The third round of the West German 1/8th Off-road regionals was held this past weekend in changing weather conditions. Offering everything, from a little moist to soaking wet and also dry high-grip conditions, the race was a true test for man and machine. Serpent’s Jörn Neumann would make the best out of the conditions, taking the win in the 30-minute A-main from the SWorkz duo of Carsten Keller and Christian Hahlen.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
Over 190 drivers arrived to contest the second round of the Australian National Championship in Brisbane with two classes consisting of Buggy and Truggy were to be contested over the four days. Due to the change in the schedule the Buggy final was to be run first. The top 3 of McBride, Stringer and Laughton cleared out very quickly from the pack with the lead changing frequently in the first 10 minutes. A failed clutch bearing saw Laughton out at the 11-minute mark which left Aaron and Kyle to battle it out. McBride had a tire come loose which forced a tire change, which was done in record time by his dad Scott, and saw Kyle out only 12 seconds down. A thrilling race then developed between Stringer and McBride. At the end Aaron Stringer missed the last lap by 0.9 of a second giving him second for Buggy behind winner Kyle McBride with Mitch Mcallen coming in third.
The second round of the Swedish 1/8th Off-road Cup was held this past weekend. HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk would take the TQ in the 1/8th Nitro Buggy class and he would continue to dominate in the 45-minute main final by bringing home the win almost two laps in front of Markus Sandberg (Mugen). Kyosho’s Jessica Palsson would complete the podium result in third, another lap down.
Image: David Ronnefalk
Simon Kurzbuch made it two out of two in this season’s Euro Nitro Series with a dominant drive at Round 2 in Germany. Top Qualifier at Minidrom Ettlingen, topping both rounds of qualifying that could be completed in-between the rain on Saturday, the Shepherd driver put in a text book performance in the 45-minute main to win by over a lap. With last year’s winner Dario Balestri, who qualified 2nd expected to at least make the World Champion work for the win, that challenge lasted only 2-minutes as the Capricorn driver shed a front wheel. This left Bruno Coelho to provide chase but the Xray driver would make a mistake leaving Kurzbuch to cruise home for an extensive lead in the championship standing. One-lap down, a great drive from Toni Gruber would see the ARC driver finish second to claim his first ever ENS podium having seen off the challenge of Alberto Picco. Crossing the line 3rd, Picco’s Mugen would fail post race scrutiny, the tank deemed to big, which promoted Capricorn’s Robin D’hondt up a spot to compete the podium.
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Teemu Leino took victory in an exciting 1:10 A-Main at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Germany, the Infinity driver winning by 1-second from Dominic Greiner in a battle that would see the podium all finish on the same lap after 45-minutes of racing. Starting second on the grid, the Finn would take the initial lead after 3-laps but chased by Greiner would end up on the grass when the Serpent driver ran into the back of his Capricorn. With Greiner waiting for Leino to rejoin the track, the pair would drop down the order handing Top Qualifier Erik Dankel back the lead before being passed by Bruno Coelho. Unfortunately for former champion Dankel a flame out would scupper his chances of a podium result at his home track. Holding his lead for 45-laps, Coelho would lose the lead when he made a stop for tyres but his race hopes would later fade when he suffered a flame out on his in lap with 2-laps lost getting it fired back up. All the time Leino and Greiner were working their way back to the front but ultimately able to stretch his fuel a few seconds more between stops to save one trip to the pits it was Leino who would come out on top with an impressive drive by Patrick Nahr seeing him join them on the podium. For last year’s race winner and winner of this season’s opening race Dirk Wischnewski today’s race would net a fourth from ninth on the grid.
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The city of Zagreb, Croatia played host to the 1/8th GT European Championships this past weekend. In the main final, Spaniard Toni Santana would jump into the lead right from the tone and he never looked back. Behind him Daniel Jones looked to be set for a podium finish but he ran into technical issues when heavy rain started to fall at around the 35 minute mark. Up front Toni was able to cruise to the win with Fabio Callegari on the runner-up spot and Luka Busak finishing in third place in the 45-minute encounter.
Source: Ielasi Tuned [ielasituned.com]
Simon Kurzbuch is Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s second round of the Euro Nitro Series after rain cut short qualifying in Germany. With four runs of qualifying originally planned, the arrival of rain towards the end of Q3 left the already under pressure timetable unable to fit in a fourth round, a 20:00 curfew on the running of engines at Minidrom Ettlingen adding to the difficulties of running a full schedule. With Kurzbuch TQ’ing the opening two qualifiers and Q4 scrapped, the Team Shepherd driver can’t be denied pole position for tomorrow’s 45-minute A-Main and the important bonus championship point it carries. Running up as far as the third fastest 1:8 heat run before ran brought Day 2 to a premature finish, the organisers hope to complete Q3 in the morning by running the remaining three heats in order to have two from three rounds determine the grid. If that doesn’t prove possible then 1 of 2 will count which would leave Dario Balestri second on the grid followed Jilles Groskamp and Bruno Coelho.
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Eric Dankel has secured his first overall TQ of the Euro Nitro Series. Having posted a TQ run in the second qualifier at the German round, the Mugen driver backed that up with another in Q3 leaving only Jilles Groskamp as a rival for the 1:10 pole position. However with rain interrupting the third round of 1:8 qualifying at the Ettlingen track, the latest rain delay left the organisers with little option but to cancel the fourth & final round of qualifying meaning the grid will be based on two of the three run qualifiers. With Dankel achieving a perfect score with his two TQ’s, Teemu Leino would secure P2 on the grid thanks in his P2 in the third qualifier with last year’s Top Qualifier Dominic Greiner, despite an gearbox issue in Q3, completing the Top 3. Having opened the day with a TQ but struggled somewhat in the next two, reigning champion Jilles Groskamp will line-up fourth with Patrick Nähr and ENS Italy Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho completing the Top 6.
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