The final round of the Peruvian 1/8th Off-road Nationals was held in Lima, Peru recently. IGT8’s Fabrizio Martello took the overall TQ and also the win with his pre-production buggy from Xray’s Sergio Suarez in 2nd and Mugen’s Alejandro Nieto in 3rd. Mugen’s Ian Alencastre and Xray’s Marco Alvarez would complete the top 5 results.
Continue reading the report here
Gary Huang has taken an emotional win tonight in Xiamen, China in the 1/8th Main final. The Xray driver overcame a flameout to take a very popular win in front of a partisan crowd at the SIGP. Behind it was Merlin Depta who finished in 2nd place, one and a half laps back, the German driver leading following the Chinese driver’s flameout. Completing the podium here at the ARC International Raceway was veteran Italian racer Marco Vanni. Pole sitter Jeff Hamon had a troubled race as he lost touch with Gary Huang early on before hitting major engine troubles, the result of the Australian having set his engine too lean prior to the final. Feeling the win was retribution for not being able to travel to the Worlds last month in California due to visa problems, long time mechanic Gavin Kwok was overcome with emotion as his driver took the checkered flag. Explaining his flameout, he said he was on his in-lap when the Max engine rolled to a stop near the end of the lap. The Xray driver was running 2 laps more than everyone else but he believes it was the smaller tires that had increased consumption and caught them out. Restarted and back on track he battled his way back from 4th, pushing like crazy to take over the lead again with 15 minutes left and hold on for the rest of the race and take his first SIGP nitro win.
Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.
Thunder Alley Raceway of Beaumont, California held the inaugural Buggyland USA race this past weekend, attracting nearly 170 entries for the usual USA mix of Open, intermediate and Sportsman nitro and electric off-road classes. In Open Nitro Buggy it was Tekno RC’s Jared Tebo with the overall TQ and he would also come out on top in the 45-minute A-main event after a flawless run, leaving behind 4th place qualifier, Mugen’s Ryan Maifield in 2nd while CJ Jelin (Kyosho), runner-up after the qualifiers, would round out the top 3 result. Joe Bornhorst and Tanner Denney would round out the top 5 results.
With EP now over, attention turns back to Nitro, which will run through the rest of Saturday and all through Sunday. With the nitro action again taking place under flood lights it was the perfect conditions to set a fast time but drama in the fastest heat as the car of Meen Vejrak, who was on TQ pace, start to spew smoke out the rear of the bodyshell for about 2 laps before going off at the end of the straight and going on fire. A dragging battery cable seemingly the culprit but the car is completely destroyed from both the fire and the impact. This misfortune allowed Jeff Hamon to take over at the front and claim the TQ spot ahead of another Thai Maxima driver Charlee P, with top seed Kim Ki Heung in 3rd, Motor King in 4th and Meen Vejrak with his Q2 time giving him P5 for tomorrow’s 45 minute A-main. Jeff felt he had a slipping clutch throughout his run but said it stayed consistent for the entire run. Happy with a change he made to softer springs, he thinks for the final the car is easy to drive and apart from setting the clutch properly will work out strategy closer to the race time.
Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.
Bruno Coelho has taken the overall win in the Modified class at the 2019 SIGP in Xiamen, China. The Xray driver took his 2nd win in A2 to complete the perfect weekend and claim the SIGP title and with it the 20,000 RMB prize money. Never really challenged in the deciding second A-main, it was Akio Sobue who took the runner up spot ahead of Dominic Quek and Meen Vejrak, but in A3 it was the Thai driver that took the win, as Coelho started from the back of the grid, with Akio finishing in 2nd, the result meaning that Vejrak would finish 2nd overall with Sobue completing the podium. Asked about the deciding A2, Coelho said it was a very similar race to A1 with the time spent waiting on the grid the only reason for concern forcing the World Champion to be quite cautious on the opening lap. Once up to speed he could pull a gap to Sobue and once control the race.
Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.
Meen Vejrak has taken the opening round of qualifying for 1/8th Nitro at the ARC International Raceway in Xiamen. The Maxima team driver ended the 4 minute run 1.5 seconds in front of top seed Kim Ki Heung from Korea. Behind the leading pair it was Gary Huang for Xray in 3rd, while Motor King took 4th with Matrix front man Cristian Boni completing the top 5. Vejrak commented that when he initially put his car down, the former 1/10th Nitro WC running an Infinity chassis this weekend, it had no steering but an adjustment to the rear toe-in and his car was much better. Happy to make a clean run, Meen felt that his Maxima engine was a little rich at the start but pushing it harder it meant it cleared out and he could put in a good run.
Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.
Korean driver Kim Ki Heung has completed practice for the 1/8th scale Nitro class in Xiamen as the top seed going into qualifying. The Shepherd driver came through from the 2nd fastest heat, beating out a whole host of international names in both rounds of controlled practice to make his intentions known going into qualifying. Behind it was World Championship finalist Jeff Hamon in 2nd, some 6 tenths back with his Serpent, while Maxima team mates Meen Vejrak and Charlee P were 3rd and 4th. Having spent 2 days here in China to test ahead of today’s official action, Kim declared himself happy with his OS powered Velox and said that he is a fan of the track layout that the organisers have used for the event.
Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.
The second round of the 2020 AWS was held at the NDOR Notts & Derby Off Road club in the UK last weekend. In the Nitro Buggy class it was Jack Hirst with the TQ and win, a lap in front of runner-up, Mitch Booth after the 15-minute main final. Kieran Cox came in 3rd while Matt Lewis and Liam Brocklehurst rounded out the top 5 results.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
