Well on the below information posted by ROAR in the USA, it appears they have now killed off their 13.5 Super stock class.

Also reading the ROAR Nationals thread to compete in the Sportsman class you have to be not sponsored to compete in it which is awesome for the club only orientated people or new guys and may assist with making people feel less intimidated to enter a large event.




ROAR is happy to announced the 2010 Competition Classes to be contested at the 2010 ROAR Electric On-Road Paved National Championship. This years class structure will include a new concept in ROAR National Championship racing, The Sportsman Touring Car class that will use a named list of esc’s and 17.5 brushless motors to provide a fair and even playing field and the reduction in speeds ROAR members have been asking for. The traditional Stock division has been replaced by the Expert division and the Modified division has been replaced by the Open division. The classes to be contested will be as follows:
Sportsman TC
Expert TC (17.5)
Open TC
Expert 1/12th (17.5)
Open 1/12th
Expert World GT (13.5)

Sportsman Divisions will race using the ROAR Sportsman Participant National Guidelines (http://www.roarracing.com/downloads/...guidelines.pdf), ROAR approved 17.5 brushless motors and Sportsman approved esc list. The list will be compiled and posted for member use in the coming weeks.

Expert division will use ROAR approved motor winds as designated in the class list and open esc’s.

Open Divisions can use any 1:10 Class Motor Approved . All motors and batteries used must be published on the ROAR Products listing 14 Days prior to start of the event.

Red RC Article
 

Direct from the Red RC ETS website. Some food for thought

Our sport has seen some great advances in technology over the past few seasons. The introduction of brushless motors and LiPo batteries has made the sport a more level playing field and a lot more user friendly. Lately however the pace of electronic development has outpaced the sport for many with the latest Stock Spec Speedos become a major talking point. During our most recent events in the Czech Republic and Poland it was very easy to see that racing was being determined by the latest speedo rather than the individual ability of each driver and after racing it was clear that this was taking the fun out of our events for the majority of the Pro-Stock racers who have traveled across Europe with us to be a part of the Euro Touring Series.

The debate on the latest generation of speedos designed specifically for Pro-Stock has become an international one and is sure to continue for some time but after many conversations with drivers of all levels we have decided to take our own action in an attempt to create a more level playing field again at ETS races. Starting at Round 5 in Heemstede we will introduce a spec speedo for the Pro-Stock class. The Speedpassion ‘Citrix Stock Club Race’ will, thanks to the support of Speedpassion, be available for purchase at a special ETS price of just €49 or rental fee of only €5 per event for those only racing in selected rounds.

We have had five Citrix speedos out with drivers for testing and the feedback has been very positive. Although it does not match the same crazy top speeds as the latest generation Stock Spec speedos it does meet our criteria of being easy to set-up, runs motors at low temperature and will give drivers the chance to race on an equal footing. We are also confident it will help produce good close racing. We hope drivers find our decision as a positive thing for the sport and that come Sunday evening in Heemstede we can see that drivers are back enjoying their racing once again.

Speedpassion are preparing a 130 Citrix speedos for Round 5 and these should arrive with use by the end of April. For drivers already registered for Heemstede or Andernach they can order their speedo now and we will ship it to you for pre race testing once we receive them. Unfortunately we are not in a position to ship out rental speedos prior to the race.

I wonder how long before we see this in oz? Certain ESC's banned from events or a control ESC?

What would be really amusing is a company that is not "banned" releasing new software that is much faster just before the event!

An interesting development .... but two things come to mind.

Sponsored by a company who to date has struggled to get their ESC's up to the speed of the opposition. Well it is one way to beat them. :D

And a special price of 49 Euros for base ESC? I can buy their 60a Version 2 fully featured ESC for much the same price. So hardly a bargain for a budget spec ESC and this is what this ESC is.

Maybe the solution is along the lines of having only two classes below MOd ... 17.5 with open ESC and 17.5 with a controlled ESC?

This is exactly what ROAR has done
- Clubman TC (17.5 spec ESC)
- Expert TC (17.5 open ESC)
- Open TC (Mod)

All we need is a low cost brushless replacement for 540 Pro and job done!

We do seem to follow 3-6 months behind ROAR, so I believe late this year when the list of ESC's is solid. We already follow there battery list.

I believe that's what ROAR are doing by having Sportsman TC (cntrl esc), Expert TC 17.5 and Open TC.


Oz follow ROAR/IFMAR a little to much IMO (dirty on 1/8th battery ruling:blush:), but this is something I'd like to see followed, including the controlled ESC's in 21.5 classes and off-road.