The opening round of the Swiss 1/8th Off-road National Championship was held this past weekend. In the Expert class Patrick Hofer would bring home the win in the 45-minute main final one lap ahead of Team Associated teammate Robby Lüber while Jeremy Pitted (HB Racing) ended the race in 3rd, some eight seconds short of Ronny’s time.
Source: Team Associated [facebook.com]
The fourth round of Singapore’s Urban Astro Buggy Championships was held this past weekend, and once again the race was concurrently a Singapore national series points scoring event. With the weather being sunny, the dry high traction astro surface at the Urban PlaySpace Raceway in downtown Singapore proved to be a challenge for the racers to master. In the 2WD Buggy Class, Esmail Apandi (Xray) took the TQ honours by winning rounds 1 and 2 of the three rounds of qualifying. It was the same story in the finals, with Esmail securing an early overall win by taking legs 1 and 2 of the A-Main. Dennis Chiang (Xray), who started 4th on the grid, secured the win in leg 3 to finish 2nd overall, while Kamen Koh (Serpent) took the final podium spot in 3rd.
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UK brand THR has introduced three new option parts for the Team Associated B6 series of 2WD buggies. First up is a tuneable under LiPo weight that allows for easy and swift weight gain in a 40g to 70g range by simply removing or adding three separate weight inserts. Cut from stainless steel the weight measured an overall 53x87x2mm and it is a drop-fit for the B6’s battery compartment. While adding or removing weight, the design also makes weight bias adjustments easy courtesy of the placement of the inserts within the frame. The weight can also be used in the Yokomo YZ-2 buggy with a special version for the Schumacher Cougar KD and KC being in the making too.
JConcepts have introduced the Illuzion body shell for the Team Associated B6 series of 1/10th 2WD buggies. A common sight in the early to mid-2000’s, the Illuzion sports a classic “cab rearward” design, setting itself apart from today’s breed of cab forward body shells. JConcept’s own Jason Ruona qualified 5th at the 2003 IFMAR World Championships with the prototype Illuzion style body while Ryan Cavalieri drove the Illuzion to TQ during the 2005 IFMAR World Championships. Lastly Hayato Matsuzaki won the 2007 IFMAR World Championships with the Illuzion style body that is now also available for all B6 and B6D owners. Included with the drop-fit body come two Aero rear wings, window masks and a decal sheet.
Ty Tessmann has completed the double at the Philippine Masters, the Xray driver winning the much anticipated buggy showdown with arch rival David Ronnefalk to add to his earlier Truggy victory in Manila. With both Tessmann and Ronnefalk’s participation in the 7th running of the Philippine Airlines sponsored race attracting much international interest, it was the latter who drew the first blood as the HB Racing driver claimed the TQ after 5 rounds of qualifying. In the final however, after some early battles and mistakes by both drivers it was Tessmann who had the upper hand as the Canadian took control of the race helped by a fuel strategy that meant two less visits to the pits over the 1-hour main. With 2nd place qualifier Kyle McBride suffering two flame outs at the start of the race, putting an end to him being in the mix, Atsushi Hara would make it an all World Champions podium at CV Offroad Track as he finished ahead of outgoing Philippine Masters Champion Adam Drake.
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Ty Tessmann has taken a convincing Truggy win at the Philippine Masters, the Xray driver winning the 1-hour Main in Manila from outgoing champion Adam Drake. Starting from second on the grid, the Canadian was gifted the lead at the start as Top Qualifier Kyle McBride had a fumbled set down on the grid. Once in front, Tessmann took control of the race and while McBride would recover and close to within 4-seconds of him it was all in vein. Chasing down the leader with six & a half minutes to go, the Australian would make a mistake in a 180 corner and facing into the oncoming traffic would get collected popping a right steering block. Continuing the lap & limping back to the pits, despite the best efforts of his pit crew they couldn’t force it back into position and his race was done. This promoted Drake to second with Aaron Stringer also moving up to complete the podium ahead of top local driver Jordan Go. Along with McBride, another of the international visitors to retire would be Atsushi Hara. Popping a steering rod early on but able to rejoin after being returned to the pits, the former World Champion would then run out of fuel twice before retiring at the 43-minute mark when he broke a front centre drive shaft.
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The second round of the Indonesia 1/8th Buggy National Championship was held this past weekend at the Maxspin track in Maribaya, West Java, Indonesia. A total of 74 drivers from Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Bali, Kendari, Batam as well as local drivers attended the event whose schedule would see six rounds of 10-minutes qualifying although at the end only three rounds of 5-minutes qualifying would be held due to heavy rain. Ultimately Stanley Wangsanegara (HB Racing/O.S.) took the TQ honours and he would end the 45-minute main final on the runner-up spot while Adrian Sutanto (Kyosho/O.S.) came out successful. John Agus (Kyosho/O.S.) ended the day on the 3 spot.
Round 2 of the Italian Nitro Buggy National Championship was held at the Ongaroring over the weekend. The event started out with a rain-soaked track on Friday but the weather and track conditions would better throughout the weekend. Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro would sweep the Expert class by winning all qualifying rounds to take the overall TQ from Riccardo Berton (Kyosho) and Alex Zanchettin (Tekno). In the 45-minute main final it was again Davide who took control of things, ending the race one lap ahead of Riccardo Berton while Marco Baruffolo (TLR) completed the podium result another lap down in 3rd.
Image: Davide Ongaro
