July 31, 2007

RC Pro East Series Rd2 – Race Report

RC Pro East Series Rd2

CEN team driver Gene ‘The Machine’ Hickersen has been in touch and provided us with a report from the 2nd round of the RC Pro East series which was held last weekend at Lake Park in Tampa, Florida.

Drivers came down to sunny FL from as far as North Carolina to compete for the East Coat RC Pro Championship. There was around 145 entries even with a 60% chance of rain. Friday was open practice on the fast and technical layout. JR Mitch was spotted driving his Team Associated RC8 for the 1st time since the ROAR Nationals last month. I drove really bad at the Nationals, as 63rd was by far the worst I have ever done at a National race in my 21 year racing career, so I was thinking about making changes to my car to find some extra speed to get back on pace.

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July 29, 2007

Lamberto Collari is European Champion

Lamberto Collari is European Champion

7-time World Champion Lamberto Collari is the 2007 1/8th scale European Champion following a tense battle in todays finals in Lostallo, Switzerland. Qualifying had seen former European Champion Michael Salven on the pole position and a good start in the race saw him in contention for the win ahead of the following pack of Italians, but 2 lengthy stops caused by the throttle linkage ball joint coming off twice meant he was out of contention. This allowed the Italian steam train out in front with an extremely close battle playing out between Collari, who wouldn’t stop for tires, and Alberto Picco right up until the end of the 45 minutes with Collari, driving a Kyosho, taking the win by less than a second ahead of a closing Alberto Picco with the Mugen, while Kyosho racer Francesco Tironi rounded out the podium in 3rd.

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July 28, 2007

Hupo Hönigl is 4wd European Champion

Hupo Hönigl is 4wd European Champion

Austrian driver Hupo Hupo Hönigl has just won the 4wd European Electric buggy Championships, run today in Vassa, Finland. The Tamiya driver who was quickest overnight had carried forward his form to claim the event TQ ahead of Richard Taylor in 2nd and 2wd Champion Neil Cragg in 3rd. In the finals it was a great start for Cragg, the Yokomo driver claiming the first win and going on to record two 2nd places as well, but it was still not enough as Hönigl, who had a bad first result with a 4th, got his head down and took the win the in 2nd and 3rd final and with only 2 rounds from the 3 counting, this was enough for the crown. Neil Cragg with his consistent run claimed 2nd spot while JConcepts racer Richard Cree claimed 3rd position, while on the same points as Neumann with the Durango, his 2nd position in the first round meant the decision went in his favour.

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July 28, 2007

Michael Salven TQ’s European Champs

Michael Salven TQ's European Champs

Qualifying is over for this years European 1/8th scale Championships in Lostallo, Switzerland and as we predicted it was the morning run that was the quickest and it saw German Serpent racer Michael Salven take the pole position in a blistering time that was close to a second faster than 2nd place and over 7 seconds quicker than the overnight pole time. In 2nd position it was Mugen racer and current Italian National Champion Alberto Picco who put his qucikest time in on the final run of the day while in 3rd spot it was Lamberto Collari, the Kyosho driver less than 4 tenths back. The final direct qualifier was another Mugen racer Stefano Solaroli who was only 3 tenths adrift of the 7 time World Champion Collari. Tomorrow sees the main finals being run and we hope to bring you the results when we get them.

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July 27, 2007

Hupo Hönigl is overnight Pole at 4wd Euros

Hupo Hönigl is overnight Pole at 4wd Euros

With the 2wd class at this years Euros in Finland finished, the racers have gotten out their 4wd buggies to go at it for the next title up for grabs, that of 4wd European Champion. As we reported previously, practice for this class started yesterday with Jörn Neumann setting the pace, along with Neil Cragg and Hupo Hönigl and today that was again the case but some did better than others in turning that pace into a result during qualifying. After 3 of 5 rounds of qualifying already completed, and with only 3 counting, it is Austrian Tamiya racer Hupo Hönigl that is in the hot seat claiming a 1st, a 2nd and a 4th postion while in 2nd overnight is Lee Martin, who also has a win and a 4th but had a bad run in the 3rd qualifier and ended with a 19th. In 3rd position is Richard Barton, while Neil Cragg is in 4th and Neumann who has shown pace since 4wd began managed the bag the win in the 3rd final, but poor results in the 1st and 2nd heats sees him down in 10th with some work to do tomorrow to secure his place in the A-final.

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July 27, 2007

Cuypers heads European 1/8th qualifying

Cuypers heads European 1/8th qualifying

This week sees the fastest RC racers in Europe gather at the incredible Lostallo track, high in the mountains of Switzerland, for the 2007 European 1/8th scale Championships. The drivers have been busy practicing all week, fine tuning their setups and trying to make their engines run the 5 minutes, with today seeing the competitors get their first qualifying session, with 3 more left to be run tomorrow. After that 1 round the overnight pole position is in the hands of Serpent 960 racer Steven Cuypers, the current Belgian National Champion has been setting the pace throughout the week was able to carry that form through to today when it mattered. In 2nd place is Italian Mugen racer Stefano Solaroli only 2 tenths of a second behind Cuypers, while newly crowned Italian Champion Alberto Picco is 3 tenths further back currently lying in 3rd, the top 10 covered by only 3 seconds. Qualifying will continue tomorrow and with temperatures expecting to be high in the afternoon, look out a rocket round in the mornings first qualifying round which take place in the days coolest conditions.

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July 27, 2007

Saarinen wins German West 1/10th Rd5

Saarinen wins German West 1/10th Rd5

Last weekend at the MRC Alstaden track in the west of Germany was the 5th round of the German 1/10th scale National qualifiers run for the Western series. Qualifying saw Finnish racer Teemu Saarinen, racing his Mugen, take the pole position from Xray driver Jorge Baldes in 2nd, Andreas Weyhoven in 3rd and Markus Mobers in 4th. At the start of the main final a lead group including Saarinen, Baldes, Mobers and Karsten Lokau set of at the front leaving behind the following pack which included Weyhoven who had technical problems and dropped back. When Mobers retired, this left a fast charging Heinz Jürgen Kalinowski up into 3rd where he finished behind Baldes in 2nd and Teemu Saarinen in 1st.

Source: MID [mid-mugen.de]


July 27, 2007

Cavalieri wins Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout

Cavalieri wins Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout

Team Orion are reporting on last weekends Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout in Saugus, California, which was being held for the 10th year in its history. This race, for most US drivers, is the last big off-road race before Septemers IFMAR off-road electric world championships in Japan, and due to this there was a large presence of top drivers and factory teams. At the end of qualifying, it was Associated driver Ryan Cavalieri who was sitting on the pole position in all 3 modified classes with his Team Orion powered rides and he duly went on to win the first two A mains in the modified truck class to give him his first title of the weekend, the other two classes going down to the 3rd final. In the 4wd Modified A3 Main, Ryan pulled away from the field at the start and never looked back winning by a considerable margin giving Ryan his second championship of the weekend. The last title up for grabs was in the 2wd Modified class in which Ryan drove a very smart race, finishing 2nd and giving him the overall win and his 3rd championship of the weekend.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]