Red RC » National

June 18, 2009

Mickael Pontal wins French 10th Nats Rd3

Round 3 of the French 1/10th scale gas nationals was held last weekend at Bourg en Bresse in the east of the country, close the to Swiss border, with sunny conditions all weekend for the 104 competitors attending. Qualifying for the Elite class saw Thomas Eytard take the top spot ahead of Basile Concialdi in 2nd, Arnaud Chaussard in 3rd and the final direct qualifier was Thomas Desmaries in 4th. The National class qualifying went the way of Anthony Bruyer ahead of Cédric Guillaud in 2nd, with Ludovic Cesar and Benjamin Brasset rounding out the top 4. In the Elite final, it was pole man Eytard that got the holeshot, but problems with his car dropped him out of contention. Concialdi, who was conserving his tires in 2nd, took over the lead but unfortunately some radio problems also dropped him down the leader board. Steady driving and good fortune allowed Kyosho driver Mickael Pontal to take over at the front and bring home the win, by a lap from Mugen Driver Thomas Desamaries in 2nd and Jacky Mouton, with another Kyosho, in 3rd. In the National class the race was all about Benjamin Brasset as pole man Bruyer had problems with his gearbox and dropped down the field. Benjamin was able to pull out a half lap lead by the halfway point, a gap that would be closed up by 2nd placed Julien Colas by the end of the race to only 4/100 of a second. Brasset just managing to cross the line first to take the win from the hard charging Colas in 2nd with Arthur Leclercq in 3rd, the top 6 covered by just over a lap.

Click here to see the final results

June 17, 2009

Francesco Tironi wins Italian Nats Rd2

The 2nd round of the Italian 1/10th scale 200mm Championships took place in Messina last weekend and in the expert class it was Dario Balestri, with the new Team Magic G4 II, that took the pole position. In the race however, Mugen Sirio driver Francesco Tironi won the final by a lap, setting a new track record along the way. In 2nd place was Xray Max driver Giorgio De Felici, with 3rd place going to Mugen SM racer Guiseppe D’angelo, 7 seconds further back. Alessio Mazzeo finished 4th driving the prototype Serpent 733 chassis.

Source: F.V.S.S. Racing Team [fvssrc.com]

June 16, 2009

Steele & Campbell win Irish Nationals Rd4

The fourth round of Ireland’s On road Nitro Nationals took place over the weekend at the St.Annes track near Dublin city where Chris Steele took his third 200mm win of the season and Ian Campbell notched up his first 1:8 victory following a thrilling 30 minute final. Qualifying on pole for the 200mm race ahead of fellow Kyosho driver Chris Lawlor, Steele dominated the race setting the fastest lap enroute to a 7-lap winning margin over the Xray of Eoin Doran with Thomas Ward completing the podium. In 1:8 it was defending champion Clive Connolly who took TQ honours with his IDM powered Mugen over the Kyosho of current championship leader Austin Elliot. A very close final saw four drivers in the hunt for the win but that dropped to three when Elliot flamed out and then to two when Connolly had to make an unscheduled tyre stop five minutes from the end. This left Campbell and 1:8 returnee Steele, winner of the 200mm race, to battle it out for the top spot on the podium. In the end teenager Campbell, whose Matrix tyres equipped Shepherd recorded the fastest lap of the race, took the win by 7 seconds from Steele’s Kyosho with the recovering Connolly a further 7 seconds adrift in third.

Click here to see the 1/8th scale podium

June 16, 2009

Karl-Heinz Meister takes German West Rd6

What a pity! Once again rain hampered the racing action of the Western German Championship I.C. 1/8 – for the fourth time in a row. Practice for the sixth and last round of the Western German Championship was held in Oberhausen under the best possible conditions with blue sky and temperatures around 25 degrees. On Sunday first clouds welcomed the racers and after round three of the heats it started to rain and didn’t stop for the rest of the day. In a drivers meeting it was decided not to continue this disappointing race day and to count the race following the heats order.

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June 11, 2009

Ecuadorian National Championship Rd1

Last weekend, the opening round for the Ecuadorian National Championship took place in Quito, Ecuador. The 40 min final placed driver Pablo Cobos with his Sirio powered V-One RRR Evo2 as the winner of the round. Cobos was closely followed by Alfonso Quirola and Daniel Vela, all finishing on 119 laps on the astonishing Miraflores Track with the A-main final an amazing way to end this 3 day race event. The race started without problems placing the TQ driver Hermann Saa into the lead. His early decision to change tires proved miscalculated when rain starting falling after 30 minuted allowing other drivers to avoid the long pit stop as the tire wear reduced. The sun came back out and saw Cobos, Quirola and Vela emerge as the front runners.

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June 10, 2009

Marco Müller victorious at Rd3 in Switzerland

Last weekend the 3rd Round of the Swiss Championship took place in Lostallo, host of this summer’s World Championships. After winning the first round and placing second on the last round of the Swiss Championship Shepherd driver Marco Müller demonstrated that he can also handle difficult race conditions. During practice on Friday the weather was really nice but when the qualifying started on Saturday, heavy rain reached the track which even turned into a hailstorm. Marco found the best setup for his Velox for this difficult conditions and took the TQ spot for the 45 minute final on Sunday. On Sunday morning the sun came out, but during the semi-finals it began to rain again. The final was started on a drying track and Marco could pull away right from the start. But 15 minutes before the end the rain started again and a lot of tires were changed in the pit lane. Marco kept cool and although he had some minor radio glitches because of the rain he still could defend his lead and won the race with a 1 lap gap on the 2nd placed Jürg Nydegger, with Silvio Hächler taking 3rd another lap behind.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

June 10, 2009

Saarinen wins Rd2 of Finnish Nationals

Last weekend saw the 2nd round of the Finnish championships for nitro touring cars run at a new track in Raisio. The track has a very tight infield and some slow speed corners, but a very long straight, which makes it very challenging for all drivers. Qualifying went the way of Mugen racer Teemu Saarinen, who managed to continue his quick pace in the main final setting the fastest lap on his way to taking the win from team mate Ari Salminen by 3 laps, with Xray driver Pekka Koivula in 3rd.

Source: Mugen [mid-mugen.eu]

June 9, 2009

Mesker & Heremans win BNK Rd3

The 3rd round of the combined Belgium / Dutch championship was held on recently on the clay track of MAC Vlijmen in the Netherlands. In 4WD it was Stefan Mesker who took home the trophy with his X5 Squared, closely followed by touring car ace Nick Joosens, who is really getting more and more used to driving his CAT over the jumps and bumps of the off-road tracks he now faces. Local hero Tom van Drunen took home a well deserved 3rd place with his B44.

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