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August 19, 2010

European 200mm Championships practice update

The EFRA European Championships are underway this week in Gothenburg Sweden on the VAST 8 track. The weather has been less than ideal, resulting in lost track time and in the case of earlier in the week, the loss of entire days. Today had seen the conditions drivable with the rain holding off but the temperature quite low. As you would expect the race has attracted the top European racers including the only 3 World’s finalist from earlier in the month in the form of podium finisher Marc Rheinard, reigning European Champion Dirk Wischnewski, and TQ man Robert Pietsch.

Continue reading the report here

August 19, 2010

Steele successfully defends Irish 200mm title

Team Shepherd driver Chris Steele has successfully defended his Irish 1:10 200mm National Championship title continuing his 100% winning form as the fifth round took competitors to Northern Ireland. Racing at the tight Ballymoney circuit, Steele maintained his perfect qualifying record to secure his fifth TQ honour of the season ahead of the returning Mark Gilliland. Leading the 30 minute encounter from start to finish Steele set the fastest lap to take his Murnan Modified RB powered Velox V10 to a 4 lap winning margin. Making it a 1-2 for Shepherd, teenager Darren Gibb took second with Gilliland’s Xray completing the podium. With the title in the bag despite two round still remaining in the 2010 Championship, Steele can now concentrate on getting married with him due to tie the knot later today (Thursday).

View the final results here

August 19, 2010

Derek McCloskey joins Serpent off road team

Team Serpent Ireland are delighted to announce the signing of Derek McCloskey to head their efforts in the Irish 1:8 Off Road competition scene using the new Cobra S811. A multiple champion in electric 1:10 Off Road, the experienced off and onroad racer will debut the buggy this weekend at the penultimate round of the Irish National Championships at the BADMCC track in Northern Ireland as part of his preparations for a full 2011 season campaign. Having tested the buggy at the astro turf Navan Nitro track, which hosts the sixth & final round of this year’s Championship on September 5th, McCloskey was very complimentary of the new Serpent off road entry and is looking forward to getting up to full speed with the Billy Easton creation. Joining Serpent, McCloskey will run Mega engines and use Merlin fuel.

Source: Hobbies Ireland [hobbiesireland.ie]

August 17, 2010

Norwegian National title for Adrian Bernsten

The 2010 Norwegian Championship was held at Hverven Bukta Raceway in Oslo (August 7th-8th), on their newly paved race track, which was the venue for the 1/8th Scale IC Euros back in 2003, and Adrian Bernsten sent us this report. The new asphalt gave us a faster track than ever before, with very good grip, but also a lot of tire wear, so the big question was what we were gonna do in the finals. After the first qualifying round I claimed the TQ with a 30 lap run in 7:07:149 in front of Helge Johannesen in 2nd, Xray driver Tom Erik Haaversen in 3rd and Xray driver Werner Ersland in 4th.

Read the full report here

August 13, 2010

Tim Wood takes Rd6 of British 1/8th Nats

The 6th round of the BRCA 1/8th scale Nationals saw a second visit to the Mendip circuit at Western super Mare. The usual man to beat, Mark Green was again absent due to concentrating on the up and coming 200mm European Championships in Sweden. Team Serpent however had reinforcements in the form of Kyle Branson after jetting back from the 200mm Worlds the previous weekend. This made the team Sirio driver a hot favourite to have a good result, similar to his win at Cotsword in October 2009. The main suspects all arrived early Saturday morning to run in engines and find the ideal setup. The weather however, prevented any racing in the morning since it rained heavy for a short period and it required 3 hours for the grip to return. A strong contingent of racers arrived from Ireland which also increased the competition at the top.

Continue reading the report here

August 11, 2010

Pettit & Borkowicz win at Wiregrass Indoor Nationals

This past weekend the annual Wiregrass Nationals were held in Ozark, Alabama. The temperature was hot but the heavy showers on Friday and Saturday provided some temporary relief from the heat. The metal roof over the track protected the track from the elements, but there was no protecting the surface from the thrashing of the cars and trucks throughout the day. The packed surface quickly gave way to the underlying sandy base providing some true off road racing with major dips, craters, and ruts. Drivers picked their racing lines carefully and were prepared to change as the race progressed. The Wiregrass crew with race announcer Carlton Eppes did a fantastic job of running the show and everything ran smoothly and timely.

Continue reading the report here

August 10, 2010

Ilia van Gastel wins Dutch 1/8th Nats Rd4

Last weekend saw the 4th round of the Dutch 1/8 nationals run on the very small and tricky track of MBC de Sluis in Gouda. Due to holidays and some other reasons there was only 41 drivers. The weather forecast for the race day did predict some rain but in the morning the racers were presented with a drying track while the rest of the day was perfect dry weather. In the NK class it was Rick V taking the pole with his new MRX5 folowed by John Ermen, Ilia v. Gastel and Robin d’Hondt. At the start of the main final the engine of Rick V was a bit slow and so John could take the lead helped by Rick V going off the track in the first corner. After getting back on track and a following a quick check in the pits he was one lap behind in 10th place but managed to work his way up to finally finish in 3rd place behind Ermen, with van Gastel taking the win.

Continue reading the report here

August 9, 2010

Herfried Pucher wins Rd5 of 1/8th Austrian Nats

Round 5 of the Austrian 1/8th scale on road Championships was held last weekend at the MAV Aigen track, in the north of Austria, with the weather forecast predicting heavy rain for Saturday and sunny conditions for Sunday’s race. Due to the weather no one tested on Saturday and on Sunday Morning, drivers were greeted by damp conditions for the first qualifying series, but the track was dry by round 2. From the start it was Herfried Pucher with his Picco powered Motonica P81 that set the pace managing to take a comfortable TQ with the only 26 laps run, in front of Mike Klausner who had dominating the previous rounds, with Patrick Wendy in 3rd.

Continue reading the report here