The popular Clermont Ferrand track played host to the French Cup this past weekend, offing racing in several nitro on-road classes. The 1/8th class qualifying saw Anthony Abisset (Serpent/Picco) coming out fastest from Leo Arnold (Xray/Team Orion) and Arnaud Mathieu (Capricorn/Team Orion). Richard Volta (Infinity/Novarossi) and Christophe Louis (Mugen/Nds) would round out the top 5.
The organisers of the forthcoming Guankou Sunpadow RC Car Grand Prix have announced the confirmation of Simon Kurzbuch for the event. The 2015 IFMAR 1/8th On-road World Champion and 2014 ENS title holder will compete in the event’s competitive 1/8th scale class.
The French Cup was held on the tight and technical SENS track in cold but dry weather conditions. After qualifying Quentin Leroux took the lead with an average of 16.965s over over three consecutive laps followed by Basile Concialdi and Jean-Baptiste Geneau who were about 0.1s slower. Overall the qualifying was very tight with only 0.2 seconds separating the second to ninth place. In the semi-final Quentin confirmed his performance by finishing first, a lap ahead of second placed Renaud Monin. In the main final Quentin Leroux kept the lead and widened the gap gradually over its competitors and a great battle was on for second and third between Michael Derderian and Basile Concialdi with Basile’s car stalling before the finish line. Following the French Championship title Quentin Leroux now also brought home the French Cup title.
Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]
Ty Tessmann is on pole position for the 1:8 Offroad World Championship decider. The reigning World Champion will start his title defence from the front of the grid after a time penalty dropped Semi Final winner Ryan Cavalieri to second. The Associated driver looked to have snatched the top spot on the grid after a thrilling win over Ty Tessmann in the second and faster of the Semi Finals. The 2014 Runner up driver took the win on the last corner by a margin of 4/10ths of a second but contact with Tessmann would later result in the American being demoted to second which promoted Tessmann to the win and pole for the 16th running of the World Championships. Winning the first of the Semis ahead of young star David Ongaro, David Ronnefalk will start 3rd with the very impressive Ongaro next up. For Top Qualifier Jared Tebo, his quest for a first nitro World title will begin from 6th on the grid after he finished 3rd in the same Semi as Ronnefalk, him giving away the race lead on the first lap with a mistake. The same Semi would also bring an end to 2010 World Champion Cody King’s run of World Final appearances since his title, the Kyosho driver finishing 8th.
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Spencer Rivkin has booked his place in the Semis, the reigning US National Champion driver winning the first of the 1/4 Finals at RC Tracks of Las Vegas to bump into the same race as Top Qualifier Jared Tebo where he will be the sole Team Associated driver on the 12-car grid. Behind, Dylan Rodriguez would continue to recover from his disappointing qualifying to bump up for a second time today at what is very much a home race for the Las Vegas driver. Also progressing from race would be TLR’s Renaud Savoya, the Frenchman a podium finisher the last time the US played host to the 1:8 Offroad World Championships, and Mugen driver Cole Ogden. Having bumped up from the 1/8 Final one notable driver whose event would come to an end was 2014 Finalist Alex Zanchettin, the TLR driver finishing 8th. In the second 1/4 encounter, Kyle McBride went through easily for Team Associated winning comfortably from Mike Truhe with Tanner Stees and Joe Bornhorst taking the final to bump ups. Unfortunately Serpent’s Billy Easton couldn’t progress for a fourth time, finishing 7th.
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There was a huge cheer for the winner of the opening race to the final day of the 1:8 Offroad World Championship, as Las Vegas’ own Dylan Rodriguez booked his spot in the 1/4 Finals. The HB Racing driver would win the 30-minute encounter by 7-seconds from Joseph Quagraine and young Associated driver Alex Kosciuszek. The last bump spot from the 1/8 Odd Final would go to 2014 Finalist Alex Zanchettin, the Italian benefiting from the bad luck of Xray’s Martin Bayer. Suffering a flame out as he pitted for fuel as the race leader, the Czech driver was still looking good to progress holding fourth with a lap to go but again his car would stop handing Zanchettin the spot in the 1/4 final. Another high profile European to have his campaign end in the 1/8 was Lee Martin, the British driver having had to qualify for the event through last Friday’s ‘Race In’. In the 1/8 Even, Billy Easton took the win continuing his bump up form, this being his 3rd time to bump up after a difficult qualifying. Behind the Serpent driver was Darren Bloomfield, the Agama driver another of last night’s successful 1/16 Finalist. There would be a great closing battle for the other two spots which eventually went to Cole Tollard and Marco Natale after a last last lap error from 3rd placed Jerome Aigoin. The race would mark the end of 2008 World Champion Atsushi Hara as he could only manage 6th having started from 8th.
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The nitro season in the U.S. is drawing to an end and the Tri-State Radio Controlled Auto Racers hosted a dual event at their facility located at the Hamilton County fairgrounds, in Cincinnati Ohio. The race was the season finale for the 2016 Midwest Series as well as the 2016 ROAR Region 5 Championship. The fall temperatures were cool and the track would prove to be in prime condition for the final event of the six race series. Going into the event, Lon Burling had already locked down the series championship in 1/10 Sedan as well as Tom Esposito in 1/10 Sedan Masters and Jason Conley in 1/8 Open. The 1/8 Masters title was locked in a dead heat between long time nitro veteran and seven time MWS Champion Rick Davis and Dwight Smith.
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The 1:8 Offroad World Championships has been whittled down from its biggest ever entry to the final 56 drivers who will get a chance to race for the sport’s biggest prize in Las Vegas tomorrow. A day of lower finals at RC Tracks of Las Vegas, the day concluded with the running of the 1/16 finals to decide the 8 drivers who would progress to Saturday’s showdown. In the end the 1/16 finals would produce contrasting winners with World Championship Rookie Colin Herzig winning the first encounter while veteran Billy Easton booked his place with victory of a 20-minute encounter that would end in a driver scuffle between Tanner Denney and Brian Baldo. Convinced Denney had taken him out of second place with 1-minute to go as the pair ran side by side coming onto the main straight, both IFMAR president Dallas Mathiesen and Darren Bloomfield would have to intervene to keep the Spaniard separated from the American.
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