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April 29, 2019

Greiner takes exciting maiden 1/8th victory

Dominic Greiner has taken a hard fought win in the opening round of the ENS this afternoon in Italy. Better known for his 1/10th exploits, the Serpent driver pulled off a major upset, utilising a well executed tire and fuel strategy to get the better of multiple ENS Champion Simon Kurzbuch. A late flameout by Dario Balestri took the Infinity driver out of contention while mixing it at the front, ending up in 5th, allowing veteran racer Alberto Picco to pick up the pieces and claim 3rd. Coming home 4th, Lamberto Collari looked set early on to throw a curveball to his competitors by going 5 minutes between fuel stops, only to come short on the in lap of his 2nd stop. Having been stuck behind Carmine Raiola early in the 30 minute main, once passed Greiner had to set about catching the leading pair of Kurzbuch and Balestri, and was helped by doing 4 minutes between stops, his OS engine not as thirsty as the Novarossi based power units of those ahead. With all those up front on the same basic tire strategy, changing just the outside tires first and then all four, by the end of the race Greiner’s tires were done and with Kurzbuch catching him fast he said ‘I had to remain calm as I knew I had only one minute to go’. His first podium in the 1/8th class at ENS, the German praised the improvements made to his Serpent 988 over the winter and is looking forward to a competitive season.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

April 29, 2019

Teemu Leino wins ENS season opener in Italy

Teemu Leino has taken the win today in the 1/10th scale class at the opening round of the Euro Nitro Series in Bologna after rain caused a long delay in the day’s proceedings. The Finn took the victory from a hard charging Alessio Mazzeo, with pole man Leo Arnold having to settle for the final podium spot in 3rd after the he ran out of tires at the very end of the race. Thilo Todtmann would take 4th for Shepherd with Jilles Groskamp finishing up in 5th. Asked about his race win the Infinity driver simply said ‘the race was good’, noting that they changed their planned tire strategy during the race, going from an outside only tire stop to a full tire stop, after he felt that the track was more abrasive following the morning rain. Very pleased with the performance of his IF15, Leino was also quick to credit the very fast fuel and tire stops by his pitman Felix for him being able to take the lead in the 30 minute final. Running in 3rd for a very long time, his tire strategy played out in the final 5 minutes as he was able to pass both Mazzeo and Arnold within 1 lap of each other and go onto win the race even though he too began to run out of tires at the very end.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

April 29, 2019

Saxton & Drake win at JBRL Nitro Series Rd1

The opening round of the 2019 JBRL Nitro Series was held at SoCal Nitro Raceway in Victorville, California this past weekend. The event attracted over 165 entries and in the competitive Expert Nitro Buggy class it was Mugen’s Adam Drake with the overall TQ after the qualifiers. In the 20-minute A-main the race for the win was on between Adam and Team Associated’s Richard Saxton with the latter taking a narrow win some 1.5 seconds in front of Adam. HB Racing’s Cole Jenson would round out the top 3 podium result.

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April 29, 2019

Jörn Neumann sweeps International Warm-up Race

The popular Rhein–Main-Circuit in Bischofsheim, Germany held the annual International Warm-up Race this past weekend. The event started off wet but in the end things would turn out nicely. As usual the race attracted some of Europe’s fastest 1/8th off-road racers and it was SWorkz’s Jörn Neumann who would make the sweep to win both the Nitro and Electric classes from the TQ spot. In Nitro it was Mugen’s Carsten Keller on the runner-up spot while SWorkz’s Micha Widmaier completed the top 3 podium result. Over in the E-Buggy class and behind winner Neumann, it was Micha Widmaier on the runner-up spot as Carsten Keller came in 3rd overall.

View the E-Buggy podium here

April 29, 2019

Asian Nitro Championship Rd2 – Report

The second round of the 2019 Asian Nitro Championship was held at England Park Raceway in the Brisbane suburb town of Brendale, Australia this past weekend. With a rich 20-year history of hosting World Championships, Nationals and of course local club racing, EPR is truly a world-class facility that offers a 90×40 metre layout, a sunken pitstop area and floodlights for night-time racing. The 1/8th Open final saw an amazing start for the last main of the day. Along with perfect weather, a perfect textbook start would begin this race. Looking down the leaderboard with three minutes down, absolutely no positions had exchanged with everyone remaining in the same position they started. Jeff Hamon lead the group and would actually pit the very next minute and would execute a perfect stop. After some pit stops midway though the race, things would shuffle Jesse Davis into the lead. Fate would have many things in store for a lot of the racers still on the track.

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April 27, 2019

Leo Arnold claims his first ENS pole position

Taking his 3rd TQ run in Q4 of 1/10th qualifying, Leo Arnold put the pole position starting spot out of the reach of his rivals, the Xray driver dominant this weekend so far save for his Q2 collision with a slowing Teemu Leino. Jilles Groskamp will start directly behind the French man tomorrow with Alessio Mazzeo, Eduardo Escandon and Teemu Leino completing the top half of the grid. ‘My first TQ, I am very happy, the hard work pays off’ was how Leo described his qualifying, continuing ‘my car is easy for the final, if I want to push I can push’. With his father checking over the tires from qualifying, they will make a final decision on tire strategy once they have all the data, no changes to his NT1 planned.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

April 27, 2019

ENS Rd1 TQ goes to Simon Kurzbuch

Getting off to the best possible start to regain his ENS title, Simon Kurzbuch has taking the bonus TQ point here in Italy as the only person who could take that away from him, Dario Balestri, was unable to better the time of his Swiss counterpart despite taking the final round. Dominic Greiner would take 2nd for the round to seal 4th overall on the grid, while starting ahead of him will be Carmine Raiola who was unable to better his Q1 and 2 results. Robert Pietsch will set off for tomorrow’s 45 minute A-main from 5th, ahead of fellow World Champion Lamberto Collari, who starts his home race in 6th. Simon, who took the TQ on tie break due to his blistering Q3 run, said he pushed hard at the start of Q4 to be in a position to respond to Dario but receiving the information over the radio from his father that the Infinity driver wouldn’t be able to beat him, he pulled off the track. Checking the forecast for tomorrow he will prepare his car as normal and maybe make some small changes if any rain is expected.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

April 27, 2019

Balestri takes Q2 with late charge

The 2nd round of qualifying for the 1/8th scale class at the season opening round of the 2019 Euro Nitro Series has gone to Dario Balestri. Putting in some very fast laps at the end of the run, the Italian was able to overhaul Simon Kurzbuch who ended the run in 2nd. Carmine Raiola took 3rd from the 2nd fastest heat while Dominic Greiner recovered from an unlucky Q1 yesterday to take 4th, in front of Mirko Salemi while top seed Robert Pietsch had a messy run to take sixth, the top 17 for the round covered by 5 seconds. Describing his run as ‘not perfect because of traffic’, Balestri elaborated by explaining that when you run close to a competitor in front of you at this track it affects the cars aerodynamics meaning you loose some time. Once passed and into clear air the run went a lot better and he was able to push for the rest of the run. His Max engine spluttering once passed the finish line, the World champion said he can’t do more, ‘fuel is marginal but everyone has the same problem’.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.