Red RC » International

August 19, 2009

Incomplete run nets Pietsch new TQ!

Despite failing to complete the full 10-minutes in the third round of qualifying Robert Pietsch has bettered his overnight TQ time. This morning’s cooler track conditions lived up to expectations with the majority of the front runners setting down quicker times. Starting the heat in last position Pietsch’s Mugen was on for a 30 lap run but on his last lap the computer announced the race over and the German came into the pits but that was not the case for the No.3 car. Afterwards he said the computer announcements are not very clear in the rostrum but wasn’t too upset about missing out on the 30 lapper saying his 29/9:59.566 was just as good.

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August 18, 2009

‘Perfect’ qualifier for Pietsch in Switzerland

Robert Pietsch believes he has just driven the best qualifier of his racing career after the Mugen driver produced a 29/10:03.705 run to move into povisional pole for the World Championships here in Lostallo. The German ace, who took TQ honours at the Warm Up race back in June, said the run was faultless and his MRX-4X was superb. Despite the engine being slightly to rich on the bottom end in the second qualifier, the factory Novarossi driver feels it will be extremely hard to beat the time even in the expected cooler conditions tomorrow with the Warm Up TQ time being slower in temperatures 10 degrees lower than it is here now in Switzerland.

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August 18, 2009

Collari TQs opening round at Lostallo

With a CV like his its no big surprise that defending World Champion Lamberto Collari has opened qualifying for the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship with a TQ run. Having ended up 140th in practice yesterday, the Team Kyosho driver said ‘thats a little better’ after posting his 29/10:08.301 run. The Italian who is chasing his ninth World title here this week in Switzerland said he will change the set-up on his Novarossi powered Evolva to try and make it easier to drive for today’s other qualifier.

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August 17, 2009

5 Days of Practice complete in Switzerland, Pietsch on top

So five days of practice have been completed here in Switzerland at the 16th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships and its Robert Pietsch who sits at the top of the time sheets despite failing to improve his time in the final practice. The factory Mugen driver completed 29 laps in 10:07.493 in the morning practice and after making a mistake early in the evening session decided to use the run to practice his pit stops.

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August 15, 2009

Marc Rheinard takes European 4wd buggy title

Current Touring car World Champion Marc Rheinard has taken his first major off road title today after winning the 4wd class in Bilbao, Spain. Making the final in the 2wd class earlier in the week, the German faired better with the Tamiya TRF511X by taking the TQ spot after winning the final 3 qualifiers to start ahead of Neil Cragg in 2nd, with Tamiya team mate Viktor Wilck starting 3rd. In the finals Marc would easily win leg 1 ahead of Wilck, who would be later DQ’d for a technical infringement and so it would be Hupo Honigl taking 2nd and Neil Cragg 3rd. Leg 2 went the way of Associated racer Cragg, who finished 4 seconds clear of team mate Lee Martin in 2nd, with Marc Rheinard in 3rd, leaving both he and Cragg on equal points going into the final leg. The 3rd leg saw Rheinard win in the fastest time of the 3 legs, ahead of Wilck in 2nd and Cragg 3rd, giving Marc the overall title, ahead of Cragg in 2nd, with Hupo Honigl backing up his 2wd title earlier in the week with 3rd overall.

Check out the full oOple report here.

Source: oOple [oople.com]

August 12, 2009

Hupo Honigl wins 2wd European title

Austrian driver Hupo Honigl has added another European title to his CV after winning the 2wd event today in Bilbao, Spain. Having qualified 2nd behind multiple British Champion Ellis Stafford, the pairing had an intense battle in the 2nd leg after a mistake in the leg 1 by the X-Factory driver gifted Honigl the round win. With the overall on the line, the race to the flag in leg 2 went down to the wire, but Hupo could hold on and take his 2nd leg win and take the European title, with Stafford eventually ending up in 2nd, while Lee Martin took the final podium spot after a win in the 3rd leg.

Check out oOple’s awesome report here.

Source: oOple [oople.com]

August 2, 2009

Groskamp is European Champion

‘I have been second so many times, finally I am first’, was how your new European Electric Touring Car Champion Jilles Groskamp summed up his victory here in Luxembourg. Having been a Top Qualifier on two previous occasions at the EFRA Championships, the factory Tamiya/Speedpassion driver made it third time lucky, converting his pole position into victory with wins in Leg 2 & 3. Starting the third leg, with four drivers still in contention for the 2009 title, the Dutch ace lead from start to finish but said another bad set of tyres had made his car loose. Still managing to set the fastest lap of the race, Groskamp believes he would have had his work cut out if outgoing champion Marc Rheinard and 2007 Champion Ronald Volker had not controversially come together on lap 6.

Read the full report on our event site here.

August 2, 2009

Groskamp takes Euros Leg 2 with ease

After his dramas in the opening leg Top Qualifier Jilles Groskamp made it look easy in the second to take the win over Ronald Volker. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver lead from start to finish on the dry track with the only challenge coming from his teammate Wilck but that ended when the Swede hit tyre problems. There was a few tense moments for Groskamp after the race when scruntineers found one of the four tyres on his TRF416WE was registered to title rival Volker. Under the rules this would have meant exclusion for the Dutch driver but the Team Yokomo team came to the rescue and produced all of the tyres registered to the star driver proving Groskamp had done no wrong and the error was down to the incorrect marking of the tyres by officials.

View our full event coverage here.