The Serpent Nitro Tour kicked off in Fiorano last weekend and Shepherd driver and race runner up Simon Kurzbuch sent us this report. Me, my family and Rolf Suter from RA Speed Switzerland went last weekend with well prepared cars to Fiorano (Italy) and had an excellent roll-out on the first international race in the 1/8 scale season 2010.
Continue reading the report here
This year’s LRP touring car masters took place this weekend in Eppelheim, attracting top drivers from around the World. In qualifying it was European Indoor Champion and DHI cup winner Ronald Volker that took the TQ spot in front of Tamiya team mates, current World Champion Marc Rheinard and current European Champion Jilles Groskamp. Freddy Sudhoff and Atsushi Hara completed the top 5. In the finals, it was Marc Rheinard that won the first A-main following a roll by Volker which allowed Groskamp also to move up to second. A mistake by Jilles allowed Ronald back through and that was how it finished. In A-main leg 2 Ronald kept it clean up front and took the win, while behind Marc made a mistake letting Groskamp through to 2nd and despite some pressure by the World Champion he couldn’t get passed and the order was to remain the same. In the final deciding final, Ronald kept his cool once more and could take the win to clinch to overall title, while behind pressure from Jilles on team mate Marc resulted in a crash. Groskamp waited and let Rheinard back passed and that was how it finished with Rheinard taking the overall runner up spot with Groskamp in 3rd.
Click here for videos of all the action
Our friends at LRP were in contact to remind us that their annual international touring car event will get underway this Friday in Eppelheim, Germany. LRP will be covering the event live on their official TCM website, where you can follow all the action with reports, interviews and videos.
Check out the official event site here.
Last weekend’s Cactus Classic race saw AKA debut their two new SC tires, which we wrote about previously, the Wishbone and the Enduro at the event. Mark Pavidis posted the fastest time in Short Course qualifying and started in second for the main. Two laps into the 15 minute final Mark took the lead and never looked back. Mark took the top spot on the podium followed by team mate Joe Pillars who finished third overall. Some competitors questioned using the small Wishbone tread on such a high bite and abrasive track condition, but the pictures prove that AKA’s long wearing proprietary rubber compounds proved the competition wrong and finished with tread to spare.
Click here for images of Mark’s truck
Team Orion are reporting on the 24th Annual Cactus Classic hosted by Scottsdale R/C Speedway in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. Like in years past, this race had an International feel with drivers coming from as far as Japan and Europe to attend. The Cactus is very well known as being one of the biggest and best races of the year for its great competition and perfect weather. At the beginning of every year, this is one race that every marks on their calendar to attend.
Continue reading the report here
The warm up race for the 1/8th scale European Championships took place last weekend under cold weather conditions in the south of Italy at the Locorotondo track, host of this year’s main event. Qualifying saw Worlds top qualifier Robert Pietsch put his Mugen on pole position ahead of new Motonica signing Walter Salemi in 2nd, with 9 time World Champion Lamberto Collari in 3rd and Dario Balestri taking the final direct qualifying spot in 4th. In the final Collari drove a flawless race while Pietsch hit trouble, as did Salemi, allowing the Kyosho driver a simple run to the win. He crossed the finish line a lap in front of Dario Balestri, who had a fast closing Andrea Cristiani only 1.5 seconds behind. Belgian Serpent driver Ilia van Gastel set the fastest lap in the final with a 15.277, 6/100s quicker than pole man Pietsch.
Click here for the final results
The warm-up for this years IFMAR World Championship 1/10 Nitro Touring Car was held in Houston, Texas at the beginning of March. For Team Shepherd it was quite an important event as it was the real first test with the team under race conditions with our latest development, the Velox V10, against other international top drivers. As announced before, Shepherd’s team drivers Jilles Groskamp, Daniele Ielasi and Josh Cyrul joined the factory staff around Patrick Schäfer to prepare for this years major event in July.
Continue reading the report here
We already covered last week’s IFMAR Pre Worlds, but TQ Hobbies and Capricorn RC were in touch and sent us their report from the event. At the start of the week, Capricorn RC and Chris Tosolini prepared his LAB-C01 chassis with some newly engineered parts, designed and engineered by company owner Patrizio Rossi, in conjunction with Tosolini. The new parts consisted of a new motor mount made of barillium, which adds 60 grams of extra weight directly under the motor. Ralph Burch also used Capricorn parts on his Xray NT1 later in the week to help him drop his lap times into the 16’s. Ralph used the Capricorn Hard Light tires, the 60g barillium engine mount, composite diff gears, Capricorn clutch, Xceed Chevy body and also the Capricorn brake disc. The Capricorn clutch was also proving popular throughout the week, with 28 of the race entrants using it in their cars.
Continue reading the report here
