Capricorn RC have announced that front running Italian touring car racer Niki Duina has joined their team for 2010. The former Xray driver will race the company’s new LAB-C01 chassis which has been proving quite competitive in the hands of new team mate Chris Tosolini, and will compete in the Italian Nationals together with this year’s World Championship in Houston, Texas.
Source: Capricorn RC [capricornrc.com]
Following a deal with Shepherd to supply him with their own brand tires, MLC fuel and Novarossi engines, Tobias Hepp has also been confirmed with Serpent for 2010. The Serpent 966 is very much to Tobias’ liking and he expects to do very well in the Germans Nationals and this year’s European Championship in Italy. The co-operation with Michael Salven is working really well at races and together with the help of his dad/mechanic Rudiger Hepp it has enabled Tobais to continue to get faster. Tobias will also race a number of 1/10th races with the Serpent 733 in 2010.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
The annual BRCA National Warm Up event took place at Frankley over the weekend and saw Craig Drescher stake his intentions for the up up coming season. The weather turned out to be dry which looked pretty unlikely in the week up to the race, but dry it was. In qualifying the Associated RC8B’s of Craig Drescher and Neil Cragg were on fire, taking all the round wins between them and putting Neil Cragg on pole position. Neil & Craig were using the new ST version of the Reedy engine and Reedy 2039 pipe set which are both due to be released soon. Neil was also the only driver able to get through for the sacred 9 lap run, which on this largely unchanged track layout, only Neil and Darren Bloomfield have ever achieved.
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Last weekend the first round of the Team Losi Racing Winter Series took place at Revelation Raceway. Adam Drake put in great runs in both rounds of qualifying and started on pole in buggy and truck. The buggy final was all Drake. Cody King moved into second at the start of the buggy final, but wasn’t able to match the pace of The Drake and eventually had a flameout. This opened the door for Matt Schreffler who finished in the runner up spot, 1 lap behind race winner Adam. The truck final was a great race with Adam and Matt battling most of the final with Adam able to take home the victory followed by Matt.
Round 1 of the French 1/8th buggy Nationals took place last weekend in Loudun in the west of the country. Qualifying saw Losi/Novarossi racer Yannick Aigoin take the TQ spot ahead of his brother Jerome Aigoin in 2nd for Kyosho, with Jerome Sartel for Xray in 3rd and recently crowned Australian Champion Renaud Savoya in 4th for Mugen. With little drama for the front runners in the semis, Yannick would start from pole position but a crash early on in the race would sideline him for a number of laps as his car received attention. This left a battle out front between Savoya and Jerome Aigoin, but with the latter running longer on a tank he could gain an advantage that saw him up front when it mattered and would take the win in front of Savoya in 2nd, with Sartel taking the final podium spot in 3rd.
Source: RC Mag [rcmag.com]
Last Sunday the first round of the Portuguese Regional was held in the Circuito Automodelismo do Funchal. This year the qualifying rounds were extended from 5 to 7 minutes making the fight for the pole position very close. Team Magic driver Mario Oliveira took the pole position but the first seven drivers all managed to complete 21 laps. Mugen driver Luis Cortez, who had engine problems all weekend and opted to change to a Siro XXX for the final, started from 4th position and took the early lead of the race and managed to win the race with 87 laps. Kyosho driver Paulo Rodrigues lost six positions following a driver error, but drove a very good race managing to get the 2nd position of the podium on the final lap. The current regional champion Duarte Faria, who started from the second position on the grid, set a new track record but at the final stage of the race didn’t have any rear tires left and he ended up in 3rd.
Thanks to Paulo Rodrigues for the report.
Mugen has boosted its German team for the 2010 on road season. Since years Sebastian Buerge, Rene Puepke and Philipp Sting have been pillars of Mugen Team Germany which has now seen Christian Wurst coming home to the Japanese manufacturer as well as Joerg and Uwe Baldes as newcomers. Needless to say that factory driver Robert Pietsch will also keep the Mugen flag flying on German tracks, as well as Steven Cuypers from Belgium.
“We have a strong and experienced team to enter races in Germany and of course on an international level”, says Stefan Habbecke of Mugen Seiki Europe (MSE) located in Gelsenkrichen/Germany. “We are ambitious and committed. Not only success is our aim but also to convince with an exemplary teamwork as a benefit for all Mugen racers”.
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Pro-Line have announced the addition of Robert Batlle to their team for the 2010 season. With Robert’s proven track record he will be a key player both on and off the track and the US company looks forward to working with former European Champion to continue to develop innovation that wins. Robert had the following to say about the deal:
I’m really happy to become a Pro-Line factory team driver, I know that Pro-Line is the best RC tires factory and they have the best drivers around the world. I’m really excited to start racing with them, I know I will have to adapt with the new tires, however I hope to achieve important titles together. My team will work as harder as we know, and we hope this effort to become good results. Thanks to Pro-Line for trusting in us.
Source: Pro-Line [prolineracing.com]
