KM Racing have announced the signing of two times European Champion Dario Balestri. The Italian will be driving the KM H-K1 in the 1/10th scale class for the 2011/12 seasons and will be attending all the major races like IFMAR World Championship, European Championship, Italian Championship & KM Asia Cup. Continuing to use Novarossi engines, the multiple World Championship finalist formerly raced for Team Magic.
Source: KM Racing [km-rc.com]
French engine company RB have announced that 3 time European Champion Renaud Savoya have re-signed with them for another 2 years bringing him up to the end of 2012. Renaud had this to say about the deal:
After 2 successful seasons under the RB colors, it was clear in my mind that I would renew my contract with the french engine manufacturer. I’m glad to follow up our evolution and keep up with our great results for the 2 upcoming years. During the first months, I was really impressed by the motivation and devotion of the team. We achieve awesome results together, either on the track or personally. Today, I think that RB represents what we can do best in technical support and product evolution, looking at all the titles RB got recently. Evolution and professionalism, motivation and dynamism, boosted by a pleasant and closely knit team, I can only be confident for our future together…
Source: RB [rbproducts.com]
Shepherd have announced that Swiss racer Simon Kurzbuch will stay with the team for 2011. After a successful year finishing 11th at the ultra competitive European Championship A in Locorotondo and becoming Swiss Junior Champion he is looking forward to an exciting 2011 season. Besides the Swiss National Championship he plans to attend the World Championship in Miami as well as the European Championship ‘A’ in Luxembourg and some other international races. Simon had the following to say:
This year I had some great results racing for Team Shepherd and I hope the 2011 will be equally successful. The team-work is fantastic and everybody helps each other. Also the factory support is excellent at national races as well as at international races. I would like to thank everybody in the team for the last season!
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
Former European Champion Yannick Aigoin has contacted us to officially confirm current rumours that he is ending his partnership with Novarossi engines, joining Losi team mate Martin Bayer who too recently ended his association with the Italian marque.
After many rumours, I want to confirm that I’ll not extend my partnership with Novarossi. I’d like to thank them very much for this experience and the great support they provided since I joined them at end of 2008. I’d also like to say that I’m proud of the technical and commercial work we’ve done together and to wish them all the best for the future. Now it is time for new challenges about which I’ll give you more details soon.
Australian Fuel Company, Nitro-X has announced that they have signed 13 year old JJ Wang. Racing both sedan and 1/8th scale, the young Chinese-American Mugen driver is one of the up and coming young drivers from Asia. At the age of 12, JJ placed 34th in the World Sedan Championships in 2010 and in 2011 will be competing at the 1/8th Scale Worlds in Miami. “I want to thank Nitro-X for their support” said JJ Wang, “I like their new formula fuel which gives me the power and run time I need for competition”.
Source: Nitro-X [nitro-x.com]
Last weekend the last 1/8th scale event of the year, the GP di Natale, took place at the Riccione tack in Italy. The beginning of the event was delayed by over an hour due to the cold with temperatures well below zero. Due to this the fastest heats of qualifying came at during the 3rd round and it was Alessandro Bracci set the fastest time with 27 laps followed by Sammarini Sandro and Manuel Tordi, both with 26 laps. After the lunch break for some Christmas food the finals got underway with a close battle for first place between Sammarini and Bracci, but an off by Sammarini gave Bracci the break he needed and he would go on to win with Sammarini in 2nd, 3 laps ahead of third place Manuel Tordi who made the best lap time of the day with a 15,269.
Source: Road Race Riccione [roadracericcione.com]
The organisers of the Silver Pennes 2011 have gotten in contact to tell us about their annual event which will this year take place from the 11th to 13th of March next year. This big international off road event, which is held at ‘Les Pennes Mirabeau’ in the south of France, close to Marseille, is expect to attract many big names including last year’s winners Jérôme Aigoin and Yannick Aigoin to name but a few. The race is open to gas buggy and truggy classes and registration will open on the 20th of December.
Visit the official event site here.
This past weekend saw the Pre Worlds take place at Homestead RC Raceway in Miami, Florida in preparation for next April’s IFMAR 1/8th scale on road World Championships. The race saw the top qualifier from the past 2 gas on road World Championships Robert Pietsch once again take top spot with his self designed Mugen MRX-5 ahead of team mates Mike Swauger and Keisuke Fukuda, with Serpent driver Paolo Morganti rounding out the top 4. In the race it was Dutch driver Rick Vrielijnck who set the fastest lap on the way to the win taking the flag by less than a second from team mate Fukuda in 2nd, both using the new Protoform P909 shell, with Paolo Morganti rounding off the podium in 3rd spot.
