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April 27, 2019

Groskamp takes Q2 as rivals hit trouble

Jilles Groskamp has topped the 2nd round of qualifying here in sunny Bologna this morning, aided to some extent by problems for his competitors. Teemu Leino first hit trouble when his back pressure tube came off causing him to slow dramatically. This in turn forced a fast approaching Leo Arnold to take avoiding action, resulting in him clipping the pitlane and breaking both right side tires. Another to suffer a broken tire was Alessio Mazzeo who felt the damage occurred when he clipped the inside of the curb coming on the straight. Behind Groskamp was the inseparable Shepherd team lead by Worlds podium finisher Eduardo Escandon in 2nd, Thilo Todtmann in 3rd and Melvin Diekmann in 4th with Jakub Rozycki taking 5th. Having changed to a stiffer, and more importantly new, chassis plate on his IF15, Groskamp said the pace was similar but now much easier to drive, enabling him to carry more corner speed. Planning to make the rear suspension slightly stiffer for Q3, the Dutchman concluded by saying ‘so far I’m very happy, the pressure is now on the other guys’.

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

April 26, 2019

Kurzbuch cuts it fine with fuel to take 1/8th Q1

Simon Kurzbuch has taken the opening round of qualifying at the ENS season opener in Bologna as a number of the leaders struggled with fuel on the last lap of the 4-minute qualifier. Carmine Raiola took the 2nd spot from the 2nd fastest heat, while Dario Balestri took 3rd having lead the heat until coming up dry on the final lap. Lamberto Collari took 4th on his home track while Mirko Salemi ended Q1 in 5th, just ahead of top seed Robert Pietsch who struggled with traffic at the beginning of the run which threw him out of his rhythm. Running out of fuel directly after crossing the line, Kurzbuch admitted that it was ‘really tight’ and he was lucky that the qualifying was over when his car came to a halt. Happy to take the first round TQ he said the first 2 minutes were good but then he came upon two other cars in the run but he wasn’t able to close the gap and so lost a lot of time in the final half of the run. Having flamed out at high speed, the Swiss driver will now check over his Novarossi engine for any potential damage.

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

April 26, 2019

Q1 goes to Leo Arnold

Continuing on where he left off in timed practice Leo Arnold took the opening qualifier in Bologna ahead of the closely matched Infinity pairing of Jilles Groskamp and Teemu Leino. Alessio Mazzeo was 4th, despite running out of fuel, with Thilo Todtmann putting in a clean 4-minutes to take 5th. Describing his run as ‘pretty clean’ Arnold said he had only one slide and continued to compliment his new Xray saying the ‘car was perfect’, Xray seeming to make a big leap in performance with their 2019 car. Commenting that he needs ‘just one or two more good runs’ the French man’s plan for tomorrow’s remaining 3 qualifiers is to ‘leave the car as is’.

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

April 26, 2019

Pietsch ends timed practice as top seed

Despite being one of only 3 drivers in the top 20 not to improve their time in the final timed practice session Robert Pietsch will go into qualifying as top seed. While the advantage he held after the opening practice was substantial, that gap was all but eroded away by the chasing pack with Dario Balestri putting in a much improved run to end up in 2nd just 1 tenth back. The World Champion despite being fast said his car was much too nervous and while it was not bad it was still not perfect. Dominic Greiner ended up in 3rd putting his improvement down to his driving and some tweaks to the OS engine in his Serpent and going into qualifying needs to make the car a bit more stable to have a good 4 minute pace. Despite also improving Simon Kurzbuch dropped 2 places to complete practice in 4th, just ahead of Lamberto Collari in 5th. In the 40+ class it was veteran Italian racer Stefano Solaroli who headed practice by a substantial 9 tenths over 3 laps followed by German Shepherd driver Andreas Giesa in 2nd with Austrian Rudi Scherer 3rd, while reigning champion Arie Manten and Alain Levy complete the top 5.

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

April 26, 2019

Leo Arnold tops 1/10th seeding at ENS season opener

Leo Arnold is top seed for the 1/10th scale class at the ENS season opener in Bologna, the Xray driver improving on his CP1 time to go over 2 tenths quicker in his 2nd timed run. The Frenchman put his improvement down to changing to a shorter first gear which improved the drivability of his NT1. His team mate Alessio Mazzeo also improved his time but will stay as 3rd seed, behind Teemu Leino who failed to improve in the 2nd session having tried a different body shell but finding it much slower. Jilles Groskamp who was continuing experimenting with setup took 3rd in CP2 but being slightly slower than his CP1 time he ended practice 4th and will now revert to his setup from the final free practice session. The Shepherd trio of Melvin Diekmann, Eduardo Escandon and Thilo Todtmann complete the top 7 after practice.

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

April 25, 2019

Wyatt Beiter doubles at Raceparty Grand Opening race

Raceparty RC Raceway of El Paso, Texas recently hosted their Grand Opening race. In the Nitro Buggy class it was Mugen’s Wyatt Beiter with the TQ and win from HB Racing’s Jason Darling in 2nd and TLR’s Jose Sanchez in 3rd. Over in the Nitro Truggy category it was again Wyatt with the TQ and win to round out a perfect weekend, leaving behind Hector Muela in 2nd and Efran Seanez in 3rd.

View the Truggy podium here

April 24, 2019

DJ Apolaro TQs & wins at PF Nitro Grand Prix

The 2019 Protoform Nitro Grand Prix was held at the very popular Steel City RC Speedway recently. In the 200mm Nitro Sedan class it was Capricorn’s DJ Apolaro with TQs in round 4 and 5 that secured him the overall top qualifier position after a slow start on the opening day of qualifiers. In the last round he was also way ahead for another TQ run, however DJ did not finish the run. He would maintain the overall TQ winning the tie breaker with the fastest times. For the final DJ had to install a fresh engine and did not get a chance to practice. Considering this his team decided to play it safe, and ran a rich setting and pit very early. With DJ’s pace his team knew this would still work. In the end Apolaro took home the win ahead of Serpent’s Walter Diaz in 2nd and Mugen’s Brian Thomas in 3rd. Mike Swauger in 4th and Eric Jones rounded out the top 5.

Source: Wallace Motorsports [wallacemotorsports.net]

April 24, 2019

Leo Arnold wins at French 200mm Champs Rd2

The French Bourg en Bresse track hosted round two of the French 1/10th 200mm Championship last weekend. In the Elite class it was Xray’s Leo Arnold with the overall TQ, only some 0.23 seconds in front of Capricorn’s Brice Turco. After the 45-minute main final it was again Leo who would excel, taking the win two laps on front of Quentin Leroux (Capricorn) as Brice Turco came in 3rd, another lap down.

Source: Aigoin Racing [aigoinracing.com]