July 28, 2023

Gruber Top Qualifier at 1:8 Onroad European C/Ship

Toni Gruber is the Top Qualifier for the 1:8 Onroad European Championship in Portugal, the German driver taking his Ielasi Tuned powered Capricorn to the fastest time in 3 of the 5 rounds of qualifying.  With Infinity’s Dario Balestri holding the overnight TQ after the opening two rounds at the Vila Real track, Day 2 kicked off with a second TQ run from the Italian ahead of Mugen’s Robert Pietsch.  In Q4 however newly crowned 1:10 Nitro Onroad European Champion Gruber pick up were he started and having took Q1 went fastest in the final two rounds from Balestri.  Overall Balestri would conclude qualify P2 ahead of Pietsch, Infnity’s Jilles Groskamp and the Capricorn of Mirko Salemi.  All four would get the chance to secure a direct place in tomorrow’s 45-minute title deciding final via the Super Pole shoot out which former World Champion Balestri duly took with the fastest lap from Pietsch who will start the Semi A from pole with Groskamp on pole for the Semi B encounter.  Having qualified 7th, defending Champion Dominic Greiner will line up 3rd in the Semi A encounter behind Pietsch and Salemi.

Images: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]


July 27, 2023

Balestri holds provisional TQ at 1:8 Onroad Euros

Dario Balestri holds the provisional TQ at the EFRA 1:8 Onroad European Championship, the Infinity driver setting the fastest time in the second of the two heats that made up Day 1 of the qualifying at the Vila Real track in Portugal.  In the opening qualifier it was Capricorn’s Toni Gruber who set the TQ pace, the newly crown 1:10 Nitro European Champion fastest from Balestri and Jilles Groskamp.  Having topped seeding practice and crowned European Champion the last time Vila Real hosted the European Championships in 2012, Mugen’s Robert Pietsch wouldn’t complete Q1 but was right in the mix in Q2 with Balestri just getting the better of the German on the final lap to snatch the TQ by 3/10ths of a second with Gruber third.  For defending Champion Dominic Greiner, he finds himself P5 overnight behind Groskamp with Mirko Salemi completing the provisional Top 6.  With the 21st running of the EFRA European Championships attracting 72 entries, drivers have three more rounds of qualifying tomorrow.

Image: Dario Balestri [Facebook]


July 25, 2023

MIBO International 2024 Announcement

Following the hugely successful inaugural running of the MIBO International Race in the Czech Republic in March, former international touring car racer Michal Bok has confirmed the race is back for 2024 on the slightly earlier date of February 16-18.  A long time dream of Bok to host his own major international event in Hrotovice, the indoor event finally came to fruition in 2023 bringing together both electric onroad and offroad racing on two tracks build side by side by the team from Mibosport.  The first edition of MIBO International saw Mugen’s Ronald Volker crowned the inaugural Touring Car Champion and Xray’s Bruno Coelho take double buggy honours at the Sport V Hotel venue.  With everything from the track, restaurant, bowling alley and hotel rooms all under one roof, the venue was a hit with racers who travelled from 13 different countries.  With a capped entry limit the relaxed schedule also meant plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing.  On the onroad track, the racing action will again cater for Modified, Stock & FWD Touring cars plus Formula.  The Offroad track will cater for 2WD and 4WD Buggy as well an open class of ‘Offroad Kids’ that will give the future stars of racing an opportunity to be a part of this international event.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]


July 24, 2023

Maifield & Tessmann win ROAR 1:8 Electric Offroad National titles

Ryan Maifield and Ty Tessmann took the two main titles at the 2023 ROAR 1:8 Electric Offroad Nationals held at CRC Raceway in New York state over the weekend.  In qualifying it was Xray’s Ty Tessmann who lead the way, the Canadian securing the TQ in both eBuggy and eTruggy.  In eTruggy, Tessmann was able to convert that TQ into the championship title with wins over the TLR of second place qualifier Tater Sontag in the opening two A-Mains.  In A3, having qualified 5th, Maifield would take the win to complete the podium line-up.  In the eBuggy finals, while Tessmann won A1, third place qualifier Maifield was able to get his Tekno buggy passed his rival to win second & final encounters.  This secured him his second National title with Tekno having become Nitro Truggy National Champion last month at AMain Hobbies’ Silver Dollar RC Raceway in California.  A difficult race for second place qualifier Joe Bornhorst, who ended up P7, Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz took the final podium placing from 5th on the grid.

View Truggy podium here


July 23, 2023

Rheinard wins ETS Austria

Marc Rheinard has the latest ETS round in Austria, the Awesomatix driver taking the win from 3rd on the grid ahead of Xray’s Jan Ratheisky and Mugen’s Erik Dankel.  In qualifying at Aigen it was a Mugen lockout at the front of the grid with reigning Champion Ronald Volker securing the TQ from Dankel but in A1 Dankel made a brilliant start to get ahead of his team-mate to lead.  With just under a minute to go and with Rheinard in pursuit, Dankel rolled out of the lead handing Rheinard the win from Ratheisky and a recovering Volker.  In A2, with Volker flying off the track on Lap 2, Dankel was able to claim his first ever A-Main leg victory with Rheinard second and Xray’s Oliver Havranek third with Volker a DNF.  It was all to play for in A3 and with Volker crashing out early, the stakes were even higher between Dankel and Rheinard in a winner takes all battle.  Dankel again lead albeit under increasing pressure from the multiple World Champion and as the race approached the final minute Dankel would run wide in the sweeper at the end of the straight.  Rheinard seized the opportunity getting up his inside but the two cars touched with Dankel suffering a body tuck that dropped him to fourth.  Overall Rheinard secured his second ETS win as an Awesomatix driver, the first have come 11-months ago at his home track Arena33.  For Volker it was another disappointing weekend as he left Austria with points for P8.  Having missed the podium at the season opener in the Netherlands, where newly crowned 4WD Buggy European Champion Michal Orlowski took the win, the German is going to need a strong result at Round 3 to get his title defence back on track.  In Pro Stock, Adam Iszay enjoyed the perfect result securing the TQ and win for Xray, a result he also achieved in the FWD class.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]


July 22, 2023

Orlowski regains European Champion title in 4WD Buggy

Eight years after winning his first European Championship title in the UK, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has regained the title with victory at the 4WD Buggy Euros in the Netherlands today.  Having just missed out on his first 2WD title earlier in the week to the reigning 4WD Champion Marcus Kaerup,  Orlowski would be the Top Qualifier for 4WD.  Topping 2 of the five rounds at the challenge RACO200o astro track, he would start ahead of Team Associated’s Kaerup, fastest in Q1, Sworkz pairing Jöern Neumann, fastest in Q4, & Micha Widmaier with team-mate Daniel Kobbevik fifth ahead of Xray’s Bruno Coelho.  In the opening final Orlowski produced a dominant performance to win ahead of the Yokomo of Burak Kilic who had a strong run to come through from P7.  In A2, Orlowski came under a bit more pressure for the opening 2-minutes from 2WD Top Qualifier Neumann but a few moments from the German allowed the Polish driver to cruise to the win and the title.  Winning A3 from Kilic, Nuemann would secure the runner-up spot with Kilic completing the podium.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]


July 22, 2023

Volker heads Mugen 1-2 in ETS Austria qualifying

Mugen Seiki enjoyed a one-two in qualifying for ETS Austria with Ronald Volker the Top Qualifier in Aigen ahead of team-mate Eric Dankel.  Volker would secure the TQ after topping the opening two of the four rounds of qualifying.  Round 1 podium finisher Dankel would also top the times, doing so in Q4 to make it a Mugen lock out at the front of the grid at the second round of the championship.  The only other driver to post a TQ run, Marc Rheinard took his Awesomatix to the fastest time in Q3 ahead of Dankel as Volker had a bad run.  Overall Jan Ratheisky’s Xray will start fourth ahead of the Yokomo of Christopher Krapp with Oliver Havranek completing the Top 6 on the grid.  In Pro Stock, Adam Izay is the Top Qualifier from Louis Kretschmer having posted 3 TQ runs with his Xray.

Image: Mugen Seiki Europe [Facebook]


July 22, 2023

Veseli is new European LS Touring Car Champion

MCD Racing’s Dario Veseli is the new European Large Scale Touring Car Champion, the multiple Large Scale Offroad Champion claiming his first onroad title at the Real80 track in the Netherlands after a late error from Genius Racing’s Bernard-Alain Arnaldi.  Having set the second fastest time qualifying, the Croatian driver secured a direct place into the final alongside defending champion Edoardo Repetti who was Top Qualifier.  An earlier mistake from the pole sitter would see the Italian Mecatech driver drop down the order and Arnaldi take the lead with the French driver looking set to add a fourth European title ahead of Veseli.  With less than a minute to run in the 30-minute final, Arnaldi went off at the end of the straight allowing Veseli through to take the win by 1-seconds.  Arnali’s car would later be found to have an incorrect flywheel diameter leading to him being excluded from the results.  Sindre Undheim would be promoted to second with Repetti completing the podium.  In the Formula 1 Final, Sébastien Marinot successfully defending his 2022 from pole position with his Genius Racing ahead of Nathan Brenot and Corentin Laville.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]


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