Red RC » Gas

May 5, 2009

Merlin Depta wins German Nats Warm-up

Last weekend saw the warm-up race for the German nationals take place in Hildesheim. With 24 drivers and dry, almost warm weather conditions, everyone was looking forward to a nice race. Jens Stark TQ’d the event with is Max powered 966 in front of Stefan Hanauer, Steven Cuypers and his father Jürgen Stark. After the qualification Serpent driver Merlin Depta was in 6th, starting from position 1 in his semi-final. After finishing 1st, he was also able to help his friend Thomas Plöger in the pit, who finished 3rd and would also take part in the main final too, also with a 966. After 30 minutes Merlin finished the race two laps ahead of Tobias Hepp and Jens Stark, completing the all Serpent podium.

Thanks to Merlin Depta for the report.

May 4, 2009

Freddy Südhoff takes European 1/10th ‘B’ title

Following qualifying on Friday and Saturday for this year’s European 1/10th scale ‘B’ Championship in Austria, Sunday say the main finals get underway to decide who would claim the 2009 title. At the start of the 45 minute final Gerhard Kandelhart and Freddy Südhoff got off to a clean start and started to make gap on the rest of the field, also having the advantage of only needing to refuel every 6:45. Around the 13 minute mark Freddy managed to get passed Kandi to take the lead and began to pull a gap and at this time the leading pair had a lap advantage on the rest of the field. Later in the race Rico Kröber, who was in 3rd, started to decrease the gap to Kandi and managed to unlap himself to get back on the lead lap and following some quick laps he managed to catch Kandi again once more, this time for position with 3 laps to go. Going into the fast sweeper, the pair touched and Kandi went off and flamed out, something which would lose him the podium position, dropping to 4th by the time he restarted. This incident moved Daan Jacobs up to 3rd behind Kröber in 2nd, with Freddy Südhoff clear up front to take the European title.

Click here to see the final results

May 2, 2009

Gerhard Kandelhart TQ’s 1/10th Euro B

This weekend sees the European 1/10th 200mm ‘B’ Championships take place in Aigen, Austria. With 112 drivers present from 17 different countries, qualifying got underway yesterday in perfect conditions after some rain earlier in the week threatened to put a dampener on the whole event, however in the evening a thunderstorm did manage to interrupt the opening ceremony. Today it was again very sunny with clear skies, and a lot of spectators around the track watching, as the final qualifying sessions to determine the starting order for the finals got underway. With 4 rounds each to set your quickest time, pole position went to former European Champion Gerhard Kandelhart from Austria driving an Xray NT1, the only driver to get 25 laps, in front of top electric racer Freddy Sudhoff from Germany also with an Xray. Kyosho managed to place a car directly into the final with Rico Krober in 3rd also from Germany, while the final direct qualifying spot went to Dutch front runner Daan Jacobs in 4th, also with an Xray.

Click here to see the qualifying results

April 29, 2009

King & Cavalieri clean up at JBRL Rd1

Team Orion team mates Cody King and Ryan Cavalieri cleaned up at the opening round of the JBRL series this past Sunday. Cavalieri saw some issues in qualifying, but sorted it out and bumped all the way from the bottom main to win truggy from King in 2nd and Pavidis in 3rd. King took the exact opposite route, TQ’ing both classes and capturing the buggy crown from team mate Cavalieri, with Ryan Lutz taking 3rd. With 340 entries for a one day event, it was a miracle they finished before midnight.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]

April 28, 2009

Puerto Rico Championships Rd4

After been dedicated full time to the off-road class, Mugen Team Driver, Tory Santiago return to the on-road this weekend at the 4th round of the Puerto Rico Championship at Barceloneta. Qualifying in the 5th position in the A-Main, Tory was able to win the class by five laps over Kyosho Driver Pedro Alvarado in 2nd, while finishing in 3rd place was Jesus Rivera driving a Serpent. In the outlaw class was Edgar Betancourt driving a NT1 who TQ’d, but had mechanical problems in the main giving Edgar Tirado and his Serpent 720 the win, while in 3rd place was Jose Salas, also with a Serpent. In the 1/8 class, Kyosho Team Driver, Pedro Alvarado took TQ and won the class, six laps over 2nd place Carlos Fuentes with his Power Racing with Amaury Alvarez taking 3rd with a Kyosho.

Click here for the other A-main podium shots

April 27, 2009

Renaud Savoya takes Rd2 in France

The 2nd round of the French 1/8th scale buggy Nationals was held at the Angouleme track in the west of the country. Qualifying for the Elite class went the way of European Champion Renaud Savoya, lining his Mugen up ahead of Yannick Aigoin and Guillaume Vray in 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the hour long race it was a battle of attrition that Savoya won, taking the chequered flag 4 laps ahead of Losi driver Y. Aigoin, whose had hit troubles during the race losing him a lot of time. Mugen driver Nicolas Reynaud took the final podium step in 3rd.

Source: RC Mag [rcmag.com]

April 27, 2009

Neil Cragg wins BRCA Nationals Rd2

The Tiverton Model Car Club played host the round 2 of the BRCA 1/8th Off Road series and their fast Astroturf track provided a very difficult challenge. The high speed nature of the circuit, coupled with the very high traction levels on this surface, made for a un-forgiving combination. Mistakes were punished heavily, either by time loss or breakages. The qualifying sessions were also slightly affected by light showers, with the early and middle heats both having a blow out round where the track was too slick for quick times. At the end of qualifying it was round 1 winner Elliott Boots driving his Mugen MBX-6 who took the pole with 3 round wins and some very impressive runs. Neil Cragg took 2nd on the grid with his Associated RC8B ahead of Simon Willetts and Dave Bailey. The main final saw an early battle between Elliott and Neil until the first round of stops. After that Elliott started to make a series of errors in trying to keep up with Neil and dropped back into the chasing pack. This left Neil to put the hammer down and build a massive lead which he maintained until the end to record a comfortable victory ahead of Losi man Darren Bloomfield in 2nd, with Simon Willetts taking 3rd.

Source: CML [cmldistribution.co.uk]

April 27, 2009

Batlle takes Victory at Spanish Nats Rd2

The 2nd round of the Spanish 1/8th sale buggy Nationals was run at the weekend at the Montjuic track in Barcelona, close to the Olympic Stadium. 107 drivers attended the race and following qualifying on Saturday, it was Associated driver Robert Batlle that took the TQ spot from Javier Puché in 2nd and Jesús Gómez Salmerón in 3rd. On Sunday during the 1/16th final, the sky suddenly turned dark and the rain started, flooding the track. Due to this the organizers cancelled the race and the results were called from the qualifying positions, which gave Batlle the win from Javier Puché and Jesús Gómez Salmerón.

Source: Merlin [merlinfuel.com]