The opening qualifier at the second round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series saw a familiar name at the top of the time sheets in the Czech Republic with Ronald Volker setting the pace. The defending champion managed 25 laps in a time of 5:07.313 with Awesomatix Freddy Sudhoff the German’s closest rival 1.8 seconds adrift. Volker’s Yokomo team-mate Yannic Prumper completed the Top 3 a further 6/10ths off the TQ pace.
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Normally we start our coverage from an ETS event with an update on early practice but as anyone who has been on Facebook over the past 24 hours will know the big news from the second round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series is the navigational challenges presented to many of the record entry as they tried yesterday to get to Hrotovice. While the Dakar Rally which is currently underway in South America is designed to present drivers with the greatest motorsport navigation test in the World the closure yesterday of Vienna Airport due to snow presented ETS drivers with a similar challenge. Although the race is taking place in the Czech Republic, Vienna in Austria is the closest international airport and the timing of its closing couldn’t have been worse as Thursday is travel day for the vast majority of the 300+ drivers.
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The Yokomo Euro Touring Series returns to the Czech Republic this weekend (January 18-20) after a year out with the second round of the 2012/13 series attracting a record 319 entries on the world famous electric touring car championship’s third visit to the town of Hrotovice. Having opted out of last season’s ETS calendar after it was awarded the date for the opening round of the TLR/Spektrum Euro Offroad Series, the return to the Sport-V-Hotel facility has proved hugely popular with competitors from 25 different countries set to make the trip to the 29th ETS race.
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Popular southern California race series, the JBRL have announced dates for each of their 8 round nitro offroad and electric offroad championships. The Nitro series will kick off on April 6th at Thunder Alley and will finish on November 9 at Jimmy Babcock’s own track Hot Rod Hobbies, while the Electric series gets underway on March 2nd at OC/RC Raceway and again will end at HRH, on the 19th of October. You can find the full list of dates here (Nitro) and here (Electric) or by browsing Red RC’s race calendar page here. Full series information can be found here.
The 25th Annual CRCRC Winter Mid-West Electric Off-Road Championships were held this past weekend in Jeffersonville, OH. This is known as the first big electric off-road race of the new year as well as being one of the longest on-going races to date. This years event reached an outstanding 355 entries. Team Orion would once again have 2 of their aces in attendance this year with Jared Tebo and Ryan Cavalieri. The overall qualifying order in each class was determined by the points system which would take each drivers 2 best qualifying round finishes out of 4. The top 10 drivers from each class would automatically go into the A-Main Events. This would be the first year CRCRC incorporated the bump-up system to their electric race. Lower main events up through the B’s were ran earlier on main day. The top 2 finishers from each main event would bump into the next main. This would make a 12 car field for the triple A-Main Events.
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Team HB/HPI Racing have announced that 2012 Triple World Championship Podium Finisher and former World Champion Atsushi Hara will continue with Team HB/HPI Racing through the 2016 RC racing season. After an amazing 2012 season with strong podium finishes at all 3 World Championship Events, Atsushi is looking forward to an even better 2013 season. Atsushi Hara will be campaigning the HB TCXX, R10 and D812 platforms for the upcoming season. Here are a few words from Atsushi Hara:
I am very happy to re-sign for Team HB/HPI Racing through the 2016 racing season. I have spent the majority of my Professional RC Driver career at HB/HPI Racing, signing my first contract in 2001, over 11 years ago. I am looking forward to adding more title wins in the coming years and to also contribute to the growth of HB/HPI Racing.
Source: Hot Bodies [hotbodiesonline.com]
The 7th edition of the Petit Race was held last weekend at Mustit Raceway in Norway. In 2wd buggy, the race was dominated by the Swedes with David Ronnefalk (Kyosho) taking the TQ position and he also ended up taking the win. Second place went to Christoffer Svensson (Kyosho) with 3rd to Oskar Levin (TLR).
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Last weekend was the DHI Cup in Odense, Denmark. The event is held over three days and includes on-road and off-road racing on two separate tracks. On Friday there was practice and one round of qualifying and after a few minor set-up changes Jörn was ready for qualifying. Jörn went on to TQ three out of four qualifying rounds, which put him 1st on the grid in both classes. Triple A-Mains were held on Sunday. The 4WD finals were perfect, with Jörn winning the first 2 mains. In 2nd, it was Martin Bayer and 3rd Tom Cockerill. 2WD was a little more work for Jörn after crashing into a lapped driver on the main straight in A2, which broke his front A-arm. Jörn was able to win A1 and A3, to get the overall victory in 2WD, followed by Tom Cockerill in 2nd and Martin Bayer in 3rd.
Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]
