The 31st running of the EFRA 1:8 Offroad European Championships fired into action this morning at the rather unique hill side Sand-am-Main track in Germany with the first of two rounds of practice that make up proceedings for the opening day.
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Team Durango got in touch to tell us about their victory at the recent oOple Invernational 2011. The Invernational marked the debut race for Team Durango’s upcoming DEX210 2WD electric buggy and whilst the car has been shown in rear motor format already, this meeting would be all about the mid-motor layout on the high grip astroturf surface. Hupo Hönigl made the trip over from Austria to give his car its first run alongside his Team Durango team-mates, Adam Skelding, Craig Collinson and previous oOple Invernational winner – Nathan Waters. Former European champion Chris Doughty from Team Durango was also on hand during practice day with his own DEX210 before heading off to the 8th scale Euros to compete.
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The EFRA 1/8th scale on road European Championships were held this week Mini Circuit Ville de Luxembourg, in Luxembourg. Europe’s best drivers came together to battle it out for the title, which was won last year by newly crowned World Champion Robert Pietsch. Qualifying was topped by this year’s World Championship runner up Dario Balestri driving for Capricorn ahead of Mugen star Pietsch in 2nd, while 9 time World Champion Lamberto Collari was 3rd and top Xray driver Erik Dankel was 4th. With no direct qualifiers everyone would have to make their way through the semi finals before that could fight for the win. Pietsch and Balestri would win their semis but a faster Semi A saw Balestri take pole ahead of Michele Romagnoli in 2nd and Ilia Van Gastel in 3rd, while Pietsch would only start from 4th on the grid for the 45 minute A-main just in front of Collari. The final saw close running at the front with Balestri, Ilia Van Gastel and Robin D’Hondt all sharing the lead. Problems for Balestri as well as Pietsch would knock them out of the race and what would be a race of attrition only 5 cars would finish the final with Lamberto Collari emerging as the winner for Kyosho just 6 seconds ahead of Serpent driver Van Gastel in 2nd, with Mugen team driver Rick Vrielijnck finishing in 3rd, 2 laps further back.
Having provisionally awarded Funchal, Brazil with the 2012 1/8th scale offroad World Championships in Pattaya last year, under condition that they meet certain criteria, IFMAR have announced that Argentina will instead host the bi-annual championships. The decision was made at the IFMAR AGM which took place last Thursday at the World Champions in Vaasa, Finland during the break between 2wd and 4wd competition. The official word on the actual location in Buenos Aires and the date will come in the next few days but we were told by IFMAR vice president Carlos Gomez that the track will be located 10 minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown Buenos Aires. Having covered the last IFMAR Worlds in Argentina in 2007 we are very much looking forward to going back next year. We were also told that testing on the definitive layout for the Worlds will not be allowed prior to the event but the event will be extended to allow for more track time.
Last weekend saw the European Championships for large scale touring cars held in Leipzig, Germany. Qualifying would see Czech driver Ales Bayer take the pole position running the prototype RS5 Rx12 chassis ahead of Lauterbacher driver Markus Feldmann, but following the semi finals, in which Ales would run out of fuel while leading, it would be the German on pole starting just ahead of Martin Bayer in 2nd. In the final Feldmann would lead but after only 10 laps engine trouble would take the reigning champion out of the race allowing BA Arnaldi from France to inherit the lead. A later battle with Martin Bayer saw the Czech driver get past and bring home the win at the end of the 30 minute main to claim the European title ahead of Croatian Dario Vesali in 2nd with Arnaldi finishing in 3rd.
Image: RS5 Modelsport [rs5-modelsport.com]
Ryan Cavalieri is the new 4WD World Champion, becoming only the third driver in the 26-year-history of the IFMAR Championships to win both the 2WD & 4WD title at the week long event. The factory Team Associated driver secured his fourth World title by backing up his victory in the opening leg of the A-Main with a more convincing win in Leg 2.
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Ryan Maifield is Top Qualifier for the 2011 IFMAR 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships in Vaasa, Finland. The American claimed pole position for the main event with a third TQ run in the fifth & final round of qualifying this morning. Team Associated’s second TQ honour of the week, Ryan Cavalieri having taken the top spot in 2WD, Maifield will start ahead of Joern Neumann who came close to snatching the No.1 spot for this evening’s triple A-Main.
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The fourth round of qualifying for the 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships has been cancelled due to the arrival of torrential rain over Vaasa. Looking to protect the clay track from the impending rain the decision was called to stop racing half way through the round so it could be covered. It was to be a wise call as minutes later the rain arrived in force.
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