Hosted by the St. Louis Dirt Burners, this year was the 10th Annual Futaba Nitro Challenge. With over 200 entries, this race drew racers from all over the country to compete in the 3-day event. Qualifying would be held on Friday and Saturday, and the mains on Sunday. This year also featured the Dash for Cash exhibition and double A-mains for the Pro classes. In Pro Nitro Buggy Cole Ogden would take the overall TQ from Josh Wheeler in second.
This past weekend the Pro-Line test track in Banning, California held the famous SikCross event. This was the second annual event put on by Levi Jackson and as per usual, the event was unique. There were three qualifiers with each one counting and points were given on how high racers have finished their race. The races were heads-up, gate start and super exciting moto cross style legs. But qualifying didn’t mean much as it just allowed the pick of gate position. The nitro mains were also unique in that they were basically a typical 45 minute A-main but broken up into three, 15-minute races back to back with 5-minute breaks in between. This break allowed for a change of tyres or air filter or if a driver happened to have a mechanical failure as there was another chance in the next one. All three counted and so every position was paramount.
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Team Infinity have announced the addition of Germany’s Oliver Mack and Armin Weihert to their already star studded factory team. Oliver, who spent close to a decade with Shepherd, claimed his first EFRA European A title with the German team in 2015 is joined in the move by long time pitman Weihart who has worked at Shepherd for more than a decade. The pairing has already had a successful first outing with the car during last weekend’s Novarossi Trophy in Fiorano with the next big races being the German Nationals followed by the fourth and final round of the ENS held in Fiorano in October. Oliver has the following to say about the deal:
I want to thank Shepherd and the Schäfer family for the past 8 years that were crowned by the European Championship title in 2015. I am now looking forward to the new adventure with Infinity. My first outing with the new car was already pretty successful and I am very excited to run it at the German Nationals and the ENS in Italy.
Source: Infinity [creationmodel.net]
This past weekend the 2016 Novarossi Trophy was held at the Fiorano track in Italy with some of the country’s fastest nitro on-road drivers in attendance. The 1/8th on-road class saw Infinity’s Lamberto Collari walking away with the win in the 30-minute A-main from Capricorn’s Dario Balestri in second and WRC’s Andrea Pirani in third. Carmine Raiola and Alberto Picco rounded out the top 5 result.
The final round of the 2016 French 1/8th On-road Championship was held at the Beaumont-Monteux track last weekend. The weather was perfect with warm temperatures and bright sunshine. Leading the championship going into the final round Arnaud Mathieu (Capricorn) would only need a fifth place finish to take the overall Elite class title. The qualifiers saw Christophe Louis (Mugen) taking the top spot in front of Leo Arnold (Xray), one of the title contenders, while Arnaud Mathieu rounded out the top 3.
Round six of the Huge RC Club Race series was held this past Sunday and in 1/8th Nitro On-road it was Chavit who set the TQ, however in the 30-minute main final it was Wattakorn to take the win some two laps ahead of Anutin with Wittaya completing the top 3 another four laps down. In 1/10th Nitro Touring Supawoot took the top qualifier honours but in the main event it was Pichakorn to take the win one lap head of Andy Moore and Supawoot, who rounded out the podium result three laps down.
Round three of the Danish 1/10th 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals was held at the HRCR track in Hillerod, Denmark. The weather forecast for the weekend was very bad but on race day the drivers were greeted by Sun and temperatures of about 23 degree Celsius. The usual suspects were complemented by a new entry this weekend with off-road driver Rune Gustavsen campaigning Claus Ryeskov’s spare car and he was fast right from the get go, putting the car on the 3 spot behind Claus in second and Martin No Hansen on the 1 spot. In the final Martin and Claus battled for the lead with Claus putting a lot of pressure on Martin. Claus tried to get past a couple of times and both would make an unfortunate contact in the chicane, sending Martin off the track. With Claus opening a gap the race was now on between Martin and Rune while Rene and Tom were in a battle too. Martin then encountered glow plug problems that send him dead last and Tom Limkilde smashed into the pitwall, ending his race due to a broken servo. About 28 minutes into the main light rain started to fall but the shower did not affect the overall standings and so Claus cruised to the win with Rune in tow. Rene would complete the top 3 while Martin and Tom rounded out the top 5.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Round 5 of the SOR Championship was held at the Barceloneta Speedway off-road track in Puerto Rico. José A. Martinez would take the TQ in the Nitro Truggy class and he would also walk away with the win in the 40-minute A-main encounter, ending the race some eight laps in front of Omar Lopez in second and Choto Mendez in third.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
