Ripoll gets title defence off to perfect start

Xray’s top international 1:8 Onroad racer Maxime Ripoll has got the defence of his French National title off to the perfect start with a dominant performance at the opening round of the 2026 Championship.  The first encounter of the 5 round FFVRC Championship was hosted by the BMVRC club in the south east of the country with over 70 entries.  Greeted by cold weather conditions, rain would effect qualifying with just 2 of the 4 scheduled rounds run but with his time from Q1 it was Ripoll who took the Elite class TQ with his Max engined RX8 ahead Baptiste Jimenez and Jules David.  In the final Ripoll and Jimenez held the top 2 positions for the opening 20-laps before the later hot problems and soon retired.  With the fastest lap of the race, Ripoll would take a comfortable victory over the No.8 car of Christophe Louis who finished just held off Stephane Riccobono.

Image: Maxime Ripoll [Facebook]