The last UK regional race of the Summer season was held in the form of the the final round of the SWORDS series at the brand new Plymouth track. The days winners were Josh Graham 1st, Matt Roberts 2nd and Sam Cobley 3rd. This mean that the series was then won by Sam Cobley and his HB Racing buggy, Matt Roberts (Agama) was 2nd and young Maxim Cook (Agama) was 3rd.
Source: BRCA [brca.org] | Image: Nemo Racing [nemoracing.com]
The 2018 ROAR Fuel On-road Nationals were held at Nuggets Ranch Raceway in Arcadia, Florida this past weekend. The 1/8th Open class saw Serpent’s Joaquin Desoto Jr. taking the title from the TQ spot with Infinity’s Christian Lopez coming in 2nd after the 45-minute A-main, some 26 seconds down. Shepherd’s Michael Palazolla rounded out the top 3 podium result in front of Ralph Burch and David Blakeney.
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The third round of the Spanish Nitro Buggy National Championship was held at the Valladolid track this past weekend. Mugen’s Robert Batlle was in control of things on the slippery track with the Kyosho duo of Brian Baldo and Joao Figueiredo coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively after the qualifiers. Mugen’s Juan Carlos Canas, who had a troublefull qualifier, would start the A-main from the pole position and he would also bring home the win in the 45-minute A-main from Robert Batlle on the 2 spot, a lap down. Robert felt less comfortable in the main compared to the previous days and he opted to just bring home the runner-up spot and thus valuable points for the championship. Another lap down it was Oscar Baldo who would round out the podium result for Kyosho, also suffering minor issues.
Simon Kurzbuch will defend his Euro Nitro Series title tomorrow at the Season Finale in Italy from pole position. The Shepherd driver made it a clean sweep of qualifying for the 2018 season as he wrapped up his fourth TQ from the championship’s four races. Having suffered a broken front belt in Q3 and title rival Dario Balestri getting the TQ for that round, Kurzbuch had to wait until the final round to bag himself the extra championship point which could prove vital at the end of tomorrow’s 45-minute final. He took the final qualifier ahead of Robert Pietsch and Toni Gruber after a hard pushing Balestri had a mistake in the second half of the qualifier. The Italian will start 2nd with Pietsch third while Andrea Pirani makes it four different manufacturers at the head of the grid. Kurzbuch’s TQ today eliminates Gruber from the title fight, the WRC driver at best being able to equal the leaders points tally with a win but losing out on the tie break. Between himself and Balestri, however, if the Italian wins he must be sure to finish on the podium with a 3rd place giving him his 3rd consecutive title on tie break with the only driver who has previously denied him becoming champion.
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Dominic Greiner’s hopes of a first Euro Nitro Series title are ‘still alive’ after the Serpent driver secured the overall TQ in the fourth & final round of qualifying in Fiorano, Italy. Needing the bonus championship point so as to start the final with a chance denying championship leader Jilles Groskamp his second title, Greiner took Q4 by over 1.3-seconds from Alessio Mazzeo. The only driver who could potentially start on pole having TQ’d Q3, Teemu Leino couldn’t match Greiner ending up third quickest ahead of his Infinity team-mate Groskamp. Overall the result means Leino will start second with Mazzeo moving ahead of Groskamp to start third with Erik Dankel completing the Top 5 on the grid. In order for Greiner, the championship’s most winning driver, to secure the title he first must win and then hope that Groskamp is third or lower.
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Teemu Leino has taken the penultimate round of qualifying at the Infinity Euro Nitro Series finale in Italy. The Infinity driver lead a 1-2 for the team with championship leader Jilles Groskamp also putting in his best performance of qualifying so far. Leino was a full 1-second clear at the top of the times with Alessio Mazzeo completing the Top 3. Having dominated the top of the times sheets in practice and the opening two qualifiers Dominic Greiner would end up fourth but still looks firmly on target for the overall TQ he needs to challenge Groskamp for the title in tomorrow’s 45-minute final.
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Simon Kurzbuch has taken another TQ run at the ENS Season Finale in Italy but only after title challenger Dario Balestri hit traffic over the final two laps. Posting the fastest lap of the second qualifier, Balestri was leading the times but lost around 7/10th in the closing 2-laps to cross the line 0.247 off Kurzbuch. Again the pair would be the only drivers to record 17 laps of the Fiorano track, the TQ pace just slightly slower than that recorded by Kurzbuch last night which all but assures him the overall TQ if it came to a tie breaker. Behind the two title contenders, Robert Pietsch, who set the pace at the beginning of the run, completed the Top 3 ahead of the Andrea Pirani, Lamberto Collari and Alberto Picco.
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Dominic Greiner has kicked off Day 2 of the Infinity Euro Nitro Series in Italian with another TQ run. Having predictably set the benchmark in practice yesterday at Fiorano and capped off the day with a TQ in the opening qualifier, the Serpent driver repeated that form but this time with a greater gap over his rivals. Closest to the German would be Teemu Leino, the Infinity driver 1.4-seconds off the TQ pace which was more than 1.6-seconds quicker than the Q1 topping time. After recording a DNF in Q1, Mugen’s Erik Dankel had a much improved run completing the Top 3 ahead of the Infinity’s Francesco Tironi, Jilles Groskamp and Andy Moore. Having been the closest challenger to Greiner yesterday, Alessio Mazzeo ended up 8th for the round following a mistake that cost him 4-seconds while in contention for the TQ.
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