Merlin Depta has announced his departure from Serpent, the German racer having been a long standing driver & ambassador for one of nitro onroad racing’s pioneering brands. With an engineering background, Depta was more than just a team driver for the brand and played a key role in Serpent’s chassis developments. Merlin made his departure public via a post on Facebook shortly after completing the 1:8 Onroad German Nationals on Sunday.
On the back of his second European Championship title victory last weekend, Dominic Greiner added to his 2022 silverware collection with victory at the German 1:8 Onroad National Championships. The factory Capricorn driver took victory at the well known Ettlingen track ahead of Top Qualifier Toni Gruber, the Shepherd driver setting the fastest qualifying time in the 3rd of the 4 qualifier. Greiner would set his fastest time in first of his attempts, the time almost 3-seconds off Gruber’s pace. Setting the fastest lap of the 40-minute final, Greiner took the chequered flag with over a lap of an advantage over Guber with Shepherd team-mate Lars Hoppe completing the podium ahead of the Serpent of Merlin Depta.
Image: Lars Hoppe [facebook]
Zak Smith has won the penultimate round of the British Electric Touring Car Championship at West London. The Schumacher driver claimed his second consecutive win of the season when he beat Top Qualifier Ben Cosgrove and championship leader Kyle Branson. Qualifying second, Smith opened the triple A-Mains with a big winning margin over Awesomatix’ Cosgrove and Peter Eagles with Branson’s Xray fourth. Branson, winner of Rounds 1 & 3 of the championship, would take A2 with Smith only fifth. With it all on the line in A3, Cosgrove would convert his TQ starting position into a win but with Smith second and Branson back in 7th, it was enough for Smith to add to his Mendip victory from a month earlier. Cosgrove would end up with best finish of the season with second while Branson completed the Round 5 podium.
Image: 6K Racing [facebook]
Spencer Rivkin has denied the defending ROAR National Champion Dakotah Phend the buggy double at SDRC Raceway in San Diego. In qualifying things couldn’t have gone better for Phend with the Team Losi Racing driver taking the overall TQ in both 2WD and 4WD Buggy as well Mod Truck. Kicking off Sunday’s finals with 2WD Buggy, things looked set to continue Phend’s way as he took A1 by over 4-seconds from Yokomo’s Ryan Maifield. Next up was Mod Truck with more of the same but the first 4WD Buggy final would bring change. Three laps in second place qualifier Rivkin went to the front to take the win as Phend dropped down the order eventually finishing P7. In A2, Rivkin again took the early lead with Phend finishing back in 5th. Rivkin was the new 4WD Champion. While Phend won A3, it was Maifield and AE’s Aydin Horne who completed the podium presentation ahead of Phend. In 2WD, Phend’s TLR team-mate Ryan Cavalieri would force the battle to A3 when he took the second encounter but Phend got the job done in A3 to retain his title. A 1-2 for TLR, Maifield completed the podium in front of Rivkin. In Mod Truck, the title decision also went to A3. With a win a piece, Phend and Team Associated’s A2 winner Dustin Evans would battle it out. A mistake from Phend would allow Evans to the front but Phend charged back and found his way to the front to wrap up the title with Rivkin completing the National Championship Top 3.
Image: Spencer Rivkin [facebook]
Elliott Boots is the 2022 1:8 Offroad British National Champion, the Sworkz/Reds factory driver lifting the title in style with victory at the season finale held at Nemo Raceway. Last year’s championship runner-up, Boots came into the weekend with wins from the opening two rounds of the 5 round championship. Setting the fastest time in 4 of the 5 qualifiers, the former European Champion would secure the overall TQ ahead of the Agama of Lee Martin and the Mugen of Round 4 winner Jamie Clancy. Winning his Semi from Clancy, Boots would start on pole for the 45-minute final eventually coming out on top having lapped all his rivals. Martin would come home second with Clancy completing the podium. The other of the championship’s race winners, taking the win at Round 3 in Brookthorpe, defending champion Jonathan Skidmore had a disappointing finale finishing sixth which was good enough for the runner-up’s spot in the final standings ahead of Clancy and Martin.
Image: Elliott Boots [facebook]
Marc Rheinard has finally claimed his first ETS win with Awesomatix, a nice boost for both driver and manufacturer ahead of next month’s World Championships in Italy. Having secured the TQ for the German round at Arena 33, the former World Champion was pushed hard in the opening A-Main on Saturday evening by 2nd place qualifier Yannic Prumper. Despite the Yokomo team driver setting the fastest lap, the only one to run in the 17-seconds, Rheinard stayed out front for the win. A2 on Sunday morning saw Rheinard take a more convincing win to lock up the overall victory for Round 3 of the series and finally give Awesomatix only their second ever success in the ETS’ premiere Modified category. With Rheinard able to sit out A3, Prumper won that encounter from Christopher Krapp to secure 2nd overall with his Yokomo team-mate, winner at ETS Austria, completing the Andernach podium line up. Mugen’s Ronald Volker claimed fourth ahead of Awesomatix’ Lucas Urbain with Xray’s Marco Kaufmann rounding out the Top 6. Adding to the Awesomatix celebrations, Max Machler would also convert his TQ into victory in Pro Stock.
Image: ETS [ets.racing]
The 3rd annual Kinwald BKlassic will take place from October the 14th to 16th at Hobby Action RC Raceway in Chandler, Arizona. The race is held in honour of Offroad RC great Brian Kinwald with parts of the entry fee being donated to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation Southwest Chapter. The race will cater for several 1:10 2WD, 4WD and Short Course classes as well as a vintage 2WD category. More information can be found on social media here.
Reigning ROAR National Champion Dakotah Phend will defend his 2WD and 4WD Buggy titles from pole position. The TLR driver is the Top Qualifier in San Diego after going fastest in 2 of the three rounds of qualifying at SDRC Raceway. His closest challenger in 2WD would be team-mate Ryan Cavalieri who TQ’d the second round of heats. A P2 and P4, was good enough to give Team Associated’s Aydin Horne third on the grid ahead of Yokomo’s Ryan Maifield. It was a tough qualifying for reigning World Champion Spencer Rivkin as he finds himself back in 7th on the grid. In 4WD, Phend wrapped up the overall TQ with his JConcepts shod 22X-4 Elite by topping the times for the opening two qualifiers. Topping Q3, Rivkin will start alongside him with Maifield third, the same order as they finished last year’s ROAR Nationals. In Mod Truck, Ty Tessmann was able to deny Phend a hat trick as the Xray driver secured the overall TQ thanks to quicker time from Q1 compared to Phend’s Q3 performance. Fastest in the second qualifier, Team Associated’s Dustin Evans will start third.
Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]
