The annual Belgium GP was held at the MBV Kampenhout track in changing weather conditions. Yokomo’s Tom Cockerill would sweep the event by taking the wins in the 2WD and 4WD Buggy classes to take a double victory. Ben Jemison (Schumacher) and Team Associated driver Jesper Rasmussen would round out the 4WD podium while Wesley van Helmond (Schumacher) and Wounter Wynen joined winner Cockerill on the 2WD podium.
The 2017 Pro-Line European Challenge was hosted by the Mini Auto-Club Saint-Quentinois in France this past weekend. The event attracted both national and international 1/8th buggy racers to compete in the two classes of nitro and electric. In Nitro Buggy it was Kyosho’s Elliott Boots who brought home the TQ and win, leaving Team Associated’s Jamie Clancy and Xray’s Jean-Pierrick Sartel behind in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The 2017 EFRA 1/10th Electric Track European Championship was held this weekend in Almussafes, Spain. Unseasonable rain here in Spain put the drivers, and their cars, in a spin at the finals on Saturday until the sun came out and normal service was resumed. In ISTC Modified Touring and with the first A-final held about 90 minutes after the rain stopped grip was beginning to return to the Almusafes track. However neither of the front row starters could find any traction and it was P3 starter Marc Rheinard who shot into the lead, which he held for the entire five minutes. Behind him runner-up after the qualifiers, Bruno Coelho clung on to his 2nd place starting position, but pole man Ronald Volker had a nightmare spinning out four times before retiring from the race.
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The Buggyland 4.0 1/8th off-road race will be held from the 15th to 17th of September at the CARTT Fuencarral track in Madrid, Spain. The 3-day event, widely known as the country’s season highlight, will see 1/8th Nitro and Electric Buggy racing, attracting Spain’s fastest drivers as well as many entries from abroad. More information can be found here with registration being available here.
The final day of round 2 of the EFRA GP Series started off wet due to a huge overnight rain. Race director Ernesto Camponovo would delay the official start of the day until 10.00 as the rain stopped at about 9.00. Half an hour of practice was then used to clear the track and to allow the drivers to adapt to the new conditions with the race program continuing with the lower finals at 10.30. After the semis, Kyle Branson, Daniele Ielasi, Maximilian Vogl, Stefan Hanauer, Mattia Pesenti, Nicola Marrone, Marco Vanni and Louis Christophe would bump up to the main final that was completed by reigning IFMAR World Champion, Simon Kurzbuch and 9-times IFMAR World Champion, Lamberto Collari.
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Day two of round 2 of the EFRA GP Series in Lostallo, Switzerland again saw very warm weather with more than 30 degree Celsius and high humidity. The day saw five rounds of qualifying of which three counted and in 1/8th nitro on-road it was Simon Kurzbuch who excelled and who took a pretty dominant overall TQ. Following the qualifying the Superpole races were on with Lamberto Collari, Toni Gruber, Robin D’hondt and Kyle Branson battling for the second direct qualifying spot. Unfortunately Toni had mechanical issues and wasn’t able to take part is the Superpole race while Robin and Lamberto both were in the mix. Ultimately Collari would prevail, taking the runner-up spot with a 20.334 from D’hondt with a 20.363.
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The MRTM Lostallo track in Switzerland plays host to round 2 of the EFRA GP this weekend. Former home of three IFMAR World Championships as well as some EFRA Euros, the huge and fuel consuming track sets the stage for some competitive racing with 47 drivers attending in the 1/8th and 1/10th nitro classes. To the demeaning track conditions add high temperatures of about 34 degree Celsius which results in pretty high traction and in the 1/8th class it was Simon Kurzbuch (Shepherd/Novarossi) who set the early practice pace with a 1:00:150 for his best three consecutive laps. Some 0.429s down, Lamberto Collari (Infinity/O.S. M.Collari) is the only other driver to pull three laps with in the 1:00:00 range. Elsewhere in the 1/10th Touring class it is Germany’s Toni Gruber (WRC/Novarossi) who looks to be the man to beat so far with a 1:02:265.
Source: EFRA [efra.ws]
The 2017 Kyosho Masters were held in Sucy En Brie, France this past weekend. The annual event attracts Kyosho drivers from all over the World to race in several categories. 6-times winner, UK’s Elliott Boots was the pre-event favourite for the win in both the Elite Buggy and E-Buggy classes and he would not disappoint. Elliott took a double TQ and he would also be in control of things in the main nitro buggy final that was shortened to 30 minutes because of the high temperatures. Boots would get past pole position holder Joao Figueiredo in the opening stages and he controlled the race from there, taking his fourth straight win of the event some two laps in front of Sweden’s Jessica Palsson and Portugal’s Joao Figueiredo. In the E-Buggy class it was again Elliott who excelled and by sweeping the triple A-mains he grabbed his second title of the weekend from Jessica Palsson 2nd and Stephane Deroch 3rd.
