Once again our partners Rubedude have an update from the Australian National Offroad Champs from Shepparton, Victoria. With all qualifying done and the lower finals complete and no major surprises have been reported with the fast guys from yesterday still quick today, despite the wind picking up.
Check out the full results and final placings from the event here.
Source: Rube Dude [rubeduderc.com]
Our partner site RubeDude have a report from todays first rounds of qualfying for the Australian National Offroad Champs held in Shepparton, Victoria. After another scorching day at the track it is Matt Griffin who is heading the standings in the buggy class with only 1 round of qualifying left to do, with Ari Bakla in second with his TM M1B and not much further behind are Martin Wolhuter and Craig Laughton in 3rd and 4th driving a Hong Nor and Hot Bodies respectively. In the truggy class, Martin Wolhuter has a slender margin ahead of Justin Millan and Logan Bruecher whilst in the Stadium trucks Craig Laughton tops the leader board from Ron Maya and Zac Ryan.
Read the full report from todays, and also yesterdays, action here.
Source: Rube Dude [rubeduderc.com]
Top Japanese racer and multiple World championship podium finisher, Masao Tanaka has been confirmed to race for Motonica for the 2007 season. Tanaka had previously tested the Motonica prior to last years 1/8th Nationals, but decided for the Mugen as he didn’t have time to learn the car, but obviously he liked the car enough to decide to race with it for the 2007 season. Tanaka has been out of a sponsored drive since Ninja motors were pushed upon Mugen team drivers last year which forced Tanaka to make a decision between staying with Mugen or with Kawahara where he works, who just happen to be the Novarossi importers for Japan, he chose to stay in employment. Whats also interesting is the close relationship now between Motonica and Novarossi, with suggestions that they are both pushing to build an all Italian dream team which could possibly include 7 time World Champion Lamberto Collari.
Image: Eco Model [ecomodel.it]
US driver and former World Champion, Billy Easton, has signed to race for OCM Racing USA and TQ racing fuels. According to the report by Neo Buggy, Easton will not only be the teams star driver but will also head up the North American teams research and development for both brands.
Source: Neo-Buggy [neo-buggy.net]
The newly released Team Associated RC8 buggy has made its race debut at the Nitro Pit in Arizona. Ryan Maifield, who qualified the new car in 4th moved up two spots to take the 2nd spot behind Team Losi racer Mike Truhe who also set the fastest lap of the race over 1 second faster than Maifield. In third position was Jared Tebo who was racing the prototype O’Donnell buggy ahead of Jason Ashton racing the Sidorf who brought it home in 4th.
You can view the PDF of the Expert buggy results here. View a picture of the car in action here.
UPDATE: Neo Buggy have some more action shots of Maifields RC8 here.
Source: RC Tech [rctech.net] Image: Buggy-Sport [buggy-sport.info]
Xray, never one to hold back, have signed yet another big European name, Manuel Huber, to race their new Xray NT1 200mm gas touring car. The multiple Austrian champion and WC/EC finalist will join the Slovakian team with immediate effect and will line up alongside Groskamp, Christensen, Peracho, LeMieux, Burch and Baker to make a formidable team.
The main reasons for my decision to move to Team XRAY are the independent self-production of every part of the car (the XRAY factory is really amazing!), the possibility for quick changes to different parts, and of course the really great teamwork. After driving the NT1, I found it is much faster than the car I was used to racing.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
In Xrays efforts to create a super star team they have acquired the services of Danish racer Martin Christensen. European champion in the now almost dead 235mm class, Martin has also won multiple Danish national titles as well the Nordic Championships on 2 occasions and is definitely a quick racer.
When I arrived at the track and testing area, I was met with a familiarly noise – nitro engines! There was an indoor track with enough space to hold big indoor nitro races. Seeing all this reassured my decision to join Team XRAY. XRAY has what it takes to make world championship cars.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
2006 ROAR Nationals TQ and Team Losi team driver, Travis ‘Peanut’ Amezcua, has signed for Novarossi engines for 2007. Travis had previously run with Sirio up until now and ran with his new Italian power plants at last weekends Losi Winter Champs finishing on the podium in both the buggy and truggy classes.
Source: Neo-Buggy [neo-buggy.net]
