The Master of Europe is a new 1/8th off-road championship for 2020, uniting some the of the largest events on European soil. Races such as next week’s Montpellier GP, the DXR Dirt Kings, Euro Contest, Buggyland and IBR Winter Cup all count towards the overall standings, with no drop-outs, keeping the excitement up until the very last race. Full details can be found on the championship’s official website here and on social media here and here.
Round 4 of the Xray Racing Series Slovakia was held at the Hudy Racing Arena in Trencin, Slovakia last weekend, attracting both local talent and also guests from abroad, such as IFMAR World Champion, Bruno Coelho from Portugal. In the premier on-road class of Touring Modified it was Martin Hudy with the win on home soil as Oliver Havranek and Michal Wojcik came in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
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The fourth round of the X-Factory UK Winter Series took place last Saturday, with everyone keen to blow off the cobwebs after the break over Christmas and New Year. A very technical track was laid down for the racers and after all four rounds of qualifying had completed it was Kevin Hunt (Team Associated) who would take the TQ in the 2WD class with his round 3 time, followed by Alex Haywood (Team Associated) in 2nd who narrowly missed out on TQ after a costly roll on the last lap in round 4 whilst flashing for a new fastest time, Joe Renton (Team Associated) completed the AE 1-2-3 for qualifying in 3rd. Simon Hadley (Xray) was in 4th, Lex Cllrke (Xray) in 5th and Richard Miller (Yokomo) in 6th, the remaining A-final spots would be decided as usual via the bump-ups and those who would promote from the B.final.
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The 2020 Northwest Model Hobby Expo Off-Road Carpet Championship was held at Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington last weekend, drawing nearly 250 entries for the various Modified and Stock electric off-road classes offered. In the premier 2WD Mod Buggy class it was TLR driver, Mikey Brown with the overall TQ from Brady Janson in 2nd and Team Associated’s Jonathan Cantrell in 3rd. Mike would only finish in 5th place in A1, however he would make up for it in A2 and A3 to bring home the overall from Brady in 2nd. A1 winner, Jonathan would have to settle for 3rd overall in the tie-breaker with Brady.
Thunder Alley Raceway of Beaumont, California played host to round 1 of the Grassroots Racing Series this past weekend. The event draw nearly 180 entries and in Open Nitro Buggy it was Mugen’s Adam Drake with the overall TQ and win. TLR’s Cole Jenson came in 2nd in the 15-minute A-main event, some two laps down as HB Racing’s Marcus Garret ended the day on the 3 spot, 5.7 seconds behind Cole. Over in Open E-Buggy it was again Adam with the overall TQ and win as Cole Jenson and Mitchell Taylor came in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Image: Adam Drake
Maclan Racing have announced the signing of former IFMAR 1/8th Nitro Buggy World Champion, Robert Batlle to their factory racing team. Robert will be using Maclan electronics for his 2020 race program that will include all major European electric 1/8th scale events.
Source: Maclan Racing [maclan-racing.com]
This past weekend was the fifth round of the very popular Worksop Series, there was once again a great entry of drivers in the main classes of 2WD and 4WD buggies, then some 2WD stadium trucks and vintage buggies also. As always it was round by round qualifying as the racing format, with the best 2 results from 4 rounds of qualifying counting towards the final position. The control tyre in the buggy classes is the Schumacher Yellow Honeycomb, this works superbly well at Worksop. Qualifying in 2WD saw a dominating performance by Neil Cragg, taking TQ in 3 out of the 4 rounds to take pole position from Richard Lowe and Tommy Hall. In 4WD it was a similar story with Neil Cragg taking TQ, ahead of Greg Williams and Tommy Hall, who lined up second and third respectively. The 2WD stadium truck class saw Joe Cockill take pole ahead of Abe Lyons and Alex Callan. The Vintage classes had Rob Fox leading the way in 4WD and Steven Pierce in 2WD.
Ryan Maifield has claimed the Reedy Offroad Race of Champions title for a second time, the Yokomo driver becoming the 7th driver in the famed race’s history to become a multiple champion. While Maifield would set out his stall early in the event and leading the points at the end of each day, the 26th running of the event would go down to the 12th & final round of racing with Spencer Rivkin in with a stab at his first win. Needing to win the final round to keep the pressure on Maifield to perform, the World Champion was held at bay by CJ Jelin meaning Maifield’s final result didn’t matter but after a 5-year wait he wanted to regain his title in true champion style clocking up win No.6 of the weekend. Coming away with his best Reedy Race finish, Rivkin would end the event 4-points down on Maifield with the podium completed by Ryan Cavalieri who wrapped up the 2020 event with a win in the 36th & final heads up race. Maifield’s closest challenger at the completion of 4WD, former champion Dakotah Phend would claim fourth ahead of Broc Champlin, the teenager putting in some very strong showings against the establishment. For last year’s champion Jared Tebo, what had the potential to be a good day didn’t turn out that way and he dropped to 7th behind Ty Tessmann in the final standings having started the day in a fighting second.
Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.
