The first round of the Thailand Buggy Party championship for 2008 was held last weekend at the R.C. Mania track located in western Bangkok, Thailand. Qualifying saw team PRC Mugen/Titan racer Charlee take the TQ, a pace they he kept up for the 40 minute final, powering his Mugen MBX5R to a 12 second win. Coming home in 2nd spot was Hobao racer Yuthana D., while 3 laps back from the leaders in 3rd was Xray racer Meen V.
Source: Nitro Party [nitroparty.com]
We have the EXCLUSIVE news that top German Kyosho racer Philipp Guschl has joined Team Orion to use the company’s newly developed Team Orion CRF .21 buggy engine. The first race with the brand new Wasp prototype engine for the 15 year old, and current German National Champion, will be this weekend at the Kyosho International Indoor Race in Ostrava, the Czech Republic. Philipp had the following to say:
First I want to thank RMV Deutschland for the support during the last 7 years. All the victories including the German Champion 2007 could not have been achieved without them. Now I’m looking ahead with Team Orion and we will work closely together with the together with the R&D department of Team Orion and present the Wasp engines on a high level.
After a long development period the engines are expected to hit the market at the end of February just in time for the upcoming buggy season.
Source: Kyosho [kyosho.de]
Xray have a report on their site from team driver Elliot Harper on the 4th round of the Carpet Wars series that took place at the Black Lion Centre in Gillingham, Kent. The format was 4 qualifiers and one final and after the initial qualifier it was Elliot who was quickest, slipping back to 4th in the second and up to 3rd again after the third qualifier. Following a few adjustments to his set up, he performed extremely well in the 4th qualifier to secure pole position in the A final. From the start Elliott took a commanding position and pulled out a comfortable lead, finishing the race in 1st place ahead of Glenn Doman and Lee Woodhams, who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
In a further move for the top Italian racer, who recently signed for Shepherd, Danielle Ielasi, has joined ATS Tires for the 2008 season. Leaving behind a successful term with PMT, the 2 time European Champion will use the ATS brand in both 1/8th and 1/10th scale. Pictured above with Danielle is Cristina Negri and Piero Torregiani from ATS.
Source: ATS [atsmodel.com]
Some brief news about the 2008 R1 GP electric touring car event that took place last weekend in Seoul, South Korea. Qualifying saw Kyosho factory driver Shin Adachi, dirving the new prototype Stallion (pic1, pic2) touring car, claim the TQ spot ahead of fellow Japanese racer Atsushi Hara, racing for Hot Bodies in 2nd. In the finals it was a clear win for Hara however, taking the overall victory in front of Adachi, with Japanese National 1/12th scale and 4wd buggy Champion Naoto Matsukura, racing for Yokomo in 3rd.
Click more to see the top ten results… content
Round 5 of the 1/12th scale Nationals took the racers down south to Plymouth where they were greeted by an open and flowing track where accuracy and corner speed was extremely important and the competition was proving to be as close as ever. In the 19T class times got quicker and quicker as qualifying progressed and at the end of the 4 rounds it was Matt White on pole with Keith Robertson joining him on the front row just ahead of Russell Williams. The final was a stunning race as the top three broke clear from the rest, then after a few laps Matt made an error and dropped out of contention and so for the remaining 7 minutes Russell was never more than 3 metres from Keith’s rear bumper. His Associated L4 was super-consistent and Keith held his line eventually finishing a tenth of a second ahead to take his third win of the season, this result being enough to clinch the BRCA 19T National Championships.
Click more to see Keith’s car… content
oOple have a report from last weekends York Indoor Regional, held at the Huntington High School on one monster of a track in the sports hall. The day was a busy one with 111 drivers, 12 heats split between 2 and 4WD classes broken down into 7 heats of 4WD and 5 of 2WD. The 4wd class saw the win go to the TQ man Adam Skelding, driving the Hot Bodies Cyclone D4, while in 2wd the victory went to Richard Lowe who also won from pole with his Associated B4.
Read the full report, as well as view some Video and photos, here.
Source: oOple [oople.com]
Our friends from the RC Pro Series in the US were in touch to update us on what has been going on lately with the series –
“The 1st Pepsi Nitro Beach is over and now everyone who attended has to return to the real world! We at RC Pro International would like to thank all the racer who made the trip from the US Mainland and all the racers from Puerto Rico that opened their island to us and treated us like family. Thanks to Rafa Sabatier, Braulio and crew for all the hard work building the track and taking care of all the last minute details. Thanks to the Hau family and staff at the Mar Hau resort, also thanks to Pepsi for their support of the RC Pro Caribbean Series this year. Find more about that event here.”
“The Cabin Fever race at the Lewiston Roundup Arena is coming up February 2nd & 3rd. We currently have 150 entries for this event and we’ve been told Ryan Cavalieri will be making this event.”
Finally RC Pro look set to introduce a monthly podcast about the series and so they are looking for videos from people who attend the events to be sent to them to be included in their monthly round up. Find out more information here.
