Red RC » Events

September 6, 2019

Kurzbuch Top Qualifier at ENS Finale

Euro Nitro Series Champion Simon Kurzbuch will see out his successful 2019 campaign by starting the final race of the season at Ettlingen in Germany from pole position. The Shepherd driver secured his 15th ENS career TQ by taking the fourth & final qualifier as his only remaining challenger Carmine Raiola posted the third fastest time, over 2-seconds down on the Swiss ace. Raiola’s team-mate Dario Balestri would push Kurzbuch hard in Q4 heading his rival a number of times before traffic ended the Italian’s chances. Ending up tied on points, Raiola’s Q1 TQ run gives him second over his Infinity team-mate who will start third. Winner of the season opener in Italy, Dominic Greiner will start the scheduled 45-minute final from P4 with Serpent’s new 989 ahead of the ARC of former ENS race winner John Ermen with Jeffrey Rietveld completing the top half of the grid.

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September 6, 2019

Groskamp to start ENS Season Finale on pole

Jilles Groskamp is to start the Season Finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Germany tomorrow from pole position. The former champion claimed his first overall TQ of the 2019 championship when he made it three out of three in the penultimate round of qualifying at Ettlingen after Thilo Tödtmann’s challenge for pole ended in traffic. On a TQ run, just as the heat reached 3/4 distance Tödtmann passed the slower car of Quentin Leroux only to be hit by the French driver at the following corner, the contact leading to the Shepherd driver’s car coming to a stop. This allowed the Infinity of Groskamp to go to the top where he would stay to finish half a second up on Shepherd team-mates Patrick Nähr and Melvin Diekmann.

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September 6, 2019

Kurzbuch from Balestri in 2nd Ettlingen qualifier

With an engine failure stopping him in his tracks in the opening qualifier at ENS Ettlingen, Simon Kurzbuch bounced back to take the second round ahead of his great arch rival Dario Balestri. Also having a troubled Q1, Balestri would finish 6/10ths of a second off the Shepherd driver’s TQ pace in a heat that would see Q1 TQ man Carmine Raiola have his turn of bad luck. Struggling with a rich engine his race came to an end when he stripped a gear with a minute to go. While Dominic Greiner would set the 3rd fastest time in the top heat, it was to be John Ermen who completed the overall Top 3, the ARC driver’s time in the second fast heat demoting the Serpent driver to fourth with Lars Hoppe rounding out the Top 5.

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September 6, 2019

Raiola TQs opening 1:8 qualifier at ENS Finale

Carmine Raiola has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the ENS Season Finale in Germany, the Infinity driver cutting things ultra close and running out of fuel crossing the loop. Fourth fastest in practice, the Italian looked to be battling for second position with Dominic Greiner in the first of the four qualifiers as already crowned champion Simon Kurzbuch set the pace out front. However with less than 20-seconds on the clock, Kurzbuch would suffer an engine failure allowing Raiola to secure a TQ run by 1/10th of a second from Greiner. Having topped seeding ahead of Merlin Depta, last year’s race winner Dario Balestri hit problems before the run had even started. Coming down pitlane after completing his warm-up, the Infinity driver hit the bottom of the lowly held Shepherd of Toni Gruber which pulled the trim tab from the body. While his mechanic tried to fix it back into position the body was ripped and it came undone again causing Balestri to have a high speed off on the entry to the main straight while holding P2. In the end he would finish 4th behind Depta, who completed the Top 3 with the fastest lap of Q1.

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September 6, 2019

Nico Schmid takes double Swiss EP Buggy title

The fifth and final round of the Swiss 1/10th Electric Off-road Nationals was hosted by the TIT club last weekend. The bumpy and unpredictable track was a rear challenge for the drivers and in the 4WD Modified Buggy class it was Kay Frehner with the overall TQ but tyre problems in A1 meant he scored a DNF which allowed Philip Jeisy to take the win in the opening A-main. A2 then was a much easier affair for the TQ holder as Kay walked away with the win. A3 then was a 3-horse battle between Kay, Philip and Florian Schmid but ultimately it was Kay with the win and the overall from Philip Jeisy in 2nd and Florian Schmid in 3rd, making it an Xray top 3 finish. However it was Nico Schmid who was able to bring home the overall title in 4WD Modified Buggy.

Continue reading the report here

September 6, 2019

Groskamp takes super close Q1 at ENS Finale

Jilles Groskamp claimed a super close opening qualifier at the Season Finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Ettlingen Germany. Racing for the newly crowned champions Infinity, the 2019 1:10 Champion Teemu Leino opting to focus on 1:8 this weekend, Groskamp swapped the lead at the top of the timing screens each lap with Shepherd’s Thilo Tödtmann, with the former champion just doing enough on the final lap to take it by 0.054 of a second. With rain on the horizon for Sunday forcing an early start to qualifying, all four rounds to be run today, behind Groskamp & Tödtmann it was practice Top Seed Melvin Diekmann who completed the Top 3, 1.3-seconds further back, just ahead of Shepherd team-mate Patrick Nähr. Second fastest in practice, Infinity’s young Dutch talent Milan Holthuis posted the 5th fastest qualifying time.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

September 5, 2019

Patrick Fankhauser wins at Swiss IC Track Nats Rd4

The fourth round of the Swiss IC Track Nationals was held at the technical Herblingen track recently. The event kicked off with five rounds of free practice on Friday afternoon followed by Saturday’s qualifications and the super pole. Marco Rizzo was able to overall TQ the 200mm class from Patrick Fankhauser who struggled a bit in the hotter track conditions on Saturday afternoon. The weather forecast for Sunday was pretty warm again with about 29 Degrees Celsius meaning huge tyre wear. At the start of the main final Marco Rizzo, Niclas Scherer and Patrick Fankhauser pulled away from the rest of the field with Traugott Schar, who started from P6, closing in after four minutes. Unfortunately an engine issue stopped his race later. Up front the battle for the first three positions was exciting with many position changes. Patrick tried to save tyres to make a full tyre change at the 25-minutes mark in order to have the fresher tyres at the end of the race as the remainder of the field changed the tyres after 20 minutes. Niclas later also suffered engine issues with Stefan Wuthrich now in 3rd position. Up front Marco Rizzo’s pit crew made a perfect tyre change, putting Patrick under pressure. With five minutes to go Patrick however was in striking distance behind Marco who slowly ran out of tyres. 4 Minutes later he was on the rims and Patrick was able to pass him for the race win while Stefan finished in 3rd place.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

September 4, 2019

Savoya TQs & wins at French EP Off-road Champs Rd5

Round 5 of the French 1/10th Electric Off-road Championship was held at the CARCA track in Noeux Les Mines last weekend. While Thomas Musso walked away with the win, and the overall championship, in the 4WD Mod Buggy class it was TLR’s Renaud Savoya who dominated the 2WD Mod Buggy category by taking the overall TQ, coming out on top in all three A-mains and also clocking the fastest lap of the weekend. Behind him, it was the Xray duo of Thomas Anger and Mathieu Briere who would snatch the final two podium spots.

Image: Renaud Savoya