Round one of the French 1/8th Nitro Buggy national championship was held this past weekend at the Bergerac club. Jerome Aigoin (Xray/Ultimate) would bring home the win from top qualifier, Renaud Savoya (TLR/RC Concept) in second and Yannick Aigoin (Xray/Ultimate) who rounded out the podium in third.
Source: Aigoin Racing [aigoinracing.com]
Daniele Ielasi took the win at the first round of the EFRA GP Series in what was a surprising twist of events, the former 1/10 200mm World Champion producing an excellent performance and his package proving to be tough and consistent in a final that saw a lot of drama. The main kicked off with Simon Kurzbuch starting well from pole and never letting anyone come near to his lead, and despite a charging Balestri trying hard to keep his Infinity in contact with the Shepherd, the Swiss managed to open a gap. Behind them it would be Collari, Picco and Ielasi swapping positions with the latter settling into 3rd, Picco 4th and Collari dropped down to 8th with a broken glow plug. Right after the 25 minutes mark Balestri would crash his Infinity into the barriers entering the straight, the heavy contact leaving the Italian with a broken rear left wishbone and promoting the fighting duo of Ielasi and Picco into podium positions, with Vrijelink now 4th.
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The opening round of the Spanish 1/8th Nitro Buggy national championship was held in Lebrija this past weekend. Rainy weather made for some challenging racing conditions and the event was also cut short and in the end it was Mugen’s Juan Carlos Canas who took the win in the 45-minute A-main from record national champion, Robert Batlle (Mugen) with HB Racing’s Ignacio Candel coming in third.
Carrying on the momentum from the end of the last season when he completed his full sweep of the Euro Nitro Series, it was reigning World Champion Simon Kurzbuch to open the 2017 season with a TQ at the first official international race of the year. After topping both free and controlled practice, the Swiss Shepherd driver claimed the first three rounds of qualifying on the RME Cassino track to secure the overall TQ with two attempts to spare, Dario Balestri taking the last two rounds while producing very convincing performances with his Infinity to settle second overall, ahead of ARC’s Andrea Pirani and his Infinity teammate Collari.
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O.S. Engines have announced the signing of Silvio Hächler for the 2017 season. The Swiss frontrunner will use O.S. Speed power plants during his campaign that will include the national championship, major international races and also the IFMAR World Championships.
Source: O.S. Engines [os-engines.co.jp]
The Australian 1/8th Off-road Nationals were hosted by the South District Model Car Club down in Adelaide, South Australia. Kyle McBride would set the TQ in the Nitro Buggy class and by the time for the semi final the track had gotten pretty difficult, along with loads of dust on the track. Still, Kyle had a very smooth and clean race and managed to lap the whole field by over 30 seconds to put him on pole for the A-Main final. By the end of the one-hour race Kyle had almost lapped the entire field up to second twice over to take his seventh Australian National Championship in a row. Aaron Stringer would come in second from Craig Laughton third.
Source: Team Associated [teamassociated.com]
Southside RC of Lake City, Florida recently held a club race and in the Nitro Buggy class it was Blake Raulerson (Xray) who took the TQ for the 20-minute A-main. He would then also sweep the final to take the day’s win from Mikey Griffin (Kyosho) who had to settle for second and Travis Adams (TLR) third. In the E-Buggy class Mikey Griffin (Kyosho) stroke back, taking the win from Blake Raulerson (Xray) second and Joe Barbara (TLR) third.
The 2017 Philippine Masters will be held from the 28th to 30th of April at the Circulo Verde race track in Quezon City, Philippines. The 3-day event will see Nitro Buggy, Nitro Truggy and E-Buggy racing with drivers from all over the world attending including Pro drivers such as Adam Drake, David Ronnefalk, Ty Tessmann, Kyle McBride and Atsushi Hara. More information can be found on social media here.
