Top international on road racer Jilles Groskamp has signed to race with Hot Race tyres for the 2012 season. The decision was made following extensive testing at the Pre Worlds in Bangkok, where Jilles was pleased with their performance. The Capricorn/Orion driver will participate with Hot Race tyres in this year’s European Championships in Cassino as well as the 1/10th 200mm World Championships in Bangkok.
Source: Hot Race Tyres [hotracerc.com]
ORCA have announced that they have signed factory Xray driver Alexander Hagberg. The Swedish driver, who previously drove for LRP, had the best possible start to his new relationship by taking his first big international win at the Snowbird Nationals last weekend in Florida. Alex had this to say:
After five years as a team driver for LRP Electronic in Germany, I would like to thank them for their support over the years. They helped to start off my international career. In 2012 I am changing to ORCA electronics in all my cars. I was immediately impressed with the on-track performance of these products, which provide a good feeling, power, efficiency and consistency for all conditions. I started out my cooperation with ORCA in the best possible way with a win in the Touring Car Modified class at the recent Snowbird Nationals in Florida. I hope that this is only the start of a long and successful relationship with ORCA.
Source: AME [team-ame.com]
A brief report from the 1/12th 13.5 GTP class at last weekend’s Snowbird Nationals in Orlando, Florida. It was On Point Racing’s German team driver Markus Mobers that took the top spot in qualifying, doing so in the final round to start on pole ahead of Larry Fairtrace and World Champion Naoto Matsukura in 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the final Markus drove his Team Orion powered OP12C to the win by just 1.3 seconds ahead of Andrew Knapp in 2nd, with Mike Blackstock completing the podium in 3rd.
Source: On Point Racing [onpointracing.com]
The 2012 Snowbirds were held at the World Gate resort in Orlando Florida. The format of this race is special due to the racing of both On-road and oval. The racing goes on for almost 24hrs a day with a track change between on road and oval every day. This year the attendance and competition was large do in part to the international attendance, several EU countries were represented along with Japan and obviously North America. In Mod TC it was Alex Hagberg showing good early pace, Alex had just come from the ETS race where he showed good speed so he was rightfully on everyone’s radar. Not to anyones surprise also showing speed at the beginning was Naoto Matsukura and Kevin Hebert.
Continue reading the report here.
Image: Jill Dorp
Top Italian 1/8th scale racer Michele Romagnoli joins Team Sonic for the 2012 season. The Italian vice-champion of 2011 will be a strong addition to the team helping to improve the Sonic product line with his experience. Having finished 4th at the last European Championship in Luxembourg he is aiming to improve his result at the upcoming Euros in Portugal. Additionally he will attend all national championship races as well as some regional events.
Source: Sonic Engines [sonic-engines.com]
The 18th running of the Reedy International Off Road Race of Champions showcases the best drivers in the World with both an Open and Invitational category. Both categories only have two classes, 2WD and 4WD buggy. With a total of nine podium spots available, Team Associated drivers occupied a stunning seven positions and took the win in two of the three classes. In the 2WD Open class, third qualifier and Team Associated/Reedy/LRP driver Chad Due claimed his first major victory by winning the tie-breaker over Team Manager and teammate Brent Thielke. Due’s finishing positions of 3-1 in the two 10-minute main events beat Thielke’s score of 2-2 and earned him an invitation to the prestigious Invitational class for 2013.
Continue reading the report here
Following the announcement earlier in the week that Paolo Maorganti had joined Team Titan, today they have announced the signing of former European Champion Dirk Wischnewski. The German factory Xray driver had the following the say about the deal:
After some intensive testing I was really impressed by the performance and quality of all Blitz body shells. So I decided to join Team Titan for the 2012 racing season. I will use Blitz body shells in all major international races including WC in Bangkok and EC in Cassino. Further I will help Team Titan to develop new innovative products.
Source: Team Titan [team-titan.com.tw]
A little bit short notice but the organisers of the Open Challenge Brandys race in Brandys Nad Labem in Czech Republic have got in touch to announced their event. Open to 1/10 open, 1/10 hobby, 1/10 GT and Formula 1, the race is a one day event which takes place on Saturday the 11th of February and will see Serpent Factory driver Marc Fisher competing. Entries are now open and you can find more information here.
