Having been delayed by bad weather for over a day & a half, the new Euro Nitro Series finally fired into life at the Hockenheimring in Germany this evening with the opening round of qualifying with Serpent’s Mark Green setting the pace in a very close 1:8 encounter ahead of Robert Pietsch and Michael Salven while in 1:10 Touring Xray’s Dirk Wischnewski was fastest from Freddy Sudhoff & Pedro Rombouts.
View our complete event coverage here.
Washed out by wet weather which caused the cancellation of controlled practice yesterday, competitors at the opening race of the new Euro Nitro Series again woke to rain this morning in Germany however at a drivers briefing held at 11:00 and lead by Race Director Uwe Rheinard it was agreed that racing will get underway later this evening. Forecasts for the area are showing that from 15:00 local time the weather is set to improve and based on this information it is hoped to be able to get racing underway on a dry track at 17:00 or earlier if conditions allow. Planning to run three rounds of qualifying today it was agreed to set a cut off time of 18:00 irrespective of the track conditions as to start any later would not leave enough time to fully complete three rounds of heats. Unlike the normal qualifying format used in onroad nitro which decides the grids on a drivers overall fastest time, the ENS will use the same round by round points system common to electric touring car racing which should, if the track is still drying, make for a fairer qualifying. With the weather for tomorrow, Sunday, giving a dry day it is planned to have a fourth round of qualifying with a driver counting their best two rounds from the four.
View our complete event coverage here.
Matrix Tyres in Italy have announced the signing of JJ Wang to their factory team. The young talented 15 year-old is the current reigning Chinese National Champion in both 1/10 and 1/8 GP and a member of the US National team competing in this year’s 1/8 Worlds Championship in Japan. After extensive testing at the Pre-Worlds, Matrix and JJ have formed this new partnership. JJ had this to say about the deal:
I want to thank Cristian at Matrix for his support during the Pre-Worlds and for giving me the opportunity to drive with Matrix. I enjoy working with Cristian on tyre testing in Japan and feel really good about using Matrix tyres for my 2013 race season as well as the upcoming Worlds.
Source: Matrix Tires [matrixtires.it]
The much anticipated new Euro Nitro Series will start a day later than originally planned as racers woke to a very wet morning in Hockenheim, Germany, leaving organisers no choice but to postpone Day 1 of the event which should have seen 5 rounds of controlled practice. With the weather down for the day and set to improve mid morning tomorrow, Saturday, it is hoped to be able to get the event officially underway at around lunchtime. Sunday’s weather is giving perfect conditions for racing. Despite this morning’s conditions one driver decided he could do with some wet practice, bravely taking to the track with his touring car but his first attempt on the soaked track lasted just two laps before the engine decided it had consumed enough water. Today’s weather is in total contrast to yesterday’s set-up day when the sun shown down on the home of Formula 1’s European Grand Prix with many drivers including most of the main contenders able to get in some track track time as the host club ran a day of open practice.
JConcepts headed to Nebraska for the 4th annual JConcepts 1/8th Spring Nationals at the HobbyPlex in Omaha. The fabulous indoor track was once again filled with the Alex Sturgeon creation to challenge all drivers. The flowing fun layout was definitely busy to keep everyone on their toes, and going consistently fast with no mistakes would be a challenge. The format was Friday practice. With heavy rain on Thursday night and Friday morning, being inside was awesome. More rain on Saturday followed by 3 rounds of qualifying, racing never missed a beat thanks to the HobbyPlex racing circuit. Sunday would be main day to cap off the event.
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Speed Monkey R/C hosted the AKA Mid-America Championship on May 24-26 in Dallas, Texas. With a cap of 200 entries, the race quickly filled up to max capacity with the appeal of a $50 entry including a set of AKA control tires (Soft Impacts for buggy/truggy and Soft Enduro 2 for SC). AKA team drivers dominated the field of racers. Jared Tebo led the team with a pair of TQ’s in Pro Buggy and Pro Truggy followed by easily winning both mains by 2 laps on the field. Josh Wheeler was able to give teammate Tebo some pressure throughout the race and earn himself a pair of 2nd place finishes. Mark Pavidis rounded out the podium in Pro Buggy, and Ryan Lutz would go on to finish 3rd in Pro Truggy.
This past weekend saw round 1 of the RCPro Ontario provincial series in Canada. The 100+ entry event was hosted by the Durham Offroad Rc Club in Bowmanville Ontario about 45 minutes east of Toronto and the all volunteer track crew did a great job shaping the layout for this, their first big event outside of their own series races. The track offered a good mix of challenging high speed sweepers along with some tricky rhythm sections and a good level of grip under beautiful blue skies. TLR’s Dave Henry took home the top honors in all 3 classes he entered. Dave used Nitrotane fuel to help 2 stop the 30 minute final with the TLR 8ight 3.0, while In 1/8 eBuggy Dave used his freshly built TLR 8ight 3.0 to win the final two mains of the triple main format to secure the win. He managed the same feat in 4wd SC with the TLR 2.0 SCTE to complete the triple.
Source: TLR [tlracing.com]
Veteran onroad nitro racer and chassis designer Michael Salven has given the Euro Nitro Series a firm vote of confidence as final preparations are made for the opening race in the all new series for onroad nitro racing which takes place this weekend. A former World & multiple European Champion, the German said all the racers he has spoken to are very excited that the organisation behind the hugely successful Euro Touring Series are bringing their concept to nitro onroad and while they have high expectations he is confident the ENS will be a success and will put the ‘fun back into racing’ helping to revive the onroad nitro racing scene just like the ETS has done for electric touring cars.
View the complete announcement here
