Top British gas driver Gareth Bell has been confirmed as a GRP driver for the 2007 season, where not only will he race the Italian foam but will help in the development of the companies products. Additionally Gareth, who forms a team with his mechanic and brother Martyn, will run the GRP made Falcon range of engines in both the 1/8th and 1/10th 200mm classes in which Gareth runs the Mugen chassis’.
Source: Mirage [mirageracing.com]
Last weekend saw the GRP Dirt Challenge race take place at the Deerdale Off Road club with 110 entries split between buggy and truggy. In the buggy class it was Bruce Thompson that took the pole position ahead of Kevin Brunsden and Simon Smith, whilst in the truggy class it was Kevin Brunsden that took to the TQ spot ahead of James Helliwell and Bruce Knight in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
In buggy Simon Smith took the early lead and battled with Bruce until the first round of pitsops. Kevin Brunsden had a terrible start with an engine cut and he was chasing back through the field. Some frantic racing and about 10 minutes later Kevin had moved into the lead and took the chequered flag from Simon Smith and Bruce Thompson.
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Serpent are reporting on their 1-2 finish at last weekends rain interrupted first round of the Irish 1/8th scale National Championships held in Raheny, just outside Dublin City. Serpent 960 racer Clive Connolly claimed the top spot in qualifying, but as the race was partially wet a number of drivers including Connolly became victims of radio gear trouble forcing them out of the race. This allowed the Serpent pairing of Dean Lacey and Darragh Fox to the field with Lacey leading until some radio problems close to the end of the race allowed Fox to take the lead and eventually the win, followed home by Lacey in 2nd with Mario Morelli in 3rd.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
We received notification that the organisers of this summers 1/8th Off road EFRA GP in Norway, have opened the event for entries. The event will take place on the 18th – 19th of August this year and will be run by the Grenland Modellbilklubb on their track in Skien, 2 hours south of Oslo. It should be a good event and has already, even at this early stage, attracted over 35 entrants with some top names among those.
Check out their website here for more information.
Last week we wrote about Greek Serpent driver John Sotiropoulos and the fact that he got his 1/8th scale National title defense off to a good start with a win in the 1st round of the Nationals. Well John was at it again but this time its the first round of the 1/10th 200mm Nationals that took place again at the Arena track and as well as setting the fastest lap of the event, Sotiropoulos brought his Serpent 720 home to a commanding win with Spyros Piknis in 2nd and Dimitris Petroglou in 3rd.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
Last weekend, at the buggy track in Purmerand in the Netherlands, saw the running of a fun race to find out which country is the best between neighbours Germany and Holland based on the best 24 Dutch and the best 24 German positions, totalling the points together. In qualifying Markus Feldmann could take the TQ spot but didnt fair so well in his semi final, only finishing 5th. A few changes to his car and he was able to quickly work his way up to front of the final to take the lead on lap 2 where he could push away and take the race win followed home by Oliver Simon in 2nd and Marcell Guske in 3rd. Despite Germany have 8 drivers in the final, the event was won by the Dutch, on points.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Current European 1:8 B Champion Andrea Cristiani has won the ‘Warm Up‘ race for the 2007 EFRA European 1:8 IC Track B Championships. Racing at Tolmin in Slovenia over the weekend (10/11 March), the Italian Serpent driver took the win by a narrow 4 second margin over 2007 EC-B title favourite Jernej Vuga from Slovenia who was Top Qualifier for the race.
The pace of racing at the ‘Warm Up’ event was ultra competitive with Cristiani and Vuga pushing each other throughout proceedings with local ace Vuga using his Mugen to set a new lap record time of 16.491 for Minitrack ‘Na Logu’. Italy’s Nicola Ometto, also driving a Mugen, completed the podium. As the current European 1:8 B Champion, Cristiani is not eligible to race in the 2007 EC-B on May 25-27 putting former EC-B Vice-Champion Vuga in a very strong position going into the Bonisio sponsored event.
Click here to see the final results… content
You may recall that we mentioned Australian racer Ari Bakla yesterday as he dominated the truggy class at the AWJ Nitro Challenge. Well now, thanks to our Aussie partners Rube Dude, you can read a very interesting interview with this multiple National Champion racer and get an insight into the man and the RC import business he runs.
Read the full interview here.
Source: Rube Dude [rubeduderc.com]
