Cristiani wins Italian Champs in Fiorano

The 2008 1/8th scale Italian Championships were held last weekend on the Fiorano track, organized by UISP Federation. In the 1/8 Open calss, it was Andrea Cristiani that claimed the title after taking the TQ spot and fastest lap in qualifying, which was held in dry conditions. In the final however the rain came down hard and despite these tricky conditions, the young Serpent racer set the best lap in the final to take the win ahead of Nicola Smaldone and Emanuele Comoglio in 2nd and 3rd. In the Senior class, open to drivers not ranked in the EFRA 100, it was Motonica racer Matteo Favaro that took victory in front of the Mugen pairing of Stefano Droghetti and Andrea Lorenzi. Finally in the Junior class, only open to Rookie drivers, Serpent took the win with Riccardo D’Angelo beating Giulio Durigon, racing a Motonica, and Nicola Colombari with a Mugen.

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D’Hondt makes it 2 from 2 in Belgium

The 2nd round of the Belgian 1/8th scale Championships was run in Luxembourg at the very nice technical MCCK track. The weather for this round was a bit changeable with rain in some of the qualifiers and finals. Qualifying saw a close battle between Serpent drivers Steven Cuypers and reigning National Champion Robin D’Hondt, the former claiming the pole position by 2 seconds ahead of Robin, with Gunther Van Staey ending up 3rd. With the rain deciding to come down after qualifying, when the track eventually dried for the last final the grip was very low. The start of the final saw Robin get by his team mate after 2 laps, and proceed to pull away, crossing the line 30 minutes later with a 3 lap gap back to runner-up Gunther Van Staey, while Richard Dirk rounded out the podium in 3rd, 2 laps further back.

Ström & Fransson win Swedish Cup Rd2

The 2nd round of the Swedish Cup for Nitro track racing took place last weekend at the Växjö track in in the south east of Sweden. Saturday’s practice was run in nice weather and in the 1/8th scale class it was young Kyosho driver Niklas Johansson who TQ’d ahead of Mugen racer Mikael Fransson with Marcus Lindner in 3rd for Kyosho. In the 1/10 scale class it was Kyosho drivers Alexander Andersson and Roland Ström that took the two first qualifying places followed by Serpent driver Tommy Bergfeldt. All the finals were held on Sunday and despite it being dry, it was rather cold, around 6 degrees. The 1/8th final was an exciting race with the drivers opting for different strategies due to fuel consumption and tire changes. In the end Mikael Fransson took the win followed by Marcus Lindner, running very close to the track lap record, with 3rd spot going to Serpent driver Christoffer Hallborg. In the 1/10th scale final the drama begun on the starting grid as top qualifier Alexander Andersson had his gearbox come loose. This made it easy for Roland Ström, who drove a controlled and stable race to the chequered flag, claiming the win in front of Serpent racer Per-Ola Hård, while 3rd spot went to young driver Edwin Sunesson racing a Kyosho.

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Kyle Branson wins BRCA 200mm Rd3

The 3rd round of the British 1/10th scale Nationals took place last weekend in Mendip under dry conditions, following some damp practice sessions on Saturday. Qualifying went the way of young Serpent racer Kyle Branson, who took pole position by half a second in front of team mate Mark Green. The main final started off with a close battle between the front 2, seeing Kyle lead for the first 5 minutes, only dropping to 2nd for one lap while going for fuel, immediately regaining the lead on exiting the pit lane. This order stayed the same until Mark had problems and dropped down the field, which allowed Kyle to cruise to a 2 lap victory, his first National win, ahead of 2nd placed Robin Hammet with his Xray team mate Gareth Bell 3rd.

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Schuitmaker wins Rd2 Dutch 10th Nats

The 2nd round of the Dutch 1/10th scale Nationals was run last weekend at the super fast Baanbrekers track in Rucphen in the South West of the country. Saturday’s practice was interrupted by rain and this meant that many drivers had problems getting a setup for the cars for Sunday’s race. Qualifying on Sunday was run in the dry and in the National class it was newly signed Xray racer Daan Jacobs that took the pole position just ahead of local racer Pedro Rombouts in 2nd, with Serpent pairing of Ruud Schuitmaker and Remy Moller rounding out the top 4. The Nomac class was TQ’d by Ricardo Dam, 2 seconds ahead of Ingeborg Gommers, while in the 1/8th Promo class Peter van Koningsveld took a clear pole position ahead of Matt Hukkelhoven in 2nd. The National final saw a close race with Daan and Ruud continuing their battle from round 1, but unfortunately Daan ran into some problems leaving Ruud to pull out an advantage and take the win from Kyosho racer Jurgen Geerligs in 2nd, 6 seconds back and Remy Muller in 3rd, a further 1 second back. In the Nomac class, it was Xray driver Jurmin Etnel that won, by just over a lap from Ricardo Dam in 2nd and Peter Verkerk in 3rd, 4 laps back. The 1/8th Promo class was won by Paul Conradi, who came through from 5th on the grid to win by 5 laps ahead of Peter Ende, with Niels Reijnders in 3rd.

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Lacey & Doran take Irish Nationals Rd2

The second round of the Irish On Road Nitro Nationals took place over the weekend at the St. Annes track in the Irish Capital of Dublin and it was returning young ace Dean Lacey who took top honours in 1:8 at the controls of his Serpent 960. Fellow Serpent driver Graeme Lougheed was the Top Qualifier but a startline incident ended his chances of victory. This allowed Lacey to take control and make the perfect return to sport after a 10 month absence as he claimed the win ahead of the Kyosho’s of Colin Whelan and Nico Azzariti. In the 1:10 200mm A Final Eoin Doran made it two out of two with his Xray as he headed home TQ Qualifier Chris Lawlor and Colm Gaffney who both were driving Serpent.

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