November 12, 2018

Ongaro crowned World Champion Down under

Davide Ongaro is the new 1:8 Offroad World Champion.  The Italian became the youngest winner of the sport’s top prize with an impressive and dominant performance in Australia, to win the 1-hour final by 3/4 of a lap from Top Qualifier Ty Tessmann.  Ongaro initially battled with pole sitter Ryan Maifield after defending champion David Ronnefalk hit problems early and then Tessmann made a mistake that dropped him from 2nd to 5th.  Pulling clear of the field only alternate mistakes saw the order of the Top 2 change.  With 15-minutes on the clock, Maifield had a 4-second advantage and was looking strong but on the difficult track he relinquished that advantage on the top right side of the track and Ongaro went to the front.  From there he would take control of the race, his advantage at the midway point almost 7-seconds.  As he continued on his way to securing Team Associated’s first nitro World title, allegations of his car having a giro being proven unfounded afterwards, behind the battle hotted up between Maifield, Tessmann and the recovering Ronnefalk.  With one less stop to do than his rivals over the hour, Tessmann would secure his 4th consecutive Worlds podium taking his Xray to second, 9-seconds clear of Maifield’s Mugen.  For Ronnefalk his reign would end with 4th place the task of coming from dead last after 3-laps too much of a mountain to climb.

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November 10, 2018

Maifield on pole in Australia

Ryan Maifield will line-up on pole position for the 1-hour final that will decide who leaves Australia as the 1:8 Offroad World Champion.  The Mugen driver secured the No.1 starting position of the 13 car grid with victory in the second & faster of the two half hour Semi Finals.  In the first of the encounters, it was Top Qualifier Ty Tessmann who took the win but only after two late errors by Davide Ongaro.  Ongaro’s Team Associated went to the front after two and half minutes as Tessmann made a mistake.  The Xray driver briefly went to the front 3-minutes later when Ongaro had a mistake but another mistake from Tessmann handed it right back.  Tessmann then started to come under attack from team-mate Bruno Coelho putting up little fight as the Portuguese driver went through to second. Unfortunately it was short lived as the race hit half way Coelho ran out of fuel just as he was coming around to pit.  Ongaro’s advantage was now 2.3-seconds over Tessmann but with 4-minute left on the clock the Italian made a mistake that let his rival through. A racy Ongaro tried to take back the lead but a mistake inside the final 3-minutes put an end to that.  With the Top 5 directly bumping up, there was a good battle for 3rd.  Spencer Rivkin led that until a mistake at 7-minutes dropped him 4 places with the American never recovering. In the end it was Batlle that came out on top ahead of American duo Ryan Cavalieri  and Jared Tebo.  In the second of the Semi, reigning champion David Ronnefalk would have to settle for second behind Ryan Maifield. The Electric Offroad World Champion got the jump on the pole sitter off the start and lead early on before Ronnefalk took a lengthy turn out front until a number of mistakes dropped him back to second. Behind, having bumped up from the 1/4 Finals, Kyle McBride pleased the local crowd with 3rd place ahead of Naoto Matsukura and Riccardo Berton who had also come from the 1/4 Finals.

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November 9, 2018

Graham Alsop wins at HNMC Winter Series Rd3

The third round of the popular HNMC Winter Series was held last weekend. With all most 60 entries the and daylight drawing in at 16:30 race control would need to be swift. Qualifying saw Graham Alsop taking the TQ in the Nitro Buggy class while Simon Reeves TQed E-Buggy. Over in Nitro Truggy it was Neil Sivins with the TQ. In the 20-minute Nitro Buggy A-main it was Graham Alsop with the win some 15 seconds in front of Simon Reeves. Lewis Jones would round out the top 3. Over in the E-Buggy main final it was Simon Reeves with the win from Darren Hayden-Ball and Dominic Powles in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Finally in Truggy it was Neil Sivins with the win from Darren Roper and Warabe Tatekoji.

Source: BRCA [brca.org]


November 8, 2018

Tessmann is Top Qualifier down under

Ty Tessmann is the Top Qualifier at this year’s 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Perth, Australia.  The former champion took qualifying’s top prize with the second fastest time in the final round of qualifying behind Davide Ongaro to deny defending Champion David Ronnefalk by a single point.  While Ongaro took Q6 by a considerable margin of almost 8-seconds, as the only one who could knock Tessmann off the top of the qualification ranking, Ronnefalk didn’t have the best of runs and needing only a Top 4 for the round to take the overall TQ ended up with a P5 leaving with 8 points compared to Tessmann’s 7.  With four of the six rounds of qualifying to count Ongaro’s second TQ run allowed him to drop a 16th from Q3 to end up 3rd overall.  Concluding qualifying with a P4 behind Spencer Rivkin, Ryan Maifield would move up to fourth in the final ranking ahead of Mugen team’s Robert Batlle with onroad star Naoto Matsukura completing the Top 6.

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


November 8, 2018

Paolo Morganti wins at FNS opener

The opening round of the Florida Nitro Series was held in Fort Myers last weekend in 1/8th Open, 1/8th GT and 1/10th Sedan classes. The latter saw Paolo Morganti taking the TQ and win in the 30-minute main final. Rafael Angulo, coming from the 3 spot, would snatch the runner-up spot as Jose Sanchez Jr. completed the podium result in 3rd for a Capricorn 1-2-3. Over in the GT8 class it was Rino Lino, who qualified only on the 9th spot, who would take the win some three laps in front of Avery Pierce. Top qualifier, Hector Montaner had to settle for 3rd overall, making it an all-IGT8 podium.

View the GT8 podium here


November 8, 2018

Ronnefalk opens final day of qualifying with second TQ run

After a tough day yesterday, David Ronnefalk has opened the final day of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships with a TQ run.  Having kicked off the event with a TQ in Q1, the HB Racing driver topped the times for a second time in the penultimate round ahead of last night’s Q4 winner Davide Ongaro.  Building on his big improvement in the fourth round, Spencer Rivkin completed the Top 3 being just 0.034 behind Associated team-mate Ongaro.  Robert Batlle would be the best of the Mugen runners setting the fourth fastest time ahead of top Xray for the round CJ Jelin while Jared Tebo once again completed the Top 6.  Having held the overnight TQ, it was a rough round for Ty Tessmann who made a number of mistakes that resulted in being 7th fastest – his first time being outside the Top 6.

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November 7, 2018

Ongaro comes good to take Q4 in Perth

Davide Ongaro came good on his Top Seeding at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships to TQ the fourth round of qualifying in Perth.  The Italian led a Team Associated 1-2 in the evening run with Ryan Cavalieri enjoying a much improved performance as the American manufacturer’s drivers on the whole showed strong.  Having failed to run inside the Top 10 in the opening three qualifiers, Spencer Rivkin would take his RC8 to the fourth fastest time.  For defending champion David Ronnefalk, who broke in the previous round, his day was not to get any better as he suffered a plug failure during Q4.  Another of the title contenders to hit problems was reigning 1:10 electric Offroad World Champion Ryan Maifield who suffered a flame out after he was released from his fuel stop during the 1o-minute heat. Naoto Matsukura would set the third fastest time for the round with his second Top 3 of the event.  Behind him and Rivkin, Jared Tebo would have his best result so far with P5 ahead of Ty Tessmann, who having topped his heat was later demoted to 6th.

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November 7, 2018

Another TQ run for Tessmann as Ronnefalk breaks

It was another TQ run for Ty Tessmann at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Australia as the Canadian opened Day 2 of qualifying with a considerably slower time for the 10-minute compared to yesterday.  Topping Q2 with a time of 10:08.083 compared to today’s pace of 10:12.716, Tessmann led an Xray 1-2 with Bruno Coelho topping his heat for his best points so far. Having taken the opening round of qualifying, it wasn’t to be a good start to Wednesday’s action for reigning champion David Ronnefalk.  On his third lap, the HB Racing driver ‘donkey flipped’ his buggy on the right side of the track leading to a broken suspension arm.  A strong run from Spanish Mugen driver Juan Carlos Canas would see him complete the Top 3 ahead of team-mates Ryan Maifield and Robert Batlle.  Former Worlds Top Qualifier Elliot Boots, who so far hasn’t featured strongly, would be the top Kyosho for the third round with his first Top 6 run.

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