The annual Merdeka Challenge was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with about 80 entries from Singapore and Malaysia for the 1/8th and 1/10th scale nitro classes. In the premier 1/8th on-road category it was ARC driver Nelson Lee with the TQ, however after the final it was Xray’s Jade Lim with the win from Nelson Lee 2nd and Mugen racer Afat in 3rd.
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The 2017 ROAR 1/10th Electric Off-road Nationals were held at The Track in Gaithersburg, Maryland last weekend. 270 entries made for competitive racing in the eight Modified and Stock classes. The traditional off-road classes of 2WD Mod Buggy, 4WD Mod Buggy and Mod Racing Truck were swept by Xray’s Ty Tessmann who won all but three qualifiers to take dominant TQs.
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The MRG track in Genk played host for the penultimate round of the Belgian Championship this past weekend. The track is situated at a motorsport facility with an FIA karting track and an MX track and classes run were the usual Touring Modified, Touring Stock, Formula and Rookie categories. Most drivers were present on Saturday for practice, but due to the complete washout, running was very limited. As the track was still damp on Sunday morning, the racers expected the first qualifiers to be very tough.
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Round 8 of Singapore’s Urban Touring Series was held this past weekend at the city’s Urban Onroad Raceway. Colin Tong (Xray) gave his rivals notice of his intentions when he TQ’d all three rounds of qualifying to start the finals in the coveted pole position. Chee Lip Keong (Yokomo) qualified 2nd while Hasron Robana (Xray) started in 3rd. In the first leg of the A-main, a turn 1 incident unfortunately dropped Hasron to the back of the field, with Colin and Lip Keong immediately putting a gap on the rest of the field. Benefitting the most was Smith Kek (Xray) who moved to 3rd despite a 6th position start. Colin held on to his quick start to take the win by four seconds over Lip Keong in 2nd. Smith held on to 3rd. Before the second leg of the A-main could be started, the skies, that had been threatening rain throughout, finally opened up. A steady drizzle throughout the rest of the day meant that the race had to be called, with the final results based on the single leg run, handing Colin a maiden win at the UTS.
The 2017 EFRA 1/10th IC Track European Championships were held this week in Mulhouse, France. Unseasonal wet weather on Thursday and Friday would have seen many events either struggle to get finished, or not take place at all. Fortunately a track at Mulhouse that dried relatively quickly and, more importantly, speedy and thoughtful intervention by Javier Garcia, the EFRA delegate at the event, including a smart decision to move two qualifying rounds to Wednesday when the conditions were perfect, ensured no racing was lost. Remarkable as Thursday was rained out until 16:30 and the time set aside on Friday for the lower finals was also lost to weather.
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The 2017 Shepherd Cup was held in Hong Kong last weekend and the event saw Gary Hunang (Xray) taking the 1/8th Nitro On-road TQ after the three qualifiers. In the 45-minute main final Gary opted to change tyres around the 25-minute mark and he would take the win some four laps in front of Hui Zhan Hao (Serpent) and Ng Chiu Man (Serpent).
The third round of the Danish Electric On-road Nationals was held at the Glostrup Racing Club in difficult weather conditions. Saturday’s practice sessions were interrupted by the unavoidable rain but thankfully the track is known to dry up pretty fast and so a reasonable amount of runs could be completed. Sunday started off dry but the qualifiers again had their wet moments and in the end it was Xray driver Kevin Nielsen who made the best out of the conditions, taking the TQ from Xray teammate Patrick Danielsen and VBC Racing’s Soren Boy Holst.
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The weather forecast for round 6 of the BRCA 1/8th Circuit Nationals was mainly showers although nearly fifty drivers across the two classes made the trip to Wombwell, near Barnsley. The circuit is likened by many for its combination of high speed straight which utilises the karting circuit and then a medium speed infield with undulations making it very testing. On arrival, the track was damp on Saturday morning which saw many of the electric class runners preparing their wet cars as the forecast was indifferent for the whole weekend. By midday the track was dry. In the electric class, it was Alex Thurston and Adam Catchpole setting the pace with Pete Hastings and Dan Jones not too far behind them. With 17 entrants and times being so close, a place in the A-final would be tight for some. In the Nitro class, Andy Hastings was out to make up for his Halifax poor showing but the man on form, David Spashett, was again going to be the man to beat. Quick as ever were Tim Wood, Neal King and Mark Green, running the new Serpent chassis.
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