Adam Drake was in contact to let us know about the first round of the Team Losi Winter Series that attracted 147 entrants at Revelation Raceway in Ontario, CA last weekend. After qualifying it was Losi/GRP racer Adam Drake that took the pole position for the 20 minute pro truggy final, which he went on to win by just less than a lap from Jim Pierce in 2nd, with Kyle Johnson taking 3rd. All drivers were using the Losi 8ight T 2.0.
Last weekend, the MACH indoor track in Haarlem, The Netherlands, played host to the European 1/12th scale Stock Spec Championship, an event that had a last minute change of venue to Haarlem and something that the well organised club took in their stride. The 62 racers that attended the event where presented with a tight and technical track on new good quality carpet and which offered little rest throughout the lap, with the drivers having to contend with fast sweepers, tight hairpins and a tricky right left chicane in the centre of the track. Following a day of practice on the Friday, the first qualifying round of 6 was run and immediately it looked like German Corally racer Marc Fisher was the man to beat, setting a new lap record and ending up heading the time sheets from Xray driver Bart Wubben in 2nd and Serpent S120 developer Markus Mobers sitting in 3rd.
We received a report from the Proline Cup which took place last weekend in Vejle, Denmark, the first time in many years there was a buggy race held indoors at a sports centre. There was 5 classes in total 1/18, Monster Trucks, Stock/beginners Starter, 2WD and 4WD. The track was a combination of carpet and smooth cement floor which took the competitors a little while to get used to, but was a fun challenge and the jump was built in wood and was a little squared and not quite natural, but worked well without crashing the cars.
Last weekend saw the first ever Czech Masters race take place in Hrotovice, Czech Republic and the organizer confirmed 75 racers, including Martin Hudy, Steven Weiss, Ronald Volker and Michal Bok, all top European modified racers. Drivers were greeted with a 35×20 meter sized carpet track and the race was open to racers in Toruing Modified and Stock, as well as 1/12th. In modified, it was Vice World Champion Ronald Volker who won five of the six qualification rounds with his HB Cyclone to take TQ, edging out his friend Steven Weiss driving for Xray, with Martin Hudy and Michal Bok rounding out the top 4, also with Xray.
Gene Hickersen sent us the following report from the 3rd round of the ROAR Florida State Off Road Series hosted by Hurricane R/C Club in Lutz Florida. This is usually the largest race in FL every year and 2009 was no exception with 196 entries. All of the best drivers in the South East were there to test their skills on the tight & technical layout at the world famous Lake Park track. Thursday night brought some rain, which kept the moisture in the track all weekend for the blackest blue groove I have ever seen. Team VP Pro USA was in attendance with myself, Joey Perez, and even Ryan Lopez driving down all the way from Georgia. Jason Rouna and JR Mitch from J-Concepts were there as well as Leon McIntosh from Pro-line and Ryan Eckert from AKA Tires and many other fast drivers from various manufactures.
Following on from Saturday’s exciting truggy final in which the winner was decided in the very dying moments of the race, Sunday saw the turn of the buggy racers to have their finals. Starting off from pole position in the main Jared Tebo battled early on with Mike Truhe and Ryan Maifield, until Truhe made a break for it with his Losi 8ight. Mike controlled the race for a long time until Tebo managed to claw his way to the front in the late stages forcing the 2 of them to battle it out. With 5 minutes to go, disaster struck for Truhe having to retire with technical issues and following this it looked as if the Kyosho/Orion driver had it in the bag. Ryan Maifield had other plans though and was catching the leader, and when Tebo flipped the car and lost time, Ryan was right on his tail and after some close racing Maifield snatched the lead away and won by just over a second, with Tebo 2nd and truggy winner Ryan Cavalieri in 3rd.
Source: Neo Buggy [neobuggy.net]
The 2nd round of the Japanese based F1 RCGP series, organised by Hideo Kitizawa, took place last weekend at the RC Stadium Sodegaura in Chiba under cloudy but not so cold conditions as round 1. In qualifying for the F1GP class it was Ishikawa who started from pole, but it was his Rush team mate Sato Nobuyuki that lead the race followed by Hiroshi Kamibayashi and Miura Masayuki. When the temperature dropped during the race it caused most of the cars to oversteer and the biggest casualty was race leader Sato who couldn’t manage to keep the pace and was overtaken by Kamibayashi who went on to win, with Nobuyuki taking 2nd and Miura Masayuki taking 3rd, while pole man Ishikawa ended the race in 4th.
2008 Buggy World Champion and former Touring car World Champion Atsushi Hara has won this years TITC, held at the Radio Control Speedway in Bangkok, Thailand. It was World Champion Marc Rheinard that started from pole position ahead of the Hot Bodies driver, with Viktor Wilck starting his Tamiya from 3rd spot just in front of team mate Jilles Groskamp. In the finals it was Marc Rheinard that won the first leg, but 2 poor finishes in the 2nd and 3rd legs, and with Hara winning the final legs, it was Hara that took the win in front of Rheinard in 2nd, who was tied with Wilck on points, but his win in leg 1 giving him the edge and knocking Wilck back to 3rd.
