March 27, 2011

Jerome Aigoin takes wet French season opener

Jerome Aigoin takes wet French season opener

The opening round of the French 1/8th scale offroad Nationals took place this weekend at the Pierrefeu track in the south east of France, close to Nice. Qualifying saw Losi/nVision driver Yannick Aigoin take the top spot ahead of his brother Kyosho/Novarossi driver Jerome Aigoin with Spanish Mugen/Novarossi driver Robert Batlle taking third on his guest appearance in the National Championship. Hobbytech’s Nicolas Rodriguez and Agama driver Jerome Sartel completed the top 5. Unfortunately Sunday’s finals were heavily affected by rain, with the organisers deciding to stop the race after the semi finals due to too much water on the track but not before we lost Yannick Aigoin, Jerome Sartel and Renaud Savoya. This decision gifted the win to Jerome Aigoin, with Robert Batlle taking 2nd and Nicolas Vouilloz taking 3rd.

Source: Automodelisme [automodelisme.com]


March 26, 2011

Contact RC sign Michele Romagnoli & Stefano Pregnolato

Contact RC sign Michele Romagnoli & Stefano Pregnolato

Contact RC have announced the addition of two top international drivers to their team line up for 2011. Michele Romagnoli was 5th at the 1/8th European Championship in Locorotondo last year and finalist of the last pre Worlds in Miami.  After testing Contact Tyres he decided to use their tires from now and at the World Championship in Miami in a couple of weeks time. Another young Italian driver Stefano Pregnolato has also joined the Contact  team. The 2009 Italian 1/8th scale champion in the Senior class, he is now very well settled in the very competitive Italian EFRA A class making the A final in the final Italian Championship race in Bologna last season. The new guys join the already strong line up of USA Champ Paul Lemieux, European Champ Robert Pietsch, Simon Kurzbuch, Jerome Renaux and US star DJ Apolaro.

Source: Contact RC [racing-cars.com]


March 24, 2011

Dominik Mayer joins team Xray Germany

Dominik Mayer joins team Xray Germany

SMI Motorsport have announced that 17 year old Dominik Mayer has joined team Xray Germany for the upcoming seasons. The former Shepherd driver will be using the brand new RX8 along with the new Orcan GT7MH-Power engines, new Orcan 25+ Fuel and ATS-Tires and will compete at several qualification runs for the German Nationals (1/8 and 200mm), the German Nationals (1/8 and 200mm) as well as the 1/8 EC-A in Luxembourg.

Source: SMI Motorsport [smi-motorsport.de]


March 24, 2011

Josh Wheeler signs for VP-Pro USA

Josh Wheeler signs for VP-Pro USA

VP-Pro USA have added top factory driver Josh Wheeler to their team. Wheeler is a former IFMAR Worlds A-main Finalist and consistent A-main contender at every major race in the USA. He will be using VP-Pro Flexx Compound Tires & Wheels on his Xray 808 buggy and truggy for 2011-2012 and his first race for VP-Pro Racing will be the Silverstate Nitro Challenge in Las Vegas next month.

Source: VP Pro USA [vp-pro-usa.com]


March 23, 2011

Chris Doughty gets some Ammo for 2011

Chris Doughty gets some Ammo

RC Disco are thrilled to announce that former European electric offroad Champion Chris Doughty has signed to run Ammo Fuel in 2011. Chris will be using the Ammo 30% Nitro Race Fuel throughout the 2011 race season in his Durango DNX408 buggy and joins a growing list of drivers in the UK using this fuel including Simon Willets and Kevin Brunsden. We also hear that Ammo is expanding out of the UK and that we can expect some European signings in the next few weeks.

Source: RC Disco [rcdisco.com]


March 22, 2011

Kyle McBride claims Australian National title

Kyle McBride claims Australian National title

Kyle McBride took his Team Durango DNX408 to National Championship glory this weekend, at the National Titles in Australia. In qualifying, Kyle set the pace in round one and was the only car on 18 lap pace during the round.  A hiccup in round two saw a slightly disapointing second in round after hitting traffic. After the disappointment, Kyle was determined to win and after rounds three and four had already secured TQ and didn’t have to run the last qualifier – but of course, he did.  Kyle set about the final qualifier driving faster than ever and missed out on lapping second place by only 7 seconds. It wasn’t the way any racer wants to win a big title but due to rain the finals had to be called off and so the results were called on qualifying with Kyle taking the National Title for Durango/OS/AKA/Byron at just 15 years old.

Source: Durango [team-durango.com]


March 21, 2011

Malaysian Shepherd Racing Series report

Malaysian Shepherd Racing Series report

The Grand Finale of the Malaysian Shepherd Racing Series was held at the Niko Racing Circuit near Johor close to Singapore recently. Patrick Schäfer and his team mechanic Armin Weihert traveled from Germany to Malaysia to attend this event organized by Malaysian distributor Niko Cheng. Additionally Jilles Groskamp came over from Bangkok to race in the 1/10th scale class while Schäfer participated in the 1/8th scale class. During qualifying Schäfer and Groskamp had no problems to secure the pole-positions in their classes. Due to an engine problem Groskamp had to take a timeout before the main final and started from last position. After a few laps he was right behind the early leader Azri Amri. Unfortunately another technical problem forced him to have a long pitstop and he lost a lot of time. Azri Amri cruised to the victory followed by Shafiq and Mizan on third position. Just before the start of the 1/8th scale final rain hit the track and the organizer decided that the race will be canceled. Luckily the rain was much less than the days before and the track dried up quickly. From the start Schäfer controlled the field and after a few minutes he already had a big gap on the second placed driver. After 45 min he crossed the finishing line unchallenged in front of Lai Kok Heng 14 laps down and David Voo on third position.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]


March 17, 2011

Tobias Hepp confirms move to Xray

Tobias Hepp confirms move to Xray

Xray Germany have announced the signing of young German star Tobias Hepp to race for their on road team in 2011. The former Serpent driver will race the brand new Xray RX8 with Orcan GT7MH-Power, Orcan fuel 25+ and ATS-Tires. Tobias will race the Nitro-West Masters and the West German Championships, Luxembourg EFRA GP and the European Championship in Hildesheim, Germany (200mm) and Luxembourg (1/8th). He had this to say:

After 3 successful years with Serpent I’m happy for the new partnership with the Xray-Gemany/Orcan Team in 2011/2012. I’m looking forward to successful future.

Source: SMI [smi-motorsport.de]