This past weekend Thunder Alley Raceway hosted round 5 of Southern California’s Grassroots Racing Series. The event had over 170 entries and it was Mugen’s Adam Drake who was victorious in the Expert Nitro Buggy class followed by Mugen’s Anthony Westergaard 2nd and Tekno RC’s Steve Harris 3rd.
Source: Mugen [mugenracing.com]
The prestigious Fiorano track in Italy played host to the opening round of the 2018 EFRA GP Series this past weekend. In the 1/8th IC Track class it was Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch with the overall TQ and he would also went on to win the main final from the Infinity duo of Dario Balestri and Carmine Raiola. Over in 1/10th 200mm Touring it was Serpent’s Dominic Greiner who won all five qualifiers for the overall TQ. In the 45-minute main final it was again Dominic who would lay down a dominant performance, taking the day’s win by over a lap from Xray’s Alessio Mazzeo 2nd and Mugen’s Dirk Wischnewski 3rd.
The LA Speedway of Landshut, Germany held their Easter Bunny race this past weekend in 1/8th Nitro Buggy and E-Buggy classes. In the 1/8th Nitro category it was Team Associated driver Alex Schmitt who dominated most of the qualifiers and he also won the main final from Michael Nalukowy (HB Racing) 2nd and Patrick Schweinzer (Mugen) 3rd. Over in the 1/8th E-Buggy class it was Team Associated’s Tim Kraus with the win from Team Associated’s Stefan Pfeifhofer and Kyosho driver Luca Rau.
The Mini Racing Team Essonne club played host to round 1 of the French IC Track National Championship this past weekend. In the 1/8th Elite class it was Romain Picard with the overall TQ from Richard Volta 2nd and John Ermen 3rd. The latter then had some bad luck in the semi final when he lost the lead due to a mechanical issue and eventually finished good enough to start from P11 into the 45-minute A-main. In the opening stages of the main John was fortunate enough to make it through a lot of carnage and traffic and when it started to rain lightly at the 10-minute mark, more chaos took place of which John was able to take advantage of to move up to 2nd behind Richard. When the latter had a coming together with another car in the pit lane, John was able to take over the lead and with only 15 minutes to go John stretched out on the lead and later took a 2-laps win from Arnaud Mathieu 2nd and Christophe Aygon 3rd.
Image: John Ermen
The Nitromasters 1/8th off-road race took place this past weekend in Sand am Main. Mugen’s Carsten Keller would take the win in the 1/8th Nitro Buggy class from Aaron Roenick in 2nd and Sebastian Winterstein in 3rd. Rene Koenig would round out the top 4 results for a full Mugen sweep. Over in the 1/8th E-Buggy class it was Sebastian Winterstein with the win.
Source: Mugen [mugen.eu]
Round 1 of the BRCA 1/8th E-Buggy and Nitro Truck National Series was held this past weekend at the Brookthorpe track. In the E-Buggy class it was Agama’s Darren Bloomfield who had a great start into his title defending season with a win from Jack Embling (SWorkz) 2nd and TQ holder Matt Lewis (Team Associated) 3rd. Over in the Nitro Truggy class Jack Embling (SWorkz) managed to qualify joint TQ, but started 2nd due to the fastest time being held in the dry round by Team Associated’s Jon Howells. The final was 30 minutes long, and Jack decided to not risk ten minutes stints, so he had to stop three times. However even though his competitors risked one less stop, he still had the speed to take the win from Jon Howells 2nd and Agama’s Jon Hazlewood 3rd.
The Ospy track played host to the second round of the Italian 1/8th Buggy National Championship this past weekend. Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro would make a clean sweep in the Expert category by taking the TQ and he wasn’t even stopped by the rainy conditions on the main final where he would take the win from Xray’s Marco Baruffolo 2nd and Mattia Polito (Kyosho) 3rd.
Source: Modellismo RC [modellismorc.net]
The opening round of the Spanish 1/8th Nitro Buggy National Championship was held this past weekend at the Radovan track, home of the recent Neobuggy race. The event saw the participation of some foreign drivers such as David Ronnefalk and Joseph Quagraine and it was David who would hold the upper hand after the qualifiers to take the overall TQ from Robert Batlle 2nd and Juan Carlos Canas 3rd. Great drama then stroke for David whose buggy’s tank volume was found to be too large although he hadn’t changed anything since the last couple of races. The 45-minute A-main was a pretty intense affair with lots of position changes, however at the front of the pack the lead between Robert Batlle and Juan Carlos only changed a couple of times and in the end, and despite a couple of mishaps, it was Robert who brought home a narrow 0.9s win from Juan Carlos, making it a Mugen 1-2 at the opening round of the Championship. Behind the two, the race for the final podium spot was on between Daniel Bernabe, Joao Figueiredo, Dani Batlle or Jorge Soler, however it was Kyosho’s Bryan Baldo who would snatch the final step on the podium with a great drive.
