Red RC » National

March 15, 2007

Brunsden and Helliwell win GRP Challenge

GRP Challenge

Last weekend saw the GRP Dirt Challenge race take place at the Deerdale Off Road club with 110 entries split between buggy and truggy. In the buggy class it was Bruce Thompson that took the pole position ahead of Kevin Brunsden and Simon Smith, whilst in the truggy class it was Kevin Brunsden that took to the TQ spot ahead of James Helliwell and Bruce Knight in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

In buggy Simon Smith took the early lead and battled with Bruce until the first round of pitsops. Kevin Brunsden had a terrible start with an engine cut and he was chasing back through the field. Some frantic racing and about 10 minutes later Kevin had moved into the lead and took the chequered flag from Simon Smith and Bruce Thompson.

Darragh Fox wins Rd1 of Irish 1/8th Nationals

Darragh Fox

Serpent are reporting on their 1-2 finish at last weekends rain interrupted first round of the Irish 1/8th scale National Championships held in Raheny, just outside Dublin City. Serpent 960 racer Clive Connolly claimed the top spot in qualifying, but as the race was partially wet a number of drivers including Connolly became victims of radio gear trouble forcing them out of the race. This allowed the Serpent pairing of Dean Lacey and Darragh Fox to the field with Lacey leading until some radio problems close to the end of the race allowed Fox to take the lead and eventually the win, followed home by Lacey in 2nd with Mario Morelli in 3rd.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

March 14, 2007

Sotiropoulos wins Rd1 of Greek 1/10th 200mm Nats

Rd1 of Greek 1/10th Nats

Last week we wrote about Greek Serpent driver John Sotiropoulos and the fact that he got his 1/8th scale National title defense off to a good start with a win in the 1st round of the Nationals. Well John was at it again but this time its the first round of the 1/10th 200mm Nationals that took place again at the Arena track and as well as setting the fastest lap of the event, Sotiropoulos brought his Serpent 720 home to a commanding win with Spyros Piknis in 2nd and Dimitris Petroglou in 3rd.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

March 13, 2007

SpeedMerchant Sweeps the 2007 ROAR Nats

SpeedMerchant

We briefly covered the ROAR Carpet Nationals that took place last weekend and frustratingly have still to find any images from the finals day, so i was happy when i stumbled upon this picture from SpeedMerchants press release celebrating their clean sweep at the event.

So happy, we’re going to run it… content

March 13, 2007

Oscar Cabezas wins Rd1 of Spanish 1/8th Nationals

Oscar Cabezas

Last weekend saw the first round of the 2007 Spanish 1/8th scale National Championships held at the ARCA track in Madrid. The race effectively belonged to reigning Spanish National Champion Oscar Cabezas, who not only claimed pole position after qualifying, but also set the fastest lap in the heats and set a new track record in the final. On top of that the Serpent driver won the race ahead of Josue Artiles with Carlos Peracho in 3rd, getting the young SDD drivers title defense off to a perfect start.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

March 13, 2007

Bernsten & Johannessen win Norwegian Nationals

Norwegian Nationals

Last weekend saw the Norwegian Nationals take place on a large indoor track organised by the Spydeberg Motorklubb. In 19T it was young 13 year old Xray driver Adrian Berntsen who won 4 of the 5 qualifying rounds to take the TQ spot. In the race Adrien managed to carry forward his qualifying pace to win 2 finals to take the National title, despite huge pressure from fellow Xray racer Helge Johannessen who ended up 2nd with Tamiya racer Morten Bremsrud in 3rd. In the Modified class it Helge Johannessen managed to win all the qualfiying rounds to take the TQ spot ahead of Tamiya racer Eirik Andreassen and Adrian Bernsten. In the race it was even closer with Helge taking the win in final 1 with Eirik in 2nd while in final 2 these results were reversed meaning it all came down to the last final.

So in the third final Eirik and I went off with only 0.1sec between us. But I drove safely, and felt that I had full control from the start. After 2 minutes, Eirikâ€™s car broke down, and I secured the win.

Read the full report here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

March 12, 2007

MickaÃ«l Pontal wins Rd1 of French 200mm Nationals

Rd1 of French 200mm Nationals

Kyosho racer MickaÃ«l Pontal has won the first round of the French 1/10th 200mm Nationals held last weekend at the Ampuis circuit, near Lyon. In Qualifying it was Picco powered Kyosho racer BA Arnaldi that took the top qualifying spot with team mate Sebastian Wartelle in 2nd and Xray racer Nicolas Bougnoteau in 3rd. In the final everything started well for Arnaldi who pulled out a strong lead but MickaÃ«l Pontal only making pit stops every 6 minutes managed to catch Arnaldi whos tires were starting to wear. Soon Pontal could take the lead and with it the win, leaving Arnaldi to come home in 2nd with Wartelle in 3rd.

As we mentioned last week, the new EFRA engine regulations were causing some conflicts with whether they should be adopted this year or not, but it was finally decided that for an engine to be legal for racing this year it must conform to the 2006 EFRA rules. This ruling, which calls for a crankshaft with a 7mm inner diameter and with maximum chamfer of 0.5mm, would cause problems for the new GRP made .12 motors, which were only made to the 2007 EFRA regualtions. Despite that ruling there were Ninja engines present at the event, so they must have been able to manufacture a different crankshaft for the motors or found some other solution.

Source: RB Products [rbproducts.com] Image: Kyosho [kyoshofrance.com]

March 12, 2007

Elliot Harper wins last round of Rug Racers

Elliot Harper Rug Racers

Elliot Harper continued his winning ways, this time by TQ’ing and winning the final round of the Rug Racers championship that took place last weekend. The Hot Bodies racer tried a variety of different setup options on his way to the top qualifying spot and then managed to win both finals to take the overall win in the Modified class.

Read Elliots full report here.

Source: Mirage [mirageracing.com]