May 28, 2012

DeSoto Jr & Apolaro win Cow Patty Classic

The 1st Annual Cow Patty Classic took place this weekend at Nugget’s Raceway Ranch in Arcadia, Florida USA. Racers from as far as California and New York made the trip and were rewarded with excellent track conditions and great competition. It was a very hot weekend with ambient temperatures of 95+ degrees and track temps as high as 140. Despite the heat, the track was in great shape with very good traction and tire wear with near record breaking lap times. Running 5 minute qualifiers was welcomed by most as they prepared for the ROAR Nationals later in the year at this track. Some chose to pit during their runs but most of the fast runs were done without a stop with all the TQ runs happening without a stop. The mains were intense with tight competition and different fuel and tire strategies taking place and it was Joaquin DeSoto Jr and DJ Apolaro taking the wins in 1/8th scale and sedan respectively.

View the class results here


May 28, 2012

Arnaud Mathieu wins 1/8th European ‘B’ title

Last week saw the 1/8th ‘B’ European championship held in Thionville in the North of France. With nice hot weather during the week and new asphalt on the track as well as a new layout and sugared water sprayed for a better grip the conditions were perfect for all drivers. From the start of practice, local driver, and reigning French Champion, Arnaud Mathieu (Motonica P81 RS2) set the pace. After the opening round of qualifying, it’s a fast Sabrina Lechner who took the the pole on Thursday with a 27 lap run in 7’01. On Friday, with 4 rounds of qualifying many drivers would have the opportunity to improve, but the morning heat should be the fastest because of the fresh air.

Continue reading the report here


May 24, 2012

Andrea Pirani wins Italian Shepherd Trophy

The first Italian Shepherd Trophy 2012 took place at the beautiful track of Fiorano with drivers from all over Italy attending the 2-days event. Among the 90 participants were many top racers like Daniele Ielasi, Lamberto Collari, Michele Romagnoli, Andrea Pirani and the Salemi brothers which resulted in a very high level of competition. At the start of the 30 minutes main final Pirani jumped from 4th to 2nd position behind his teammate Romagnoli. After a few minutes Romagnoli made contact with a backmarker and dropped down the order. Pirani took over the lead and never looked back winning two laps in front of the Salemi brothers.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]


May 23, 2012

Meen V wins final KM HK selection race

The KM World Cup final selection race was held at TRC Race track in Hong Kong and attracted all the top KM drivers from around Asia competing for one of the 3 sponsored trips to the KM World Cup in Thailand in October. Qualifying went the way of Thai driver Meen V driving the KM H-K1 but it was Hang who took the fastest lap of the race with a 19.421 second lap. In the race it was Meen that took the win by a lap from the charging pair of Hung and Charlee P. who finished less than 1.5 seconds apart in 2nd and 3rd place.

Source: KM [km-rc.com]


May 22, 2012

North German Rd1 wins for Schröder & Herniksen

The first round of the North German Championship took place in Hamburg under perfect weather conditions with 35 racers in attendance. For Team Shepherd it was a great weekend with victories in the 1/8th scale expert class as well as in the 1/10th scale class. In the 1/8th scale class it was was a close fight between the 2011 Euro B finalists Lars Hoppe and Timo Schröder, both driving with a Shepherd Velox V8 “eleven”. At the start of the final Hoppe’s engine stalled and Schröder took over the lead. But lap by lap Hoppe closed the gap and took over the lead after some minutes. Unfortunately he suffered again some problems and dropped back to 5th position by the middle of the race. Again Hoppe caught up brilliantly but the gap to Schröder was too big this time. He managed to get back to second position and crossed the finishing line one lap behind Schröder who drove a flawless race.

Continue reading the report here


May 22, 2012

Kimbrow & Swauger win KO Propo USA GP

This past weekend was the 5th Annual KO Propo America Nitro Grand Prix in Gardena, CA.  The race facility was hosted by the GLARCC (Greater Los Angeles RC Club) with drivers from the California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, Florida, New York and Connecticut in attendance for the great Southern California weather. 138 entries in total with classes for 1/10th Open, 1/8th Open, 1/8th Sportsman and 1/5th, the largest class was the 1/8th Open with mains going down to the G Main. Close competition all weekend for all classes resulted in mostly everyone having a great time. 1/10th Open and 1/8th Open TQ would be set by Mike Swauger, 1/5th TQ by Brian Thomas and 1/8th Sportsman by Kenny Jones.

View the final results here


May 21, 2012

2012 Nitro-West-Masters – Announcement

The Nitro-West-Masters will start into its fourth season in the coming weekend. Five races are scheduled in 2012 for this growing championship in Western Germany, which has attracted 93 nitro racers in 2011. Fair racing, long finals, stable rules and a friendly atmosphere are the key points of the Nitro-West-Masters. Three classes are offered, 1/8 scale nitro on-road (VG8), 1/10 scale nitro on-road (VG10) and 1/8 scale nitro on-road Hobby-Cup (HC8) with standard engines from Novarossi or Sonic. The race format includes three heats of seven minutes with the three best laps to count and finals as long as possible, depending on number of participants and weather. Tyre additives are prohibited. Drivers also from foreign countries are welcome, a license isn’t mandatory, in that case an additional insurance fee is to be paid.

Continue reading the announcement


May 21, 2012

Yannick Aigoin wins French EFRA GP

The EFRA GP of Reims took place last weekend at the northern French town and attracted a rather low 66 drivers. With the weather cooperating and sunshine all weekend it was Associated driver Yannick Aigoin that took the pole position ahead of Xray driver Renaud Savoya in 2nd and Agama racer Jerome Sartel in 3rd. The first non French driver was Spaniard Borja Hernandez with the LRP car in 4th. In the semis it was business as usual for the two former European Champions with Aigoin and Savoya winning their respective finals but it was Yannick who would start from pole in the hour long A-main. As the race started Aigoin would cement his dominance on the event by taking the lead and proceeding to pull out an advantage. German Mugen driver Daniel Reckward moved passed Savoya around the 10 minute mark and would maintain in 2nd position for the remainder of the race. Near the half way point Savoya hit trouble and would drop to the back of the pack. This moved Borja Hernandez to 3rd and he would hold on to the final podium position until the final minutes of the race when Sartel would come through to take the spot and complete the podium behind Reckward in 2nd and winner Yannick Aigoin.

Source: Automodelisme [automodelisme.com]