March 28, 2018

Dario Balestri wins 200mm Pre-Worlds

Last week the IFMAR Pre-Worlds took place at the Homestead RC Raceway. The level of competition was really high because beside the usual fast guys from the U.S., many drivers from across the pond came to get ready for the upcoming Worlds in October. The format of this race was similar to the actual Worlds, with the difference that there was plenty of open practice in between rounds, before and after the official program, in order to allow people to test as much as they wanted to. After the seeding rounds and the qualifiers, Paolo Morganti (Capricorn) took the TQ from Teemu Leino (Infinity) 2nd. The final was a long hour of great racing, lots of drama, change of leaders etc. Paolo feel asleep at the start and was collected by the other drivers finding himself in last position. More drama came at the second turn with a pile of cars but Paolo was able to regain positions. Paolo was able to recover up until 2nd and ran most of the race in that position. Up front things mixed up and in lap 144, Paolo was able to take the lead until 15 laps later he ran out of fuel. In the end he was able to recover to 2nd again, finishing only 3.6s behind the winner, Infinity’s Dario Balestri. Infinity driver Carmine Raiola would round out the top 3 results from Teemu Leino 4th and Andrew Duperrouzel 5th.

Source: RC Target [rctarget.com]


March 27, 2018

Naoki Akiyama departs Yokomo

Japanese frontrunner, Naoki Akiyama has announced his departure from chassis sponsors Yokomo. Naoki looks back at a pretty successful four years with the company, having achieved an AOC Korea win as well as Worlds, TITC and ETS A-main appearances to name just a few. The multiple JMRCA podium finisher has yet to announce his new sponsor but in the meantime he had the following to say:

I want to thank all at Team Yokomo and especially Yukijiro Umino and Ronald Völker. After almost four years with the team it is time to move on and to go the next step.


March 26, 2018

Coelho grabs victory at EOS Austria

Bruno Coelho has grabbed a somewhat unexpected victory at the penultimate round of the Euro Offroad Series in Austria.  Having had to concede to the impressive performance of the Schumacher team in qualifying, the reigning 4WD Champion would capitalize on errors by his rivals in the finals, capping off the weekend with a win in A3 in front of Michal Orlowski to claim an important second win of the season given he was absent from the third round.  Behind, Joern Neumann would finish second overall, the German unable to hold onto the second he needed in A3 to claim the overall win.  Adding to Orlowski’s frustrating run in the finals, the weekend’s 2WD winner would not even make the podium, some smart driving by Daniel Kobbevik in A1 & 2 rewarded with 3rd overall.

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


March 26, 2018

Yannic Prümper teams up with Power HD

Power HD have announced the signing of German frontrunner, Yannic Prümper to their factory team. The three-times ETS winner and multi-times podium finisher also scored exceptional results at European and World Championships and he will be using Power HD’s super speed HV brushless low profile servo Storm-7 at upcoming race events such as the ETS, EOS, the World Championships and other major races. Yannic says:

I‘m happy to have the opportunity to be part of the Power HD factory team. In the future, I‘ll represent the high quality Power HD servos on national and international races, on-road and off-road category. Thanks to the whole Power HD team for their trust and support, I will share the high quality and reliable Power HD servos to the drivers in the races.

Source: Power HD [chd.hk]


March 25, 2018

Neumann wins A2, all to play for in A3

Joern Neumann has won the second A-Main of 4WD at the Euro Offroad Series in Austria, the Schumacher driver managing to prevent A1 winner Bruno Coelho from snatching an early win at the penultimate round of the championship.  Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski, who had issues in A1, led away the field but on the first run through the triple landed his car on its roof. Afterwards it turned out Orlowski’s view of his car had been blocked for a second time today by a marshal attending a car causing his bad landing.  This moved Neumann to the front but he was under pressure from Coelho.  Holding the Xray driver at bay for 6-laps, Coelho would manage a mistake in his quest to get by, allowing the German to then control the race and win ahead of Daniel Kobbevik who actually leads the points going into A3 with a pair of second places.  Also benefiting from the mistakes up front Martin Wollanka completed the Top 3 ahead of Orlowski and Coelho, leaving the race wide open in terms of who can take the overall win.

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


March 25, 2018

Coelho leads unexpected Xray 1-2 in A1

Bruno Coelho led a somewhat unexpected Xray 1-2 in the opening A-Main of 4WD at the penultimate round of the Euro Offroad Series.  Starting behind the Schumachers of Michal Orlowski and Joern Neumann, the pair gifted Coelho the win with both drivers making early mistakes.  While Orlowski would come back at the reigning champion, contact in the air between them would see Orlowski damage his car with the Pole limping home in third, his car down to three wheels as a result of a broken hub.  Behind Coelho a clean drive from Daniel Kobbevik would see him get second, it looking like an Xray 1-2-3 at one point until Martin Bayer made a late mistake allowing Orlowski to slip back through for third.

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


March 25, 2018

Orlowski on pole at EOS Austria

In what became a foregone conclusion after practice, Michal Orlowski is the 4WD Top Qualifier at the Euro Offroad Series in Austria.   The championship leader claimed his first 4WD pole position of the season with another TQ run in the fourth & final qualifier, his unsighting by a marshal in Q2 the only reason he hadn’t wrapped things up earlier.  Making it the perfect qualifying for Schumacher and their new CAT L1, Joern Neumann made it a 1-2 adding a P2 in the final qualifier to his TQ in the second round to jump ahead of reigning champion Bruno Coelho who starts 3rd.  Despite problems in the final qualifier, Daniel Kobbevik will start 4th, a career best for the promising young Norwegian.  Completing the top half of the grid, the weekend has marked an impressive Sworkz debut for Martin Wollanka who starts ahead his former team-manager Martin Bayer and former champion Lee Martin.

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


March 25, 2018

Orlowski remains in charge in Austria

Michal Orlowski remains in charge of proceedings at the Euro Offroad Series in Austria, the Schumacher driver posting another TQ run in the penultimate 4WD qualifier.  Only missing out on a TQ run in Q2, the first qualifier of the day, when he was unsighted by a marshal, the championship leader had a 2.4-second advantage over reigning champion Bruno Coelho with the a similar pattern emerging at the top of the time sheets.  Having TQ’d the second qualifier, Joern Neumann was again in the Top 3 as up & coming Norwegian talent Daniel Kobbevik posted the fourth fastest time ahead of Martin Wollanka who maintained his run of Top 5 times.

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


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