This weekend the first big touring car race of 2008 was held, the DHI-Cup in Odense, Denmark. For the first time it was run in a big convention centre where the racers could stay in hotel rooms in the same building. Check out the picture and detailed race report on RedRC, the track and pit area look great.

So far I haven't seen much news coming out of the pits regarding new cars or other related products, but the racing was no less exiting! 

TQ in the modified class was Finnish Xray driver Teemu Leino. After three exiting A-finals Tamiya driver Viktor Wilck was the man who was most consistant and took home the win. It was the first win for him on a big international race so I guess we'll be seeing this name more often in the coming racing season. Teemu Leino still managed an overall second place, and Steen Graversen finished third.

Stock class was dominated by Jimmy Maddison who won all three A-finals. Here Meik Niemann and Christoph Thiele came second and third.

For more information, go to the official DHI-Cup website .

OpenSourceRC wishes everybody a happy and healthy 2008!

May you enjoy great rc action and bring some exiting and new ideas to the rc scene in the coming year!

Data logging hasn’t been a big thing in rc racing up till now, even though Eagletree has had data logging systems for rc vehicles for a couple of years. Now it looks like rc car data logging might go more mainstream. Novak electronics just announced their Sentry data logging system which should be a great system to fine tune your car and help car development. I’ve always been a big fan of Novak products. I’ve used a number of their products over the years (ESC’s, receivers) and I’ve always been very happy with the quality, so I expect this system to be no different.

Novak Sentry

The system consists of a small unit that is powered by the receiver. You can connect several external sensors to it to measure the data which you can transfer to a PC via a USB cable once you finish your run. There is a basic and a pro version. The latter comes with extra sensors and data logging options. Both systems come with PC software and several sensors to measure rpm, voltage, temperature, g-forces and steering and throttle movement.

At a price of $135 I think this will open up a whole new era of fine tuning your car. We’ll probably be seeing a lot more laptops at the track in the coming years!     

A rc racing class that is steadily getting more popular is 1/5th scale rc motor bike racing. Bigger races are organized every year and more bikes are coming onto the market and getting more hi-tech with each release. The bikes come as electric and gas powered and basically use the same electric gear as the 1/10th and 1/8th scale rc cars. They also feature disk brakes, hydraulic suspension, carbon fibre chassis and more of such goodness. It is really good fun to watch these bikes race, it looks very realistic!

Nuova Faor SF506 LE

AR Racing , an Italian company now also has an rc dirt bike available, the ARX-540. I found this video on YouTube and was quite impressed with the bikes capabilities. Pretty amazing how stable it runs on an off-road track and how it jumps, drifts and pulls wheelies etc. You would hardly think this is possible on two wheels guided by radio contril, very cool!