The prestigious Winterchamps were held last weekend in Hohenems, Austria and it was Xray’s Nico Schmid who dominated the 2WD and 4WD Buggy classes. Aron Münster (Xray) would take the runner-up spot in 4WD from Yokomo’s Fabian Luca Widmer who rounded out the podium result.
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In what has come as a big shock, Yukijiro Umino has announced his departure from Japanese company Yokomo. Yukijiro, a top racer in his own right, is best known for his role as chief designer of the company’s touring car platform and for being Ronald Völker’s race engineer. One of the most successful partnerships in RC, the pair dominated the ETS for 5 seasons between 2010 and 2015, took numerous European, Reedy race and National titles and finally took a long awaited and well-deserved IFMAR World title back in 2016. Yukijiro has yet to announce his new destination but has released the following statement:
I wish to announce that after 22 great years with the company, from the 25th of January I will no longer be working for Yokomo. I want to give a big thank you to everyone at Team Yokomo, my co-workers, team and especially to Tom Yokobori for what has been an amazing opportunity. I also want to give a special thank you to Ronald Volker with whom I have worked so closely over the past 9 year and achieved so much together. And finally I want to thank my family for their support throughout this journey. I wish to let everyone know that, as I have always done, I will never stop challenging and never give up. See you all at the track soon.
Hobbywing have announced the signing of Sweden’s Alexander Hagberg to their factory team. The former World and European Champion will use Hobbywing products in the 1/10th Touring and 1/12th on-road classes and his knowledge and skill is expected to further strengthen the already impressive Hobbywing factory team. The former long-time Team Orca driver has the following to say:
I am extremely pleased to announce that I am joining the international Hobbywing team for 2018! After taking note of the performance of the Hobbywing products in the last few years, mainly from some of my teammates, I can definitely say that I am both confident and excited to use the products myself! I hope that it will also help to strengthen our team work both for the Hobbywing and Xray team! See you at the race tracks!
Source: Hobbywing [hobbywing.com]
The 2018 edition of the prestigious Neo Race will be held over the four days of Easter from the 29th of March to the 1st of April. For the 2018 edition the organisers announce a new location – the spectacular RC Redovan track near Alicante in Southern Spain, expected by some to be the next European host of the IFMAR Worlds. After a hugely successful twelve years at Harper Adams University in the UK, the event which started out life originally in a warehouse on the docks in Antwerp will be heading south. RC Redovan hosted the 2016 European Championships and boasts a track size of 105m x 85m and is 585m long, offering a new challenge to all racers. The event will be entry limited, offer nitro & E-Buggy classes, covered pitting. Further details including sign up information, website updates, sponsorship and travel and accommodation advice will be posted in due course. In the meantime feel free to contact the organisers at info@theneorace.com for further queries.
Sunpadow have announced the signing of Portugal’s Bruno Coelho to their factory team. The IFMAR World Champion will be using Sunpadow LiPo batteries to power his Xray cars and buggies from now on with his campaign including all major national and international events.
Source: Sunpadow [arc-chn.com]
Following his departure from long-time body shell sponsors Protoform, Xray’s Alexander Hagberg will be using Mon-Tech Racing bodies from now on. The former World and European Champion will be using Mon-Tech product in all classes he attends while also helping with the development of future products. Mon-Tech Racing’s Alberto Montecchi says: We are extremely happy to have Alex [as] part of our Family and good luck for the incoming season.
Source: Mon-Tech Racing [mon-techracing.net]
Michal Orlowski has done double at the DHI Cup retaining both Offroad titles at the Danish event. Having wrapped up the 2WD after 2 A-Mains earlier in the day, mistakes in the opening 4WD main meant the things would go to A3 but having learnt from his errors in A1 Orlowski took convincing wins in A2 and A3 to complete the perfect start to his 2018 season. With new Schumacher team-mate Joern Neumann winning A1, the German would back this up with two second places to claim second overall for the first Schumacher 1-2 at a major international event in a long time. Completing an impressive weekend for himself, Elias Johansson completed the podium in Odense with the 13-year-old marking himself as one to watch in 2018.
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Ronald Volker has claimed an 8th win at the DHI Cup. The Yokomo driver secured the victory at the 18th running of the Danish Classic with a convincing win in the deciding A-Main. Having had a messy opening lap in A2, with Yannic Prumper the main benefactor to take the win, Volker went into the third encounter determined to return to the form he has shown when he took all four qualifiers. While suffering a scare when his car hit a bump on the opening lap, the World Champion quickly established a lead that he would extend to over 2-second by the finish. For Prumper his weekend would net a Yokomo 1-2, the German clearly delighted to competitive again after a lean 2017 season. Completing the podium in Odense would be Marc Rheinard, the Infinity driver having gone into the final leg with a chance of the win but unable to get by Elliott Harper soon enough to do anything about Volker.
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