The first round of the EP Off-Road Cup took place at the MRCmodels track in Moscow at the beginning of May. With 49 drivers in attendance, this years competitions will be held over 2 days, with the 2wd buggies, including the Slash, on the first day and the 4wd classes on the 2nd day. Saturday saw competitions held in 3 classes for 2wd buggy and two classes of Slash, Sport for stock out of the box models and Pro for drivers with optional parts, motors and batteries.
The Off Road Electric Section of AECAR were in contact to tell us about the unofficial warm-up race they are holding at the 2nd round of the Spanish Nationals in Bilbao on the same track as this summer’s European Championships. The event will take place on the 29th to 31st of May and is open to all international competitors with a full schedule in place for both 2wd and 4wd classes. If you are interested you have until the 22nd of May to place your entry, forms for which can be found here. Further information, including facilities, hotels, etc, can be found on the official event page here.
Team Orion team driver has a report on the 2nd Annual Tri State Off Road Championship was held last weekend at Hal’s Hobbies in El Paso. ‘There was a practice race on Friday night, the day before qualifying. During practice my car was not great, but I talked with my Dad on the phone, and we got it working nice on the very rough track. The track was super rough and dry and the key to winning was to be consistent. We changed the camber links a little and added negative camber for stability. I won the practice race Friday and felt confident going into Saturday. For qualifying Saturday, I TQ’d the first round by 2 seconds over Billy Fischer. In the second round, the nut on a rear outer hinge pin fell off (same thing that happened at Silver State) and ended the heat for me. In round 3, I TQ’d again, this time by 4 seconds over Casey Peck. This would make me TQ in the buggy class.’
Our friends in Italy sent us the announcement for a race that they are running in June, on the 6th – 7th, in aid of the victims of the recent Abruzzo earthquake. The race takes place in Gubbio and is open to both 1/8th scale and 1/10th scale gas classes and all proceeds from the event will go to the Italian Red Cross. Its for a good cause, so if you wish to test on the host track of this year’s European Championships for 1/10th 200mm and you missed out on last weekend’s GP then you may as well go and support a good cause while you are at it. You can enter the race by going to the track site here, with more info (in Italian) here.
Last weekend saw the Warm up race for the European 1/10th scale 200mm European Championship held at the ‘Mario Rosati’ track in Gubbio, Italy. Qualifying saw the pole position go to Mugen/Sirio driver Francesco Tironi, 4 seconds clear of of Mugen/SM driver Guiseppe D’angelo in 2nd, using a new prototype SM engine, while Robert Pietsch and Dino Giacalone rounded out the top 4. In the final Tironi had problems at the 5 minute mark, dropping him down the order and this allowed D’angelo to take the lead, a position he held until the end of the race. Guiseppe won by over 2 laps from Dino Giacalone in 2nd, who had inherited the place from Pietsch who retired at the 15 minute mark, while Xray driver Niki Duina claimed the final podium placing in 3rd.
Click here to see the final positions
oOple have their report from the first round of the BRCA 1/10th off road Nationals which were held at the Talywain track in Wales last weekend. In the 4wd class Tom Yardy (above) dominated qualifying, taking three of the four rounds and after Danny McGee took Leg one of the A final, Tom went on to win the next two legs to secure overall victory on this very challenging circuit. In 2wd X-Factory took all four qualifying rounds with two wins each for Phil Sleigh and his team mate & reigning 2WD Champion Ellis Stafford. Ellis took overall TQ, so it was Ellis, Sleigh and Lee Martin lining up on the grid. After three intense legs, Phil Sleigh took the overall win with a 1st and 2nd place finish.
Head on over to oOple for the full race report.
Source: oOple [oople.com]
The warm up for this year’s European buggy Championships took place last weekend in Oberwolbing in Austria under hot and dry conditions. The track presented to the drivers, which included some US drivers over for the race, was super fast with 2 straights and a tarmac banking, which constantly challenged the drivers. The A-main was super fast with current European Champion Renaud Savoya, Adam Drake and Yannick Aigoin fighting for the lead. Savoya and Aigoin were a little bit faster and fought for the whole race, but Yannick was able to make one less stop which gave the Losi driver the safety margin he needed to keep in front until the end of the race. Renaud Savoya took 2nd for Mugen ahead of British driver Neil Cragg in 3rd for Associated.
Source: Racing Experience [racing-experience.fr]
Last weekend in Hyvinkää, Finland, the opening round of the Finnish 1/10th scale National Championships took place. Qualifying had seen Mugen driver Teemu Saarinen take the pole position for the 45 minute final, and he was able to carry that pace through into the finals, winning the race by a lap from Xray driver Pekka Kolvula in 2nd, with Tony Raikas running a Mugen, 3 laps further back in 3rd spot.
Source: Mugen [mid-mugen.eu]
