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October 16, 2023

Branson wins EWS season opener

Xray’s Kyle Branson took the win at the opening round of the Essex Winter Series presented by Ruddog over the weekend. The opening round of the popular British indoor series which runs over 5-rounds, the race attracted a capacity entry with back to back Champion Branson leading the Modified Touring Car entry. In qualifying the Champion stamped his authority on proceedings with TQ runs in all five rounds. Behind Yokomo’s Alex Thurston, winner of the last season’s finale, would secure P2 on the grid ahead of the Schumacher of racing returnee Elliott Harper and Hayley Eldridge. With a single A-main, Branson would convert his pole position into the win with the Top 5 remaining unchanged over the 5-minutes. In Pro Stock, Zak Finlay took the TQ & win from Tony Broad while in FWD it was also a win for the Top Qualifier with Ben Moorey taking max series points ahead of Aaron Rose.

Image: Kyle Branson [Facebook]

October 16, 2023

Kuenning crowned ROAR 1:8 Onroad National Champion

Max Keunning is the new US 1:8 Onroad National Champion, the Xray driver having the perfect weekend at the ROAR On-Road Fuel Nationals in Texas over the weekend. Racing at N-Control RC Racing Circuit, in qualifying Keunning, who is better known for his electric onroad exploits, would takes his RX8 to TQ runs in 3 of the 4 rounds. The only other to post a TQ run was Chris Kemper when he topped Q4 as Keunning had a DNF. Lining up on pole for the 45-minute final ahead of Kemper and former World Champions Ralph Birch and Joel Johnson, he would go on to win with Johnson, the only other driver to hit the front during race, finishing second 2-laps down at the end. With Birch an early retirement, Kemper would complete the podium ahead of Scotty Barrera in fourth. In 1:10, Serpent’s Jose Almonte went one better than last year, when he was second to Bryce Butterfield, to take the title. Having struggled with the balance of his 750 Evo in qualifying, he had it sorted for the final, setting the fastest lap of the race en route to victory over Scott Barnes.

Image: Max Keunning [Facebook]

October 16, 2023

IFMAR 1:8 GTe World Cup Podium revised

IFMAR has issued a statement regarding the revision of the podium result of the A-Main of the 1:8 GTe World Cup which ran alongside the alongside last week’s 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney, Australia. With Joern Neumann taking the overall victory with wins in all three finals, there was a penalty issued for A3 by the Race Director following the race which saw Peter Jovanovic docked a lap for ‘Un-sportmanship’ for failing to re-address early race contact. This promoted Top Qualifier Natanaele Senesi to the final step of the podium as at least he thought. On Saturday morning unknown to any of the drivers, the penalty was removed by IFMAR as the Race Director had incorrectly applied his discretion to penalise the offender by removing a lap for the alleged offence. Upon further discussion with IFMAR, clarification of the rules showed that there was no provision or does it permit the use of video’s as a retrospective evidence to apportion wrong doing and hence apply penalties. Disappointingly, Senesi only found out some 28-hours later when he was called out to collect the trophy for fourth place. Herfried Pucher was just as surprised when he got called to collect the third place trophy with the crowd even calling that there was an mistake in the results. While the presentation of the 1:8 GT World Championship continued, there was ongoing discussion between an understandably frustrated Senesi, the Race Director, IFMAR officials and club representatives that when on until close to midnight. IFMAR have now issued a statement on the incident which they agreed ‘resulted in disappointment and dissatisfaction for both drivers’ leading the governing body to make the decision ‘to award the 3rd place to both participants as a tie in the race.’ The matter highlights the need for IFMAR to establish a formal method of communication with competitors such as the use WhatsApp Channels.

Read IFMAR Statement here

October 14, 2023

Gruber is GT World Champ with master class Down Under

Toni Gruber is the new IFMAR 1:8 GT World Champion, the Hong Nor driver taking his first World title with an absolutely dominant and perfectly executed drive in Sydney, Australia. Disappointed at missing out on the TQ in qualifying but managing to book his direct starting position in the final by winning Super Pole, the German driver led the 1-hour final from start to finish after getting the holeshot on Top Qualifier Alex D’angelo. It was to be a difficult race for the Genius Racing driver, his race hampered by flame outs resulting in 6th place at the finish. A lap up on the entire field after 20-minutes, Gruber extended that to 2 laps by 40-minutes, with the attention on the battle for second between home hero Jeff Hamon and his young Serpent team-mate Andrea Catanzani who put in a sensation drive in the Semi final to go from last to winning it. A driver to call time, his 2-speed needing adjustment, Hamon had to start the race from the No.11 box on the grid as a result but worked his way through to second with World’s rookie Catanzani marking his arrival to the world by completing the podium. For out going champion Joern Neumann it wasn’t to be a good race, the Sworkz driver suffered a number flame outs during his refuelling stops and after an off 17-minutes in some slow marshalling saw his engine stop costing the German a lap. In the end he would finish 8th 12-laps down on Gruber.

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October 14, 2023

Neumann title defence on with Semi win

Qualifying only 14th, Joern Neumann’s defence of his IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship title is still on after the Sworkz driver took victory in the first of the Semi Finals in Sydney. Starting from sixth on the grid, Neumann worked his way to the front chasing down the Serpent of pole sitter Jeff Hamon. With no fuel stops allowed before 7-minutes, when Hamon and Neumann pitted they would both suffer flame outs. On the second stop, Hamon was in earlier than Neuman but once again flamed out something the Australian would suffer on all his stops. With a clean second stop for Neumann, this would give him a lead he would not give up. Starting from the pitlane after a problem in the warm-up, Italian Gabriele Paloschi would get past his Serpent team-mate to finish second, the Top 3 securing their spot in the 1-hour Main event. Unfortunately for Peter Jovanovic, having run second for the opening 5-minutes, he ran was over when he stripped a gear on his Capricorn.

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October 13, 2023

Neumann wins 1:8 GTe World Cup

Sworkz’ Joern Neumann has won the IFMAR 1:8 GTe World Cup in Australia repeating the feat he achieved in Miami almost 4-years ago. Qualifying second for the race in Sydney behind the Xray of Top Qualifier Natanaele Senesi, the German would have a terrible start to A1 going off onto the grass in the first corner as his team-mate & nitro mechanic Herfried Pucher from fourth on the grid took the early lead. Half way through the 6-minute encounter Neumann would take the lead before going on to win by a comfortable 5-seconds as Pucher just held off Senesi for second. In A2, Neumann nailed the start getting the holeshot on Senesi but Senesi would make a late charge in the race closing the gap until he was hit by a backmarker allowing Neumann to cruise to the overall win. While the title was won, as the reigning Nitro GT World Champion which he will try to defend tomorrow, Neumann wasn’t going to get the opportunity of track time pass him by and appeared with a different bodyshell in A3 to test it for his nitro Semi final. On the track Neumann took the win narrowly from the Capricorn of Peter Jovanovic but the Australian was later handed a 1-lap penalty for ‘Un-sportmanship’ for failing to re-address early race contact. This gave Senesi second for A3 but overall Jovanovic was runner-up with the Italian completing the podium.

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October 12, 2023

D’angelo is GT World Championship Top Qualifier

Genius Racing’s Alex D’angelo is the Top Qualifier for the 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney Australia. The Italian’s first World Championship, he secured pole position for Saturday’s 1-hour final when he backed up his Q5 TQ with another in the final round at the John Grant International Raceway. Going into the decider as the only driver capable of topping overnight TQ holder Toni Gruber, he would produce another 24-lap run and with his Q5 time the quickest of the event he took the overall TQ on tiebreaker from Gruber. A rough day for Gruber, qualifying didn’t end any better for the Hong Nor driver as suffered from too lean an engine and pulled in after 4-minutes. Adding to the Genius team’s celebrations, reigning European GT Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi make it a 1-2 for the GT8.23 for the round putting the French driver into the four driver Super pole shoot out. This was duly won by Gruber who now locks his place into the Main final while the rest have to come through the Semi Finals. For reigning Champion Joern Neumann, a strong finish to Day 1 of qualifying, when he got a P3 in Q3, didn’t carry through to Day 2. As a result the Sworkz driver will start out his title defence from 6th in the half hour Semi B having qualified 14th overall.

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October 12, 2023

D’angelo delivers TQ in penultimate qualifier

Genius Racing’s Alex D’angelo delivered a TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship and in doing so has put himself in a position to deny Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber from becoming the early Top Qualifier in Sydney. Yet again it was an action packed 7-minutes, the first casualty being Andrea Catanzani whose Serpent suffered a mechanical and was out after just 4-laps. Up front his team-mate Jeff Hamon was setting the pace but his engine was too lean and the Australian was forced to pit to have it retuned ending his effort. Toni Gruber, hoping to wrap up the overall TQ with a round to spare, would get hit not once but twice by other cars, putting him on the back foot. In a close fight at the top of the timing screens with his team-mate D’angelo, Bernard-Alain Arnaldi would put his car on its roof and sliding across the grass where it needed to be marshal. All the while D’angelo was having a clean run on new tyres delivering the TQ by a margin of 2.4-seconds over Gruber with Q4 winner Natanaele Senesi completing the Top 3. Again another good run from the second fastest heat by local offroad racer Lachlan Donnelly who posted the fourth fastest time for the round which moves him into 7th overall.

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