16-18/11 #RCCO24 – 24-hour race at the Autostadt

The RCCO is the world’s most popular and longest-running slot car racing series. Since 1991, it has provided a link between personalities from real-world motorsport and the automotive industry and slot car racing. The highlight and crowning close of the season as a 24-houre race, held for the first time at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg from 16 to 18 November 2018.

The “big small” racing series defines itself as a networking platform and innovation driver for hot topics such as electrification and automation. For the #VisionRCCO project, renowned companies designed concepts of electric sports cars. Six e-racers from ABT, Audi, KTM, Lamborghini, Schaeffler and Volkswagen will be on the grid of the 24-hour race in the Volkswagen Pavilion at the Autostadt. Some of the controllers will be operated by prominent racing drivers such as the two Le Mans winners and DTM Champions Frank Biela and Mike Rockenfeller.

On the eve of the 24-hour race, the "Supersprint", another RCCO Championship round, will be run.

The track The 24 hours will be held on a three-lane digital Slotfire race track. All six cars are basically on the middle track. If a car is faster than the one before it, it is automatically routed to the inner or outer track. The race will be staged in the Volkswagen Pavilion at the Autostadt.

The rules For the race, three race motors and five sets of rear tires are available for each team. The chassis of the vehicles must not be replaced during the race. Each team has to start with 4-5 drivers, each of whom must drive a minimum time in the race. Only the drivers are allowed to carry out repairs on the cars in the pit area. There are no track marshals: the drivers put the cars back themselves after an accident.

>> More about the Autostadt in Wolfsburg

#RCCO24 – Schedule

#RCCO24 – Live Coverage on YouTube

The 26th running of the “big small” 24-hour race will be broadcast live on the RCCO’s YouTube channel. At the following times, motorsport presenter Martin Kummerow (e.g. speaker for the World RX events at the Estering) will report live from the Autostadt:

16/11 20.00–20.15 Qualifying

17/11 11.30–12.15 Countdown/Start

17/11 18.00-18.15 The night begins

18/11 00.00–00.15 Midnight show

18/11 09.00-09.15 The final hours

18/11 11.45–12.15 The finish, prize-giving

Pictures of the track and the timing screen will be shown between the live shows.

>> To RCCO's YouTube Channel

#RCCO24 – Teams and drivers

The best placed teams of the six RCCO manufacturers ABT, Audi, KTM, Lamborghini and Volkswagen will compete in the “big small” 24-hour race at the Autostadt. The qualification period ended with round 8 of the championship run on September 19. Each team starts with four to five drivers, one of whom must be a “personality” from the “real” motorsport like DTM Champion and Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller or Jürgen Jungklaus, engineer at Phoenix Racing. Only these drivers are allowed to drive in the first 30 minutes of the race. Each driver has to complete at least two hours in the race for the team to be classified.

>> The teams and drivers at the 2018 24 Hours

#RCCO24 – AI Challenge

The 26th running of what is arguably the craziest race in the world will also kick off the RCCO AI Challenge. The Challenge aims to pit an autonomous slot car against its human competitors in the 24-hour race at the Autostadt in 2019. Applications can be submitted by email to vision@rcco.de as soon as the race has started at 12 noon (CET) on Saturday (17 November).

“There is a huge amount of motorsport enthusiasm in the region. After the magnificent record drive of the I.D. R Pikes Peak in the legendary hill climb race in Colorado, we are now looking forward to 24 exciting hours at the final of what is arguably the most important slot car series in the world,” says Roland Clement, CEO of Autostadt GmbH. “This is not only a great event for the fans. Interested engineers and AI specialists will be able to experience firsthand at the Autostadt what it takes to be an electric front runner and to develop ideas of how an autonomous slot car can successfully compete in the race.”

“With the RCCO AI Challenge we are addressing the automotive industry as well as technology-driven companies such as our long-standing partner Schaeffler, universities, plus experts and experimenters from other areas of Artificial Intelligence,” says RCCO founder Thomas Voigt, the managing director of the communications agency Speedpool in Hamburg. “Obviously, ghost cars for the Carrera track already exist, but our project is on a totally different level. At this time, none of us knows who will be stronger: humans or the machines.”

To enable the fielding of an autonomous slot car, RCCO is developing a new type of chassis that is constructed like a real-world electric vehicle and produced by partly using new production techniques such as carbon fiber 3D printing. The new electric racing cars will celebrate their world debut at the 24-hour race in 2019. At this year’s race, Autostadt visitors will receive an exclusive “sneak preview” of the new technology. On a second slot car race track, they will also have the opportunity to personally try their skills on the controller.

>> More details about the RCCO AI Challenge

#RCCO24 – E-Racing premiere in November 2019

In 2019, in parallel to the 24-hour race of the slot racers, a virtual 24-hour race is planned in which e-sport racing drivers from around the world will compete against each other with virtual electric racing cars. More details of the E-Racing variant of the "big small" 24-hour race will be announced in spring 2019.

#RCCO24 – Information and location

Start Saturday, 12 PM CEST Event hashtag #RCCO24

Location Autostadt Wolfsburg, Volkswagen Pavilion

Previous winners