June 16, 2010

Darren Bloomfield wins Bittydesign contest 2010

Darren Bloomfield wins Bittydesign contest

Last weekend saw the second running of the Bittydesign contest in Barco di Bibbiano in Italy. With 180 entries, and 130 actual drivers, the race saw drivers from Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Austria and of course Italy, with official factory team Losi drivers like Ricki Rabitti and Darren Bloomfield present, as well as top Spanish driver Richi Gomez in attendance. With a DJ set, awesome trophy girl, free cocktail party and giveaways donated by the event sponsors, this is not your standard race. The racing saw a cool race format which is aimed at being as spectacular as possible with the top drivers having to qualify through Superpole as well as a last chance qualifier just like in US supercross. The A-main was a great race to see, with the front runners putting on an amazing show. After 45 minutes it was Bloomfield that took the win, with Rabitti in 2nd place, 20 seconds behind. Gomez took 3rd position after a race with lot of spectacular passes. Everyone agreed that the event has been a great success, and there has already been some international rumors for next year.

View a full image gallery here


June 15, 2010

Tosolini & Lemieux take ROAR Fuel Titles

Tosolini & Lemieux take ROAR Fuel Titles

The ROAR fuel on road Nationals took place last week in Lincoln, Nebraska and the race was open to 1/8th scale and 1/10th scale sedan. In the 1/8th class it was Worlds runner up Mike Swauger that took the pole position for Mugen, ahead of Serpent racer Chris Tosolini in 2nd, Ralph Burch 3rd and Scott Kimbrow in 4th. In the race it was Tosolini that emerged on top, winning the 45 minute race by 2 laps from Serpent team mate Scott Kimbrow in 2nd and Mike Swauger in 3rd. In the sedan class it was Xray racer Ralph Burch who sat on pole, with Serpent racer Paolo Morganti in 2nd, Paul Lemiuex in 3rd and Mike Swauger completing the top 4. In the race both Morganti and Burch hit trouble leaving Lemieux to take the National title for Xray, a lap clear of Mike Swauger for Mugen in 2nd and Chris Tosolini for Serpent taking 3rd only 3 seconds back. The 1/8th Masters class saw the win for Rick Davis, running the Serpent 966 in front of Larry Barnett in 2nd and Harry Hananouchi in 3rd.

View the final results here


June 15, 2010

Ilia van Gastel dominates Dutch EFRA GP

Ilia van Gastel dominates Dutch EFRA GP

Last weekend saw the EFRA Grand Prix 1/8 IC on road run at the beautiful AMCA track in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. A relatively low attendance of drivers for a GP, but with plenty of famous names of European top drivers attending it was sure to be very close racing for everybody and a highly competitive event. TQ went to Belgium driver Ilia van Gastel ahead of Serpent team mate Michael Salven, with Rick Vrielijnck in 3rd for Mugen and Oliver Mack taking the final direct qualifying position for Shepherd in 4th. The Fastest lap time of the event was done by Belgian race Gunther van Staey, a 14.078 seconds, which he did in qualifying round 3 on Saturday afternoon.

Continue reading the report here


June 15, 2010

Volta takes all at French 1/8th Nats Rd4

Volta takes all at French 1/8th Nats Rd4

Last weekend the 4th round of the French Championship took place near the small village of Reding, Lorraine. In total about 60 drivers attend the event under perfect weather conditions. Again Shepherd driver Richard Volta showed a good performance and clocked the fastest laptimes. With his Velox V8 he secured himself the pole-position the fourth time in a row at national championship races. As the tyre wear was very high a good strategy was the key to the victory. Volta decided to change tyres twice and it perfectly worked. After 45 minutes he crossed the finishing line in first position two laps in front of Anthony Abisset and Stéphane Riccobono another lap down. With his second victory in a row he increased his lead in the French Championship with only one race to go.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]


June 15, 2010

JConcepts Super Cup Rd5 short course report

With a reported weather storm on the radar, a quick change of itinerary from Coral Springs to Treasure Coast Raceway made round 5 of the Super Cup even more exciting. With this being a make-up and additional race to the 2010 series, drivers were hyped and ready for action on the technical Treasure Coast track. Huge thanks to both the Coral Springs club and Treasure Coast Speedway for their constant effort and support of the racers in Florida. In the Pro 2 stock SCT class, it was a battle between the points leader Jimmie Cooper and Craig Lowe. Cheston VanAlstyne put his Kyosho truck in the TQ position but a problem forced him out of contention early leaving Jimmie and Craig to battle things out. Craig reigned supreme and earned his 1st win on the 2010 Super Cup series. Jimmie Cooper finished in 2nd with Aaron Wood rounding out the top 3.

Continue reading the report here


June 15, 2010

Northern German Electric off-road regional Rd4

Northern German Electric off-road regional Rd4

The ASC Celle held the fourth round of the Northern German electric off-road regionals last weekend. The race took place on the club’s newly built and very demanding astro turf track. 2WD modified saw touring car specialist Christian Ahrens (Schumacher Cougar SV) claim the TQ spot but technical issues saw him drop to 7th place in the A-final. Instead GM-Racing team driver Stephan Pieper put his Associated B4FT in 1st place followed by Sebastian Sürstedt (Atomic Carbon CR2) and Michael Vollmer (Associated B4FT). 4th place went to Maximilian Krohn (Schumacher Cougar SV). It was also Stephan Pieper who would win the 4WD modified A-main again with his B4, finding his 2WD faster than his 4WD Yokomo B-Max. Kyosho/Team Orion team driver Tim Benson drove his Kyosho ZX5 FS to second spot followed by Michael Breitrück (Kyosho ZX5) and Marco Eymer (Team Durango DEX410).

Thanks to Sebastian Suerstedt for the report.


June 15, 2010

Open Short Course race in Celle/Germany

Last weekend saw an open class short course race at the astro turf out door off-road track in Celle, Northern Germany, which took place as part of a northern division regional electric off-road race. The class was dominated by Lennart Sulzbach and his Associated SC10 as he not only TQ’ed but also won the first and second A-main. Second place went to Ulrich Wartmann (Associated SC10) in front of Jörg Heise (Associated SC10). The next three places all went to HPI’s Blitz SC truck with Stefan Wolter, Matze Axmann and Marina Maiwald on 4th to 6th place. Young Matti Breitrück grabbed 7th spot with a Losi Strike SC truck. The high traction astro turf surface made set-up crucial and most of the drivers opted to use harder compound stock tyres in combination with a reduced ride height.

View more images from the event here


June 15, 2010

Nordman & Ronnefalk claim Nordic titles

Nordman & Ronnefalk claim Nordic titles

Last weekend saw the Nordic Championships take place in 1/10th 2WD and 4WD buggy at the Radøy raceway in Norway, not too far from Bergen. The race featured a really strong field with champions from Norway, Sweden and Finland in contention.2WD kicked off with a wet track making the standings a little unexpected initially, but with a drying track for the final two rounds the results really changed as PerErik Nordman came into shape with his Kyosho Ultima RB-5 SP2 and won the last two of the 4 rounds of qualifying making him the top qualifier.

Continue reading the report here