Shepherd have announced that German nitro on-road frontrunner Lars Hoppe has returned to their factory team. The former German Champion and IFMAR world championship finalist – both with Shepherd – plans to attend the ENS series, the German Nationals and select additional events.
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
The 2020 season of the Urban Astro Buggy Champs kicked off this past weekend at the rooftop track of Urban RC in downtown Singapore. A scorching day greeted the drivers for round 1, with 18 racers eager to start their 2020 offroad racing season. A new flowing layout welcomed the racers, this time featuring a challenging front double-double, and a cross-over section. In qualifying, it was 2019 2WD champion, Esmail Apandi, dominiating proceedings as he claimed TQ in all four qualifying rounds. Julien Foo was a strong 2nd, with TS Bay just a point behind in 3rd. In the finals, Esmail carried his dominance with commanding wins in both legs 1 and 2 to secure an early overall win. Julien had to be content with 2nd in A1 and A2, before securing the win in A3. Yong Youyi, who qualified 6th, managed to make his way through the field to secure a great P3 finish. The next round of the Astro Buggy Champs will be held on April 5th.
Source: Urban RC [urbanrc.online]
The second round of the Brisbane Classic was held at the Pine Hills Dirt Racing track in Bunya, Queensland, Australia this past weekend. In the Nitro Buggy class Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik made a clean sweep as he took the overall TQ and also the win in the 30-minute main final, leaving behind Darren Perry (Tekno RC) in 2nd, some two laps behind as Jak Parsey (Team Associated) ended the day in 3rd, another lap down.
Image: Alex Bernadzik
Team Associated and Ruddog Distribution have announced the return of German 1/8th off-road frontrunner, Carsten Keller to their team. Carsten already used Team Associated machinery before switching to Mugen for the 2017 to 2019 seasons and he is now back with AE gear, with his first race already being a great success as he took a double win in Nitro and Electric Buggy at last weekend’s Bütschwil GP in Switzerland.
Source: Ruddog [ruddog.eu]
Round 8 of the Answer RC Winter Series was held at the Pendle & District Model Car Club in Nelson, Lancashire, UK this past weekend. The weather forecast was no rain and fresh breeze and thankfully the rain stayed away but there was a slightly strong breeze that was bone chilling. However this did help dry the track out to the point where Allan Ward ventured onto mini pins for his final. The event saw five rounds of 6-minute qualifying dolled by 22-minute bump-up finals. In the end it was Nick Cox (HB Racing) with the win a lap in front of Allan Ward (HB Racing) as Lewis Rushton (Team Associated) came in 3rd, another lap down.
Source: BRCA [brca.org]
The fifth and final round of the Astro Winter Series was held at the Brookthorpe Model Car Club in the UK this past weekend. This meeting was a strange one to start with because there was a level of apprehension in the air because no one seemed to know what was going to happen with the weather. Ultimately it was a bit of an on and off affair but the race would mainly go on as planned and with 55 drivers in attendance. As for the racing, the 15-minutes Nitro Buggy A-final was the last race of the day and it was won by Lee Martin (Agama) with an impressive 23 laps. Mitch Booth came in 2nd place with his Tekno. Jake Knight came in 3rd place, 4th place was taken by another Agama driver, Kevin Brunsden.
Continue reading the report here
The opening round of the Levante Championship was held at the Circuito de Roldan track in Murcia, Spain this past weekend. The single Nitro Buggy class saw Juan Carlos Canas taking the overall TQ from Manuel Iniesta in 2nd and Oscar Baldo in 3rd. The opening stages of the 45-minute A-main event brought some mix ups all over the field with Manuel Iniesta eventually taking the lead but not for long as he dropped back to the end of the field and eventually recovered to 7th overall, while Juan Carlos regained P1 on lap 8 and from there he never looked back to take the win a lap in front of Oscar Baldo while Antonio Manuel Almaida came in 3rd overall to round out the podium another lap down. José Tomás Escudero in 4th and Francisco Garcia Ortiz in 5th completed the top5.
Image: Juan Carlos Canas
The opening round of the Japanese 2020 Mugen Off-road Cup was held this past weekend in 1/8th Buggy Open and Sports classes. In the Open class A main TQ holder Kenji Osaka took the lead with Tsuruta, Kajiwara, and Noguchi in tow. On lap four Tsuruta was able to get by Osaka for the lead and he gradually pulled away, extending the gap. Ultimately Aya Tsuruta was able to bring home the win at the end of the 30-minute main final, leaving behind Kenji Osaka in 2nd while Juriya Kajiwara rounded out the top 3 result another lap down. Over in the Sports class A-main and after an entertaining race it was Kiyohiko Sugiura with the win some 5.7 seconds in front of Daisuke Horii in 2nd as Kobayashi Hiroshi came in 3rd, some 6.4 seconds back.
View the Sports class top 3 here
