HB Europe have announced the addition of former European Champion and multiple Portuguese National Champion, Miguel Matias to their team. The former Xray driver recently left the team after being with the Slovakian manufacturer since 2014. It is understood that Miguel will attend both national and international 1/8th off-road events with HB’s range of vehicles.
Source: HB Europe [hbeurope.com]
Round five of the Xray Winter Series Morava was held in Jedovnice with the event attracting over 80 drivers to compete in the five different classes of Touring Open, Touring Stock 17.5T, Hobby, Formula and 1/10th GT. In the Touring Open class Kuba Simurda dominated the proceedings right from the start. Only Martin Kratochvil looked like a contender but tyre issues denied him the fight for the win and this promoted Ales Bidovsky Jr. into second place after the A-mains. Karel Kratochvil had to settle for third while Erik Margony and the struggling Martin Kratochvil rounded out the top 5 result.
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The Protoform Western Canadian Indoor Championship Series held Round 6 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, hosted by Regina’s FASTRAXX. Warm weather made for an easy drive for everyone coming from around Western Canada. Continuing their streak of breaking their registration records, this year was their largest turnout ever. In the Touring Car Modified class Team Associated’s Peter Tozser had an amazing final qualifying run to put him on TQ. Unfortunately, a 3rd lap mistake put him basically to the back. Team Xray’s Danny Buck capitalized on the mistake and never looked back, taking a solid win. Josh Carter was following close behind in second, until (literally) the wheels came off. Erwin Leong, running super smooth, then took over second spot. Meanwhile, at the back of the pack, Peter, running hard, managed to run through the field and made it back up to third, then a pass on Erwin put him on the second spot on the podium. Erwin, having a huge weekend, took the final spot in the class, and as the mains went on he would podium in every single class he was running.
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Round five of the MTS Shanghai series was recently held at the RCI track and a huge temperature drop made for difficult conditions for all drivers. In the Touring Car class Jimmy Qian took the TQ after the three rounds of qualification, 2 seconds ahead of Justin from Hong Kong. The opening A-main then was a done deal for the TQ holder but mistakes due to low traction in A2 and a DNF in the final A-main meant Jimmy Qian (Xray) would only finish in third place overall. Up front Nicholas (HB) would take the win from Liu Zi Wen (HB) on the runner-up spot.
This past weekend, the 2016 Dirt Nitro Challenge was once again held at The Fear Farm in Goodyear, Arizona. Joey and The Dirt track crew did an amazing job on the track build for this years event and it was a big hit with all the drivers. Kenny Brosh and Jimmy Babcock did another great job keeping the race program moving silky smooth all weekend long and with the total 1/8th race entries being limited to 600 this year, the event went off without a hitch and was very well received by all the racers. On Saturday night, the 30-Minute Expert Nitro Truggy A-Main event would be run. Kyosho America’s Colin Herzig would start 3rd on the grid and as the dust settled after the 30-Minute A-main, it was Herzig taking the impressive win by just under 1 second ahead of TQ holder CJ Jelin (HB). Victor Guerrero (HB) would go onto finish 3rd on the podium.
The Polish Benek Cup in Poland, considered to be one of the most popular races in the country, was recently held in the city of Lodz. Ales Bayer would be in control of things in the 2WD and 4WD Buggy classes as he not only TQ’d both categories but he also took the overall wins. In 4WD Szymon Luczak and Siwy Luczak would come in second and third respectively while the 2WD podium was completed by Wojciech Rzepecki and Sebastian Migal.
The recent third round of the Swiss Islikon Masters attracted a total of 100 drivers to compete in several electric classes including 2WD and 4WD Buggy. Xray’s Nico Schmid made a clean sweep both in the 2WD and 4WD Buggy classes by taking the TQs and wins to round out a perfect weekend. Second in 2WD was Team Durango driver Philipp Huber from Florian Schmid (Xray) in third.
The recent fourth round of the popular Belgian Lovan RC-Challenge saw Stefan Rommens taking the TQ honours in the Touring Stock category. Rico Claeys and Jerome Defrenne lined up in second and third on the grid. For the finals, Jerome shifted into second gear, taking two wins to grab the overall victory from runner-up Rico Claeys. TQ holder Stefan Rommens had to settle for third overall.
