The opening round of the Spanish 1/8th Nitro Buggy national championship was held in Lebrija this past weekend. Rainy weather made for some challenging racing conditions and the event was also cut short and in the end it was Mugen’s Juan Carlos Canas who took the win in the 45-minute A-main from record national champion, Robert Batlle (Mugen) with HB Racing’s Ignacio Candel coming in third.
Singapore’s Urban Astro Buggy Championship held its third event of the 2017 season this past weekend. The race was concurrently a Singapore national series points scoring event and in the 2WD Buggy class, the battle for TQ was on between Esmail Apandi, Dennis Chiang and Kum Yew and it would come down to the third qualifying round. Despite running in the earlier group, Esmail master the slightly wet conditions to secure the overall TQ with a scintillating run in Q3. In the finals, Esmail took A-main leg 1, but Dennis came back with a strong performance in leg 2 to take the win and force a decisive leg 3. In final main it was a close battle all the way, but Esmail eventually managed to maintain his advantage to seal the win while Dennis finished 2nd, with newcomer Andrew Tow coming in 3rd.
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Coming from Roche are new products for the Rapide P12-2017 and F1 on-road pan car kits. First up is a M2.5x6mm cap head screw kit for the P12-2017 1/12th scale car. The red anodised screws securely hold the wheels in place while adding visual impact and ease of use. The fasteners are usable with virtually every 1/12th scale rear wheel and they come in sets of 8. Also new is a 3-piece set of Grade 5 titanium turnbuckles for Roche’s F1 kits. The spanners are a direct replacement for the stock parts, they offer a low weight and improved rigidity.
View the titanium turnbuckles here
The penultimate round of the Finnish Winter Jumps electric off-road series was held at the Estonian city of Tallinn this past weekend. Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen showed another impressive performance, setting the pace right from the start with only Joel Valander and Karri Salmela being able to challenge Joona. The young man would set the TQ in both the 2WD and 4WD buggy classes and he also came out on top after the A-mains, taking the win from Team Associated teammate, Karri Salmela in 2WD while Max Mört (PR Racing) had to settle for third. In the 4WD class the podium was completed by Joel Valander (Xray) in second and Karri Salmela (Team Associated) third.
Gravity RC have introduced the Touring Car Sidewall Glue Trace kit. The set is used to consistently mark the sidewall of front touring car tyres in preparation for CA glue application, which is used to help prevent grip rolling on carpet. Tracing the outside of the disk with the included paint marker provides you with a consistent and defined line which serves as a visual boundary while applying CA glue up the sidewall. The 58.5mm disc is the recommended trace for lower grip conditions while the 59.5mm disc is the recommended trace for medium to high grip conditions. Included in the kit is one 58.5mm disc, one 59.5mm disk, one silver paint marker, as well as a fastener to secure the disc to the outside of the tyre.
Source: Gravity RC [teamgravityrc.com]
The fourth and final round of qualifying saw Akio Sobue successfully take the first CETC overall TQ honour in the Infinity Modified class, the Worlds Finalist quickly setting off from the grid and never looking back. Right behind him Naoki Akiyama crossed the finish line 1.4 seconds later to take 2nd place for the round and secure 2nd overall on the grid. Newly signed Sunpadow driver Naoto Matsukura showed good pace again with only one mistake, the Japanese driver took 3rd place this round and with 1 point less than Akiyama will start 3rd overall. ‘Using old tires’ Nicolas Lee wasn’t competitive and could only take 5th for the round and 4th overall while Viktor Wilck’s quest for the TQ was over after retiring following a traction roll and so he would claim 5th on the grid for the triple A-mains.
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The first day of the opening round of the CETC presented by Infinity has just come to an end with the conclusion of the 2nd round of qualifying and it was Yokomo driver Naoki Akiyama who successfully hit back by taking Q2 with ease, the top heat seeing a lot of mistakes. After the young Japanese driver it was Serpent ace Viktor Wilck who took 2nd place, both drivers benefiting from consistent driving. Missing out on 27 laps by 0.07 seconds Viktor was just behind Akiyama by little over a second. Sitting in the lead for the first minute Akio Sobue could not hold his Infinity car on the driving line and although he made two serious mistakes the Japanese driver could still come back from 7th place to finish 3rd. Thinking himself ‘lucky’ Japanese National Champion got 4th place for the round, humbly stating that many people made a mistake, while Infinity driver Naoto Matsukura and Xpress driver Hay Lai again completed the top 6. Sitting in 2nd place for the first minute and half, Xray driver Gary Huang retired after 2 mistakes.
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Carrying on the momentum from the end of the last season when he completed his full sweep of the Euro Nitro Series, it was reigning World Champion Simon Kurzbuch to open the 2017 season with a TQ at the first official international race of the year. After topping both free and controlled practice, the Swiss Shepherd driver claimed the first three rounds of qualifying on the RME Cassino track to secure the overall TQ with two attempts to spare, Dario Balestri taking the last two rounds while producing very convincing performances with his Infinity to settle second overall, ahead of ARC’s Andrea Pirani and his Infinity teammate Collari.
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