June 18, 2013

John Lenaers dominates 3rd round in Belgium

John Lenaers dominates 3rd round in Belgium

Last weekend the third Belgian national took place at the new MRG track in Genk and with a sunny forecast the race was well attended. The track lay-out is fast and with the 5 minute qualification system, fuel management was crucial for a good result. After 3 rounds of qualification the 4 direct finalist where John Lenaers (Mugen) on pole followed by Daan Haling (Motonica). 3rd place went to Yarmishyan Alexy (Capricorn) and 4th place to Dewynants Cédric (Capricorn). With only a few seconds between the 4 drivers, it would promise to be a very interesting race. After the Lunch break, two semi finals where driven. Victory in Semi final B was for Poesen Bert, who drove a steady final and was very closely followed by Vandonck Erwin. Only a gap of half a second was between these drivers after a 15 minute race. Third place went to Van Calster Danny. Semi final A was won by Dutchmen Frank Baggen, who cruised to an easy victory, followed by Pollet Michel and Machon Gert.

Continue reading the report here


June 18, 2013

Jacques Libar wins Luxembourg Nationals Rd2

Jacques Libar wins Luxembourg Nationals Rd2

Round 2 of the Luxembourg 1/8th scale nationals was held this weekend on the fast LMCC track in Luxembourg. On Sunday it was dry but the track was a bit slippery after track repairing, so it was Dirk Richard who took the pole position in front of Jacques Libar and Jerome Hirtziger. The 30-minute main final saw the new Xray driver Jacques Libar cross the finishing line in first position, followed by Christophe Deliege with Mugen in 2nd an Jerome Hirtziger with Capricorn in 3rd.

Source: LMCC [lmcc.lu]


June 17, 2013

Silvio Hächler continues dominance of Swiss Nats

SwissNatsRSilvio Hächler continues dominance of Swiss Natsd3-1

Last weekend round 3 of the Swiss championship headed to the wonderful Lostallo track in the south of Switzerland. The weather forecast was perfect with about 30 degrees on the whole weekend and because of this most of the 80 competitors already arrived on Thursday to avail of the perfect conditions. Once again the track was driven in the opposite direction from the Worlds in 2009. Qualification was run under extremely hot conditions and so the last round when it was colder would be crucial for deciding the TQ. Simon Kurzbuch had a really perfect round and had an gap from more than 4 seconds.

Continue reading the report here


June 17, 2013

Ulf Stenvall wins Swedish Northen Cup Rd2

Ulf Stenvall wins Swedish Northen Cup Rd2

The second round of the Swedish Northen Cup took place recently in Älvsbyn. 41 racers attended and were greeted with mostly clear skies and a newly built driver stand. The track was in quite bumpy condition after a wet and rainy race taking place the day before. Junior driver Emil Lundgren from Piteå had a fast enough race pace to make it into the semi-final, but unfortunately had to retire in the 1/4-final due to his engine coming loose. Instead Viktor Westerlund took first place in the junior-class followed by Viktor Öhrvall and Alexander Sundh.  In the A-main final Patrik Bodén took an early lead but ran into issues with his engine flaming out loosing a lot of laps. “Veteran driver” Ulf Stenvall then took a commanding lead in the final piloting his Mugen to a safe victory. The most unexpected result this Sunday was Fredrik Kling finishing second with his Xray, taking his first ever podium finish. Martin Slagbrand managed to secure the third place even though a shock came loose on his Xray near the end of the final.

View the final results here


June 17, 2013

Drake & Tessmann crowned 2013 National Champions

Drake & Tessmann crowned 2013 National Champions

The ROAR 1/8th scale Nationals were held last weekend at Gulf Coast Raceway in Porter, Texas with the race seeing battles for the coveted buggy & truggy titles, won last year by Ty Tessmann. Qualifying in the buggy class was dominated by TLR’s young gun Dakotah Phend ahead of Tessmann, Truhe and Drake, while in Truggy it was all HB’s Ty Tessmann ahead of Phend with TLR team mates Drake and Truhe once again completing the Top 4. Cruel luck in the Semis as Phend lost a throttle servo and was out along with Tebo and Cavalieri and so having dominated his semi Tessmann would line up on pole position for the 45 minute long final. The final started well for the Canadian, who would lead for the majority of the race but in the end a mechanical issue would mean retirement and allow Adam Drake to take over the lead which he would never relinquish, taking his third National title in front of team mate Truhe in 2nd with Kyosho’s Cody King in 3rd. In the earlier Truggy final, Tessmann would dominate, retaining his Truggy title winning by over a lap from Durango’s Ryan Lutz, with Mike Truhe taking, what would be the first of two podium spots, in 3rd.

Click here to view the truggy winner


June 17, 2013

Daniele Ielasi joins Capricorn

Daniele Ielasi joins Capricorn

Capricorn have announced the signing of 2008 1/10th World Champion Daniele Ielasi. The deal is effective immediately and the former Shepherd driver will compete in the 1/8th and 1/10th European Championships as a Capricorn driver. The Italian had this to say about the deal:

I would like to thank the complete Shepherd family for our excellent cooperation and for the good job they made in the past years. We always had and will have a good relation and it was really a pleasure to be part of this great team. I know that this kind of change in the middle of the season is not easy to manage but after a long and careful consideration I have to take this hard decision. From now on I will be part of the Capricorn team as a driver for the 1/10 and the 1/8 car. I’m sure that my experience will give a new improvement and I’m very happy to be part of the best Italian drivers in the same Capricorn team with an Italian car and Italian engine.

Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]


June 14, 2013

Peter Jovanovic doubles at Canberra State Titles

Peter Jovanovic doubles at Canbarra State Titles

The recent KM Racing sponsored Canberra State Titles for 1/8th and 1/10th nitro on-road saw Capricorn driver Peter Jovanovic taking TQ in both classes followed by Steven Jovanovic and Michael Stone in 1/10th scale and Kane Alderton and Tim Westwood in 1/8th. The small and technical track was very aggressive on the tyres but the sedans made their final without a tyre change and it was TQ setter Peter Jovanovic who came in first some two laps ahead of Steven Jovanovic and Nick Morris. Chris Hamilton rounded out the top 4 positions. The 1/8th class tyre changes were unavoidable and by only changing the left front tyre Peter again was unstoppable bringing home the win two laps in front of Kane Alderton and Michael Turner. The top four was completed by Tim Westwood.

Click here to view the 1/8th podium


June 13, 2013

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th at Brooklands Raceway

Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th at Brooklands Raceway

Round 3 of the 2013 BRCA 1/8th championship was hosted by the Brooklands club. This was the first time the section had visited the circuit for 18 months after circuit ownership issues which have now been fully resolved. The track is a power circuit and very flowing which makes it a favourite amongst the drivers and resembles many circuits with Europe. For this meeting the committee decided to run the bus stop chicane along the back straight to firstly slow the cars down over the bumps preventing potential engine failures and secondly to create a longer lap and more of a drivers challenge. The track was open for free practice on Saturday and the usual suspects of Branson and Green were quickly up to speed with the track changes and soon a driving line was forming and the grip was steadily increasing. With the straight being shorter the drivers experimented with gear ratio’s but the norm used on other tracks seemed to be the answer to aid with driveability. Another attribute to the bus stop chicane layout was the benefit of fuel consumption and with the new regulations of 16 percent nitro should surely make 5 minute run times easy to achieve with the dreaded fuel stop a thing of the past. The conclusion however was not as anticipated and many of the top drivers had to make a fuel stop to be safe.

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