German Cham­pi­onship 2019: Morris Vold­e­nauer is in the semi­final. He races round the bends and perfectly handles ramp after ramp – one slowly, another one with speed. Suddenly another car brushes his. He is thrown off course and fails to approach the ramp as planned. The car does a somer­sault. A write-off.

Fortu­nately, the driver remains unscathed. After all, Morris Vold­e­nauer steers his car from a safe distance. “That is the big advan­tage of radio-controlled (RC) model car racing”, he says. “You do not put your­self at risk.” Some 100 drivers of all ages partic­i­pate in the races with their vehi­cles – referred to as mini-cars in Germany – that measure about 40 x 30 centime­ters. The drivers stand at a higher point next to the track and steer their cars by remote control. The biggest chal­lenges, in addi­tion to the bends, are the jumps.

“During training, you prac­tice to see where you need to accel­erate before a ramp to gain suffi­cient momentum for the next hurdle, or where it is better to brake to ensure a safe landing”, he explains. The primary goal is to avoid wrecking the car. After all, compet­i­tive model cars are expen­sive – the outlay amounts to at least EUR 2,000.

Favorite race­track in Laupheim

Morris Vold­e­nauer was first seized by the RC model car bug in 2010. “A good friend of mine was given a car for Christmas”, he states. “We drove it around the parking lot. It was such good fun that I imme­di­ately bought my own.” However, the parking lot was soon inad­e­quate. He discov­ered his favorite race­track at the Mini-Car-Club (MCC) Laupheim. “It is rela­tively long, has lots of jumps, and is in a green setting”, he enthuses. In the mean­time, he is the Youth Officer and a member of the MCC committee.

Vold­e­nauer drives about ten to fifteen races a year. He has two cars in the mean­time: one with a combus­tion engine and one with an elec­tric drive. In the summer, he lines them up on the starting grid two or three times a month in various towns in Germany. There are fewer races in winter. The 21-year-old was Baden-Würt­tem­berg cham­pion in 2016 and 2017. Despite an acci­dent, he qual­i­fied for the first time this year for the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onship, which took place in Valencia in June. “It was always my greatest ambi­tion to partic­i­pate in such a race.”

Vold­e­nauer also travels a lot profes­sion­ally. In his job as a service engi­neer, he repairs bottle filling lines throughout the whole of Europe. After completing his training as a mecha­tronics engi­neer, he joined the service team at the begin­ning of 2019. “Many candi­dates are not confi­dent about trav­eling alone to other coun­tries and discussing prob­lems with customers in English straight after their appren­tice­ship”, he reports. “That is precisely the chal­lenge that attracted me.”

From the back of the field and into the lead

The compe­ti­tion is what he likes most about RC model car racing. There is a certain process. Heats first take place, during which each driver tries to complete as many circuits as possible in five minutes. About twelve drivers of similar level are iden­ti­fied on this basis and they drive against each other. The best of these qualify for the next race and once again it is the top drivers that go on to the next round. This means that a driver can come from the back of the field and win. A RC model car race usually lasts a whole weekend.

However, the little speed­sters also demand atten­tion from Vold­e­nauer at home. He regu­larly has to change the oil or tires, replace ball bear­ings, and remove dust and dirt. “Every partic­i­pant uses other compo­nents, puts his car together differ­ently, and constructs his person­al­ized model”, says Vold­e­nauer. “It is good that RC model car racing involves so much engi­neering – just like my job.”

Training in Weiden