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September 13, 2017

Balestri takes 2nd TQ in ‘super close’ third qualifier

There was an exciting close to the opening day of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship in France with Dario Balestri taking a super close Q3 to earn a second TQ run which leaves him the provisional overnight TQ holder. The Infinity driver would lead a 1,2,3 for the Japanese manufacturer from team-mates Francesco Tironi and Naoto Matsukura, the trio separated by just 0.082 of a second. With Matsukura looking on target for his first TQ run, a slight bobble with 30-seconds to go was enough to let both Balestri and Simon Kurzbuch go ahead of the timing screens but posting his fastest lap of the race on his final lap Matsukura would beat Kurzbuch. Tironi’s impressive time from the second fastest heat would mean Kurzbuch would get fourth for the round, the Top 8 all stopping the clock with 7 minute 4 second times. The only driver to win the World Championships in both 1:8 and 1:10, Adrien Bertin showed there is still life in the veteran posting an impressive P5 on what is set to be his final World Championship appearance.

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September 13, 2017

Balestri takes Q2 in France

Dario Balestri has taken the second round of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in France, the Italian coming good on his free practice pace from 2 days earlier. The Infinity driver topped the round from Bruno Coelho as Q1 pace setter Simon Kurzbuch threw away a potential TQ run when he put his Shepherd on the grass. With marshalling assistance required to rejoin, the error would leave the reigning champion 17th. Again the track showed it deserves respect with Top seed Naoto Matsukura again crashing out, only this time it ended his run less than 1-minute in. Behind Coelho, who also had a excursion, Jessie Davis completed the Top 3 making up for an error filled Q1 in which he ended up P29. Backing up his strong Q1 P6 run, Lars Hoppe would set the fourth fastest time ahead of Lamberto Collari and Teemu Leino.

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September 13, 2017

‘Perfect’ start as Kurzbuch opens title defence with TQ run

Reigning 1:8 Onroad World Champion Simon Kurzbuch has got his title defence off to the perfect start by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying this morning in Monteux, France. The Shepherd driver put in an error free round, capitalising on mistakes from both top seed Naoto Matsukura and Bruno Coelho to top the times from free practice pace setter Dario Balestri. Having put his Xray on the grass while in pursuit of Matsukura’s Infinity, Coelho would recover to get a third while Matsukura stopped the clocks with the fourth fastest time despite his heavy impact with the fencing at the start of the straight.

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September 13, 2017

Tamas & Daniel Sagi win at Hungarian IC Track Nats Rd6

Round 6 of the Hungarian Nitro On-road Nationals was held at the world-famous Hungaroring facilities, home of the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix. In the 1/10th Nitro Touring class it was Tamas Sagi (Serpent) with the win from Peter Varsanyi (Xray) 2nd and Gabor Laszlo (Xray) 3rd. Zsolt Bajusz (Xray) would round out the top 4 result.

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September 13, 2017

Xray Racing Series Czech Republic Rd4 – Report

The final round of the Xray Racing Series Czech Republic was held in Čelákovice. Thankfully and after a couple of rained-out races the finale would be held in o.k. weather conditions. In the premier Touring Modified class it was Matej Sulc with the win from Michal Blahovsky 2nd and Roman Korinek 3rd.

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September 13, 2017

McBest Series Rd9 & Rd10 – Report

Last weekend the last two rounds of the McBest race series were held on the technical MRG Dogern track. In 1/10th Touring Marco Schwab, Dominik Denoth and Stefan Wüthrich were equal on points going into the final weekend while in 1/8th scale Martin Wenger only needed one good result to drive home his victory in the overall ranking as Beat Heiniger and Stefan Graber fought for 2nd place. The weekend started off wet on Saturday and the tyre choice was a hard one because the conditions kept changing. In 1/8th scale Stefan Wüthrich unfortunately lost a lot of time when a tyre left its rim while leading the race as Martin took the win from Beat and this meant Martin Wenger would snatch a back-to-back championship.

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September 13, 2017

Adam Drake doubles at Brazilian 1/8th Off-road Nats

RC Guacu track of Sao Paulo played host to the Brazilian 1/8th Off-road Nationals with the 4-day event having over 100 entries. Mugen’s Adam Drake was the top qualifier in all four rounds of qualifying for nitro buggy and nitro truck. Adam then went on to win both the 30-minutes semi final and also the 60-minutes nitro buggy main final and he would also come out on top of the 20-minute truck semi and 40-minute main to round out a perfect weekend. However, as Adam was a guest driver and the Brazilian championship standard does not allow a foreign driver to win, Drake wasn’t rewarded with the respective titles and it was Marco Roseria Amaral (TLR) who took the 2017 championship titles in both the Nitro Buggy and Nitro Truggy classes.

Source: Mugen [mugenracing.com]

September 12, 2017

Matsukura top seed at 1:8 World Championships

Not a name instantly associated with 1:8 Onroad racing, Infinity driver Naoto Matsukura has topped seeding on his debut in the sport’s original World Championship. The reigning 1:12 World Champion capped off an impressive day of controlled practice to top the times for a second time as he set the fastest time of the day in CP4 ahead of reigning World Champion Simon Kurzbuch. Fastest in CP2, the P2 in the fourth and final practice will see Kurzbuch seeded number 2 for qualifying tomorrow. Putting in a surprise fastest time in the opening controlled practice, Jesse Davis would secure 3rd overall in the seeding ahead of Bruno Coelho and Syoki Takahata. Davis will be joined in the top heat by fellow Aussie Jeff Hamon who the made most of the cooler night time conditions to set an even more surprising third fastest time ahead of Carmine Raiola, the Italian completing the overall Top 6 seeding ranking.

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