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February 16, 2017

Hagberg heads first seeding practice at TITC

Alexander Hagberg has topped the first round of seeding practice at the TITC in Bangkok, the Xray driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps just ahead of Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp and reigning champion Bruno Coelho. With the majority of the international drivers having already spent almost a week testing at the Infinity Addict Circuit, the first of the two scheduled seeding rounds finally gave the first official opportunity to gauge where everyone is at with Hagberg and Groskamp running almost identical times, the separation just 5/1000ths of a second. Aside from the times, the first seeding practice would be of extra interest as it marked the debut of Marc Rheinard as an Infinity driver, the Japanese manufacturer finally confirming the signing of the former Tamiya star this afternoon at Asia’s most famous touring car event. As an opening run Rheinard would post the 8th fastest time behind Atsushi Hara, who after concluding a deal with the local distributor is ironically racing the TITC for Tamiya.

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February 12, 2017

Video – Come Drive With Us – The Vegas Worlds

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know that David Ronnefalk won the 2016 IFMAR Worlds held in Vegas last October. But that’s only the end of the story…and to be honest, the final wasn’t all that exciting. What was exciting is seeing how we got to that point. There is simply so much that goes into just competing at the top level at an IFMAR Worlds event, that if we just told the story of the winner…we would be out of a job. Events like Silver State, the Worlds Warmup, the Pro-Line Gas Champs, the Neo Race and simply just practice at Revelation with “The Drake” all contribute to telling the amazing story of the 2016 Worlds.

February 6, 2017

Coelho claims home win for Xray at EOS Slovakia

With many having expected it to come in A2, only for that race to turn in a blot on an otherwise dominant Xray performance from the first practice, Bruno Coelho gave the Slovakian manufacturer a home victory at the Euro Offroad Series with a faultless win in A3. Top Qualifier for the 3rd round of the championship, the reigning champion made amends for a hectic second leg, in which he eliminated himself on the first lap, with a near perfect race to lead home team-mate Martin Bayer. Securing his second win of the season, the biggest story of 4WD would be those joining him on the podium at the Hudy Racing Arena. With the host manufacturer locking out the top 3 in qualifying and getting six XB4 onto the A-Main grid, the odds where against their rivals to podium but in part mainly due to the Xray destruction in A2 it would be winner of that leg Lee Martin who would secure the runners-up spot. More surprising was Michal Orlowski making the podium from 8th on the grid, the Schumacher driver the only one to podium both classes at every race so far this season. The top non-Xray qualifier, securing 4th on the grid, Joern Neumann would miss the podium, A3 seeing the former champion taken out by Martin Wollanka while on target for 3rd overall.

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February 5, 2017

Coelho checks out in A1

Xray’s Bruno Coelho took an easy win the opening A-Main at the Euro Offroad Series third round in Slovakia, the Top Qualifier even having enough pace to fit in a rollover during the race. It was to be advantage Coelho from the start as No.2 starter Martin Bayer got it wrong in the first run through the main double double section allowing a slightly slow starting Martin Wollanka to take up second followed by Joern Neumann which was how they would stay till the end. Dropping to 10th place, Bayer would never recover, eventually retiring when a wheel parted company with the car on his penultimate lap.

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February 5, 2017

Advantage Coelho as Xray locked out front of grid in Slovakia

Bruno Coelho is the Top Qualifier at the third round of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia, Xray locking out the Top 3 places on the grid at the Hudy Racing Arena. With the fourth & final qualifier set to decide between Coelho and Martin Bayer who would start on pole, the decision was made on the first laps as Bayer got the tabletop jump wrong needing to be marshalled but even with a better start it may have came to nothing as later in the run he would retire with radio issues. While pushed by team-mate Martin Wollanka, who was to set the fastest lap of all four rounds of qualifying, Coelho could cruise to his third TQ knowing that Bayer’s error had secured him the overall TQ irrespective of his own result in Q4. Despite his DNF, Bayer will start second ahead of Wollanka with Joern Neumann a surprise 4th after a strong P3 run in the final qualifier. Another key retirement of the final qualifier was Lee Martin popped a drive shaft after a big off, the lack of a result dropping him to fifth on the grid.

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February 5, 2017

Coelho opens final day of EOS Slovakia with TQ run

Bruno Coelho has continued the Xray domination of the 4WD at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia by taking the third round of qualifying this morning at the Hudy Arena. Again it was Coelho and team-mate Martin Bayer who set the pace until a late mistake by the latter cost him the chance to repeat last night’s Q2 TQ run. Dropping to third this allowed Coelho to take his second TQ of the event with team-mate Martin Wollanka also benefiting to get second out of the round. The result means it will be either Coelho or Bayer who will be the overall Top Qualifier, Bayer needing to take the last round in a faster time than Coelho set in Q3. Again it was Yokomo’s Lee Martin who was best of the rest as he posted the 4th fastest time with Joern Neumann’s Serpent the next best in P7. Expected to break up the Xrays at the top of the time screens, 2WD winner Michal Orlowski would crash resulting in a broken front rollbar meaning his run lasting less than a minute. Running new tyres on his new Associated B64, Neil Cragg found the car very aggressive ending up 10th fastest but the team will make a number of changes to car for the final qualifier feeling they have been too conservative with changes so far.

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February 4, 2017

No surprise as Coelho leads Xray 1,2,3,4 in opening quali

There was no surprise in the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series as Bruno Coelho led an Xray 1,2,3,4 at the Hudy Racing Arena. Having topped seeding, the reigning Champion’s biggest challenge would come from Martin Bayer as the former event winner swapped the TQ pace with him throughout the 5-minute but in the end Coelho had the advantage by 1.3-seconds. With Martin Wollanka and Kája Novotný setting the third and fourth fastest times, the best non Xray driver would be Lee Martin, the Yokomo driver fifth fastest but almost 7-seconds off the TQ pace. Taking the 2WD win earlier in the day, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would complete the Top 6 running an almost identical time to Martin.

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February 4, 2017

Coelho tops 4WD practice in Slovakia

With the action switching over to 4WD in Slovakia at the third round of the Euro Offroad Series following Michal Orlowski’s 2WD victory, Bruno Coelho showed beating Xray on home ground in the reigning champions class is going to be a challenge as he led a 1-2-3 in seeding practice. Over the two rounds of practice at the Hudy Arena, Coelho would post the fastest 3-consecutive laps on the second run with Kája Novotný just 0.067 off and Hupo Honigl a similar margin off in third. Best of the visiting teams would be Neil Cragg who laid down the fourth fastest time, Slovakia marking the Team Associated driver’s first 4WD outing of the season and the European debut of the B64D. For Michal Orlowski the switch to 4WD would see the EOS Poland double winner set the 9th fastest time, an improvement on where 2WD had started out yesterday.

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