April 29, 2019

Jörn Neumann sweeps International Warm-up Race

The popular Rhein–Main-Circuit in Bischofsheim, Germany held the annual International Warm-up Race this past weekend. The event started off wet but in the end things would turn out nicely. As usual the race attracted some of Europe’s fastest 1/8th off-road racers and it was SWorkz’s Jörn Neumann who would make the sweep to win both the Nitro and Electric classes from the TQ spot. In Nitro it was Mugen’s Carsten Keller on the runner-up spot while SWorkz’s Micha Widmaier completed the top 3 podium result. Over in the E-Buggy class and behind winner Neumann, it was Micha Widmaier on the runner-up spot as Carsten Keller came in 3rd overall.

View the E-Buggy podium here


April 29, 2019

BRCA Touring Championships Rd1 – Report

The Eastbourne club on the south coast of the UK hosted round one of this year’s BRCA touring championships and following two of the top drivers swapping teams over the winter round one was eagerly anticipated. Reigning champions in both classes Olly Jefferies (Modified) and Zak Finlay (Stock) had swapped over from Xray to Schumacher, but both drivers were busy developing Schumacher’s latest touring car and this would present a golden opportunity to 2018 runner up Elliott Harper who had moved to Xray at the end of 2018 national season. Eastbourne had not been a regular venue on the UK National calendar in previous years, for many drivers this was a new venue or at the very least one they had not raced at for many years.

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April 29, 2019

Apandi wins Urban Astro Buggy Champs Rd2

Round 2 of the Urban Astro Buggy Championship offroad racing series took place over this past weekend at Urban PlaySpace in Singapore. While it was a small grid this round, it was a quality field as most of the top contenders were all in action. Round 1 winner, Sean Lee, was looking to cement his lead in the championship, and things were looking good for this young phenom as he secured TQ in the first two of the four rounds of qualifying. In round 3, Esmail Apandi took a 2-seconds win to TQ the round and setup a TQ showdown in Q4. The anticipated fight however fizzled out in Lap 3 however as the gremlins hit Esmail, leaving Sean to notch up his 3rd TQ run of the day. Esmail had to settle for a P2 start in the A-Main, with Sebastian Lee, father of Sean, qualifying 3rd, and newcomer Nicolas Madar securing the last direct spot in the A-Main. Steven Ong and Andrew Tow secured the A-Main bump-spots after finishing 1-2 in the bump-up race.

Continue reading the report here


April 29, 2019

Asian Nitro Championship Rd2 – Report

The second round of the 2019 Asian Nitro Championship was held at England Park Raceway in the Brisbane suburb town of Brendale, Australia this past weekend. With a rich 20-year history of hosting World Championships, Nationals and of course local club racing, EPR is truly a world-class facility that offers a 90×40 metre layout, a sunken pitstop area and floodlights for night-time racing. The 1/8th Open final saw an amazing start for the last main of the day. Along with perfect weather, a perfect textbook start would begin this race. Looking down the leaderboard with three minutes down, absolutely no positions had exchanged with everyone remaining in the same position they started. Jeff Hamon lead the group and would actually pit the very next minute and would execute a perfect stop. After some pit stops midway though the race, things would shuffle Jesse Davis into the lead. Fate would have many things in store for a lot of the racers still on the track.

Continue reading the report here


April 29, 2019

Speed King Tour Rd2 – Report

The second round of the 2019 Speed King Tour took place at the RC Stadium track in Sodegaura. The event was held in the regular Touring Modified, Touring Stock and Oval classes and a new qualifying system was in introduced for this year: only the top 5 qualifiers from the three qualifying rounds would directly proceed to the A-main with these five would also have a Super Lap race to determine the overall pole position. The A-main would be filled up with the three fastest B-main finishers plus the two fastest drivers from the lower mains. Yokomo driver Hayato Ishioka set the fastest lap time in Super Lap session with top qualifier Akio Sobue also making it in the front row of the grid. Young Xray driver Takuma Sasaki took the TQ in the Stock class but Takeshi Yokoyama got the pole position in the Super Lap session.

Continue reading the report here


April 27, 2019

Leo Arnold claims his first ENS pole position

Taking his 3rd TQ run in Q4 of 1/10th qualifying, Leo Arnold put the pole position starting spot out of the reach of his rivals, the Xray driver dominant this weekend so far save for his Q2 collision with a slowing Teemu Leino. Jilles Groskamp will start directly behind the French man tomorrow with Alessio Mazzeo, Eduardo Escandon and Teemu Leino completing the top half of the grid. ‘My first TQ, I am very happy, the hard work pays off’ was how Leo described his qualifying, continuing ‘my car is easy for the final, if I want to push I can push’. With his father checking over the tires from qualifying, they will make a final decision on tire strategy once they have all the data, no changes to his NT1 planned.

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


April 27, 2019

ENS Rd1 TQ goes to Simon Kurzbuch

Getting off to the best possible start to regain his ENS title, Simon Kurzbuch has taking the bonus TQ point here in Italy as the only person who could take that away from him, Dario Balestri, was unable to better the time of his Swiss counterpart despite taking the final round. Dominic Greiner would take 2nd for the round to seal 4th overall on the grid, while starting ahead of him will be Carmine Raiola who was unable to better his Q1 and 2 results. Robert Pietsch will set off for tomorrow’s 45 minute A-main from 5th, ahead of fellow World Champion Lamberto Collari, who starts his home race in 6th. Simon, who took the TQ on tie break due to his blistering Q3 run, said he pushed hard at the start of Q4 to be in a position to respond to Dario but receiving the information over the radio from his father that the Infinity driver wouldn’t be able to beat him, he pulled off the track. Checking the forecast for tomorrow he will prepare his car as normal and maybe make some small changes if any rain is expected.

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


April 27, 2019

Balestri takes Q2 with late charge

The 2nd round of qualifying for the 1/8th scale class at the season opening round of the 2019 Euro Nitro Series has gone to Dario Balestri. Putting in some very fast laps at the end of the run, the Italian was able to overhaul Simon Kurzbuch who ended the run in 2nd. Carmine Raiola took 3rd from the 2nd fastest heat while Dominic Greiner recovered from an unlucky Q1 yesterday to take 4th, in front of Mirko Salemi while top seed Robert Pietsch had a messy run to take sixth, the top 17 for the round covered by 5 seconds. Describing his run as ‘not perfect because of traffic’, Balestri elaborated by explaining that when you run close to a competitor in front of you at this track it affects the cars aerodynamics meaning you loose some time. Once passed and into clear air the run went a lot better and he was able to push for the rest of the run. His Max engine spluttering once passed the finish line, the World champion said he can’t do more, ‘fuel is marginal but everyone has the same problem’.

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