The popular 1/8th off-road Senior Race was held at the Horni Jeleni track in the Czech Republic. The organising club did its best to prepare a nice track after the Friday morning before the race was rained out. In the premier class of 1/8th Nitro Buggy it was Xray’s Jiri Benes with the TQ and win from Karel Hajek (Xray) and Jaroslav Valder (Xray) in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The recent Queensland State IC Track Titles were held on the newly resurfaced track of England Park Raceway. In the 200mm Pro Touring class Jeff Hamon and Ricky Kradlofer set the pace with a consistent Luke Sinanian coming in 3rd after the qualifiers. The latter got a great start from the 3rd position on the grid holding the position behind Rick Kradolfer and Jeff Hamon. After the first pit stop, there were no changes in position and as the race went on Luke was still in 3rd holding off Tim Moylan. At the 15 minute mark tragedy struck for front runner Jeff Hamon with a gearbox issue putting him out of the race. This would move his team mate Ricky Kradolfer to the front and Luke would move into 2nd not far behind. Ricky was lapping fast whilst Luke was trying to stay consistent and save tyres. On the 79th lap, Ricky suffered some mechanical problems having to pull into pits two times. This promoted Luke into the lead and he was able to cruise to the win to take the 2017 Queensland Pro Touring State Title.
Robert Batlle will lead away the 13 drivers that will battle it out in Sweden to become Champion of the 37th running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships. The Top Qualifier won his Semi with the faster time of the two encounters with David Ronnefalk recovering from a bad start to win the other, just 1-second of a difference in their winning times after the 20-minute races. Keeping Batlle honest in the early part of the race and leading the Spaniard for a time before a costly mistake, Davide Ongaro would finish second to secure fourth on the grid. Behind Ronnefalk, reigning champion Elliott Boots having had a very comfortable lead early on over fellow Brit Darren Bloomfield would finish second with a difficult car to start his quest for a third title in a row from 3rd. Behind the Top 4, João Figueiredo will start 5th with former champion Bloomfield lining up 6th making it five different manufacturers in the top half of the grid.
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Robert Batlle is Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Sweden, the Mugen driver producing a blistering final qualifier to leave his rivals stunned and deny World Champion David Ronnefalk a home TQ. Having started out yesterday unable to match Ronnefalk and reigning champion Elliott Boots, the 2-time former champion found his rhythm on Day 2 of qualifying topping both qualifiers to claim only his second ever Euros TQ, the last one being 10 years ago when he took his first title. With a TQ run in Q3, Ronnefalk would end up second to secure pole for the second of the Semi finals in which Boots, who took Q1, will start directly behind him. Fastest in the second qualifier, Davide Ongaro ended up 3rd overall and the Italian star will follow Batlle off the line in the first of the 20-min Semi finals. Former Champion Darren Bloomfield joins them while Riccardo Berton will complete the Top 3 starting line-up for the Semi B encounter.
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Robert Batlle has opened the final day of qualifying at the European Championship with a TQ run, the Mugen driver becoming the fourth different driver to top the times to set the stage for a four way shoot out for the overall TQ in Sweden in the fifth & final round of qualifying. After overnight rain, it was Ronnefalk who looked on target to set down the early benchmark but a near perfect run from the Swede would come undone on his last lap as he suffered a broken screw in his steering, handing Juan Carlos Canas the provisional TQ time after the first heat. Riccardo Berton would better that time in Heat 2 but Batlle, even with a 44 second lap, would finally hit the top of the times for the first time at the Gröndal Ring. Just 3/10ths behind the Spaniard, Berton would end up second with reigning champion Elliott Boots completing the Top 3 ahead of Canas, Darren Bloomfield and Martin Wollanka.
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Having thrown away potential TQ runs in the opening qualifiers, top seed David Ronnefalk finally delivered on his third attempt as Day 3 of the European Championship in Sweden comes to a close. Second fastest in Q1 & 2, the HB Racing driver would run the fastest time of the day in his third qualifier finishing 3-seconds up on Q2 pace setter Davide Ongaro. A further 2-seconds off, Mugen’s Robert Batlle would break into the Top 3 for the first time having thrown away competitive runs with mistakes on the last lap of both previous qualifiers. Unable to translate his strong showing in controlled practice yesterday into a competitive time in the first two qualifiers, Carlos Durães came good for the end of day run setting the 4th fastest time ahead Q1 top qualifier Elliott Boots.
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Davide Ongaro delivered a TQ run in the second round of qualifying at the Euros in Sweden, the Team Associated driver going fastest from top seed David Ronnefalk. Third fastest in the opening qualifier, the Italian would have a 1.5 second advantage over Ronnefalk, the HB Racing star again suffering costly mistakes over the 5-minutes. After almost a 5-hour wait between Q1 and the second of the day’s three qualifiers, Kyosho’s Riccardo Berton would complete the Top 3 as team-mate Elliott Boots had a tough round. The reigning champion would end up 13th fastest after ‘loads of crashes’ with the Q1 Top Qualifier putting part of his struggle down to tyres saying, ‘they worked this morning but not now’. Having opened qualifier with a P4, Mugen’s Juan Carlos Canas wouldn’t have a good Q2 getting a drive through penalty for stopping on track as he tried to allow a gap between himself and Ronnefalk at the start.
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Round 5 of the SWCS was held in Rendon, Texas. The series has been plagued by rainouts, as this is only the third race to be completed out of the seven scheduled races. The track was in great shape, due to the hard work of the RCRCNT crew. It was a very hot weekend in Texas and the racers and cars would be tested. In the 1/8 IC class, it was Nick Lefebvre that would take the TQ spot, followed closely by Bob Ingersol and Jeff Whiting. Nick would get a great start and never loose the lead during the 30-minute final. This main would have its share of incidents. This would change the order of the rest of the field. When the 30-minutes were up, it was Nick taking the win with 102 laps, 8 laps over 2nd place. Pablo Tejada would come in 2nd and Michael Shing in 3rd.
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