Red RC » International

September 6, 2019

Kurzbuch from Balestri in 2nd Ettlingen qualifier

With an engine failure stopping him in his tracks in the opening qualifier at ENS Ettlingen, Simon Kurzbuch bounced back to take the second round ahead of his great arch rival Dario Balestri. Also having a troubled Q1, Balestri would finish 6/10ths of a second off the Shepherd driver’s TQ pace in a heat that would see Q1 TQ man Carmine Raiola have his turn of bad luck. Struggling with a rich engine his race came to an end when he stripped a gear with a minute to go. While Dominic Greiner would set the 3rd fastest time in the top heat, it was to be John Ermen who completed the overall Top 3, the ARC driver’s time in the second fast heat demoting the Serpent driver to fourth with Lars Hoppe rounding out the Top 5.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

September 6, 2019

Raiola TQs opening 1:8 qualifier at ENS Finale

Carmine Raiola has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the ENS Season Finale in Germany, the Infinity driver cutting things ultra close and running out of fuel crossing the loop. Fourth fastest in practice, the Italian looked to be battling for second position with Dominic Greiner in the first of the four qualifiers as already crowned champion Simon Kurzbuch set the pace out front. However with less than 20-seconds on the clock, Kurzbuch would suffer an engine failure allowing Raiola to secure a TQ run by 1/10th of a second from Greiner. Having topped seeding ahead of Merlin Depta, last year’s race winner Dario Balestri hit problems before the run had even started. Coming down pitlane after completing his warm-up, the Infinity driver hit the bottom of the lowly held Shepherd of Toni Gruber which pulled the trim tab from the body. While his mechanic tried to fix it back into position the body was ripped and it came undone again causing Balestri to have a high speed off on the entry to the main straight while holding P2. In the end he would finish 4th behind Depta, who completed the Top 3 with the fastest lap of Q1.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

September 6, 2019

Groskamp takes super close Q1 at ENS Finale

Jilles Groskamp claimed a super close opening qualifier at the Season Finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Ettlingen Germany. Racing for the newly crowned champions Infinity, the 2019 1:10 Champion Teemu Leino opting to focus on 1:8 this weekend, Groskamp swapped the lead at the top of the timing screens each lap with Shepherd’s Thilo Tödtmann, with the former champion just doing enough on the final lap to take it by 0.054 of a second. With rain on the horizon for Sunday forcing an early start to qualifying, all four rounds to be run today, behind Groskamp & Tödtmann it was practice Top Seed Melvin Diekmann who completed the Top 3, 1.3-seconds further back, just ahead of Shepherd team-mate Patrick Nähr. Second fastest in practice, Infinity’s young Dutch talent Milan Holthuis posted the 5th fastest qualifying time.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

September 2, 2019

Davide Ongaro crowned European E-Buggy Champion

The 2019 EFRA 1/8th E-Buggy European Championship was held in Barcelona, Spain over the weekend. Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro and HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk battled it out for the overall TQ with Davide ultimately holding the upper hand, winning three of the five qualifiers while David was able to win the remaining two rounds. The three 10-minute A-mains then had Davide taking a very close win in A1 and a not-so-close victory in A2 for the early overall title from David on the runner-up spot. Davide then sat out A3, making way for SWorkz’s Juan Carlos Canas who would take the win to cement his his final podium spot from Kyosho’s Joao Figueiredo in 4th.

Image: Modelix Racing [modelixracing.com]

September 2, 2019

Michal Orlowski sweeps oOple Invernational X

The oOple Invernational X was held at the Robin Hood Raceway in the UK this past weekend, attracting some of Europe’s fastest 1/10th off-road racers. Schumacher’s Michael Orlowski would take the overall TQ in 2WD Modified Buggy and he also came out on top in A2 and A3 after scoring a 4th place finish in the reverse grid A1. Team Associated’s Neil Cragg took 4-2-2 finishes for the overall runner-up spot from Greg Williams in 3rd with 9-3-3 runs. 4WD Modified Buggy again had Michal scathing the overall TQ and win from Neil as Allan O Brien (Schumacher) came in 3rd overall.

View the 4WD Modified Buggy podium here

September 2, 2019

2019 International German Pro10 Nationals – Report

The 2019 International German Pro10 Nationals were held at the Speedracer Bernau Club near Berlin in Modified and Sport classes with drivers from The Netherlands, the UK and Germany in attendance. The warm weather made for good traction conditions and the weekend kicked off with free practice on Friday followed by triple controlled practice runs and three qualifying rounds on Saturday. Sunday saw two more qualifiers and the triple A-mains. In the Modified class reigning German Champion, Tim Altmann set the pace in the timed practice followed by his brother Kai with Timo Schad and Tobias Weist completing the top 4.

Continue reading the report here

September 2, 2019

Asian Nitro Championship Rd3 – Report

The third round of this year’s Asian Nitro Championship was held at the new Infinity International RC Speedway this past weekend. The newly built track is located near the famed Suzuka Raceway in Japan and in the premier 1/8th Open class the main was stacked with talent and with the current 1/8 World Champion thrown into the mix, anything was possible. Carmine Raiola captured the pole position and clearly he was aiming to keep the position for the win. The top two qualifiers, Tadahiko Sahashi and Chavit Saligupta set the pace early for the front runners as the pair were always within striking distance of each other for a large duration of the race. Behind them it was a totally different story as much of the field was jockeying for position. Current 1/8 World Champ Dario Balestri claimed the third position from past World Champ Naoto Matsukura for a bit as he had his sights set on the leaders preparing. By this time though, all cars were approaching pit stop time and how good your pit person is was going to start to determine if you can hold your position or not. If you had trouble following the order in the closing stages of the main, you weren’t alone. Race announcer Scotty Ernst called the action and kept things straight for the watching audience. By the sound of the end tone, second qualifier Sahashi managed to grab the big win with Chavit Saligupta coming all the way from the sixth qualifying spot to take second with TQ Carmine Raiola rounding out the top 3.

Continue reading the report here

September 2, 2019

Mibosport Cup 2019/20 – Announcement

Mibosport have released full details for the forthcoming 2019/20 season of their highly popular Mibosport Cup. Kicking off on the weekend of the 19th of October, the series offers the usual mix of electric on-road and off-road racing with the new season seeing the addition of the GT Stock 17.5T and FWD classes, both rolling on Mibosport SQS-32PGL BBS-style rims and making use of realistic looking bodies for a more eye-pleasing appearance on the track. For the new season both the on-road and off-road tracks will be laid out on a new carpet and the off-road track also gains in size for even more fun and action. Full details about the series can be found here and here.