The large and fast Lostallo track in Switzerland played host to a fun team race for 1/8th scale gas recently. The race would be run over an hour and a half and would comprise of teams of 3 drivers. The race was won by the 3 Amigos team that consisted of Shasa Lackner, Tom Knorn and Roland Slaepfer, ending the race 7 laps ahead of the 2nd placed team Ticino Express who had Mattia Pesenti, Erol Sehirtoy and current Champion Marco Müller.
The 2nd round of the North German qualification regionals took place recently at the Munster track and it saw 23 drivers in attendance. Qualification saw Kyosho team driver Lars Hoppe take the pole from the Serpent drivers Merlin Depta, Lennert Skomia and Jürgen Hennemuth. In the race the positions of the top 3 never changed and Lars could take the win from Depta in 2nd and Skomia 3rd.
With the IFMAR 1:10 Electric Onroad World Championships less than a month away many of the leading manufacturers have been conducting private testing at the RCS track in Thailand as they make final preparations for the bi-annual event. At last weekend’s Euro Touring Series race in German we spoke with former European Champion Ronald Volker who had just returned from a successful test in Bangkok while Pre-Worlds winner Viktor Wilck and team-mates Jilles Groskamp & Marc Rheinard told us they had just a few days to get ready before flying out to Asia together with Tamiya’s engineers to test new parts for the TRF416. The other big title challenger, Xray, was also in Bangkok this week but appeared to want to keep their WC challenger out of the public eye. Our sources in Thailand have told us that both Teemu Leino and Alex Hagberg’s cars were fitted with a number of new prototype parts which we understand are for a new car which is rumoured to be released by the Slovakian company ahead of the 2009 season. Juraj Hudy, who is the creative genius behind all Xray cars, together with Martin Hudy were on hand to support Leino & Hagberg at the test and according to our source they did not want the new parts (car?) to be seen with both drivers keeping their cars well covered up at all time. Red RC will be travelling to Thailand to bring you full coverage of the World Championships where a certain Mr. Hara could make history by adding to the 1:8 Buggy World title he won last month in the US.
Click here for Hagberg picture….. content
Team Shepherd has extended their product range with the launch of two new low-friction rubber belts for the front and the rear axles of its successful Velox 1:8 onroad car. The new belts are much softer and more flexible than the standard versions and allow the drive train to run more freely. This ensures that the engine power is efficiently transfered into speed. Although the softer belts wear faster, the extra power and decreased fuel consumption offers racers that little extra advantage.
Source: Team Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
Raimondo Gilletti has won the third round of the Italian Regional Championship (Sicily) which was held at the LeCocoBeach track in Catania over the weekend. Driving his Novarossi powered Team Magic G4RS, Gilletti claimed the TQ setting a new track record of 10.82 seconds. In the final he went on to take victory from Kyosho driver Michele Perniciaro with Marco Lipuma, also driving a Kyosho, completing the podium.
Source: Cybermodel [cybermodel.it]
Last weekend saw the conclusion of the Spanish 1:10 EP Touring National Championship in Toledo where reigning champion Toni Mateo successfully defended his title in the best way possible by winning the event. Finishing second to the Tamiya driver in the season finale was David Escudero who takes Vice-Champion honours. David Martín completed the podium in Toledo ahead Jordi Padró who claims third spot in the final standings.
Chris Tosolini has won the 2008 ROAR Fuel Sedan Nationals which took place at the Fort Myers track in Florida over the weekend. With defending Champion Barry Baker, who won the title in ’07 with Xray, abscent this year following his departure from Team Magic, it was all to play for. Once again it was the super fast Paul Lemeiux, who came so close to winning the Worlds earlier this year, that took the TQ honours with his Xray NT1. Next to him on the grid was Serpent’s Paolo Morganti but in the one hour final the leading qualifiers would hit trouble allowing Tosolini’s Sirio powered Kyosho to take the win and regain the title he won in 2006 when he debuted Serpent’s new 720. Second spot went to Josh Cyrul while Bobby Flack completed the podium.
Click more to see the final results … content
Taiwanese company Edam, who last year entered the 1:8 Onroad market with its Razor, are about to enter the 1:10 market with a new nitro car which will be officially unveiled at the iHobby Expo in the US later this week. For now Edam have just released a CAD image of the new car but pictures of the final production model should be available in the next 24 hours. More news to follow.
Source: Edam [edam.com.tw]
