The 2019 HB Racing European Race Days will be held from April 5th to 7th at the ARCF42 club near Lyon, France. The event is open to all drivers piloting HB Racing 1/8th Nitro and Electric Buggies and a set of HB Racing Megabite yellow compound tyres will be included in the entry. The weekend will kick off on Friday, with Saturday and Sunday being the race days. Sign-up opens on January 15th and more information will soon be available here.
Shepherd have announced the signing of top international nitro on-road racer Toni Gruber to their 2019 factory team line-up. The 22-year old German already looks back on a successful career with a European championship title, multiple national titles as well as multiple Euro Nitro Series podium finishes under his belt. Starting 2019 Toni will use the Velox V8 and the Velox V10 platforms at all major national and international events including the EFRA GP series, the ENS series, Euros, Worlds and other selected events. Furthermore Toni will bring in his experience in the Shepherd development team to test and develop new parts in cooperation with the existing team. Toni had the following to say about the deal:
First of all I want to thank WRC for the last 2 years. In the past we achieved great goals and claimed many wins. But in 2019 I will start with a new step in my rc racing career and I am really happy that Team Shepherd gives me the opportunity and their trust to drive for their factory team. My team and I are looking forward to many victories and we will bring our all experience in the team to help them grow.
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
The 2018 EWS International, held this past weekend in Thundersley near London, concluded with a victory for Infinity’s Yannic Prümper. After sitting atop the standings after Saturday’s qualifying rounds, the German driver secured pole position in a very tense final qualifier on Sunday morning. With Elliott Harper looking like his strongest challenger for the overall TQ, it was the British driver who led the final round initially with his Xray. However, in the final minute of the run, a small mistake from Elliott allowed Yannic to close within a tenth of a second, before Pole Position was decided on the very final lap as Elliott ran a little too much kerb coming onto the back straight for the final time, giving Yannic the win and the overall TQ by just two hundredths of a second. The close racing out front allowed Yokomo’s Ronald Völker to also move into the mix, taking third in the round just one and a half tenths behind the leading pair, which in urn secured him fourth on the grid behind Marc Rheinard.
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Saturday’s action at the 2018 EWS International concluded with Infinity’s Yannic Prümper atop the ranking lists in the Modified class. The German had started off the day with a second place in the opening qualifier, and backed that up with a TQ run in the evening’s Q3 round. Describing how the whole Infinity team had improved throughout the weekend, the multi-time podium-finisher at the event said that it had “started pretty bad, but we worked together and found pace again”. He won’t make any changes to his IF14 for tomorrow, but will use the free practice round scheduled in the morning to run in his second set of race tyres.
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Sunpadow continue to bolster up their factory team with high-class drivers, with the latest addition being multi-time BRCA national champion, Olly Jefferies. The Schumacher driver maintained a clean sweep record in the 2018 nationals season and he will be using Sunpadow LiPo batteries from now on while also helping with R&D and marketing in Europe.
Source: Sunpadow [sunpadow.com]
Sunpadow have announced the signing of Singapore’s rising star Dominic Quek to their factory team. The 16-years old youngster already can look back on twelve years of RC racing with highlights so fat being the runner-up spit at the Formula World Cup that was held at the 2018 ISTC Worlds in South Africa. Dominic will be using Sunpadow LiPo batteries to power his Xray cars from now on with his campaign including all major national and international events. Dominic says:
I am pleased and honoured to join the Sunpadow racing team. I believe with the new LiPo packs I will have a better performance in the new season.
Source: Sunpadow [sunpadow.com]
Capricorn have announced the signing of Italian nitro on-road frontrunner, Mirko Salemi to their factory team. Mirko already had the first outing for his new chassis sponsor, taking the win at the year end race in Fiorano with his LAB C803 car. Mirko had the following to say about the deal:
I would like to thank Patrizio Rossi for the opportunity to run with Capricorn, test new parts and share the results with the team.
Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]
Akio Sobue put in a dominant performance in what was mostly a precessional race in the Sweep Modified class at TRC this afternoon. Never really challenged, the Japanese driver was able to pull clear of the chasing pack early on and build up a substantial lead by the end. Behind, Nicholas Lee had what can be described a lonely race in 2nd. While Jin Sawada and a very fast starting Jan Ratheisky, starting in 8th, had a good battle for 4th. That battle would become for 3rd as just ahead Andy Moore had a big moment coming onto the main straight and stuffed it into the wall on the main straight but somehow only lost 2 positions and was able to bring it home in 5th. Jin could stay in front of the German to take the final step on the podium with Jan finishing in 4th.
Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.
