We received reports from both the 1st and 2nd round of the Danish DRCMU indoor championships held in Tinglev and Fakse. Round 1 was held in Tinglev near the German border and a few German racers were competing at the event. The drivers were greeted with a high speed track with a very good flow, and many drivers liked it a lot.
The third running of the annual Serpent Nations Cup took place over the weekend in beautiful sunshine at the Monsanto track in Lisbon, Portugal, where 16 teams representing seven Nations gathered to race for the pride of their country. Previously an exclusive 1:8 scale event, the 2007 edition saw the introduction of the 1:10 Nations Cup and the first 200mm touring car competition attracted drivers from Ireland, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden and host nations Portugal. After 44 Nations Cup races run over the 2 days the 2007 Serpent Nations Cup had come to a close in the most dramatic way possible. Team Portugal (1) had won Leg 2 by 2 points leaving them equal on 163 points with Leg 1 winners and defending Champions Team Netherlands. Unfortunately for the host nation the tie break would be determined on the number of wins achieved by each team and this meant the Cup was returning to Holland with Team Netherlands drivers Rob Kuyper, Stanley Bauer, John Ermen and Miquel Hereijgers. Third overall went to Team Austria. In 1:10, Team Spain’s quest to secure the first ever Nations Cup title was never seriously threatened and the squad of Oscar Cabezas, Rodrigo Pahissa, Javier Hidalgo, Adrian Ortiz and David Lopez deservedly claimed top honours. Completing the 1:10 podium where Team Portugal (1) and a delighted Team France.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
Serpent hosted the first official Grand Prix event for their unique F180 formula car over the weekend as part of the annual Serpent Nations Cup event which took place at the Monsanto track in Lisbon, Portugal. Eight drivers travelled from France, Sweden, Netherlands and Portugal to attend the event and were greeted by glorious weather as they hit the track for practice on Friday. On both race days it was Jacky Mouton that topped qualifying and on Saturday it was local ace Luis Simoes that lined up on 2nd while on Sunday it was Dutchman Rob Kuyper who came shared the front row with the French man.
In Saturday’s Leg 1 Final, held under floodlights, Mouton led home fellow countryman Benoit Enicolo for a French 1-2 with Simoes completing the podium. The fastest car on the track was that of Stanley Bauer setting a best lap time of 21.537 seconds with the distinctive orange coloured F180 eventually crossing the finish line in fourth. Sunday’s second final saw the Toyota F1 finished F180 of Dutch driver Michel Nijman capitalise on a late problem to hit Mouton to claim victory. Nijman was on the pace throughout the weekend but in Saturday’s final an early race incident cost him over 2-minutes and despite a strong recovery drive he could only manage fifth but the combined result was still enough for him to claim the overall runners up spot behind Mouton while Enicolo secured third.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
CML are reporting on the 2nd round of the Nitro Winter Championships that were run in wet conditions over the weekend, proving the advantage of running on astroturf. In qualifying it was Team Associated’s new star Elliott Boots who drove his RB powered RC8 to pole postition with a time some 5 seconds quicker than the field with Hobao driver Dave Bailey took his RB powered Hyper 8.5 to 2nd with Simon Willetts in 3rd. In the main final Elliott got away from pole poistion well but it was clear that the set up change he made was not suited to the conditions and he was fighting to keep the car in check. From mid grid Lee Martin had cut through the field with his RC8 and was soon challenging Elliott. Lee’s set up was obviously better and soon he was past and building a big lead. Lee maintained a fantastic pace right to the flag and easily won in front of Simon Willetts in 2nd and a strong finishing Jon Howells with his Picco powered Hyper 8.5 in 3rd.
Source: CML [cmldistribution.co.uk]
Former World Champion Touring car racer Atsushi Hara has won last weekends Japanese 1/8th scale gas buggy Nationals held in Chiba, close to Tokyo. The event had been affected by rain with Saturday’s running being cancelled and the results after Friday’s 2 rounds of qualifying being used, which gave Hara the TQ spot with his heavily modified HB Lightning 2 Pro. In the final no one could touch Hara and despite loosing the lead on lap 2, he was able to regain the lead 5 laps later and pull out a lead of 2 laps by the end of the hour, winning from 2nd placed Yuuichi Ajishi driving a Mugen and Takeshi Shinomiya taking 3rd with his Losi 8ight.
Source: HPI Japan [hpiracing.co.jp]
We have received word that CEN Racing team driver Gene ‘The Machine’ Hickerson has done it again taking yet another win, this time at the 2007 RC Pro Florida Nitro off road Series Finals. Hickerson won the Machine’s R/C Hobbies Expert Buggy A-Final from Mugen racer Jeff Keeton, while in third it was Sean Kersten racing for Kyosho.
Full report to follow here soon.
We have received some more bad news concerning RC racing, following the immediate halt to EP racing in Norway, and that is that the 2008 European 1/8th scale ‘A’ Championships and preceeding 1/8th scale EFRA GP, to have been held in Roeselare, Belgium have been cancelled. We received the letter from Franky Noens, 1/10th scale section chairman in EFRA and secretary of the Belgian association, saying that due to problems with noise and no immediate solution the events have been cancelled. What hasn’t been said is if they will be held somewhere else or just left off the calendar next year, we would presume that they will find another venue. Roeselare played host to this years European 1/10th scale ‘B’ Championships.
Click more to read the full letter… content
Xray have a report on their site from the first round of the Northwest Indoor Championship Series that was held at the Seattle Indoor Raceway, which saw just under 100 racers in attendance. With a groove formed after practice and the Friday night club race, Saturday’s qualifying was very quick and saw Darren Shank place first in both TC Mod Foam and 1/12th 19T, while the TQ in the other classes went to Frank Mirabelli in TC stock foam, Marcos Garcia in rubber stock class, Randy Sides the 19T Foam class and Brian Bodine the 19T TC Rubber class. The races ended the very same with all the TC top qualifiers taking their pace into the final and winning it, giving Xray top honours across the board, while in 1/12th 19T, it was Sean Maybell that took the win.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
