June 18, 2013

Marcus Lindner wins Swedish Cup 1/8th opener

Marcus Lindner wins Swedish Cup 1/8th opener

The first round of the Swedish Cup 1/8 took place at Staffanstorp in the south of the country. The final was a close affair between Marcus Lindner and Mikael Fransson both quickly increasing the gap to the rest of the field after the first laps. Fransson was a little bit faster but Lindner was always close, waiting for a chance to take over the lead. As the tyre wear was quite high Lindner decided to do a tyre stop at the 25min mark but the fresh tyres made the car hard to drive and he lost some time in the following laps. Before the last pitstop Fransson had built up a small lead over Lindner but he flamed out at the last pitstop handing over the lead to Lindner who cruised to the victory at his first outing with Shepherd. Fransson recovered and finished on second place followed by Patrik Johansson in third.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]


June 18, 2013

Mario Spiniello wins 2013 Freedom Cup

Mario Spiniello wins 2013 Freedom Cup

Last weekend the “Freedom Cup” took place at Teverola R/C track in Italy. It was a fantastic race with over 80 entries in both 1/10 and 1/8 categories and a temperature of up to 35°. In qualifying Alessio Forte got the pole position with Mario Spiniello in second place and Deneroso Mazza in third. In the main final, Spiniello had a great start and immediately overtook Alessio to take the lead. The Xray driver would extend his lead, producing a new track record along the way. With no mistakes and no trouble Mario crossed the finish line in first place ahead of Mazza in 2nd and Francesco Maddaloni in 3rd.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]


June 18, 2013

Miranda & Felix win Rd4 in Portugal

Miranda & Felix win Rd4 in Portugal

Last weekend the 4th race of the Portuguese On-road Nationals for 1/8 and 1/10 took place at the Vila Real track at the north of Portugal, one of the most fantastic on-road permanent circuits. The track has a huge layout and the best conditions to archive the best on-road races possible so the whole Xray team worked since Saturday practice to get the best possible out of their cars, fortunately the expected rain didn’t come so we raced in dry conditions. This time Xray had a new member Mario Miranda who drove the NT1 2013 Spec for first time and for him it was a new and positive experience for sure.

Continue reading the report here


June 18, 2013

Watered Down Racing?

Watered Down Racing?

I was fortunate to spend a day last week at another sporting event in the UK.  One which was interrupted throughout the day by rain showers.  During one of the numerous showers, during which the event was stopped, I thought about how the rain also affects our sport. Racing outdoors, which forms the majority of the important races in almost every R/C class, always has the potential to be affected by the weather.  Obviously, some classes, such as the offroad classes, can be less affected, but generally a change in weather means a change in set-up, a change in attitudes and often, a change in results.  Of course, we’d all love to have facilities like this weekend’s ETS venue in Austria, or the ROAR Nationals track in Texas – an “outdoor” track with a roof!

Continue reading Oli’s column here


June 18, 2013

John Lenaers dominates 3rd round in Belgium

John Lenaers dominates 3rd round in Belgium

Last weekend the third Belgian national took place at the new MRG track in Genk and with a sunny forecast the race was well attended. The track lay-out is fast and with the 5 minute qualification system, fuel management was crucial for a good result. After 3 rounds of qualification the 4 direct finalist where John Lenaers (Mugen) on pole followed by Daan Haling (Motonica). 3rd place went to Yarmishyan Alexy (Capricorn) and 4th place to Dewynants Cédric (Capricorn). With only a few seconds between the 4 drivers, it would promise to be a very interesting race. After the Lunch break, two semi finals where driven. Victory in Semi final B was for Poesen Bert, who drove a steady final and was very closely followed by Vandonck Erwin. Only a gap of half a second was between these drivers after a 15 minute race. Third place went to Van Calster Danny. Semi final A was won by Dutchmen Frank Baggen, who cruised to an easy victory, followed by Pollet Michel and Machon Gert.

Continue reading the report here


June 18, 2013

Jacques Libar wins Luxembourg Nationals Rd2

Jacques Libar wins Luxembourg Nationals Rd2

Round 2 of the Luxembourg 1/8th scale nationals was held this weekend on the fast LMCC track in Luxembourg. On Sunday it was dry but the track was a bit slippery after track repairing, so it was Dirk Richard who took the pole position in front of Jacques Libar and Jerome Hirtziger. The 30-minute main final saw the new Xray driver Jacques Libar cross the finishing line in first position, followed by Christophe Deliege with Mugen in 2nd an Jerome Hirtziger with Capricorn in 3rd.

Source: LMCC [lmcc.lu]


June 17, 2013

Mark Lim double at NOOB Singapore series Rd4

Mark Lim continues domination of NOOB Singapore series

Racers gathered at the RaceWorks Offroad Arena last weekend to compete in Round 4 of the NOOB Singapore Open Buggy Series. As a result of the recent hot and dry spell, the 2WD and 4WD buggies found themselves contending with a very hard and dry track. In the 4WD class, Mark “BC” Lim had a convincing win after taking TQ honors and winning the first two finals. With BC sitting out the third final it was a battle between Youyi and Png who were both tied on points after 2 legs. The final battle for second place concluded with Youyi winning the final leg to claim second spot and Png having to settle for third.

Continue reading the report here


June 17, 2013

Silvio Hächler continues dominance of Swiss Nats

SwissNatsRSilvio Hächler continues dominance of Swiss Natsd3-1

Last weekend round 3 of the Swiss championship headed to the wonderful Lostallo track in the south of Switzerland. The weather forecast was perfect with about 30 degrees on the whole weekend and because of this most of the 80 competitors already arrived on Thursday to avail of the perfect conditions. Once again the track was driven in the opposite direction from the Worlds in 2009. Qualification was run under extremely hot conditions and so the last round when it was colder would be crucial for deciding the TQ. Simon Kurzbuch had a really perfect round and had an gap from more than 4 seconds.

Continue reading the report here