November 22, 2015

Simon Kurzbuch is 2015 IFMAR World Champion

Simon Kurzbuch is 2015 IFMAR World Champion

With some delays, due to rain on Saturday morning the last 5 finals of the 2015 IFMAR 1/8th onroad World Championships were run in the afternoon at the ZECA Elias track in Americana City SP. The final started just after 5pm with Simon Kurzbuch on pole position for Shepherd. Following a hard fought pair of Semi finals in which we lost contenders Balestri, Pietsch & Collari it would be Takaaki Shimo who would start from 2nd with fellow Japanese racer Yuya Sahashi in 3rd. Fourth on the grid was local favourite Flavio Elias starting ahead of reigning World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi in 5th, Sebastian Recio (coming from the 1/4 finals) 6th, Shinnosuke Yokoyama 7th, Henrique Winik (also from the Quarters) 8th, Robin D’Hondt 9th and Daniele Ielasi completing the grid in 10th, the only Italian in the final.

Continue reading the report here


November 20, 2015

Lopez & Macia win Spanish Endurance Nationals

Lopez & Macia win Spanish Endurance Nationals

The Spanish 1/8th Nitro On-road Endurance Nationals were hosted by the Carsol club in Elche. The four hour Endurance race sees pretty simple rules with a limit of six sets of tyres and a 15 laps penalty for an extra set as well as 30 minute stints for 2-driver teams and 20 minute stints for 3-driver lineups. The race started in the afternoon and ended under floodlight to make for a very special atmosphere. Right before the start the team of Blanco and Sevilla ran into engine problems meaning they would loose around 15 minutes while up front Nacho Lopez and Pablo Macia set the early pace despite 5 minute fuel stints. In second place and on the same lap Alberto Alonso and Victor Gonzalez, on a 6 minute refuelling strategy, tried to keep up with the pace of the leaders. The team of Cuesta, Pastor and Revert would hold the third place in the opening stages.

Continue reading the report here


November 20, 2015

Simon Kurzbuch TQs IFMAR 1/8th Worlds in Brazil

Simon Kurzbuch TQs IFMAR 1/8th Worlds in Brazil

The 2015 IFMAR 1/8th Nitro On-road World Championships are taking place this week in Americana City, Brazil, around 160 kilometres away from Sao Paulo. The event attracted around 75 drivers, most of which are from Brazil and Argentina, to compete at the Zeca Elias high-speed track whose concrete barriers are not allowing for many mistakes to be made. So far the temperatures were hot all week, varying between 27 and 32 degrees Celsius but up until now the rain has passed the track daily, with only a small shower that caused a delay of round 5. Racing wise Swiss ace Simon Kurzbuch has pretty much dominated the qualifying which is run using the points system. On Wednesday Simon made a clean sweep by winning three of the three qualifiers and another round TQ in the fourth qualifier on Thursday as well as a second place in the final round, following a DNF in round five, cemented Simon’s overall TQ with Takaaki Shimo on the 2 spot and Dario Balestri rounding out the top 3. The lower finals are set for Friday with the quarter, semi and main final to be held on Saturday.

View the qualifying top 10 here


November 17, 2015

Adam Drake dominated 2015 JBRL Nitro Series

Adam Drake dominated 2015 JBRL Nitro Series

The JBRL Nitro Series recently completed its 9th season, visiting eight tracks this year. Mugen Seiki’s Adam Drake was the man to beat in the Nitro and Electric Pro classes as he made the triple by winning both the Pro Nitro Buggy and Pro Nitro Truggy as well as the 1/8th E-Buggy categories. Runner up in the Nitro Buggy class was Cody King (Kyosho), Steve Harris (Mugen) rounded out the top 3 result. In the Truggy class it was again Cody King who came in second while Aaron Gomez completed the podium result. Finally in the 1/8th E-Buggy class Adam was sidelined by Mugen teammate Steve Harris and Tekno RC driver Anthony Westergaard.

Source: Novarossi [novarossi.it]


November 16, 2015

Lutz & Cavalieri win at Pro-Line Gas Champs

Lutz & Cavalieri win at Pro-Line Gas Champs

This past weekend the Pro-Line Gas Champs where held at Dialed RC Raceway in Victorville, CA. The unique double A-main format was cut short by rain after the first round of mains and it was Tekno RC’s Ryan Lutz who doubled up on wins taking both the Pro Nitro Buggy and Pro E-Buggy finals. In the Nitro category Ryan Cavalieri (Team Associated) would finish on the runner-up spot while Mugen’s Adam Drake rounded out the podium result. In the E-Buggy class Ryan’s Tekno teammate Joe Bornhorst came in second from Ryan Cavalieri (Team Associated). Finally in the Pro Nitro Truggy class Ryan Cavalieri (Team Associated) took the day’s win from the Tekno duo of Lutz and Bornhorst.

View the other podiums here


November 16, 2015

Robert Batlle takes World Indoor Buggy Cup title

Robert Battle takes World Indoor Buggy Cup title

The 2015 World Indoor Buggy Cup was held this past weekend at the Padova Indoor Buggy Race track in Italy. Considered the unofficial 1/8th indoor World Championship the event attracted a nice collection of national and international drivers. In the premier 1/8th Pro Nitro class TLR’s Alex Zanchettin would start from the pole position into the 60 minute A-main after Marco Baruffolo (TLR) took the TQ after the qualifiers. Alex though would encounter problems during the final which resulted in a dead last 14th overall position in the main while up front the race was on between Robert Batlle (Mugen), Marco Baruffalo, Darren Bloomfield (Agama) and Ryan Maifield, all finishing on the same lap after the hour long race. Ultimately Robert brought home the title from Marco with Darren rounding out the podium result and Ryan being the best of the rest.

Image: Mugen Seiki [mugen.eu]


November 15, 2015

Sherwin Yu wins at 3rd annual Underdawg Race

Sherwin Yu wins at 3rd annual Underdawg Race

Circulo Verde’s CV Race Track played host to the 3rd Annual Philippines Underdawg Race. The event is the only race where nitro buggies run together without the usual segregation between expert, intermediate and novice drivers; this way everybody gets a chance to compete against everyone else. Paul Capino set the TQ but with the finals underway, Capino lost his grip on the lead with a loose engine mount screw and the rest of the field battled it out for the next 55 minutes. In the end, Sherwin Yu took the win followed very closely by former electric driver Gerome Ling. Raffy Abello and Nani Tagle would round out the third and fourth spots respectively, making it an all Team Associated top 4.

Source: Team Associated [teamassociated.com]


November 14, 2015

2016 The Dirt Nitro Challenge – Announcement

2016 The Dirt Nitro Challenge – Announcement

Sign-up for the 17th annual The Dirt Nitro Challenge will start next Friday, November 20th. For the first time in the 17 year history of the DNC the organisers are limiting entries for the 1/8th scale track, something that is needed after a huge amount of last-minute entries at the 2015 edition. Capping of the entries at around 650 will ensure a smooth event for everyone including time schedules for the weekend and finishing each night at reasonable hours. More information about the iconic event as well as sign-up are available here.