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July 31, 2007

RC Pro East Series Rd2 – Race Report

RC Pro East Series Rd2

CEN team driver Gene ‘The Machine’ Hickersen has been in touch and provided us with a report from the 2nd round of the RC Pro East series which was held last weekend at Lake Park in Tampa, Florida.

Drivers came down to sunny FL from as far as North Carolina to compete for the East Coat RC Pro Championship. There was around 145 entries even with a 60% chance of rain. Friday was open practice on the fast and technical layout. JR Mitch was spotted driving his Team Associated RC8 for the 1st time since the ROAR Nationals last month. I drove really bad at the Nationals, as 63rd was by far the worst I have ever done at a National race in my 21 year racing career, so I was thinking about making changes to my car to find some extra speed to get back on pace.

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July 30, 2007

Jaanus Kesküla wins Estonian Nationals

Xray have a report on their site from the recently held Estonian Championship which were run for 1/8th buggy and truggy classes. In qualifying it was Xray driver Jaanus Kesküla that took the top qualifying spot in both classes and in the truggy final he could easily win the event, despite some technical problems late into the race, finishing in front of team mates Marek Männing and Allar Rebane in 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the buggy final it was more of the same for Jaanus who ran away with the event to win from Rando Mere in 2nd and Siim Sildver in 3rd.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

July 28, 2007

Hupo Hönigl is 4wd European Champion

Austrian driver Hupo Hupo Hönigl has just won the 4wd European Electric buggy Championships, run today in Vassa, Finland. The Tamiya driver who was quickest overnight had carried forward his form to claim the event TQ ahead of Richard Taylor in 2nd and 2wd Champion Neil Cragg in 3rd. In the finals it was a great start for Cragg, the Yokomo driver claiming the first win and going on to record two 2nd places as well, but it was still not enough as Hönigl, who had a bad first result with a 4th, got his head down and took the win the in 2nd and 3rd final and with only 2 rounds from the 3 counting, this was enough for the crown. Neil Cragg with his consistent run claimed 2nd spot while JConcepts racer Richard Cree claimed 3rd position, while on the same points as Neumann with the Durango, his 2nd position in the first round meant the decision went in his favour.

Click to see the final standings… content

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