February 19, 2008

Stephane Bouche joins Shepherd Racing

Stephane Bouche joins Shepherd

JP Racing, distributors for Shepherd in France, have announced that leading French 1/8th scale racer Stephane Bouche will race the Velox in this years French and European Championships. Similar to Eric Dankel, Stephane leaves behind a successful spell at Mugen that saw him finish as runner up in last years Nationals and Coupe de France. Joining what is fast becoming a competitive team with Ielasi, Pietsch & Dankel, Bouche is also joined at Shepherd by fellow French racer Richard Volta, a National round winner last year, he too is a former Mugen racer.

Source: JP Racing [jpracing.com]


February 19, 2008

Eric Dankel joins Shepherd Racing

Erik Dankel joins Shepherd Racing

European ‘B’ Vice Champion Eric Dankel from Germany has agreed a 2 year deal with Shepherd Micro Racing to drive their newly released Velox 1/8th scale chassis. Also a top runner in the German Championships, Eric leaves behind former Sponsor Mugen, but will continue with long term engine supplier Novarossi while for fuel and tires he will be using Runner Time and PMT.

Source: Twins Racing [twins-racing.de]


February 14, 2008

2008 Winternats – Wednesday qualifying

2008 Winternats - Wednesday qualifying

Wednesday’s running at the 2008 Winter Nationals in Florida turned out to be a wash out with the rain coming down all morning, eventually stopping around 12 am. With the track starting to dry, around 2pm Jim Rice went on track to dry it with his super drying machine (see picture below) and then sprayed sugar water on the track. Racers were given free practice until 4pm or so and then the organisers continued with the programme, starting with round 2 of the Masters class. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe that not all of the 1/8th scale heats from round 2 have been completed and the organisers are hoping to finish this round as well as get 3 more rounds in on Thursday, with the club given permission to run under flood lights. The 1/10th 200mm class managed to complete their 2nd round and it was Paolo Morganti that has moved to the top of the pack with a quick 2nd round run to move ahead of Paul LeMieux who drops to 2nd, while DJ Apolaro (above) now sits in 3rd. Thanks to The Border for sending us the information.

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February 13, 2008

2008 Winternats – Tuesday qualifying

2008 Winternats - Tuesday qualifying

Tuesday’s first day of qualifying at this years Florida Winternats is over and for the days second run, the rain gods decided to pay a visit to the track and this caused the round to be scrapped. Before the rain arrived, the racing was hot on the track with Mike Swauger setting the pace in 1/8th scale with his JP powered Mugen just in front of newly signed Motonica racer Josh Cyrul in 2nd, while 3rd spot overnight belonged to Aaron Buran. In the 1/10th 200mm class it was Xray NT1 driver Paul LeMieux that was setting the pace, finishing only 1 second up on last years winner Paolo Morganti in 2nd, who had Serpent team mate DJ Apolaro just behind him in 3rd, while rounding out the top 4 was Kyosho driver Chris Tosolini. Wednesday will see a lot of changes up the front as the conditions improve and all the top drivers manage to get a chance to put in a good run, we will keep you updated. Thanks to The Border for sending us the information.

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February 13, 2008

Nacho Lopez wins in Cádiz, Spain

Nacho Lopez wins in Cádiz, Spain

In a warm up race for the upcoming Nationals that takes place at the same venue in a fortnight, Mugen racer Nacho Lopez has dominated at the Cádiz track last weekend. The Tecrotec backed racer was using a prototype of the new Picco Evo3, which was shown last week for the first time at the Picco stand in Germany, and with it managed to TQ the event and break the lap record by 1 second on his way to the overall win of the event.

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February 12, 2008

2008 Winternats – Monday practice

2008 Winternats - Monday practice

We are currently running about half a day late with our reports from the Winternats due to the time difference, with Tuesday’s qualifying now underway here is the practice report from Monday. Again the weather was very nice, at least for us Europeans, and in the 1/8th scale it seems that Kyosho racer Chris Tosolini is setting the pace with young Vincent Jackson also very quick as is Italian veteran Marco Vanni. In the 1/10th class there is more people battling at the front with the top qualifying spot looking to be between Jilles Groskamp, Ralph Burch, Mark Green and last years winner Paolo Morganti. This was the final day for the drivers to perfect their setup and will now head into qualifying with 2 rounds of heats for everyone on Tuesday. We hope to continue to bring you more pictures from the track, and a brief report, tomorrow. Thanks to The Border for sending us the information.

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February 11, 2008

2008 Winternats – Sunday practice

2008 Winternats - Sunday practice

This years annual Winternats held at the Ft Myers track in Florida, is currently underway with a lot of the racers arriving on Sunday before the week of the event to get some practice in on this extremely tight and unforgiving track. Our site sponsors The Border are present with Michel Nijman racing and supporting Jilles Groskamp, and with the time left over will be sending us some photos and updates from the track. Here are the pictures from Sunday’s practice day which saw nice weather with temperatures around 26 degrees Celcius, perfect conditions for racing. As you can see from the photos, a lot of the Europeans are already at the track including multiple winner Michael Salven, who is contesting 2 classes, the Baldes brothers Jorg and Uwe and top Austrians Gerhard Kandelhart and Daniel Tomaschko. Also present racing for the first time with Motonica is new signing Josh Cyrul and new team mate Ron Atomic, who has also just been announced as a KO Propo racer. We hope to bring some more pictures and reports during the week as we get them.

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February 11, 2008

Ron Atomic joins KO Propo

Ron Atomic joins KO Propo

KO Propo America have been in touch to let us know that sedan racing ace Ron Atomic has joined their US team. Ron has proved he has what it takes and in the past five years has made the finals at many ROAR national events, and in doing so has shown great talent and a great work ethic. Ron will be using the new EX-1 UR and KO servos for year.

Source: KO Propo [kopropo.com]