The 2017 Panamerican International GT Grand Prix was held at Homestead RC Raceway in Florida over the weekend. In the Pro GT class it was Joaquin Desoto Jr. who took the win in the hour long main final some three laps in front of runner-up, Lazaro Alonso. Peter Breton would complete the top 3 result another lap down.
The annual January Jam was held at Flowood RC in Mississippi in pretty cold conditions. Ryan Lutz and teammate Joe Bornhorst would battle for the TQ honours in the 1/8th classes and ultimately it was Joe who TQ’d Nitro Buggy and Nitro Truck while Ryan top qualified the E-Buggy category. Nitro Buggy was the final race of the day and the most entertaining. Both Joe and Ryan again got off to a close start swapping the lead a couple times before Ryan again made a bigger mistake. Lutz then had a terrible lap with 3 crashes as the track was developing some character with some bumps as well as some dust. Joe got out to a 10 second plus lead halfway through and Ryan really thought he had it in the bag. But nearing the final five minutes Bornhorst made some mistakes as his tires were making it hard for him to drive and Ryan was able to catch up and put in a pass. Lutz could feel something going out in his buggy’s steering and was just praying it would stay together to finish the race, and fortunately with Joe pushing hard behind him, Bornhost made another bobble or two giving Ryan Lutz the cushion he needed to bring home the bacon.
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The annual Winterchamps event was held in Hohenems, Austria with about 160 entries for the three classes of 4WD Buggy, 2WD Buggy and Stadium Truck. The weekend kicked off with two rounds of free practice, two round of timed practice as well as the opening two qualifiers. Ultimately Team Associated’s Patrick Hofer would grab the TQ after the qualifiers in the 4WD and Stadium Truck class while Fabian Widmer (Yokomo) came out fastest in 2WD. The 4WD finals then saw Patrick taking commanding wins in A1 and A2 to take the overall win from the Xray duo of Nico Schmid and Philip Jeisy. The 2WD finals saw some intense battles for the lead and after a bobble of Patrick in the minefield section, Fabian Widmer took his first Winterchamps victory from Patrick in second and Nico Schmid (Xray) in third.
The Protoform Western Canadian Indoor Championship Series round 3 brought racing excitement to the small town of Airdrie, Alberta. Hosted by Karz, it was a warm winter weekend for racing. The third event, but the first time in Alberta running the new AAA main finals format; with racers enjoying two to three times the racing on Sundays, and AAA consistency quickly becoming the major focus for racers. Team Associated’s Peter Toszer dominated the first two legs of the Touring Modified A-mains with Xray’s Ryan Rice and Awesomatix’s Korgae Scales taking second spots. Top privateer Josh Carter took the final A main, setting the final results as Peter, Korgae and Josh.
Capricorn have announced US frontrunner Vincent Jackson as part of the team for the 2017 season. After a short hiatus, the former Serpent driver makes his comeback to the racing scene, campaigning Capricorn’s LAB-C03 1/10th scale nitro touring car in preparation of the 2018 worlds. Vincent says:
I am extremely excited for the opportunity to run for Capricorn RC and RCtarget. I want to thank Rino, Frankie and Patrizio for making me a part of the team. I have no doubts about Capricorn products and looking forward my future with them.
Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]
The recent fourth round of the CWIC XRS UK saw a pretty good turnout and so the organisers could only fit three minute practice runs into the schedule followed by three rounds of round by round qualification with the best two to count and 2-legged finals. This round seen Super Touring had a great turnout and even with a very competitive field, Olly Jefferies took the overall win closely followed by wonder junior Harley Eldridge and Tim Langdell, who took overall third place on the podium.
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The MCSS was recently held in Leonberg and in the Touring Modified class it was Dionys Stadler who came out fastest after the A-mains. Behind him Dominik Fleischmann and Marco Kaufmann completed the top 3 result. Elsewhere in the Stock class Valentin Hettrich brought home the win while Noah Asendorf had to settle for second. At the end and after some great fights he was able to bring home the runner-up spot from Alexandre Kunkler.
Mugen Seiki have announced the signing of Japanese National Champion, Syoki Takahata to their factory nitro on-road team. The former KM Racing driver will campaign Mugen’s MRX6 and MTX6R kits in the upcoming season that will see appearances at the national championship and also at the IFMAR 1/8th On-road Worlds in France.
Source: Mugen Seiki [mugenseiki.com]
