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August 12, 2022

Balestri takes TQ at 1:8 Onroad European Championship

Reigning 1:8 Onroad European Champion Dario Balestri will start the defence of his title from pole after he secured the overall TQ in Spain today. After a 2 year forced break, the European Championship returned to Almussafes near Valencia, the track having previously held the championships in 2008. On that occasion Jernej Vuga took a dramatic last last victory when leader for much of the race Daniele Ielasi crashed three corners from the finish due to a flat receiver battery. Heading the Infinity team charge, Balestri opened qualifying yesterday with a TQ run but former champion Robert Pietsch was fastest in Q2 meaning they shared the provisional overnight TQ. Opening a very hot second day of qualifying, it hitting almost 40 degrees, Balestri was back on top in Q3, as his Mugen rival posted the 3rd fastest time. The Italian then secured Top Qualifier honours when he again set the pace in the penultimate round. While it was job done for Balestri, it didn’t deter the former World Champion from making it four TQs out of 5 rounds in the final qualifier. Behind Pietsch in second in the final quali standings, two P2 runs gave Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch third, followed by Capricorn’s Dominic Greiner and Shepherd’s Toni Gruber, all four getting to shoot it out for a direct place in the Main final beside Balestri. With each driver getting 6 laps to set a time, that battle went to Pietsch for posting the fastest lap on his final attempt to knock Gruber, who was first to set a time, off the top spot.

Image: EFRA [efra.ws]

August 8, 2022

Kilic brothers 1-2 at German Buggy Nationals

The 1:8 Nitro Buggy German Nationals saw a dominant performance from the Kilic brothers over the weekend with the older of the two, Burak, taking the title from Berkan. Travelling to the northeastern part of the country to championship hosts Modellclub Schwedt, the Mugen team drivers stamped their authority on the event taking all five qualifiers. Managing 3 TQ runs it was Berkan who came out as Top Qualifier from Burak with Sworkz’ Joern Nuemann best of the rest in third. In the final it was Burak who would take the win for the popular brothers 1-2 finish with an impressive drive from Max Hesse netting him a podium finish. Forced to miss the first two days of the events, the Sworkz driver started last of the 64 entries before clocking up 5 finals en route to a well earned podium ahead of Marcel Kruger and Neumann.

Source – Kilic Brothers RC [facebook.com]

August 2, 2022

Maifield with the main win at The Wicked Weekend

The big offroad race action in the US over the weekend saw all the top drivers travel to Gainesville, Georgia, for Racetime Entertainment’s ‘The Wicked Weekend’, where Mugen’s Ryan Maifield was very much the man on form. In qualifying the JConcepts driver would produce a TQ triple securing the top spot on the grid in Pro Nitro Truggy, E-Buggy and the big one Pro Nitro Buggy. While the Truggy win would escape him, a great battle with Dakotah Phend seeing the TLR driver get ahead of him to come out on top, Maifield took both Buggy finals. While TLR’s Ryan Cavalieri started P2 in the E-Buggy ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz, it was to be 5th place qualifier Phend who came through for second behind Maifield with 3rd going to Lutz. In the Pro Nitro Buggy class, Maifield’s win came after a great battle that went the distance with second place qualifier Lutz. HB Racing’s Mason Fuller completed the Top 3 ahead of team-mate Cole Ogden and Sworkz Joe Bornhorst.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

August 1, 2022

Greiner retains European title after 2 year wait

Forced to wait two extra years due to the pandemic, 2019 1:10 200mm European Champion Dominic Greiner was able to successfully defend his title over the weekend with victory ahead of arch rival Dario Balestri. Returning to the Gubbio circuit in Italy, the venue of his 2016 World Championship victory, retaining his European title comes as a huge boost for the German given 2022 is a World Championship year (Red RC will be travelling to Thailand to bring you extensive coverage from title battle).

After a successful & lengthy stint at Serpent, Greiner had switched to Patrizio Rossi’s Capricorn squad for the 2020 season but just as the world was forced into shut down due to Covid. Having to wait so long to make his first major championship appearance for the Italian manufacturer, Greiner kicked off the 16th running of the EFRA European Championship with p4 in practice as Balestri set the pace for Infinity from up & coming Xray star Filippo Domanin and Dutch veteran Jilles Groskamp.

It wasn’t long however before Greiner hit the front to take the opening qualifier. With some mistakes in Q2, Balestri going on to take that qualifier, he was back on top in Q3 & 4 to secure the overall Top Qualifier honours. With 2 time EC champion Balestri booking his spot directly in the main 45-minute final by taking the Super Pole, he would be Greiner’s main challenger. After initially applying pressure before making an early tyre stop, this would give Greiner an advantage he wouldn’t relinquish. Posting the fastest lap of the final, he would win by over 10 seconds from the Italian. Capricorn would enjoy a podium double with Thilo Diekman claiming third ahead of the Infinity of Carmine Raiola.

Image: Dominic Greiner RC [facebook.com]

April 26, 2022

Hoppe wins North German Championship Rd1

Last weekend the first round of the North German Championship took place at the Hollmoorring in Munster. It was clear from the beginning that the usual three suspects Lars Hoppe (Shepherd), Timo Schröder (Shepherd) and Merlin Depta (Serpent) would decide the victory among themselves. In qualifying Lars could secure the pole position in a convincing way with a new lap record of 13,992s while Merlin lined up second in front of Timo. Also in the main final Lars clocked the fastest times and after 30min he saw the checkered flag in first position. Merlin finished second about 1,5 laps behind and Timo completed the podium another lap down.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

April 26, 2022

Holthuis wins Dutch 1/10 Nitro nats opener

The first Dutch national race for 1/10 nitro cars was held at the Sluis track in Gouda. Wordl famous for cheese, in the RC world the Gouda event is known for the tight twisty and unforgiving layout. Combined with strong winds the challenge was on for the racers. After qualifying we had Milan Holthuis on pole with some margin to the rest. For the final the battle looked to be for the lower podium positions. The higher than expected tire wear would also come into play for the 30 minute final. Would a tire change be necessary and if so, all four or only outside? Plenty of options…

Continue reading the report here

January 28, 2022

Kyle McBride joins O.S. engines

Kyle McBride has announced on social media that he has signed a deal with O.S. engines. The Australian state ‘I am over the moon and proud to announce my official signing with O.S engines for the 2022 season. I want to give a special thank you to the O.S company for taking me in and providing me with their support and confidence for the big year ahead, and into the future. Thank you very much to Mr. Shimazaki for preparing everything and looking after me. I will be running and promoting the all new B2104 engine in all of my 1/8th Nitro vehicles, along with all of the quality products that O.S provides. It’s going to be a great future ladies and gentlemen.’

Source: O.S. Speed [osspeed.com]

January 5, 2022

Joe Bornhorst joins The Drake Racing

The Drake Racing have announced the signing of Joe Bornhorst to their race team. Joe brings with him a wealth of knowledge and amazing attitude on and off the track. He will make his O.S. Speed B21 AD2 powered debut at the Southern Indoor Championship and The Drake Racing will be supporting all of Joe’s nitro powered needs. Joe’s engine of choice will be the O.S. Speed B21 Adam Drake 2 for both nitro buggy and truck. The Sworkz factory driver had this to say about his 2022 nitro engine program:

2022 is going to be a great year with the support of Adam and Ronda from The Drake Racing. It gives me a lot of confidence knowing my O.S Speed B21 AD2 engines will be prepared, broken-in, and services by The Drake Racing.

Source: The Drake Racing [thedrakeracing.com]