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July 27, 2007

Hupo Hönigl is overnight Pole at 4wd Euros

With the 2wd class at this years Euros in Finland finished, the racers have gotten out their 4wd buggies to go at it for the next title up for grabs, that of 4wd European Champion. As we reported previously, practice for this class started yesterday with Jörn Neumann setting the pace, along with Neil Cragg and Hupo Hönigl and today that was again the case but some did better than others in turning that pace into a result during qualifying. After 3 of 5 rounds of qualifying already completed, and with only 3 counting, it is Austrian Tamiya racer Hupo Hönigl that is in the hot seat claiming a 1st, a 2nd and a 4th postion while in 2nd overnight is Lee Martin, who also has a win and a 4th but had a bad run in the 3rd qualifier and ended with a 19th. In 3rd position is Richard Barton, while Neil Cragg is in 4th and Neumann who has shown pace since 4wd began managed the bag the win in the 3rd final, but poor results in the 1st and 2nd heats sees him down in 10th with some work to do tomorrow to secure his place in the A-final.

Click here to see the overnight top 10… content

July 27, 2007

Cavalieri wins Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout

Team Orion are reporting on last weekends Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout in Saugus, California, which was being held for the 10th year in its history. This race, for most US drivers, is the last big off-road race before Septemers IFMAR off-road electric world championships in Japan, and due to this there was a large presence of top drivers and factory teams. At the end of qualifying, it was Associated driver Ryan Cavalieri who was sitting on the pole position in all 3 modified classes with his Team Orion powered rides and he duly went on to win the first two A mains in the modified truck class to give him his first title of the weekend, the other two classes going down to the 3rd final. In the 4wd Modified A3 Main, Ryan pulled away from the field at the start and never looked back winning by a considerable margin giving Ryan his second championship of the weekend. The last title up for grabs was in the 2wd Modified class in which Ryan drove a very smart race, finishing 2nd and giving him the overall win and his 3rd championship of the weekend.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]

July 26, 2007

Jörn Neumann quickest at 4wd Euros

We received a quick update from the Durango team, who are present at this weeks European Championships in Finland, on todays 4wd practice. Durango team driver Jörn Neumann, who finished 8th in the 2wd class event, set the fastest lap time after 7 rounds of practice just in front of newly crowned 2wd European Champion Neil Cragg, driving the Yokomo BX, while Tamiya driver Hupo Hönigl ended the day with the 3rd quickest lap time. Friday sees final practice and the beginning of qualifying with the final qualfiying rounds and the finals taking place on Saturday.

July 26, 2007

Branham wins US Monster truck Champs

Branham wins US Monster Truck Nats

Xray are reporting on their site from last weekends US Monster truck Championships that were run on the Johnny Cool Guy Raceway in Euless, Texas. Team driver Rocco Margiotta reports on the race:

After a bad start for both Jason and I, Jason put the petal down and pulled away from me and within a couple minutes was battling with McCrary and Battaile for the top spot. The top three guys, including Jason and Mike would switch spots very frequently throughout the rest of the race, until Battaile (running Losi) broke which let McCrary and Branham take off with me in third. McCrary and Branham would swap places a few more times for the rest of the race until Jason pulled away slightly at the end of the race, which resulted in an all XT8 podium!

Read the full report here.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

July 25, 2007

Neil Cragg wins 2wd European Champs

The 2007 European Championships for electric powered buggies are being run in Vaasa, Finland this week and already the 2wd event is history. Qualifying saw a dominant display by current World Champion Neil Cragg, the Associated driver winning all 5 heats to stamp his authority on the event and claim the pole position. The 2nd place went to Hupo Honigl racing a Losi buggy while in 3rd was another Associated, that of Lee Martin. In the finals it was again all about Cragg who won the first 2 finals and with it the crown, but he didnt have it all his own way having been heavily hounded by Lee Martin in final 2, a roll by Martin saw his chance for the win over and the crown go to Cragg. Neil sat out the 3rd final and this allowed Martin to take the win and with it the 2nd place overall, while the last step of the podium went to Honigl in 3rd.

Click here for the final standings… content

July 21, 2007

Robert Batlle is 2007 European Champion

Robert Batlle from Spain has won the 2007 European Championship today in Auxerre, France. Having qualified in pole position, the HoBao Hyper 8.5 driver also won his semi final to line up first for the main final ahead of Spanish Mugen racer Borja Hernandez in 2nd, while Portugese Kyosho driver Miguel Matias lined up 3rd. A big upset ws that reigning European Champion Yannick Aigoin didnt make the final, after a problem in his semi put him out while leading, this meant that no Xrays would be present in the final. The final started badly for Batlle with the Spanish driver down the order as the race commenced, meaning he had to push hard to get on terms, this left Matias and Hernandez battle is out front with French driver Savoya joining in on the mix later on. All the while Batlle’s recovery was relentless, picking off racers throughout the race finally coming up behind leader Savoya and taking the lead in the last minutes. Robert Batlle crossed the line to take the title followed closely by French Mugen racer Renaud Savoya, with another Mugen driver, Borja Hernandez completing the podium in 3rd.

Click here to see the final results… content

July 21, 2007

EP Buggy Euros – oOple coverage

oOple covering EP Buggy Euros

Starting next week, Europes best electric buggy racers collect in the center of Finland, in a place called Vaasa, to battle it out in 2wd and 4wd to be crowned the 2007 European Champion. Drivers have already started arriving and our partners oOple are there too, and combined with his racing Jimmy & wife Vicky will be covering the full event. Fridays report is already online, covering the travel to the event as well as the first impressions of the track.

The track is quite large and all ‘features’ are covered in carpet to give a consistent surface. The largest jump is at a slight angle next to the drivers stand. It’s a large double but with a slight step-down on the back side. Neil and Paul had practiced here a few weeks ago and mentioned that it was easy to over-jump this and certainly the take off ramp (on the left) is huge.

Follow the daily event coverage here.

Source: oOple [oople.com]

July 20, 2007

Batlle TQ’s European Championships

Robert Batlle TQ's European Championships

Todays final day of qualifying at the 1/8th scale TT European Championships in Auxerre France started off wet, with the rain continuing to fall until 9.30am, but by 11.30am however the covers were off and the track was ready to go again. Carrying on his form from the final qualifying round yesterday, HoBao driver Robert Batlle of Spain, racing the new Hyper 8.5, claimed the overall TQ position with 2 more great runs today to put him 1 point ahead of 2nd placed qualifier, current European Champion, Yannick Aigoin. The Xray driver had 2 steady runs to secure his position at the sharp end of the field, well clear of overnight pole man Davide Tortorici of Italy. The Crono driver wasnt able to pixk up his pace in order to hold onto his pole position spot as this position is worth nothing but the bragging rights that comes with it, i’m sure he’s happy with his place in the Semi final and he is still very much in contention for the win. Tomorrow sees more sub finals run as well as the main finals, and we hope to bring you the final results at the end of the day when we get them.

Click more to see the semi finalists… content