Castlemaine R/C Car Club Inc.

Once again, our Break-up and Presentation Night will be held at Eric, Elke and Hardy Meyers residence in Granny Woods Lane, Yapeen, starting at 6.00 pm.

Meat and soft drinks will be provided, but please bring a plate of salad to share and your own drinks.

Where? From Castlemaine, head towards Guildford. 8.7 km from the traffic lights in Castlemaine, turn left at the Vaughan Springs sign. Follow the bitumen 2.0 km and turn left into Granny Woods Lane, immediately before the bridge. 300m further on, turn left up the driveway. There you go.

From Guildford, you need to turn right at the Vaughan Springs sign, 2.3 km towards Castlemaine from the Guildford Family Hotel. If you get lost, please ring 5473 4400.

The final round of on-road racing will be held this Sunday November 8 when Pull Start Sport, Club Spec 540 and 540 Pro clases will be decided.

It is not too far away before the start of the 2010 racing season and our Club Championship will once again run from January through to November. As usual, the Club Championships are only for Club members, so if you want to be included, please join or renew your membership, pronto.

The track is big enough and vehicle friendly so there is no reason that you should not bring your 1/10th scale vehicle along and race it too.

Classes will be combined as numbers dictate, but championship points will be awarded dependant on the class of vehicle entered, not the race name. As per 2009, there must be minimum of 3 entrants in a class on race day for the class to be valid on the day, and the class must be run 4 times in the year for it to be valid.

We are pleased to announce that Bad Habit Hobbies in Bendigo will be sponsoring our Slash and Open Electric Event on Saturday April 4th. This event will start at 2.00 pm and will feature all regular electric classes, PLUS Stock Slash and Mod Slash, and for the first time ever (to my knowledge) a 1/8th scale open blushless class.

Castlemaine SLASH and Open Electric Event, April 4th.

Castlemaine R/C Car Club Inc. in association with

Bad Habit Hobbies, Bendigo

present
Slash and Open Electric Event
Saturday April 4, 2009
Racing starts at 2.00 pm

Race Format and Rules.

Classes:-

Slash Stock**
Slash Modified
Modified 4WD*, 2WD*, Truck*
Stock 4WD*, 2WD*, Truck*
Open 1/8th Scale Brushless***

*Current AARCMCC rules apply to all vehicles where applicable. Drivers are to ensure conformance of their own vehicles with the rules.
RTR Vehicles to run in Stock class at race directors discretion.
Eg Readyset Lazer ZX-5

** Slash Stock must run Titan 550 12T motor, XL-5 ESC, kit wheels, tyres and body (or approved aftermarket items. Eg: Proline Switch tyres on Epic beadlock rims and Desert Rat or Hardcore body).
The emphasis here is on STOCK.
Open radio systems.
Batteries:- 6 cell NiMh/NiCd or 2S LiPo hard case batteries

***Open 1/8th Scale Brushless. Anything goes. Kit or RTR buggies, truggies and trucks. Converted buggies, truggies and trucks. Own design/hybrid CORR trucks. Impress us!!! LiPo = hard case batteries only

Race Format.:-

All classes, point score, 4 rounds of 6 minutes duration, 2 minutes between races. Worst round dropped and used for tie break. Entries on the day will dictate whether we stretch to 5 rounds.

Entry fee is $15 for your first class and $5 for extra classes.

Trophies will be awarded to all place-getters thanks to the generous support of Bad Habit Hobbies in Bendigo.

Further details, please email rccars@castlemaine.net or phone 0438 705 352

This year the Presentation Night will be held at Eric, Elke and Hardy Meyers residence in Yapeen, starting at 6.00 pm.

From Guildford, you need to turn right at the Vaughan Springs sign, 2.3 km towards Castlemaine from the Guildford Family Hotel. If you get lost, please ring 5473 4400.

The long weekend surprisingly saw plenty of drivers turn up for on-road racing and the racing proved to be well worth the day out at the track.

Eric Meyer is really hitting his straps as a racer, setting fastest lap in Club Spec and fastest heat and new record in Pull Start Sport. Cordie McKendry and Leigh Wallace also posted record times for another 3 classes.

Highlight of the score sheets was in Pull Start Sport, where the first 3 drivers were level on points at the end of the day and final placings had to be decided on count back of throw out rounds.

Great day of racing. Lots of drivers attended, including some top buggy drivers getting an early eye in to the track ready for the upcoming State Champs.

Castlemaine R/C Car Club were invited, and accepted the invitation, to host the 2008 AARCMCC Off-road State Champs. Although the invitation came a little later than we would have preferred, the committee are going full-steam-ahead to get this event organised. With last years Truggy and Monster Truck States under our belt, we know how to make this event much bigger and better than last time.

The new distributor for the Himoto brand of cars, Ecka P/L, located in Macedon, have signed up as major sponsor for the event.

Just to get the ball rolling, we will hold an Off-road Trophy Day on Sunday June 1st, 2008.

Saturday morning will see a "Come and Try" session for interested locals, followed by controlled practice in the afternoon.

Sunday will be the real race day with qualifiers in the morning and finals in the afternoon. Last years Trophy Dash was a great event and the way that word spreads around the racing community, this year is going to be even better.

Another top day of off road racing. Although the race day was moved at short notice, we had a great day racing, breaking 6 track records in the process. One of the high lights of the day was the battle between Joe Glavic and Travis Stewart in Monster Truck, at one stage racing nose to tail through three laps in the fourth heat. Great stuff to watch.

The Pro Buggy drivers were punching out fast consistent laps on the track which was in perfect condition after the rain early in the week.

Due to a clash of dates, it had been proposed that we cancel our April Off-road race meeting. When this news broke at the Barmah Off-road race meeting today, there was such an outpouring of emotions (shock, anguish, sorrow, loss, desolation) that the original proposal has been reconsidered and we will now be holding our April Off-road race meeting one week early, on March 31 instead. This race meeting will include round 2 of the RCGarage Nitro Buggy Challenge. So if you want to have a shot at the new race motor up for grabs, you had better get your backside trackside.

Thanks to much hard work by Craig Hutchinson, our forum has been de-bugged and resurrected and is ready for use again. Everybody, please feel free to utilize this valuable resource, be it for asking advice, offering advice, keeping everybody informed about what is going on, or just chatting.

Another terrific on-road race meet today. Big fields and super close racing all day. Club Spec 540 is proving to be a real hoot. All the cars are specced the same, so the only difference is how you drive. Racing all day was so close, that placings in three classes were tied and had to be decided on count back of dropped rounds.

Look out for next month, as fields will be even bigger and racing will be even better.

Everyone please note, club memberships are now due, so please renew your memberships at your earliest convenience. Many thanks to all the newcomers who have attended our race meetings and have joined up in the club.

On March 2nd, Castlemaine will be hosting the first round of The NITRO-X Masters This is going to be a great race series for 1/8th Buggies, with the ultimate winner of the series being awarded an airline ticket to take them to participate in an Off-road meet in South East Asia.

Nitro Buggy challenge. The club will be holding a Nitro Buggy Challenge over the February, April, May and June off road meets. This is a point score event with the prize, a GoTech 21 Buggy Motor proudly sponsored to the club by RC-Garage. Make sure you get to all the races as the top point scorer at the end will walk away with a brand new motor.

Truggy Challenge will be held over the August, September, October and November meets, with the winner here taking home a GoTech 21 race motor, again proudly sponsored by RC-Garage. Format will be the same as the buggy challenge, so get yourself geared up to have a go.

Thanks very much to Nick and Adam of RC-Garage for supporting our club and Off-road racing in general.

2008 Race Calendar posted. This Calendar is correct at time of publication but is subject to change. Please check it regularly as more events will be added.

Please note:- The race dates/days for the 2008 racing season will see a swap between on-road and off-road race days. Off-road will now be on the first Sunday of the month, and On-road will be on the second Sunday of the month. This should avoid clashes with other clubs and may help with the attendance at our race meetings. The calendar for 2008 should be up on the site in a week or so.

Please note that the date of our October race meet has been changed from the 7th to the 21st due to a clash with Bathurst.

The club will be holding a Trophy Dash race meet in conjunction with our usual race meeting on Sunday the 4th of November. Full details of the classes and race format are available on the entry form, which can be found HERE.

The club is considering entering a float in the Castlemaine Show Parade on the Friday night before the Trophy Dash. Anyone interested in participating should contact Chris McKendry for further information.

After 3 weeks of perfect weather, racing started Friday on a fast, clean track following overnight rains. If you are in a drought, just plan a big race day. Always works. :-(

All the same, everybody turned up on time and racing started pretty near on schedule.

Concours judging was first and the vehicle judged to be best presented was the X-Ray Truggy of Edwin Gunawan.

Three rounds of controlled practice followed giving the visitors plenty of time to get to know the circuit at Castlemaine.

After the lunch break we got stuck into the first two rounds of qualifying which were made a bit more interesting with the addition of a few of showers of rain, one or two of them a bit heavier than we would have liked. Early questions about watering the track were answered by the rain gods.

Quite a few of the Truggy drivers chose to sit-out round 2 qualifying because the sticky wet clay made the vehicles particularly (horrendously) heavy.

After two rounds of Truggy qualifying, Ron Maya (Sunshine) was leading from Brad Gale (Bendigo) and Nick Bowen (Colac).

In Monster Truck, Dave Grech (Sunshine) was leading from Scott Matthews, with Shannon McAuliffe (Bendigo) and Ray Debrincat (Sunshine) tied on points for third spot.

Please note the date for our on-road race meeting has been changed form the 7th to the 21st of October, due to a clash with the Bathurst 1000 race.

2007 AARCMCC VICTORIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR MONSTER TRUCK and TRUGGY (Off road) to be held 13 - 16 September 2007, Entry form here

With the State Champs fast approaching, we are pleased to report that this event is going to be HUGE. If early entries are anything to go by, there is going to be a massive turnout of entrants ready to test themselves for the State Title in sunny Central Victoria.

The track is in absolutely perfect condition, smooth and fast, with some extra track edging having just been installed. The Mt. Alexander Shire Council has just regraded and resurfaced the access road and ample parking is available.

Any reports you may have heard about the track being hard on tyres are completely bogus. Now that the track has settled down, the surface is pure clay with barely a lump of anything harder to be seem.

Massive Mods and RC Garage are proudly sponsoring the event with motors and fuel being the main prizes.

Anybody wishing to have an eye-opener is welcome to attend our club race day on September the 9th (the weekend before the State Champs).

If you have any further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact Glenn on 0438 705 352 or via email to rccars@castlemaine.net

With the return of sunny weather, the club had a great turn out for on-road racing. As usual, much of the racing was very close and the final placings in more than one class had to be decided on a count back at the end of the day. Great to see a few new faces there as well. Six classes were contested, so make no mistake about it, On Road racing is extremely well supported and a thriving area of the sport.

Many thanks must to go Rob McClure and Co. of R & R McClure Earthmoving for the enormous amount of work that they have put into the construction of the clubs off road track. The whole operation would not have been possible without the generous support and assistance of Rob, Ruth, Tim and the guys. The drivers stand platform has been raised a further meter allowing even better track view, while the pit area has been levelled and should be covered with crushed rock before next weeks meeting. If we are lucky, the pit lane should also be constructed by then.

The Annual General Meeting for the club will be held at the July on-road meeting. All positions for office bearers will be vacated at the start of the meeting and a new committee will be elected. Got anyone in mind? Be sure to put your hand up on the day. If you don't say something, then no-one else will and the club will not progress forward. If you have any issues that you would like to raise, especially with regards the clubs structure, aims and achievements, PLEASE put your hand up and say it. All views and opinions of members are encouraged and welcome.

Just in case the July meeting did not have enough going on, we will also be running our annual Concours d'Elegance. this is basically a show and shine type event, but all vehicles entered in the Concours MUST complete three laps of the race circuit to prove that they are at very least roadworthy.. We will be holding a separate Concourse for the Off road vehicles on the following weekend on the Off road race day.

Since the last off-road race meeting where we had a little bit of trouble with infield puddles, the club members have done some fairly extensive drainage work to alleviate that problem. Drainage lines have been dug to drain the problem areas and in a couple of cases, pipes have been laid under the track to drain remote areas. We hope all are happy with the works and that we will see you all at our next race meeting.

The rules that we run electric races to have been amended to bring them in line with Vortec and other local club rules. Please check the Classes page for further details.

Our first real off road race meet is scheduled to kick off next Sunday 11/2/2007. All classes of off road vehicle are welcome to compete. No matter what you drive, we will find a place for you.

One proposed class that is generating a fair bit of interest is 1/10th rally. This will be a spectacular class to watch or participate in, with the cars basically being 1/10th touring cars, either nitro or electric, but with the chassis being jacked up a bit, knobby tyres fitted and wearing a rally body (i.e. Subaru Impreza, Citroen Xsara, Mitsubishi Lancer etc). If nothing else, it should be a lot of fun.

Today the club membership passed the proposal that we should add off-road racing (with the track to go with it) to the racing calendar here in Castlemaine.

A sub-committee will be formed to handle such matters as co-ordination of track construction, race classes/rules etc.

Again, if anyone is interested in participating in the racing, or assisting with the track construction (tentatively scheduled for 25/11/2006) please contact the committee (see contacts page).

The club has been asked a number of times recently if we are going to hold off road races. The committee discussed this at a recent meeting and could find no reason why we could not hold off road races. The Wesley Hill Recreation Reserve Committee of Management (managers of the reserve on which we currently operate) were approached as to us using some land to construct such a track and had no objections. Next step is to check with the Reserve Redevelopment Committee. If anybody is interested in participating or even helping with the track construction, please get in touch with the committee and lets get the ball rolling.

Due to the plethora of vehicle types available, the possible classes could include:-

Classes that will be run will be dependant on how many of which class of vehicle turn up.

Electric touring car racing has come back with a vengeance at Castlemaine. The October meet saw a near full field of electric cars (both 540 and Minis) take to the track. Specifications for this racing class is pretty simple. We want to keep the class cheap and competitive, so have limited the modifications allowed on the vehicles, and so far the class has produced the closest racing you will see anywhere.