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August 1, 2011

Joe Kerry wins BRCA 200mm Rd5

Round 5 of the 200mm British Nationals were held on recently at the Mendip circuit. Saturday’s practice started with dry and sunny weather but unfortunately there was little grip on the track. With many cars circulating throughout the day the traction eventually increased to a respectable level. At the end of practice it was Joe Kerry who was quickest with his Serpent 733 just ahead of Championship leader Adam Catchpole. In Qualifying saw Simon Wood take the top spot ahead of Joe Kerry in 2nd and Johnathon Dobney in 3rd. In the final the top two of Simon and Joe got away from the rest of the field and opened up a decent lead. At the first set of fuel stops Joe took first place and from then on was never troubled as he raced to the finish ending the final three laps clear of 2nd placed Dobney with John Zottl taking 3rd. With this result Joe has significantly closed the gap to first place in the championship and now has a really good chance of winning the title this year. Next up in the championship is a trip to the Stonehaven venue in Scotland.

Thanks to Joe Kerry for the report.

July 31, 2011

Lamberto Collari takes 2011 European title

The EFRA 1/8th scale on road European Championships were held this week Mini Circuit Ville de Luxembourg, in Luxembourg. Europe’s best drivers came together to battle it out for the title, which was won last year by newly crowned World Champion Robert Pietsch. Qualifying was topped by this year’s World Championship runner up Dario Balestri driving for Capricorn ahead of Mugen star Pietsch in 2nd, while 9 time World Champion Lamberto Collari was 3rd and top Xray driver Erik Dankel was 4th. With no direct qualifiers everyone would have to make their way through the semi finals before that could fight for the win. Pietsch and Balestri would win their semis but a faster Semi A saw Balestri take pole ahead of Michele Romagnoli in 2nd and Ilia Van Gastel in 3rd, while Pietsch would only start from 4th on the grid for the 45 minute A-main just in front of Collari. The final saw close running at the front with Balestri, Ilia Van Gastel and Robin D’Hondt all sharing the lead. Problems for Balestri as well as Pietsch would knock them out of the race and what would be a race of attrition only 5 cars would finish the final with Lamberto Collari emerging as the winner for Kyosho just 6 seconds ahead of Serpent driver Van Gastel in 2nd, with Mugen team driver Rick Vrielijnck finishing in 3rd, 2 laps further back.

View the final results here

July 29, 2011

2012 IFMAR 1/8th Buggy Worlds to be in Argentina

Having provisionally awarded Funchal, Brazil with the 2012 1/8th scale offroad World Championships in Pattaya last year, under condition that they meet certain criteria, IFMAR have announced that Argentina will instead host the bi-annual championships. The decision was made at the IFMAR AGM which took place last Thursday at the World Champions in Vaasa, Finland during the break between 2wd and 4wd competition. The official word on the actual location in Buenos Aires and the date will come in the next few days but we were told by IFMAR vice president Carlos Gomez that the track will be located 10 minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown Buenos Aires. Having covered the last IFMAR Worlds in Argentina in 2007 we are very much looking forward to going back next year. We were also told that testing on the definitive layout for the Worlds will not be allowed prior to the event but the event will be extended to allow for more track time.

July 28, 2011

Fábio Ramos wins Portuguese Regional Rd4

The 4th round of the Portuguese Regional championships for 1/10th 200mm took place last weekend in Lisbon. In the semi finals it was Fábio Ramos who took the win in semi-final A, having battled for the top spot all the way to the last lap with Bruno Pereira. Jorge Brito won semi-final B followed by Pedro Sousa and Filipe Rodrigues. In the final there was a big battle for the podium, with the positions changing every lap. Bruno Pereira crashed 3 minutes from the end gifting the first place to Fábio Ramos, followed by Filipe Rodrigues in second and Bruno Pereira finishing in third. The result gives Filipe Rodrigues (TeamZero) the Portuguese Regional Championship with one round still to be run.

Source: TeamZero [rcteamzero.webs.com]

July 27, 2011

Morganti & Burch win Timezone Gran Prix

Last weekend saw over 110 racers converge on the famous Timezone Raceway Park for the 3rd annual Timezone Gran Prix, located in Battle Ground Washington. The track is located on private property and only hosts one large event a year. This year’s entries included some of the top drivers from the Northwest, along with the factory pilots Paolo Morganti and Scott Kimbrow from Serpent, the current IFMAR 10th Scale World Champion Ralph Burch, Mike Swauger and Dave Ehrlich, along with Mugen drivers Richard St. Cyr and JJ Wang from Shanghai China. This was by far the largest and most competitive race ever held at Timezone with the freshly re-sealed track surface, the lap records fell all weekend. The European style ribbon track with banked corners and grass infield presented quite a challenge to all of the drivers and it was interesting to watch the drivers tune their cars and skills to adjust to the true road course conditions. After three rounds of qualifying on Saturday, it was Paolo Morganti that took TQ honours in 1/8th Open, Scott Kimbrow in 1/10th sedan and Ryan Newbury in 1/8th scale GT. In the 1/8th scale Open class it was pole man Paolo Morganti that took the win by 2 laps ahead of Richard St.Cyr, with Mike Swauger coming home in 3rd, 2 laps further back. In the 1/10th Sedan class it was WC Ralph Burch that won by 5 seconds from Scott Kimbrow with JJ Wang in 2nd, while in the GT class Jeff Holt won ahead of Ryan Newbury and Try McKune, the top 3 all on the same lap.

Source: Time Zone Racing [timezoneracing.com] / Image: Serpent

July 26, 2011

Takaaki Shimo wins Japanese 1/8th Nationals

The JMRCA Japanese 1/8th scale on road Nationals were held last weekend at the Boss Speed track in Tokyo. Qualifying went the way of Serpent driver Masao Tanaka with Keisuke Fukuda and Takaaki Shimo completing the top 3. In the finals it was a close battle for the win between Fukuda and Shimo, with the Kyosho driver Shimo just taking the victory by a second ahead of the Mugen of Fukuda, while Kyosho driver Takahata took 3rd spot a lap further back with top qualifier Tanaka taking 4th. The win for Shimo is his 10th Japanese title.

View videos of the main final here

July 26, 2011

Martin Bayer wins 2011 1/5th European title

Last weekend saw the European Championships for large scale touring cars held in Leipzig, Germany. Qualifying would see Czech driver Ales Bayer take the pole position running the prototype RS5 Rx12 chassis ahead of Lauterbacher driver Markus Feldmann, but following the semi finals, in which Ales would run out of fuel while leading, it would be the German on pole starting just ahead of Martin Bayer in 2nd. In the final Feldmann would lead but after only 10 laps engine trouble would take the reigning champion out of the race allowing BA Arnaldi from France to inherit the lead. A later battle with Martin Bayer saw the Czech driver get past and bring home the win at the end of the 30 minute main to claim the European title ahead of Croatian Dario Vesali in 2nd with Arnaldi finishing in 3rd.

Image: RS5 Modelsport [rs5-modelsport.com]

July 23, 2011

Tony Knauth wins Aussiemove Rd2

Tony Knauth has won the recent second round of this year’s Aussiemove off-road series at the OCR circuit. The Mugen driver was hard chases for the win by Marc Christianson (Mugen) and Serpent driver Tim Nicol. Fourth place after five rounds of running went to Nathan Tampe (Hyper) with Daniel White (Mugen) in fifth place.

Source: OCR Raceway [ocrraceway.com]