Italian engine company Novarossi has announced the signing of Austrian Hupo Honigl to their factory team. The multiple European offroad Champion will run the engines in his Durango DNX408 and 408T cars having previously used LRP engines. Expect to see Hupo running his new Novarossi power plants at numerous major events throughout the year.
Source: Novarossi [novarossi.it]
Shepherd Micro Racing is the latest company to get behind the inaugural Euro Nitro Series, the German chassis manufacturer signing up to become a primary sponsor of the ‘Pilot Series’ and committing to field an international driver line-up at both races. With their headquarters located just 15km from the Hockenhiemring, which will host the first ever ENS event in one months time, it was Shepherd’s annual European Nitro Challenge which lead to the creation of the Euro Nitro Series.
Continue reading the full announcement here
Last Sunday the Belgian 1/5th Championships got underway at the beautiful track of Racing Club Roeselare. The day started a bit grey but the track was dry. It was also cold and not easy to get the right temperature in the tyres. Curt Sonneville had a good setup and set the pace in the first qualifying session with a 30 lap run in 10 minutes, followed closely by Emmanuelle Vanhaesendonck in 2nd and Rico Meuleman in 3rd. As the day went on the weather got better with sun coming out in the afternoon while 2 qualifying sessions were still to be held. Despite the better conditions, the positions didn’t change. As the 30 minute final got underway Emmanuelle quickly overtook Curt to take the lead. Rico also overtook Curt some laps later to take second place and he was chasing Emmanuelle. After 15 minutes Emmanuelle was forced into an error due to some slower traffic and at that moment Rico took the lead. Emmanuelle tried to close the gap but Rico held that lead and won the race while Curt took 3rd.
Thanks to Christoph Vandepitte for the report.
The 2nd round of the French 1/8th offroad Nationals took place at the weekend in Toulouse in the South of the country. Wet weather hampered qualifying on Saturday allowing only one round to be completed before the organisers put a stop to the track action. Thanks to the club working hard to prepare the track with sawdust they were able to run another round of qualifying on Sunday morning. Following the 2 rounds it was Jerome Aigoin that took the top spot after qualifying with brother Yannick in 2nd, with Jerome Sartel and young Rayan Medjobi in 4th. In the final it would be Agama driver Jerome Sartel that took the win by some 8 seconds from Kyosho driver Jerome Aigoin in 2nd with Associated driver Yannick Aigoin in 3rd, the top 3 covered by less than a lap after 45 minutes racing.
Source: Automodelisme [automodelisme.com]
Last weekend the first of six legs of the 2013 1:8 & 1:10 IC Austrian championship got underway with good weather at the Sollenau track. With very low entries, only 38, in both classes together it was not a very good start for the season. A very long and hard winter with nearly no possibilities for practice and testing could be one of the reasons. Because of nearly no practice before the event also the Grip level was very low and tire wear was very high.
Continue reading the report here
After a break of several years, round 2 of the BRCA 1/10th IC 220 GT Championship was held at the Wombwell circuit in South Yorkshire. Drivers were out quickly on Saturday to learn what was for many a new circuit. Glyn Beal showed the dominance of the Serpent 747 in the 220GT class by setting a quick pace with relatively little setup changes, giving him time to help fellow Serpent drivers Adam Crossland and Richard Boult get to grips with the track.
Continue reading the report here
Last weekend the 2nd round of the Italian 1/8th scale On-Road Nationals took place at the ultra fast Pista Futura track in Bologna in the North of the country. After qualifying Shepherd/Sonic driver Michele Romagnoli was ranked on the 3rd place in the expert class qualifying himself directly for the 1 hour long main final behind pole man Dario Balestri and 2nd placed Carmine Raiola, with Alberto Picco completing the top 4. As the engines get very stressed on this high-speed circuit Michele decided to run a safe tactic and started with a moderate pace. About 35 minutes into the race Michele took over the lead and controlled the race for the following minutes. 2 minutes before the end he flamed out, but thanks to his fast mechanic and brother Samuele he re-joined the track just in front of Alberto Picco who was running in second position. This was the order they finished with Massimo Fantini taking 3rd. The win gave Michele maximum points for the championship standings in which he has now taken over the lead.
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
Round 2 of the British 1/10 Championship was held last weekend at the Wombwell track. The weather was good with sunshine and warm temperatures on Saturday, and we even managed a dry Sunday despite the forecast being for rain. As the cars went out for practice it was clear that there was very little grip, although by the end of the day the traction had improved considerably. In 200mm it was the three 747’s of Mark Green, Joe Kerry, and Alex Thurston, who just like at the last round were considerably quicker than anyone else.
Continue reading the report here
