Top international on road racer Jilles Groskamp has signed to race with Hot Race tyres for the 2012 season. The decision was made following extensive testing at the Pre Worlds in Bangkok, where Jilles was pleased with their performance. The Capricorn/Orion driver will participate with Hot Race tyres in this year’s European Championships in Cassino as well as the 1/10th 200mm World Championships in Bangkok.

Source: Hot Race Tyres [hotracerc.com]

ORCA have announced that they have signed factory Xray driver Alexander Hagberg. The Swedish driver, who previously drove for LRP, had the best possible start to his new relationship by taking his first big international win at the Snowbird Nationals last weekend in Florida. Alex had this to say:

After five years as a team driver for LRP Electronic in Germany, I would like to thank them for their support over the years. They helped to start off my international career. In 2012 I am changing to ORCA electronics in all my cars. I was immediately impressed with the on-track performance of these products, which provide a good feeling, power, efficiency and consistency for all conditions. I started out my cooperation with ORCA in the best possible way with a win in the Touring Car Modified class at the recent Snowbird Nationals in Florida. I hope that this is only the start of a long and successful relationship with ORCA.

Source: AME [team-ame.com]

A brief report from the 1/12th 13.5 GTP class at last weekend’s Snowbird Nationals in Orlando, Florida. It was On Point Racing’s German team driver Markus Mobers that took the top spot in qualifying, doing so in the final round to start on pole ahead of Larry Fairtrace and World Champion Naoto Matsukura in 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the final Markus drove his Team Orion powered OP12C to the win by just 1.3 seconds ahead of Andrew Knapp in 2nd, with Mike Blackstock completing the podium in 3rd.

Source: On Point Racing [onpointracing.com]

The 2012 Snowbirds were held at the World Gate resort in Orlando Florida. The format of this race is special due to the racing of both On-road and oval. The racing goes on for almost 24hrs a day with a track change between on road and oval every day. This year the attendance and competition was large do in part to the international attendance, several EU countries were represented along with Japan and obviously North America. In Mod TC it was Alex Hagberg showing good early pace, Alex had just come from the ETS race where he showed good speed so he was rightfully on everyone’s radar. Not to anyones surprise also showing speed at the beginning was Naoto Matsukura and Kevin Hebert.

Continue reading the report here.

Image: Jill Dorp

This past weekend in Shenzhen, Southern China, the newly built KRC track hosted the annual China Fortune (Fa Cai) Nitro Championships for 1:10 sedan.  The race saw drivers from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and is considered one of the major nitro races in China as well as the first race of the nitro season in China. 14 years-old Mugen driver JJ Wang driving his Novarossi powered MTX5 won the 45-minute “A” Main final by 2 laps over second place Xray driver Li Jia Wei from Guangzhou, and in third place was Taiwan’s Xray driver Howard Zhuo.

Results:
1. JJ Wang (Mugen MTX5)
2. Li Jia Wei (Xray NT1)
3. Howard Zhuo (Xray NT1)
4. Huang Jun Qu (Xray NT1)
5. Gary Zhuo (Xray NT1)
6. Huang Jiu Fa (Xray NT1)
7. Fei Zai Wei (Mugen MTX5)
8. Huang Jun Hao (Mugen MTX5)
9. Li Cong (Mugen MTX5)
10. Jiang Dong (KM HK1)

The Mini Outlaw Class championships at the Chippenham Winter Indoor Series concluded last weekend, with over half the entrants using the TOP Mini Sabre FD chassis. The top 5 positiions in the A-main were filled with Sabre drivers, with TOP Racing UK and Lesro Models team driver, Mark Williams taking the overall win from 2nd place John Pryor. In 3rd, was TOP UK and Lesro Models team driver Stuart Parnell with Bob Styles in 4th and Tim Woron in 5th. In the Mini Formula class, a tie on points at the top meant a count back to the ninth round was needed to give Muchmore UK team driver David Allen the championship ahead of Joe Keaveney in 2nd place.

Source: TOP Racing UK [topracinguk.com]

Reedy and CML France are pleased to announce the signing of top French 1/8th off road racer Nicolas Rodriguez for the 2012 season. Nicolas, who has previously used Reedy engines, is a former podium finisher at the European Championships, French Cup winner and solid A Finalist throughout the French National Series, and will be looking for a successful season with new sponsors. He will be using the full Reedy range of engines, pipes, plugs and accessories in his Hong Nor Sabre for 2012, and everyone at CML and Reedy wish him the best of luck at this weekends season opening Montpellier GP.

Source: CML [cmldistribution.co.uk]

Team HB have confirmed the addition of former Xray driver Teemu Leino to its ranks to join other new signing Shin Adachi alongside Atsushi Hara, Andy Moore, Ty Tessmann and Jesse Robbers. Teemu is a multiple world class race winner, with previous wins at the LRP Race, TITC, IIC and the European Championships. Plus multiple podiums at the European Championships and a 3rd place finish at the World Championships. Teemu will be a valuable addition to the World Championship Winning Team HB. Here are a few words from Teemu Leino:

I choose HB as they have the best cars for my racing classes. Also the HB Team always prepare well for big races like the World Championships, which are on this year. The HB Team also has some of my good friends so I should have fun at the tracks.

Source: HB [hotbodiesonline.com]

Schumacher would like to announce that top UK Off Road driver Simon Moss has re-joined the team for 2012.  After a winter spell away from Schumacher, Simon is now back to join their team to run the new Cougar SV2 and CAT SX3 cars. Simon had this to say:

Its a great feeling to be back at the team where I feel I belong. I’m really looking forward to the 2012 season and working hard to have another fantastic year driving for Schumacher. I would like to thank Shaun and the guys at Ansmann for their support over the winter, but unfortunately things didn’t work out.  I’d like to thank the guys at Schumacher for making this move happen. It should be a great year ahead

Simon’s first race was at the Schumacher Indoor Masters at Worksop this last weekend where he finished an excellent 3rd in 2WD and 4th in 4WD.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

The fifth round of the South Swedish Indoor Cup was held on an indoor track, in Växjö, southern Sweden. The track saw some low grip and a fairly easy layout but it was hard to drive fast on. After three rounds of qualifying Niclas Nilsson took TQ followed closely by Markus Hellquist and Daniel Carlsson, only 2 seconds separating those 3 drivers. In the opening final there was a good race between Niclas, Markus and Daniel. None of them was able to stretch the lead or overtake so the order stayed the same though Daniel was only 4 tenths of a second from taking second.

Leg two Niclas had a bad start which allowed Markus and Daniel to come through, Markus won in ront of Daniel and Niklas who took third. Leg three would decide the race victory and it now stood between Niclas and Markus, who both had 1 win each, But the third final saw a great start, all three cars on a row all the way into the 4 minute mark where Markus hit Niclas and waited for him and Daniel go through to take the win followed by Niclas and Markus. After three thrilling finals it was not just Niclas and Markus that was fighting for the win, All top three drivers had one win, one second and one third each. The deciding fact would be who had the fastest run. And there Niclas won, on fastest win, Markus second after fastest win by only 9 tenths. Super tight and super fun race with a good atmosphere.

Final standings with all top three drivers on same points.
1. Niclas Nilsson – Xray/LRP/Thunder Power/Thunder Power
2. Markus Hellquist – Xray/GM/GM/GM
3. Daniel Carlsson – Yokomo/LRP/LRP/LRP

Thanks to Daniel Carlsson for the report.