Bruneau wins 50th anniversary Florida WinterNats

One of the world’s longest running nitro onroad races and celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026, Joachim Bruneau has taken the 1:8 Open win at the end of the high rate of attrition 45-minute Florida WinterNats final.  Hosted at Greg Esser’s Nuggets Ranch Raceway in Arcadia, after the four rounds of qualifying it was Infinity’s Teemu Leino who secured the TQ honours ahead of new Mugen Seiki signing Diego Morganti, Lazaro Alonso JR, former 1:10 Nitro Touring World Champion Ralph Burch and 2017 WinterNats Champion DJ Apolaro.  With Morganti getting an early lead over Leino, the Finn having issues with his brakes, while pair would be the only drivers to run 13-seconds lap times during the race, unfortunately neither would go the distance.  After just 5-minutes Leino was out with a throttle servo failure with Alonso JR next to go out 3-minutes later.  Winner of November’s Cow Patty Classic, Apolaro wouldn’t get back to back wins at the track, the former ROAR Champion out at the 20-minute mark.  He would be followed to the sidelines at 36-minute by another contender Burch.  All the time it was Morganti who was out front and looking on target to add a 6th title to the family name, his father Paolo a 5-time Winternats Champion.  With just over 5-minutes to go however a rear belt failure would put the 21-year-old out handing Cow Patty Classic podium finisher Bruneau the win.  Some distance back Rafael Angula and Dutch visitor Gertjan Van Schaik completed the podium.  In 1:8 Masters it was a Dutch win, as Infinity driver Arie Manten took victory from P5 on the grid.  The 1:8 GT win went to Serpent’s Jose Almonte, Top Qualifier & World Championship Podium finisher Carlie Lopez having issues and dropping out of contention eventually finishing P10 with his Raptor.  In 1:10 Nitro Touring, Apolaro brought home the win after getting passed Top Qualifier & defending Champion Michael Palazzola with Jerry Guerra completing the podium.

Image: Dan Lester [Facebook]