Italian company WRC have announced the signing of Germany’s Toni Gruber. The former ARC driver will use WRC’s line of cars in his 2017 campaign that includes appearances at both national and international events. Toni has the following to say:
I want to thank ARC for the great season 2016. Now I take one opportunity that WRC gave me and I want to thank WRC for this great chance. I am really happy to a part of this great team!
Source: WRC [wrc-racing.com]
Contact have announced their 2017 factory driver line up. Beside long established Robert Pietsch, who is in his seventh season and reigning 1/8th World Champion, Simon Kurzbuch, next year’s team will also see Germany’s up and coming Toni Gruber, who has shown some impressive results lately, including an overall 4th place at the 2016 Guan Kou Sunpadow GP in China.
Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]
The Barcelona Purple Race was held at the RBR36 Arena in Barcelona this past weekend. Home track of Mugen’s Robert Batlle the event attracted some of Spain’s fastest off-road drivers as well as guests from abroad. In the 30-minutes Nitro Buggy A-main Robert would make maximum use of his track knowledge by bringing home the win from Joan Carlos Canas in second and Joao Figueiredo in third. Elsewhere in the 1/8th E-Buggy class it was again Robert who came out fastest after the A-main.
Thanks to Robert Batlle for the report.
Arrowmax have announced the addition of Singapore’s Nicholas Lee to their team. The 2016 IFMAR Electric Touring A-main finalist will use the company’s range of tools and accessories including Arrowmax’s set-up system and he has the following to say about the deal:
I really like the range of tools made by Arrowmax. They are really stylish and I am glad to be part of the team.
Source: Arrowmax [arrowmax-rc.com]
Ty and Gord Tessmann have announced another edition of their popular 110% Clinic. It will be held at SDRC Raceway in Southern California, on January 5 and 6. The clinic focusses on 1/10th 2WD and 4WD buggies with a limit of 20 drivers. Applications can be made via email to contact@race110.com, successful applicants will be announced on December 28th.
The XRS Challenge Australia was recently held at the Castle Hill club with entries having to be capped at 140 a week before the race to make sure the event could be held with a reasonable time schedule. The sugar-prepped track made for great traction and the layout was fast and challenging with many jumps, table tops and even a massive quad. Racing-wise the 2WD Modified Buggy A-final saw Josh Pain (Team Associated) taking the win from Jarred King (Xray) and Andrew Gilliott (TLR) in second and third respectively.
Warsaw played host to the third round of the Polish electric on-road nationals that were held in multiple electric on-road classes including Pro Stock 13.5T and Stock 17.5T. ETS-style carpet made for good traction but the track itself was pretty difficult due to the lack of corner dots, meaning hitting the track barriers would likely kill the servo or other parts of the car. Arkadiusz Smyk was the man to beat in the Pro Stock and Stock qualifying and he would also come out fastest in the finals were he left Michal Wojcik and Bartosz Pochopien behind in second and third in the Pro Stock class, while in Stock Krystian Kopacki and Pawel Trella ended the day in second and third respectively.
The third round of the Swedish electric on-road nationals was held at the IRC Arena in Linkoping in the three classes of 1/10th Touring, Formula and 1/12th scale. About 60 drivers signed in for the event that was run on a medium grip track with “Baku-style” narrow passages, tight chicanes as well as non-forgiving walls and corner markings. The Formula class was dominated by the Von Elling family that occupied the top 3 spots with Frederik and Marcus battling it out in qualifying as well as the finals and it was Frederik that came out on top after the A-mains, taking the win from Marcus in second and Günther in third, making it also an Xray 1-2-3 on the podium.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
