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March 21, 2011

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

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]

March 17, 2011

Stephane Bouche wins French season opener

The first round of the French 1/8th scale on road championship took place in Toulouse last weekend. During qualifying the track was wet and making the best of those conditions was Motonica/Vox driver Sebastien Zatla who took TQ in front of Shepherd/GiMar driver Richard Volta and Motonica/Max driver Stéphane Bouche. In the final Richard Volta took the lead in the first laps, but after a few minutes it was young talented driver Arnaud Mathieu who took the lead only to run out of fuel. One minute before the end of the the race, it was Volta in the lead by 2 seconds from Stephane Bouche with his Motonica team mate Jerome Papaconstantinos in third. All drivers were pushing hard after 44 minutes of racing when Volta made a mistake at the end of the straight allowing Stephane Bouche to the front and take the win on his debut race with the new Motonica P81 RS. Richard Volta recovered to take 2nd and Jerome Papaconstantinos took 3rd.

Source: Andelle Competition [sasandelle.free.fr]

March 17, 2011

Surikarn Chaidajsuriya re-signs to Xray

Xray have announced the re-signing of 2002 ISTC World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya. The Thai driver is a great all round driver taking wins in both on road and offroad and will run the Slovakian company’s T3’11, NT1 and 808 cars this season. Surikarn had this to say:

I’m very happy that I have extended my contract with Xray. I will continue to race and test with Team Xray in the 2011 season, as well as continue using great Hudy products. I would like to thank Xray Slovakia and Asia Model Company (Xray and Hudy Thailand Distributor) for their great support. We had some very good results in 2010, and I will try to get even better results in the 2011 season.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

March 16, 2011

Alex Hardt switches to Novarossi

Reigning German Junior Champion Alex Hardt has made the switch to Novarossi for the upcoming season. German Novarossi distributor, Shepherd Micro Racing, will be supporting this young talented driver with the latest Novarossi off-road engines. Alex will race all important national races as well as some selected international events like the European Championship A, the Neo11 Race and the International Warm-up in Bischofsheim. His goals are well defined:

I would like to defend the German Junior Champion title and achieve a top result at all races that I attend. I choose Novarossi engines because the performance is outstanding. After a few test it was clear that I can achieve my goals for the 2011 season with these premium engines. Shepherd Micro Racing supports me in the best way possible and I’m looking forward to working together with them closely.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

March 15, 2011

1:8 Offroad Nationals Warm-up race

The guys at Thunder Alley RC Raceway were in touch to remind everyone about the 1:8 Offroad Nationals Warm-up race that will take place from the 1st to the 3rd of April. The event has already attracted much interest with former World Champion Atsushi Hara signing up as well as Teemu Leino, Ari Heinonen from Finland along with Ty Tessman from Canada who will be joining the usual gaggle of top drivers from California, neighboring states and beyond. The race is open to both buggy and truggy in both Open and Pro and you can find out more information and sign up by going here.

March 15, 2011

Ryan Lutz dominates Psycho Nitro Blast

Last weekend the Psycho Nitro Blast event took place in Unadilla, Georgia, USA. The indoor dirt track drew 468 entries spread over the various classes. Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz dominated the Pro Buggy class with his DNX408 against stiff competition, taking the TQ and win. Ryan also won Pro Truggy.

View Ryan’s full report here

March 15, 2011

Robert Pietsch wins Contact Tyres trophy

The 2011 Contact Tyres Trophy took place on the wonderful Fiorano track in Italy last weekend, with 80 drivers in 2 classes 1/10 and 1/8 taking part. Because the weather forecast expected rain for Sunday they decided to complete the race in 1 day, on the Saturday. A sunny day made the race very nice for all the drivers under the perfect organization of Mr Angelo Gesualdi and his family. In the end on 1/8 Class TQ for Mugen/Novarossi/Contact driver Robert Pietsch. All the Contact Team showed very good lap times running mainly Light rims with 32sh front tyres and 35sh rear tyres. Simon Kurzbuch ran a very good qualifying supported by his brother and Contact Switzerland distributor Rolf Suter. In 1/10 TQ went to another Contact driver Jerome Renaux driving his Xray/Max/Contact combo. Jerome was using Contact Carbon rims with 37sh front tyres and 40sh rear tyres. The 1/8 A-final saw Pietsch have an accident at the start but lap after lap with an average time of 14.9 seconds he was able to make his way back to the first position, never losing it again. In 1/10 the main final saw a close battle from Jerome Renaux and Davide Gallesi. At the end Gallesi won driving a very good final, while Jerome had to make 1 fuel stop extra, having miscalculate his fuel strategy.

Source: Contact [racing-cars.com] / Image: Minicar Fiorano [minicarfiorano.it]