer is Goneâ¦Euros are Done
Column #57 - Never-ending Development
Column #58 - From XB8 to XB9
Column #60 - 2012 Season Running
Column #61 - Crazy Months
Column #62 - ETS Champion
Column #63 - 2012 Racing Summer Summary
Column #64 - Making the T4, Part 1
Column #65 - Making the T4, Part 2
Column #66 - Making the XB4
Column #67 - Making The XB4 Pt. 2 |
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