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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.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage 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

Collin Weatherholt wins at Labor Day Challenge

Clark RC Park of Reeseville, Wisconsin hosted the Labor Day Challenge last weekend, attracting over 90 entries for the 1/8th and 1/10th scale off-road classes. In the Nitro Buggy category it was Jared Wiggins with the overall TQ, however in the 15-minute A-main event it was Collin Weatherholt with the win a lap in front of 3rd place qualifier, Alex Vaughn. Jared Wiggins had to settle for 3rd overall, another eleven seconds behind Alex.

Source: Mugen [mugenracing.com]

September 3, 2019

Infinity World Challenge – Report

Last weekend the Infinity World Challenge Race was held at the Morac Ring in Austria. In the 1/8th IC Track class it was Nejc Mihelic with the round TQ in Q1 from Branislav Panak in 2nd. Q2 was lead by Branislav most of the time but a last lap mistake allowed Tomas Liptak to TQ the round. Overall however it was Nejc Mihelic with the TQ after the qualifiers. In the first of the two finals it was a clean run for Nejc Mihelic as he managed to run away from Branislav and Tomas while the two battled for 2nd position. The battle was lost for Branislav later as he ran out of fuel on lap 52 and then again on the last lap so it was an easy win for Nejc who would finish 1 lap ahead of Tomas and 2 laps in front of Branislav.

Continue reading the report here

September 2, 2019

Wataru Takashiro TQs & wins at GQ Cup

The GQ Cup was held at the Icheon RC Circuit in Icheon, Korea this past weekend. Wataru Takashiro set the overall TQ and he also took the win in the 45-minute Nitro Buggy main final. Kim Yeon Ho came in 2nd followed by Ryan Lee who rounded out the top 3 results.

Source: Reds Racing [reds-racing.com]

September 2, 2019

Tim Wood wins at British Open

The annual British Open Championship took place over the UK bank holiday weekend at the Halifax racetrack in the north of England. Glorious sunny weather for 3 days greeted 87 drivers across the 1/8th and 1/10th IC Track classes. Hot weather made 5-minute qualifying runs difficult for the top heat with many drivers running out of fuel on numerous occasions. Andrew Hastings took the TQ, having successfully managed the full 5 mins without stopping. Finals took place on Monday. The 1/8th main final saw a 7-car train at the start. Andy was battling Karl at the front whilst Tim Wood was working his way through the pack. After seven minutes Tim took the lead which was never relinquished. A smooth drive saw Tim take another convincing victory. Karl Dransfield finished 2nd with Andy North taking the final podium position after a tight battle with John Carr who finished 4th. With this victory, Tim has not only won the first British Open title for his chassis sponsor. With 601 points from six races, Tim has also done the trick of taking the title of the BRCA 8th Circuit National Champion second time in a row.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

September 2, 2019

Asian Nitro Championship Rd3 – Report

The third round of this year’s Asian Nitro Championship was held at the new Infinity International RC Speedway this past weekend. The newly built track is located near the famed Suzuka Raceway in Japan and in the premier 1/8th Open class the main was stacked with talent and with the current 1/8 World Champion thrown into the mix, anything was possible. Carmine Raiola captured the pole position and clearly he was aiming to keep the position for the win. The top two qualifiers, Tadahiko Sahashi and Chavit Saligupta set the pace early for the front runners as the pair were always within striking distance of each other for a large duration of the race. Behind them it was a totally different story as much of the field was jockeying for position. Current 1/8 World Champ Dario Balestri claimed the third position from past World Champ Naoto Matsukura for a bit as he had his sights set on the leaders preparing. By this time though, all cars were approaching pit stop time and how good your pit person is was going to start to determine if you can hold your position or not. If you had trouble following the order in the closing stages of the main, you weren’t alone. Race announcer Scotty Ernst called the action and kept things straight for the watching audience. By the sound of the end tone, second qualifier Sahashi managed to grab the big win with Chavit Saligupta coming all the way from the sixth qualifying spot to take second with TQ Carmine Raiola rounding out the top 3.

Continue reading the report here