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July 26, 2016

Giovanni Verbrugghe crowned 1/5 Touring Euro Champ

Giovanni Verbrugghe crowned 1/5th Touring Euro Champ

The 2016 EFRA 1/5th scale European Championships were held in Bologna, Italy last week and in the 30-minute main final it was Belgium’s Giovanni Verbrugghe who walked away with the win. Verbrugghe snatched the runner-up spot from Ales Bayer, who suffered from changing weather conditions, while Italy’s Lamberto Collari controlled the pace on the front end of the pack. Pole position holder Patrick Folman was out of the title race following several off-track experiences and another prominent victim of unplanned off-road excursions was leader Lamberto who spun out in the closing stages of the final, promoting Giovanni Verbrugghe into the lead that he would hold onto until the checkered flag to take the 2016 European Championship title from Lamberto Collari while Patrick Folman was able to recover to third overall.

Thanks to Giovanni Verbrugghe for the report.

July 26, 2016

Prague hosts Inaugural Junior World Championships

The city of Prague in the Czech Republic will host the inaugural Junior World Championships from the 3rd to 7th of August. Organised by the newly founded International Youth RC Models Association IYRCA in cooperation with the Pan European Society for Culture, Education and Scientific & Technical Cooperation, the Car Modeling Association of China, the RC Car Club Czech Republic as well as the International Federation of Model Auto Racing IFMAR, the event is especially aimed at young RC car drivers. The race will be held under the patronage of IFMAR’s Dallas Mathiesen, who will be present throughout the week, and it will see the running of four different classes including Touring Stock, Touring Modified, Formula Modified 17.5T/21.5T and 1/14th scale Touring Stock. 1/10th Touring Stock will be the premier category with the class seeing the use of hand-out kits and electronics that can be purchased and kept for a symbolic entry fee of 20 Euro including a set of GQ28R tyres. 1/14th scale is again a hand-out class while Touring Modified and Formula Modified, the latter run with open rubber tyres, 17.5T to 21.5T motors and blinky ESCs, will require the drivers to bring their own equipment. The Stock classes are run solely as Under 13 and Under 19 categories while in the Modified classes additionally see open age categories if required. Full event information as well as sign-up are available on the IYRCA website here.

July 26, 2016

Ronald Völker teams up with Mibosport

Mibosport have announced the signing of Yokomo’s Ronald Völker. A good friend of Mibosport’s Michal Bok the German frontrunner will help with both development and testing of new products, bringing in a vast amount of experience. Ronald has the following to say about the deal:

I am happy to announce that I will be joining the Mibosport Team as they show a great passion for RC by offering awesome products and running a very popular and successful Mibosport series throughout the winter season.

Source: Mibosport [mibosport.com]

July 25, 2016

Hagberg & Viljami end season with 2nd podium

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With new champion Bruno Coelho already wrapping up the win in A2, the final A-Main encounter of the 2015/16 Yokomo Euro Touring Series Season at the Hudy Arena would see Alexander Hagberg and Viljami Kutvonen cap of their seasons with a second podium finish. Leading away the field in A3, former race winner Hagberg would take a straight forward win to secure his first asphalt podium finish having last finished on the podium indoors at Round 2 in Germany. Having only secured his first ETS podium finish at Round 4 in Italy, Viljami was made to work a little harder for 3rd overall in Slovakia with Ronald Volker shadowing his every move before an attempted pass by Luxembourg race winner Jilles Groskamp tapped both drivers into a spin. This left Viljami to take an easy second with Yannic Prümper completing the Top 3 – a position that was to secure the VBC Racing driver 4th overall, his best result of the season. An intense battle for 4th in the leg would see Marc Rheinard punt Volker into the grass coming out of the second last corner. Crossing the line-up fourth as Volker’s Yokomo sat on the grass, the Taimya driver was later given a time penalty to put him behind Volker who was classified 8th.

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

July 25, 2016

Coelho caps off ETS title victory with 3rd win

Having clinched the Yokomo Euro Touring Series title yesterday when he claimed his third TQ of the season, Bruno Coelho today capped off his title winning campaign with a third win. Winning one of the most static A-Mains in the ETS’ 51 race history yesterday, not one position change taking place over the 5-minutes, Coelho again headed an Xray 1-2 to wrap up an early win at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia. While up front the race was a repeat of A1, after initially looking like another 10 car procession the race came to life as Ronald Volker tagged Viljami Kutvonen as the pack backed up behind the Awesomatix driver. Surviving the tag to maintain third the Finn would later spin out at the end of the straight, him reporting afterwards he felt he got a bad set of tyres highlighting his 7th place starting team-mate Freddy Sudhoff being 4/10th a lap faster than him. While Volker, who said his car was ‘amazing’ would recover two of the positions lost after his contact with Viljami, an attempt to pass to Marc Rheinard for third ‘didn’t work out’ dropping the outgoing champion to P6. A much improved Rheinard would hold on to third followed by Yannic Prumper and the Serpent of 9th place starter Viktor Wilck.

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

July 23, 2016

Coelho wins static A1

Bruno Coelho took an easy win of a completely static A1 final at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series season finale at the Hudy Arena, with not one pass being executed over the 5-minutes as the 10 cars finished exactly as they qualified. Top Qualifier Coelho made an early break over Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg allowing the newly crowned champion to cruise to a 1.3 second victory. 1.9-seconds back from Hagberg, Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen completed the Top 3 with the Finn having no problems fending off the Yokomo of Ronald Volker. The only attempted pass of the race came from Yannic Prumper as the VBC driver tried to find a way passed Team Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp but the German couldn’t get it done.

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

July 23, 2016

Kutvonen takes final qualifier, Coelho is Top Qualifier

In a bit if a surprise, Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen took the final round of qualifying at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series but it is newly crowned champion Bruno Coelho who will start the A-Main at the Hudy Arena from pole. With only Hagberg with an outside chance of denying Coelho his X TQ of the season by taking the fourth & final qualifier, Kutvonen caught them all by surprise as he gambled on saving his second set of tyres for the run. Only a 16-lap run due to the extra hot conditions of the midday run, the Finn outpaced Ronald Volker by just 2/10ths of a second with Hagberg only a further 4/10th off despite both being on used tyres. With a P4 in Q1, the result puts Kutvonen 3rd on the grid behind the Xrays of Coelho & Hagberg and ahead of Volker & Jilles Groskamp.

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

July 23, 2016

Coelho is new ETS Champion

Bruno Coelho is the new Yokomo Euro Touring Series Champion, the Portuguese ace ending Ronald Volker’s 5-year reign over the World famous championship on only his second attempt. The title marks a number of firsts with it Xray’s first title in the ETS’ premiere class and the first time one manufacturer has claimed a clean sweep of titles with the Slovakian manufacturer having already taken the Pro Stock and Formula titles. As a driver Coelho also becomes the first driver to win both an ETS and Euro Offroad Series title a claim he can add to his already impressive feat of being the only driver to win races in the ETS, EOS and Euro Nitro Series. While Volker was eliminated from the title race at the previous round in Luxembourg, Coelho still had to deal with the possibility of having to share the title with Marc Rheinard. With the former champion needing to take the overall TQ to keep that slim chance alive, the third round of qualifying at the Hudy Arena would decide the title as Coelho’s team-mate Alexander Hagberg topped the penultimate qualifier while Rheinard could manage only a P8, leaving the Tamiya driver likely to finish runner-up for the sixth consecutive season, only a win tomorrow by Volker able to demote him.

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