Former Champion Miguel Matias has TQ’d the penultimate round of qualifying here in Portugal this morning ahead of defending Champion Renaud Savoya, ending the Aigoin brothers domination at the top of the time sheets. The only Portuguese driver to have ever won the European title, the Losi driver said track condition were more difficult today but he was very happy to take the round.
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Just last weekend saw more great success for the new tyre brand Contact RC, this time at the European Championship 1/8th in Locorotondo, Italy. Mugen star Robert Pietsch took TQ, fastest individual lap and won the race heading it from start to finish. Robert was using the Contact tyres line and always looked the fastest on the demanding track. For the final Robert chose to start with brand new tyres straight out of the box because his car worked really well with large diameter tyres. This strategy proved to be the right one and Robert led the race from the first lap, completing a tyre change after 24 minutes and at that point he had a lead of one lap over Dario Balestri. After 45 minutes of hard racing Robert became the new European champion in 1/8th on road with his Mugen MRX-5 powered by Novarossi and gave Contact Tyres its first European Championships title at its first international race.
Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]
It was a good opening day of qualifying for France’s Aigoin brothers as they TQ’d all three of today’s rounds. Starting the day of with the fastest time Yannick again topped Q3 after his brother set the pace in Q2 leaving the pair 1 & 2 in the overnight qualification ranking with two more rounds tomorrow.
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Having watched his brother Yannick TQ the opening round of qualifying, Jerome Aigoin has gone and set the pace in Q2 to give us a repeat of Austria last year where they TQ’d the opening two qualifiers only in the opposite order. The Kyosho driver said he found a really good rhythm during the run and his MP9 was probably capable of going faster. Running AKA iBeam medium tyres he said the only set-up change he made was to a harder front spring and the car was perfect. Feeling the track had better grip but bigger bumps the French driver said he plans to stick with the same set-up for the third and final qualifier of the day.
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Yannick Aigoin headed a Team Losi 1-2 in the opening round of qualifying for the 2010 EFRA 1:8 Off Road European Championships here in Portugal. The French ace set the pace from team-mate Martin Bayer who was just 7/10 adrift, the pair being the only drivers to record a 37 second lap during the round.
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World record holder Nic Case was in touch to give us an update on his Streamliner build. The car seems to be coming along nicely, with the guys at Area 51 Design doing an great job with all of their support. Nic reckons that with all the input of experienced & talented individuals that the possibility of reaching 200mph with an R/C car is within reach. On August 15th, at Heartland park dragway they plan to find out if this beast can do it. Power is supplied by a 1521 Neu motor, 12 cell Power Edge LiPo battery, and the sophisticated power management of a Castle Creations speed controller. The Vulcanized tires are still being made and the body will be the same CFD developed one as last year. The gears are the finest made 32 pitch hardened steel version by RW, while the radio will be the Fasst System from Futaba.
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Practice for the 2010 EFRA 1:8 Off Road European Championship is complete and the more serious business of qualifying gets under way tomorrow here in Portugal. After two rounds of timed practice, drivers had one final, untimed run on the track, bringing Day 2 of the 30th running of the championships to a close.
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Team Losi’s Yannick Aigoin has topped the second timed practice but the Frenchman was unable to match the time set this morning by local star Miguel Matias who will be reseeded No.1 for the heats. Aigoin said small changes had made his car a small bit better and despite being a second slower than his first run, felt more comfortable with the car.
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