July 26, 2021

The Dirt at Perris Grand Opening Race – Announcement

For the first time in 15 years The Dirt Racing is going back to its roots and opening a track again. ‘The Dirt at Perris’ is the new venture for The Dirt Racing and the Grand Opening Race is this weekend, Saturday and Sunday July 31at/Aug 1st. The track will be open for its first day on Friday the 30th for paid practice from Noon – 8pm. “We are so excited to bring to be back in SoCal with our own track and facility. We hope to bring awesome track design mixed with a good vibe and atmosphere to the Socal racing community. Our plan is to be open for practice weekly and race once a month, Calendar to be set after this weekend.”

More information can be found on the official Dirt site here or on Facebook here.


July 22, 2021

BRCA 1/8 Circuit Halifax Rd3 – Report

The newly resurfaced Halifax circuit hosted round 3 of the BRCA 1/8 Circuit series, the new surface and facilities providing the UK with a circuit up there with the best in Europe thanks to all the hard work of John Russell and club members. Many drivers had arrived before the weekend to test on the new surface with a mixed forecast due, Saturday morning saw downpours resulting in controlled practice being turned into open practice as it began to dry mid-way through the afternoon. Drivers managed to all get a few dry runs in later on and it was usual guys at the front with many different chassis being used in the Nitro class such as Serpent, Capricorn, Shepherd, Mugen, ARC and Xray. The Electric class is still being dominated by Capricorn and Serpent but was good to see Bob Harley running Xray. Around 40 drivers were competing at this event.

Continue reading the report here


July 12, 2021

Toni Gruber wins Rd1 of Central German Champs

Last weekend the first race of the central German Championship took place at the Wiesbadener Minicar Club track with 42 drivers attending the event. In the expert class it was Shepherd factory driver Toni Gruber who claimed the pole-position for the 30 minute final followed by Shepherd returnee Oliver Mack in second position. At the start of the final Toni was able to defend the first place but Olli followed close behind and tried to keep the pressure high. At the first pit stop team Mack was a little bit faster and Olli re-entered the track just in front of Toni and took over the lead. In the following minutes Olli increased his lead step by step, but unfortunately a backmarker crashed into Ollis car ruining his chance for a victory as some repairs were necessary. Toni took over the lead and never looked back, crossing the finishing line in front of Olli who was able to keep the second place. Dennis Weihert completed the podium in third position.

Continue reading the report here


June 30, 2021

Hepp wins Rd2 of Nitro West Masters

Last weekend the second race of the Nitro West Masters took place at the EVMC Velp track. Again Tobias Hepp was the man to beat. In qualifying he claimed the pole-position for the 40min final. At the start of the final Tobi was able to defend the pole-position and started to pull away immediately. After 40min he crossed the finishing line in first position in front of fellow Shepherd racer Pieter Beekman with Bas Aalders completing the podium. In the 1/8th scale stock class Matthias Günther was able to take the victory with his Velox V8.2 in front of Martin Figge and Heinz Kroezemann in 3rd.

View the Stock class podium here


June 23, 2021

Spashett & Fletcher take Rd2 of BRCA 1/8th nats

This past weekend saw the 2nd round of the BRCA 1/8 on-road section National Series hosted by Adur Model Car Club on the English south coast. All week racers were weather watching as the weekend forecast was for rain for most of the weekend, but what do those forecasters know. On Saturday the racers were greeted with a dry track, slightly overcast, but dry. Open practice started with and the set up process got underway for what is the smallest and arguably most technically difficult circuit we visit through the season. Timed practise mid afternoon showed what was in store for the race with only 1/10’s of a second separating the top 4 (Thurston, Wood, Spashett, Snell) in IC on their fastest lap. In the Electric class Billy Fletcher was again showing his pace but the surprise of day was Mark Green running electric for the first time was close behind. The day stayed dry and after timed practise the track was once again open for free practise for the drivers to fine tune their cars ahead of ‘race day’.

Continue reading the report here


June 18, 2021

KARS On-Road Championship Rd1 – Report

Last weekend the first round of the KARS On-Road Championship 2021 was held at the new INJE R/C Circuit in Gangwon-do, South Korea. The facility is run by KARS owner Ki Heung Kim and 50 drivers in total attended the event. In the 1/8 expert class it was Shepherd driver Jaekook Yoo how claimed the pole position. But in the main final it was guest Shepherd driver EC Kim who crossed the finishing line in first position in front of Gyeongseon Lee (Mugen) with Dongbeom Lee (Shepherd) completing the podium. In the 1/10 touring class the TQ was claimed by Museong Kook (Xray), but he couldn’t convert the pole position into a victory as well. Jeongu Hyun (Kyosho) saw the checkered flag in first position followed be pole-setter Museong Kook with Jeongho Kim (Shepherd) taking the final podium step. The third class was for 1/8 beginner drivers. It was Jihun Kim (ARC) who took the pole-position for the final, but again he couldn’t convert it into a victory. Gyeongtae Kim (Mugen) claimed the victory in front of Yeoreum Park (Mugen) and pole-setter Jihun Kim in 3rd position. In the 1/8 GT class it was 14-year old Nayeon Lee (IGT8) taking the pole-position and finally the pole-setter was able to take the victory as well. She was joined on the podium by Gyeongmin Kim (IGT8) in 2nd and Seonghyo Lee (IGT8) in 3rd position.

View the other class podiums here


June 17, 2021

Kurzbuch wins Swiss nationals Rd2

Last weekend the 2nd round of the Swiss nitro on-road nationals took place in Schaffhausen in the very north of Switzerland. Already in qualifying Simon Kurzbuch showed his dominance and won the first three rounds to claim the pole-position for the 45min final. In the final everything went as planned and Simon crossed the finishing nearly 3 laps in front Silvio Hächler with Luca Martinelli completing the podium another 5 laps down.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]


June 16, 2021

Bruno Coelho double at inaugural GTS race

Last weekend was the first race of the new-for-2021 GT Series (GTS) at the fantastic Vallelunga RC track in Italy. With a lot of drivers attending the event from mid week to test and learn the track it was building up to be a great race. The Xray team had a strong team present with Bruno Coelho and Martin Bayer heading the entry, and from qualifying onwards Coelho was dominant, taking the TQ spot in both Nitro and Electric with his GTX and GTXE respectively. In the finals it was more of the same as the Portuguese driver took the wins in both classes ahead of team mate Bayer in both, with SWorkz racers Leonardo Valente in 3rd in Nitro while Natanaele Senesi took his Serpent to the final podium spot in the EP class.

View the EP podium here