Balestri wins Rd2 1/10th Italian Nationals

The 2nd round of the Italian Nationals was held 2 weekends ago at the Padova track in the North East of the country, near Venice. This race was dominated by current European Champion Dario Balestri who, running the new Team Magic G4+, took the pole position after setting fastest times in all qualifying rounds to line up ahead of current European ‘B’ Champion, and Serpent driver, Alessio Mazzeo in 2nd with the 3rd qualifying spot going to former 1/8th scale European Champion Daniele Ielasi. At the start of the 45 minute final a coming together broke the front right shock on Mazzeo’s car losing him 5 laps and forcing him to push hard for the rest of the race to claw back time. Balestri who led from the start was pushing hard as he was the only driver due to make a tire stop and so had to build a big enough time cushion to stay in front, which he managed to do, however his engine stalled and he lost the lead to Mugen racer Giuseppe D’angelo but Dario, on new tires to easily catch and pass him. Balestri took the win, 7 seconds ahead of D’angelo in 2nd with 3rd spot going to Kyosho racer Daniele Ielasi.

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Maxim Claes wins Rd3 of Belgian Nats

Last weekend at the Houthalen track in Belgium it was 14 year old Maxim Claes that took the class 2 win at the 3rd round of the Belgian National Championships for 1/10th 200mm. After qualifying 5th overall, Maxim was well placed in the semi final to take a spot in the main, but not before a broken shock absorber forced him to fight back from last to eventually finish 2nd. In the 30 minute main final the young Serpent driver lined up 8th on the grid and when the race started he could work his way to the front and take the lead, from where he went on to win the race by 3 laps.

Source: Alain Claes

Clive Connolly wins latest round of Irish Nats

Serpent are reporting on the latest round of the Irish National Championship, held at the St.Annes track on Sunday, where Clive Connolly led home a Serpent clean sweep of the podium in 1/8th scale. Having TQ’d for the event, the reigning Champion controlled the race from the front to win ahead of young charger Sean Doyle in 2nd and Championship leader Darragh Fox in 3rd. The win, Connolly’s first of the season, moves him up to joint second in the standings with Doyle while Fox sits at the top of the standings on 295 points.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

Maarten van Lierop wins Rd3 of Dutch 200mm Nationals

This weekend saw the rain affected 3rd round of the Dutch National Championship for 1/10th 200mm take place at the small technical Gouda track in the center of the country. The first rounds of qualifying saw a wet track for all the racers but this cleared up and allowed some quick times to be set, the quickest of which being set by round 1 winner Jilles Groskamp with his Xray NT1. Just before the semi finals were to be run it started to rain once more which made conditions very tricky, but this started to dry up and by the time the final came around the track was partly dry but still pretty slick in some areas, despite this almost everyone started with a dry setup. In the final it was Jilles that could master the conditions best and built a clear lead up until 8 minuted before the end, when his engine stalled, handing the lead to round 2 winner Maarten van Lierop who went on to take the win from Richard Keur in 2nd and current National Champion Remy Moller in 3rd.

In the supporting classes, there was a win the in the Nomac class for Serpent racer Pedro Rombouts with Daan Stuiver close behind in 2nd and Rene Lijnzaat in 3rd.

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Stéphane Bouche wins Rd4 of French 1/8th Nats

As much as Kyosho have stamped their dominance in 1/10th 200mm in France, Mugen have done the same in 1/8th scale and last weekends 4th round of the French Nationals, held in Toulouse, would be no exception. Qualifying saw Round 1 and 3 winner Nicolas Guillot, racing for Mugen, take the pole position in front of local racer Briere in 2nd and 3rd going to Laurent Zatla. The French Elite National runs in a similar way to 1/8th buggy meetings in that the top drivers take part in Semi finals to determine the main final, and after the Semis it was Guillot that once again lined up first. The start of the final saw a great battle between title competitors Bouche, winner of round 2, and Guillot until the latter flamed out handing his Mugen team mate the lead, up until the 22nd minute when he stopped for tires, handing the lead over to the pairing of Adrien Siegfried and Laurent Pageneaux, both of which would not change tires. This battle almost paid off but Bouche, with his fresh tires, was able to catch Kyosho racer Siegfried and pass him for the lead just before the last turn giving Bouche the win followed closely by Siegfried in 2nd with Mugen racer Laurent Pageneaux in 3rd.

The National class was dominated by Mugen racer Dominique Lichtle who took the took and the win, leading home a Mugen 1 – 8 with round 3 winner Yoann Coelho in 2nd and Romain Baehrel in 3rd.

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Kalinowski wins Rd3 German 1/10th West

Last weekend saw the 3rd round of the 1/10th 200mm West German Regionals held at the Megadrom Geilenkirchen, in the very West of Germany. Saturday saw only rain and so the 34 drivers present at the event got no practice and had to wait until Sunday to attack the track. After the qualifying it was Serpent racer Markus Mobers that had claimed the pole position for the main final ahead of Mugen racers Rene Püpke and Dominik Reschke. In the race Markus could lead easily until his engine flamed out during a pit stop, handing the lead to Mugen racer Heinz Jürgen Kalinowski who took the win from a recovering Mobers, with Rene Püpke in 3rd.

Source: MID [mid-mugen.de]