[youtube]gE-mPxuv2gw[/youtube]
Here are some videos from the 4wd class at the European Electric buggy Championships held in Vassa, Finland in which Hupo Hönigl took the win for Tamiya. We have the 3 videos showing the all 3 A-mains, with the first final shown above and the other two parts, along with the jumping contest, below.
Click more to see the other videos… content
Our partners Rube Dude have a report from the first round of the WA Challenge Cup that was held last weekend in Geraldton, Western Australia. The event was open to both buggy and truggy classes and in the buggy class it was a win for HongNor racer Logan Bruecher who tore it up on the track to win by 2 laps ahead of Ian Haley racing the OCM, while 3rd spot went to Darren Wiese, who had lead the race for some time but dropped back later in the race. In the truggy class it was a win for 13 year old Josh Taylor who came home 2 laps ahead of runner up John Grupillo in 2nd and Jack Tompsett, a further 2 laps back, in 3rd.
Read the full report here.
Source: Rube Dude [rubeduderc.com]
Our partners Neo Buggy have announced that they will once more run their popular Neo indoor race, which for this year will be called the Neo08, replacing the previous Neo Invitational name. Run in association with DXR and at the same great venue as the 2006 running of the event, the Harper Adams College, Newport, Shropshire UK, the 2008 event will be run over 4 days from the 21st – 24th of March.
The 3rd edition of the Neo Race returns to the Harper Adams indoor venue for Easter 2008. After the very successful 2006 race, DXR and Neo-Buggy will once again join together to organise and run Neo08. The DXR team are known for their excellent events run at the Harper Adams venue, and pairing with Neo-Buggy we hope that this race will be the best yet. The event will be a 4 day race, using IFMAR adapted rules; 10min heats for practice and qualifying and standard Christmas tree finals. Entry limit is set at 210 drivers.
More information to come at the official site Neo08.net
CEN team driver Gene ‘The Machine’ Hickersen has been in touch and provided us with a report from the 2nd round of the RC Pro East series which was held last weekend at Lake Park in Tampa, Florida.
Drivers came down to sunny FL from as far as North Carolina to compete for the East Coat RC Pro Championship. There was around 145 entries even with a 60% chance of rain. Friday was open practice on the fast and technical layout. JR Mitch was spotted driving his Team Associated RC8 for the 1st time since the ROAR Nationals last month. I drove really bad at the Nationals, as 63rd was by far the worst I have ever done at a National race in my 21 year racing career, so I was thinking about making changes to my car to find some extra speed to get back on pace.
Continue Reading… content
Xray have a report on their site from the recently held Estonian Championship which were run for 1/8th buggy and truggy classes. In qualifying it was Xray driver Jaanus Kesküla that took the top qualifying spot in both classes and in the truggy final he could easily win the event, despite some technical problems late into the race, finishing in front of team mates Marek Männing and Allar Rebane in 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the buggy final it was more of the same for Jaanus who ran away with the event to win from Rando Mere in 2nd and Siim Sildver in 3rd.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Austrian driver Hupo Hupo Hönigl has just won the 4wd European Electric buggy Championships, run today in Vassa, Finland. The Tamiya driver who was quickest overnight had carried forward his form to claim the event TQ ahead of Richard Taylor in 2nd and 2wd Champion Neil Cragg in 3rd. In the finals it was a great start for Cragg, the Yokomo driver claiming the first win and going on to record two 2nd places as well, but it was still not enough as Hönigl, who had a bad first result with a 4th, got his head down and took the win the in 2nd and 3rd final and with only 2 rounds from the 3 counting, this was enough for the crown. Neil Cragg with his consistent run claimed 2nd spot while JConcepts racer Richard Cree claimed 3rd position, while on the same points as Neumann with the Durango, his 2nd position in the first round meant the decision went in his favour.
Click to see the final standings… content
With the 2wd class at this years Euros in Finland finished, the racers have gotten out their 4wd buggies to go at it for the next title up for grabs, that of 4wd European Champion. As we reported previously, practice for this class started yesterday with Jörn Neumann setting the pace, along with Neil Cragg and Hupo Hönigl and today that was again the case but some did better than others in turning that pace into a result during qualifying. After 3 of 5 rounds of qualifying already completed, and with only 3 counting, it is Austrian Tamiya racer Hupo Hönigl that is in the hot seat claiming a 1st, a 2nd and a 4th postion while in 2nd overnight is Lee Martin, who also has a win and a 4th but had a bad run in the 3rd qualifier and ended with a 19th. In 3rd position is Richard Barton, while Neil Cragg is in 4th and Neumann who has shown pace since 4wd began managed the bag the win in the 3rd final, but poor results in the 1st and 2nd heats sees him down in 10th with some work to do tomorrow to secure his place in the A-final.
Click here to see the overnight top 10… content
Team Orion are reporting on last weekends Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout in Saugus, California, which was being held for the 10th year in its history. This race, for most US drivers, is the last big off-road race before Septemers IFMAR off-road electric world championships in Japan, and due to this there was a large presence of top drivers and factory teams. At the end of qualifying, it was Associated driver Ryan Cavalieri who was sitting on the pole position in all 3 modified classes with his Team Orion powered rides and he duly went on to win the first two A mains in the modified truck class to give him his first title of the weekend, the other two classes going down to the 3rd final. In the 4wd Modified A3 Main, Ryan pulled away from the field at the start and never looked back winning by a considerable margin giving Ryan his second championship of the weekend. The last title up for grabs was in the 2wd Modified class in which Ryan drove a very smart race, finishing 2nd and giving him the overall win and his 3rd championship of the weekend.
Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]
