The opening round of the Thornhill Spring Series was held recently at the facility’s Jr. carpet track and in the 4WD Buggy class it was Xray’s Ethan Lefebvre with the win despite track building duties on Thornhill’s big track that weekend. Lance Myhre (Xray) would come in 2nd from 3rd placed Jason Christie who rounded out an all-Xray podium.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
The penultimate round of the Essex Winter Series took place this weekend. Despite both the titles being wrapped up at the previous round, Olly Jefferies and Zak Finlay led two quality fields, looking to keep as many wins under their belt as possible. In the Modified class, Schumacher’s Elliott Harper picked up the challenge, taking the fastest time, by just over two seconds, in the opening qualifier. Alexander Hagberg took second for Xray, in front of the Team Associated of Chris Grainger and newly crowned champion Olly Jefferies. Alexander, who since moving to the UK has raced at EWS whenever his hectic world-wide scheduled has allowed, then moved to the top in Q2, one second up on Olly, with Chris and Elliott both within half a second of the Xray driver. An intense fight in the third round saw Alexander just pip Elliott to the top spot by a mere five-hundredths, with Olly half a second back and Chris in fourth. This meant Elliott would need to top the last qualifier in order to deny Alexander his first EWS pole position, however the Swedish driver was firmly into his rhythm, and set the best time of qualifying, in front of Olly, Elliott and Chris, to ensure he would line up on pole for the single leg A Final. Elliott would start second, with Olly third and Chris in fourth, and Yokomo’s Harley Eldridge continuing her impressive run with another top-five starting position, tied on points with the Team Associated of Alan Bickerstaff.
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Serpent have announced the signing of German 1/8th nitro on-road frontrunner, Tobias Hepp. The multiple “B” European Championship finalist and 2008 European Junior Champion will be racing Serpent’s 988 1/8th platform at all major races in Germany, at select ENS events and he has the following to say about the deal:
First of all, I want to thank Team Serpent for this opportunity and Im proud to back in the Team after 8 years. Im looking forward to working with the Team and I can‘t wait to race with my new Viper 988 car. See you on the track soon.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
The 2018 Keilor Invitational, Australia’s outdoor equivalent of the Reedy Race in the US, was held at the Keilor club in Melbourne, Australia. Racers battle it out in over five heats of 2WD and five heats of 4WD for the title of champion and unique to this event is that an invite class is also held for the popular 17.5T class while open classes allow racers to compete for direct invitations to the 2019 event. A junior class is also offered for the under 16 racers in the very strong junior scene. As always the club created a brand new layout for the event, with the 2018 track being very fast and flowing with lots of undulations. This created spectacular high speed freight train racing which required patience and aggression. Mother nature threw typical Melbourne changeable weather at the track, with everything from hot sun to wind and rain, but the track grooved up spectacularly throughout and kept racers on their toes choosing the correct tyre. Racers travelled from around the country for the event, with over 120 entries received.
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Fenix have introduced lightened ring gears for their pan car gear differentials. The parts come in handy in all low-stress applications where less rotating mass is beneficial, such as Formula, 1S and Oval racing, and they are a direct fit on Fenix’s gear differentials.
Source: Fenix [fenix-racing.com]
Coming from Xray and made for the XB2C carpet edition 1/10th 2WD buggy is a graphite composite 3-gear gearbox. The item is made from a lightweight graphite composite material, understood to be lighter than the standard material, and of a narrower design. Using the part will reduce chassis roll while increasing traction and it is a direct fit on the XB2C buggy.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Rickside Design Products from Japan have introduced new aluminium suspension balls and pivots for the Mugen MBX8 and MBX7 line of vehicles. First up is a complete set of six 7mm flanged hex balls, four 7mm balls, four 6mm hex balls as well as four 6mm shock end and four 6mm sway bar link balls. All are made of high-quality 7075-T6 aluminium and they come hard anodised for high wear resistance. Using the alloy balls will reduce the overall, and unsprung, weight of the MBX8 and MBX7 series vehicles and the different design balls are also available as separate sets for spares or repair.
Source: Rickside Design Products [ricksidedesign.com]
Coming soon from VBC Racing is the new FF18 FWD 1/10th touring car kit. The car features a belt-drive gearbox with a new 7075-T6 motor mount that can accommodate larger pinion gears while an updated 38T gear differential and gearbox design give a lowered internal gear ration. Newly designed front bulkheads allow for easier maintenance and the new steering system incorporates an adjustable steering angle stopper. Other features include TBBS-P progressive shock absorbers with diamond-trued internals for smoother shock action, a floating servo mount ensures equal left/right chassis flex characteristics and the car also uses new suspension mounts with inserts for easy suspension geometry changes. The kit, that adapts many design aspects of VBC Racing’s 4WD line, is rounded off by new rear bulkheads, new rear camber link mounts and carbon composite silver dot suspension plastics.
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