Red RC » Gas

July 2, 2015

Rick Vrielijnck teams up with Shepherd

Shepherd have announced the signing of Dutch front runner Rick Vrielijnck for the remainder of the 2015 season. The 9-times Dutch national champion and multiple EC-A, World Championship and ENS finalist plans to race all remaining major 1/8th on-road events, such as the ENS and Euros in Ettlingen, the ENS final in Fiorano and the Worlds in Brazil. Rick had the following to say about the deal:

I’m very excited to join Team Shepherd and I’m very thankfull for this opportunity. As I was looking for a car that suits my driving style better and a team that is always working hard to support their drivers Shepherd has been the right choice and I’m glad that they were also excited to work with me. I’d like to thank Mugen for their support in the past year.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

July 2, 2015

Spanish 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals Rd3 – Report

The third round of the Spanish 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals was hosted by the Autet Club track in Almussafes, home of last year’s EC-A 1/10th 200mm European Championship A. The qualifying was dominated by young talent Ruben Olivares with his Novarossi-powered Shepherd as won four of the five qualifying rounds to take the TQ. The 2nd spot went to former Spanish Champion Jonnhy Pastor (Mugen/Novarossi) followed by Victor Pelaez (Serpent/Tesla) and Sergi Franch (KM/Novarossi). Nacho Lopez, who made the ENS final in Aigen and who grabbed the TQs at the two previous National rounds, struggled in qualifying due to a broken pipe and thus a lack of power.

Click here to continue reading the report

July 2, 2015

Dutch 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals Rd3 – Report

The third round of the Dutch 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals was held at the Baanbrekers track in Rucphen, home of last year’s 40+ European Championship. Weather predictions for the weekend were good and apart from a few rain drops it stayed dry all of the time with the track being in perfect condition which was reflected by the very quick times set in qualifying. The Dutch Nationals are run with mandatory Novarossi Sturm engines and Hipex low noise pipes and despite this being a somewhat “budget” solution it is a very powerful package as the times set were only a couple of tenth off of the current track record. In qualifying the battle for the four direct qualifier spots was very close, Daan Jacobs took the TQ with his Serpent followed by Pedro Rombouts (Xray). The 3 spot would be taken by John Bruins (Capricorn) with Serpent driver Julius Kolff only 0.13 seconds behind in 4th. Milan Holthuis would miss the direct final entry by only 4 tenths. Overall this was the closest qualification this year.

Click here to continue reading the report

June 30, 2015

Gary Baird wins at Irish 1/8th Off-road Nationals Rd2

The second round of the Irish 1/8th Off-road Nationals took place last weekend at the AstroTurf track of NIMCC. The track itself is challenging as it is pretty tight, twisty and full on with a pretty quick lap time of below 30 seconds. Qualifying and the weather was playing its part with sun and showers and although it dried very quickly half the track was bone dry the while the other half stayed slick. Alan Scroggie set the pace followed by Gary Baird, Barkley Abernethy and Aaron Vance. For the finals it was the same story with the weather, with clouds in the sky Mini Pins where a no and most in the main final decided to go out with Spirals bolted to their cars so the first few minutes where interesting until everyone got used to the grip level. Alan had an issue and had to retire by the first round of pit stops which left Gary to take up the lead which he did not come close to relinquishing. Barkley had a flame out at the 10 minute mark and spent 35 minutes clawing his way back up to 2nd. Aaron Vance cut a few times and promoted Colin Whelan to a well deserved 3rd while Gary Baird had a cool 45 minute drive to a deserving win in difficult conditions.

Source: Nemo Racing [nemoracing.com]

June 30, 2015

Joe Kerry takes Rd4 of British 200mm Nationals

Round 4 of the British 200mm Nationals was held at the Wombell track. The weather was decent with temperatures above 20°C, but the windy conditions and very bumpy surface made it difficult to get a good set up. The grip level was very low to start with but did improve a little later on. The competition was very tough and at the end of Saturdays practice the top drivers were all separated by just 1/10th of a second. On Sunday the temperatures were cooler and there was much less wind. In round 1 of qualifying it was Mark Green who set the pace from Alex Thurston and John Zottl. Round 2 saw Thurston finish just ahead of Green with Zottl again taking 3rd but all three drivers were slower than before. The third qualifier saw Thurston finish in front of Green again while Joe Kerry took 3rd overall after missing the opening two qualifiers with some radio problems. Into the last round of qualifying and Joe Kerry was matching TQ pace until a small mistake ended his chances. With Mark and Alex also not finishing their runs, it made way for John Zottl to come through and take 3rd overall for the final.

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June 30, 2015

Roberto Molle wins Expert class at Italian GT Champs

The Italian UISP 1/8th GT Championship was held at the Quarto Il Cavallino track and in the Expert class Roberto Molle, starting from pole position, would take the win from teammate Enrico Crescenzi. Roberto Catanzani would round out the podium in 3rd place for an all-BMT podium.

Source: BMT [bmt-team.com]

June 29, 2015

David Ronnefalk takes win at Swedish Cup Rd2

SwedishCupRd2

The second round of the Swedish 1/8th Off-road Cup was hosted by the MHF Skarpnäck club and it had HB’s David Ronnefalk coming out successful in the 45 minute main of the Nitro Buggy class. Mugen’s Christoffer Svensson finished the final in 2nd while Robert Gustafsson (Agame) completed the podium result.

Click here to view the final result

June 29, 2015

Marco Natale wins Italian National Champs warm-up

The warm-up race for the 3rd round of the Italian Nitro Off-road Championship was held in Fermo and saw Marco Natale taking the day’s win some two laps in front of Fabrizio Teghesi. Davide Tortorici would round out the podium in 3rd place in front of Alessio Arioli and Stefano Rossi in 4th and 5th respectively.

Click here to view the final result