Motonica have announced that Arnaud Mathieu has joined their French team to run the P81 Pro throughout the 2010 season. The partnership has already proved successful with Arnaud winning the Elite class at last weekend’s 2nd round of the French National Championships.
Source: Motonica [motonica.com]
Pro-line are reporting on last weekend’s 6th round of the Florida State Off-Road Nitro Series were they took the win in both pro classes. In 1:8th buggy, team drivers Billy Easton and Leon McIntosh had great showings in the highly contested Pro A-main. It was all Billy Easton dominating the race and taking the win with the Serpent S811 with a lap on the field using M2 Calibers with closed cell foam. Leon had a great battle for 2nd with Jason Rouna for the entire 30 minute main. In the end though, Jason took the runner up spot, while Leon crossed the line in 3rd opting to use the softer M3 Caliber tires with blue closed cell foam.
Source: Pro-Line [prolineracing.com]
Last weekend saw the opening round of the 2010 Slovenian on road National Championships take place at the Morac track in Austria where it was to be Motonica’s day. In the 1:8 class it was Nejc Mihelic who TQ’d the event with his Picco powered Motonica P81. Weather wasn’t too good, with some rain drops all over the weekend and Sunday saw a wet start but it eventually dried out after a few hours and the grip wasn’t too bad to start off with but gradually increased throughout the day. In the final Nejc Mihelic could easily convert with pole position into a 6 lap advantage by the end of the 30 minute race, with Austrian Michael Höller in 2nd and Sasa Matijek in 3rd, completing an all Motonica podium.
Thanks to Nejc Mihelic for the report.
Last weekend saw the first EFRA GP of 2010 take place for 1:8 on road, held at the Jody Scheckter circuit in Fiorano, Italy. With more than 70 drivers in attendance, including World champions Lamberto Collari and Daniele Ialesi, the competition was extremely tough. Following qualifying it was the 9-time World Champion Collari on pole position, followed by Robert Pietsch in 2nd, Andrea Cristiani in 3rd and Walter Salemi in 4th, the final direct qualifier.
Continue reading the report here
The first round of the BRCA 200mm nationals was held at Stonehaven in Scotland last weekend where the Muchmore GP is usually held and reigning champion Kyle Branson sent us this report. Despite severe weather warnings the weather wasn’t too bad. Saturday was a wet start but eventually dried out after a few hours. The grip wasn’t too bad to start off with but gradually increased throughout the day. Our main aim was to try and lower tire wear, due to the nature of the track it was very high. My car was good all day Saturday and I managed to set the fastest lap just ahead of Adam Catchpole. Practice finished at 6:00pm and just after, the rain had started which lead to a wet Sunday morning. In the first round of qualifying everybody had to make a decision on what tire to use and most people went on a rubber tire. I set TQ just ahead of Adam Catchpole in second and Joe Kerry in third, In the second round the track was drying rapidly and I made a wrong choice on tires and Joe Kerry took pole just ahead of Johnathan Dobney. In the third round the track was basically dry and everybody was on normal dry tires. I set TQ on 20 laps with Joe Kerry in second on a fast 19 and Johnathan Dobney a couple of seconds behind him. In the final round I didn’t improve my time due to a mistake and the top 3 stayed the same.
Continue reading the report here
Two updates from US governing body ROAR. The first relates back to what we previously wrote about regarding the new trend of body shells that sport forward mounted cockpits, and states that amongst other things the new Pro-Line Bull Dog buggy body is not allowed to be used at this years ROAR fuel off-road Nationals (further details here). ROAR have also announced the 2010 competition classes to be contested at the 2010 ROAR Electric on-road paved national championship. This year’s class structure will include a new concept in ROAR National championship racing, the sportsman touring car class that will use a named list of ESC’s and 17.5 brushless motors to provide a fair and even playing field and the reduction in speeds ROAR members have been asking for. The traditional stock division has been replaced by the expert division and the modified division has been replaced by the open division.
A perfect Easter Sunday saw the opening round of the 2010 Irish Onroad National Championship take place at the St.Annes track in Dublin where it was to be Shepherd’s day in terms of collecting the main silverware. In the 1:10 200mm Touring class it was reigning champion Chris Steele who narrowly claimed the TQ honours with his Velox V10 over the Serpent 733 of Keith Dempsey. The early part of the race saw the Top 3 pull clear of the field but both Demspey and 3rd place qualifier Chris Lawlor were to hit trouble allowing Steele to cruise to the win. Second spot would go to Robert Boylan who produced a really impressive and solid drive at the controls of his Serpent 733. Recovering from his earlier problems and recording the fastest lap of the race Lawlor managed to get his Kyosho back up to third to claim the final step on the podium.
Continue reading the report here
Rain has washed away the opener of the Nitro West Masters held on the Easter weekend at Oberhausen. Track was wet all Saturday so only a very few racers went out to check rain tyres and their wet set-up. On Sunday morning the track wasn’t dry either but hope came up during the second heats when the track dried up slightly but a few moments later new rain arrived. Finally it was decided in a second drivers briefing during lunch break to count the race following the heats ranking in the 1/8 and 1/10 scale nitro classes.
Continue reading the report here
