The Italian Pinerolo track hosted the EFRA 1/10th Buggy European Championship warm-up race this past weekend. In the 2WD Buggy class it was current 1/8th Nitro Buggy World Champion, Davide Ongaro (Team Associated) with the win from Schumacher’s Michael Orlowski on the runner-up spot. Xray’s Martin Bayer came in 3rd to round out the podium.
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This June will see the running of the Spec Class VRC Worlds in various Nitro and Electric, On-road and Off-road categories. The fun kicks off on the 5th of June with Nitro Sedans, 1/12th scale Sports Cars and Rally X. All Spec classes are part of VRC’s free2play package – all that is needed is the respective track. The full schedule can be found after the break or on the official VRC website here.
Find a list of all Spec Worlds events here
The third and final round of the EFRA GP Series was held in Türkheim, Germany this past weekend. Shepherd’s Toni Gruber was in control of things during qualifying, winning four of the five rounds to take the overall TQ from fellow Shepherd racer, Simin Kurzbuch on the 2 spot and Infinity’s Francesco Tironi in 3rd. The 45-minute main final then again saw Toni holding the upper hand, taking the win some two laps in front of Simon as Capricorn’s Robin D’hondt came in 3rd, another lap down. With the win, Toni also sealed the overall title, leaving behind Capricorn’s Mirko Salemi in 2nd and Infinity’s Teemu Leino in 3rd.
View the overall top 3 podium here
Simon Kurzbuch has taken the win at Round 2 of the 2019 Infinity Euro Nitro Series, but it was anything but easy as the three time ENS Champion seemed unlikely to even make the podium in the first half of the race. Qualifying fourth on the grid after admitting that he had struggled on Saturday, Kurzbuch initially circulated in fourth place, fighting with Dominic Greiner, who had bumped up from the B Final, as the race out front initially seemed to be a fight between the top three qualifiers of Dario Balestri, Robert Pietsch and Carmine Raiola. Deciding only to make one four tyre change at the half way point, as the other top runners chose two full changes, the Swiss driver confirmed that he knew he “couldn’t go at the pace of Balestri and Raiola, so we decided to make one less fuel stop [by running longer between stops] and making only one tyre change”.
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Viktor Wilck is the 2019 Reedy Race Champion, the Infinity driver becoming only the 4th multiple winning of the legendary race on this its 22nd running. Having conceded defeat to overnight points leader Ronald Volker as the final day’s action was widely expected to be rained out, a dry but cold & windy morning presented the 2012 champion with an opportunity to resume battle with Volker. With 2019 a new chapter in the history of the race following the demise of the famous Tamiya Track, conditions at new Steel City RC Speedway for the final two rounds of heads up racing were less than ideal with traction at a premium. It was a dramatic start to the morning as going head to head from the front row Wilck and Volker made contact in the penultimate round resulting in both cars breaking. One race to go and 1-point separated the pair. As the grid were published for the showdown, they would race in the same heat but the grid was somewhat controversial as Wilck was on pole and Volker lined up 11th. Up front Wilck, who was fastest throughout the event, pulled clear for an easy win while Volker worked his way through to second. This left them tied on points with the same number of wins, 2nd and 3rd places so it came down to the total time of their best three results which thanks to the only 21-lap run of the event in Round 10 gave Wilck his second Reedy Race of Champions title. Having come into the weekend chasing title No.8, Marc Rheinard would complete the podium in Fontana well clear of team-mate Akio Sobue in fourth.
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After taking the win at the season opening race in Bologna last month, Teemu Leino took a firm step towards the 2019 ENS 1/10th scale title by adding victory this weekend in Rucphen. The Finnish driver crossed the line first despite running a different tyre strategy to his rivals, benefiting from mistakes and issues for his main challengers. Making two tyre stops – the first to change just right side tyres after 9 minutes of the race and the second to change all four around two-thirds distance – he took the win over Leo Arnold and ENS returnee Patrick Nahr. The victory also ties Leino for the most wins in the ENS 1/10th scale class, him now sharing the honour with Dominic Greiner with 5 victories in the prestigious series.
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In a weekend that saw many high-class (warm-up) races it was Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro who would take the win at the EFRA 1/8th Nitro Buggy European Championship warm-up held at the Ongaro Ring in Sacile, Italy. Xray’s Marco Baruffolo also looked like he would be in the mix for the win in the main final, however he was hampered by flame-out issues. Up front and behind Ongaro it was the duo of Mugen’s Robert Batlle and HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk who fought for the runner-up spot with the better end for David who took benefit of a last-minute situation Robert had with a back marker. Ultimately David would come in 2nd a lap down on Davide as Robert had to settle for 3rd, some seven seconds behind on David. TLR’s Renaud Savoya and Kyosho’s Joao Figueiredo would complete the top 5 results.
Image: Robert Batlle
Last weekend’s warm-up race to the 2019 IFMAR 1/10th Off-road World Championships, held at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia, saw Xray’s Martin Bayer taking the win in the 4WD class. The 4WD action started on Saturday right after the 2WD finals. Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen was setting the early pace in free practice, however in the timed practice, three drivers – Bayer, Haatanen, and Rivkin – were able to place times below the magical 1:10 minutes barrier with Martin Bayer being the fastest of the three. Joona Haatanen started strong again into the qualifiers by taking Q1. Q2 and Q3 then went to Martin Bayer. Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski took Q4 and Xray’s Daniel Kobbevik set the pace in Q5. So when the dust had settled it was Martin Bayer ahead of Joona Haatanen and Bruno Coelho. Things then gained further traction in the finals with a lot of track action going on. In A1 it was Martin Bayer who took the win. In A2 it was great battle between Xray’s Bruno Coelho and Martin Bayer for the win but Bruno would hold the upper hand. This meant three drivers would be going into A3 who could possibly take the overall – Bayer, Coelho, Kobbevik. Ultimately Martin Bayer laid down a great run and claimed the overall win on home soil followed by Coelho and Kobbevik.
