The opening round of the French 1/8th Classic on-road Championship was held in Montbonnot, Grenoble, France. A total of 94 racers signed in, divided into 70 nitro and 24 electric class entries. In the nitro class, Jacky Mouton (Forfaster/VS Engines) came out successful in the main final from Serge Christiani (Forfaster/Forfaster) in second and Stephan Nicaud (Forfaster/VS Racing) third.
Source: Victosport [victosport.com]
Capricorn have announced the addition of reigning 200mm Argentinian Champion, Sebastian Recio to their factory team. The 2015 1/8th World Championship finalist will campaign Capricorn’s 1/8th and 1/10th cars this season, participating at all major South American races as well as the IFMAR Worlds in France.
Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]
Evry in the South of Paris played host to the opening round of the French 200mm National Championship this past weekend. Known for its fast layout and very high traction the track made for exciting races in the fast Elite category that saw a close race with six drivers being able to post lap times in the low 16-second range. Shepherd’s Basile Concialdi started the main final from pole and after 45 minutes of racing without any mistakes or traction rolling he crossed the finishing line in first position one lap in front of Michael Derderian (Xray) with Jean Baptiste Geneau (Capricorn) completing the podium in third.
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
The opening round of the French 1/8th Nitro On-road National Championship was held in Marseilles over the weekend. In the Elite category, Romain Picard would take the TQ while in the slightly slower National category it was Georges Saux that came out fastest after the qualifiers. The 45-minute Elite class main final was a pretty entertaining affair with the top 3 drivers, winner Romain Pircard (Mugen), runner-up Jerome Papaconstantinos (Shepherd) and third placed Leo Arnold (Xray) being separated by only 1.7 seconds on the finish line. In the 30-minute National class final it was Georges Saux who would defend his top spot from Gabriel Maufroy in second and Frederic Vergnieres in third.
View the National class podium here
The opening round of the French 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals was hosted by the Mini Racing Team Essonne club in Envy near Paris. In the National class Clement Bioy would take the TQ but it was Aurelien Gouriau (Mugen) who would take the win in the 30-minute main final from Mugen teammate Clement. In third Shepherd driver Jeremy Debez would round out the podium result.
Source: Mugen [mugen.eu]
Sweep Racing have announced the signing of multi-time EFRA European Champion, Lee Martin to their factory team. Lee will be using Sweep off-road tyres and accessories at all open tyre events this coming season and he had the following to say:
I am excited to be joining sweep for 2017. The desire to succeed and become as strong as they can be is what convinced me that Sweep is a company with the same ambition I have. Working directly with the factory will enable both of us to achieve our goals in the future! Thank you to Steve Kong for the chance to work together.
Source: Sweep Racing [sweepracing.com]
The second round of the Huge RC Challenge was held at the Huge RC facility in Thailand this past weekend. In the 1/10th Touring class it was Pichakorn who took the TQ but he suffered from an engine flame out at the start of the final, sending him down the order and he was already two laps behind when he finally managed to get back into the race. With a tremendous pace Pichakorn was able to make up ground and some five minutes before the end he was able to get into the lead, eventually tanking the win from Anutin in second and Den in third. Elsewhere in the 1/8th Nitro class, Surikarn would take the win on home soil, battling with top qualifier Benz for a while until the latter ran into mechanical issues which allowed Surikarn to cruise to the win with Panyavit and Sittichai coming in second and third respectively.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
The French MBCP club held a Fun Race this past weekend. With the track being both technical and slippery things were pretty challenging for the drivers and ultimately Yannick Aigoin (Xray/Ultimate) would prevail, taking the day’s win in the Nitro Buggy class from Edouard Hugon (Agama/Alpha) while young Eliot Marcon (Mugen/Ultimate) would round out the top 3 result.
Image: Yannick Aigoin
