The 2WD cars have started tearing up the track in Japan for the IFMAR electric off-road worlds 2007. Practice was almost cancelled because of heavy rain, but luckily the weather cleared up for qualifying and the old master Masami Hirosaka showed his skills to finish on top in the 3rd round. The finals are surely going to be exiting!

The main straight

Radio Control Car Action has a very good up to date report with lots of pictures on their website . Check it out if you want to see some of the action and stay informed! 

Lee Martin is writing a really nice blog about the worlds with lots of pictures and inside information over at the Oople.com sponsored by Team Associated and LRP.

Just a quick reminder, but it's quite a mouthfull:

the IFMAR 1:10th scale electric off-road world championships in Japan are starting today!

Get all the official information at the official worlds website. 

You can now also reach OpenSourceRC on Pownce , the new social network. It makes it easy to share messages, links, files and events with friends.

At the moment you still need an invitation to get in. I have 6 invitations left, so if you need one, drop me a line in the contacts section. First come, first serve, if they're gone, they're gone...

I've never been a big Serpent follower because they were mainly in onroad gas racing and I was in electric off-road racing, but they have some interesting stuff going on at the moment!

First they have a nice article about indy car champion Sebastien Bourdais racing a Serpent car in the pits at the indy car race in Assen, The Netherlands.

But there is some much bigger news: they just released a note on their website stating that they hired the guy who built the Durango off road cars , Gerd Strenge, and his team driver, Jörn Neumann. I never heard of the Durango cars, but they look great, quite different from other cars. Apparently he only built a few but they won a lot of races.

At the bottom of the announcement they mention that they are building and testing an 1:8th scale off-road car plus they are getting into 1:10th scale electric off-road racing. It states that they will bring a prototype 4WD car to the upcoming worlds in Japan that's starting in just a weeks time! I presume they are also working on a 2WD car because it says they are working on several projects. I for one am really curious to see what they come up with in the coming months!