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May 26, 2009

Hard & Andersson win Rd2 in Sweden

Årsunda, a village in the middle of Sweden, played host to the 2nd round of the Swedish national series. The track is very technical and a bit bumpy, so its demanding for both the car and the setup. Following practice, which was disturbed by rain Saturday saw four rounds of qualifying with the first three taking place in good weather and the last round unfortunately rained out. Qualifying went the way of Serpent driver Per Ola Hard, setting a new lap record on his way to TQ, some 7 seconds clear of 2nd placed Edwin Sunesson, with Markus Hellquist in 3rd. In the 1/8th scale class the TQ was taken by Magnus Bengtsson running a Mugen. The finals on Sunday say Peo get a a clean start and was able to work up a good lead and despite some errors in the middle of the race, was able to win by 2 laps ahead of young Markus Hellquist in 2nd and Thomas Livbom in 3rd. In the 1/8th scale class Stefan Andersson won the final driving his Serpent 966.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

May 26, 2009

Todd & Baird take Rd1 honours in Ireland

The opening round of the RCCAOI Irish National 1:8 Off Road Championships took place over the weekend at the well presented Navan Nitro Nuts Astroturf track where superb sunny conditions greeted the 40+ strong entry. In Qualifying it was Alan Bickerstaff, better known for his electric touring car exploits, that secured pole after TQ’ing 3 of the four rounds of qualifying with his Associated RC8. Second on the grid went to Team Xray’s Barkley Abernethy, who TQ’d the opening qualifier. Next up was Losi team driver Michael Todd followed by defending Champion Mark Harron and his Hot Bodies with Crono’s David Curtis and Kyosho’s Gary Baird completing the top 6 on the grid.

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May 26, 2009

Jilles Groskamp to race gas for Serpent

Serpent have announced that top international electric racer Jilles Groskamp from the Netherlands, has made an agreement to test and race the company’s gas powered cars. Not a stranger to gas racing, the Tamiya Factory driver TQd last years 1/10th scale 200mm World Championships in Portugal and has competed at numerous other gas events, most recently the Dutch EFRA GP where he was a direct qualifier for the main final. As we already reported, he has tested the production prototype of the new Serpent 200mm gas car and, that along with DJ Apolaro, will run the car at the Turkish GP in Bursa next week. After that there will be a lot more test work and preparation to get ready for the European Championships for 1/10th scale that takes place in Gubbio, Italy in July. Jilles will be racing the Serpent 7XX with Max Power engines and continues to be sponsored by Xceed for tools a deal which will now include fuel and bodies.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

May 25, 2009

Renaud Savoya takes Rd3 in France

The 3rd round of the French off road National Championship was held last weekend at the Horbourg-Wihr track, situated close to the German border in the east of the country. Qualifying went the way of the Euros Warmup winner Yannick Aigoin driving his Novarossi powered Losi, just edging out current European Champion and winner of round 2, Renaud Savoya with his RB powered Mugen chassis. Problems in the semi final however meant that Yannick couldnt make the main final, while Jérôme Aigoin upheld the family name to take the pole position for the main final in front of Savoya. Following the 1 hour long final it was Renaud that would come out on top, a lap ahead of 2nd place finisher Jérôme Sartel racing for Xray, while Jérôme Aigoin had to settle for 3rd, a lap further back.

Source: RC Mag [rcmag.com]

May 24, 2009

Andy Báez dominates Rd5 in Puerto Rico

The 5th round of the Puerto Rico NOS Series Championship was run recently at the Barceloneta track. In the 1/8th scale class it was Mugen Team driver Andy Báez who TQ’d and led the 30 minutes main from beginning to end, taking the victory ahead of his Mugen team mate Fernando Méndez in 2nd, with Amaury Alvarez driving a Kyosho Evola M3 taking 3rd. In the sedan class it was again Andy on TQ for Mugen and he once again took the win in the 40 minutes race. In 2nd place was Mugen team mate Fernando Mendez who recovered to hold the position after having problems at the beginning of the race, while in 3rd place was Norberto Rodríguez with an excellent drive with his Xray NT1, denying championship leader Juan Rodriguez of a podium finish. In the 1/10 outlaw class, Serpent driver Edgar Tirado easily took the first position, winning from Brian Ramos, who after having a difficult start took 2nd, with lady Mugen Driver Zobeida Ocasio taking it easy to finish in 3rd position at the end of the 35 minutes main.

Click here to see the other podiums

May 21, 2009

Gerhard Kandelhart confirmed for BUMOD GP

The organisers of the Bumod Turkish Grand Prix, which takes place in Bursa, Turkey from the 4th to the 7th of June have been in touch once more to tell us that they have confirmed entry from former European Champion Gerhard Kandelhart. The Austrian driver, who recently TQ’d the Euro B’s in his home country will be running his Xray NT1 alongside other well known gas racers such as Daniele Ielasi, Surikarn C., Michael Salven, Jilles Groskamp, Robert Pietsch, DJ Apolaro, Patrick Schaefer and Dirk Wischnewski. Entry is now open for this event and you are guaranteed a warm reception from the Turkish hosts, who will also arrange transport and help find the best accommodation. Red RC will also be present throughout the event bringing live reports each day on our Events page.

For more information about the event visit the official site here.

May 20, 2009

Pedro Rombouts wins Rd2 Dutch 10th Nats

Round 2 of the Dutch 1/10th scale Nationals took place over the weekend at the quick Baanbrekers track in Ruchphen, who put on another well organised event. Weather was very mixed all weekend with rain early in the day meaning everyone skipped the 1st qualifier and only went out in the 2nd and 3rd, with some rain falling again after, but for the finals it was dry. Qualifying for the NK class went the way of local driver Pedro Rombouts, well ahead of Jurgen Geerlings in 2nd, Ricardo van Dam and Maarten van Lierop rounding out the top 4. In the Nomac class Davy Geraets took pole position and in the 1/8th promo series Paul Conradi took top spot. The NK class saw a very good final with pole man Rombouts the fastest guy on the track but some mistakes throughout the 30 minute final allowed Euro B podium finisher Daan Jacobs through to the lead. Pedro didn’t give up and closed the gap into the leader every lap over the last 5 minutes, getting within striking distance on the last 4 corners and pulling off the move on the very last corner to win by 0.007 of a second from Daan, with Maarten van Lierop 3rd. The Nomac class was won by Emiel Lensink from Theun Zoethout and Martijn Aarden, while in the Promo class it was Luigi Pili from Ron Veger and Wesley van Silfhout.

Click here to see the final results

May 19, 2009

Cuypers & Renaux win Belgian Nats Rd2

The 2nd round of the 1/8th & 1/10th IC Track Belgian National Championships took place over the weekend at the Mini circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”. On Saturday during the practice the weather conditions where quite good, windy and cold but dry, but during the night there where thunderstorms so the track was wet on Sunday morning meaning a lot of drivers didn’t drive the first qualifying round. In the 1/8th class it was Steven Cuypers with his Mugen/Sirio that took the pole followed by Gunther Van Staey in 2nd place, Tom Smolderen in 3rd and Daan Haling taking the last direct spot in 4th.

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