Red RC » Gas

May 18, 2009

Tim Wood wins BRCA 1/8th Rd2

The second round of the BRCA 1/8th national took place yesterday at the Halifax track. The weather forcast was for rain showers all weekend so the track became very busy when dry patches formed between the showers. On Saturday, it was Mark Green setting the pace followed by Neil Diver, Pete Hastings and Richard Hicklin, while on Sunday it was bright and the track was almost dry for heat practice. Rain then started to fall but soon stopped and for the final heat, it was 90% dry. Mark Green in this heat set TQ and in doing so, the cars behind him put in good banker times for if the rain came again. In Round 2, it was fully dry and a good time would secure a main final position. All the top drivers improved to into the 20 lap bracket, apart from Tim Wood, who ran out of fuel, but was on for a good 20 lap result. Up front however, Mark Green continued his recent dominance at the Dutch GP by setting TQ and a new lap record of 21 laps in 310 seconds. This result being a clear 3/4 of a lap clear of Richard Hicklin. Round 3, and Mark Green did not improve on his previous time, but heat 4 saw improvements to bump Adam Catchpole, Andy Hastings, and Dan Bancroft into the top 10. Round 4 was a washout, since a big rain shower returned.

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May 15, 2009

Cody King wins Tri State Buggy Champs

Team Orion team driver has a report on the 2nd Annual Tri State Off Road Championship was held last weekend at Hal’s Hobbies in El Paso. ‘There was a practice race on Friday night, the day before qualifying. During practice my car was not great, but I talked with my Dad on the phone, and we got it working nice on the very rough track. The track was super rough and dry and the key to winning was to be consistent. We changed the camber links a little and added negative camber for stability. I won the practice race Friday and felt confident going into Saturday. For qualifying Saturday, I TQ’d the first round by 2 seconds over Billy Fischer. In the second round, the nut on a rear outer hinge pin fell off (same thing that happened at Silver State) and ended the heat for me. In round 3, I TQ’d again, this time by 4 seconds over Casey Peck. This would make me TQ in the buggy class.’

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May 14, 2009

La Gara del Cuore – Announcement

Our friends in Italy sent us the announcement for a race that they are running in June, on the 6th – 7th, in aid of the victims of the recent Abruzzo earthquake. The race takes place in Gubbio and is open to both 1/8th scale and 1/10th scale gas classes and all proceeds from the event will go to the Italian Red Cross. Its for a good cause, so if you wish to test on the host track of this year’s European Championships for 1/10th 200mm and you missed out on last weekend’s GP then you may as well go and support a good cause while you are at it. You can enter the race by going to the track site here, with more info (in Italian) here.

May 13, 2009

Guiseppe D’angelo wins Euros Warm-up

Last weekend saw the Warm up race for the European 1/10th scale 200mm European Championship held at the ‘Mario Rosati’ track in Gubbio, Italy. Qualifying saw the pole position go to Mugen/Sirio driver Francesco Tironi, 4 seconds clear of of Mugen/SM driver Guiseppe D’angelo in 2nd, using a new prototype SM engine, while Robert Pietsch and Dino Giacalone rounded out the top 4. In the final Tironi had problems at the 5 minute mark, dropping him down the order and this allowed D’angelo to take the lead, a position he held until the end of the race. Guiseppe won by over 2 laps from Dino Giacalone in 2nd, who had inherited the place from Pietsch who retired at the 15 minute mark, while Xray driver Niki Duina claimed the final podium placing in 3rd.

Click here to see the final positions

May 12, 2009

Yannick Aigoin wins Euros Warmup

The warm up for this year’s European buggy Championships took place last weekend in Oberwolbing in Austria under hot and dry conditions. The track presented to the drivers, which included some US drivers over for the race, was super fast with 2 straights and a tarmac banking, which constantly challenged the drivers. The A-main was super fast with current European Champion Renaud Savoya, Adam Drake and Yannick Aigoin fighting for the lead. Savoya and Aigoin were a little bit faster and fought for the whole race, but Yannick was able to make one less stop which gave the Losi driver the safety margin he needed to keep in front until the end of the race. Renaud Savoya took 2nd for Mugen ahead of British driver Neil Cragg in 3rd for Associated.

Source: Racing Experience [racing-experience.fr]

May 12, 2009

Teemu Saarinen take round 1 in Finland

Last weekend in Hyvinkää, Finland, the opening round of the Finnish 1/10th scale National Championships took place. Qualifying had seen Mugen driver Teemu Saarinen take the pole position for the 45 minute final, and he was able to carry that pace through into the finals, winning the race by a lap from Xray driver Pekka Kolvula in 2nd, with Tony Raikas running a Mugen, 3 laps further back in 3rd spot.

Source: Mugen [mid-mugen.eu]

May 12, 2009

Alexander Hagberg wins Swedish Nats opener

Merlin Fuel have a report from their team driver Alexandar Hagberg, who last weekend took part in his first gas race in Växjö, southern Sweden at the opening round of the Swedish Nationals. Qualifying went well for the Xray driver as in the 3rd round out of 4 he could secure the overall TQ with a 2 second gap over the 2nd placed Kyosho driver Magnus Vässmar. In the finals Alex lead for the first 20 minutes until his engine flamed out, which gave Vässmar the lead ahead of Alexander. With 2 minutes to go Vässmar lost his 2nd gear and was running slowly around the track and this allowed Hagberg to take back the lead and with it the win, about half a lap down to 2nd placed Vässmar and another lap in front of 3rd placed Mugen driver Mikael Fransson.

Click here to see the final results

May 11, 2009

Mattia Pesenti wins Swiss 1/8th Nats Rd2

This past weekend saw the 2nd round of the Swiss 1/8th scale Championship take place in Aigle, in the French part of Switzerland, which is a nice track but very dangerous due to very little run off. On Saturday the weather wasnt so good and they only managed 2 rounds of qualifying before it started to rain. It was Motonica driver Shasa Lackner that claimed the pole position, setting a new lap record, in front of Juerg Nydegger and Luca Martinello both driving Mugen, with the final direct qualifying position going to Marco Mueller with his Shepherd.

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