Red RC » R Off Road

August 7, 2017

10 years at the top – Batlle wins in Sweden 10-years on from 1st Euro title

Robert Batlle is the 2017 1:8 Offroad European Champion. Ten year after winning his first title, the Mugen driver delivered a dominant race performance at the Gröndal Ring in Sweden to claim his third & most important Euros win. Top Qualifier for the race Batlle would win his Semi to start from pole and after some early errors in the 45-minute final, returned to the front from where he pulled away from a thrilling second place battle. Having taken the early lead until a mistake, Swedish hero David Ronnefalk would duel it out with defending champion Elliott Boots and rising star Davide Ongaro. A hard fought battle, Ongaro would come out on top to claim his first Euros podium finish with 2nd. With high expectations for his home race, Ronnefalk would take some consolation from completing the podium in Eskilstuna having to work hard to stay ahead of Boots. Setting the fastest lap of the race, Boots’ quest for a third title in a row would disappear in the pits with the British driver suffering flameouts on two of his fuel stops.

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August 7, 2017

Jemison & Orlowski win at oOple Invernational 17

This past weekend was the annual event of the oOple Invernational at the brilliant Robin Hood Raceway venue. A fantastic entry of 191 competitors across the various classes was superb to see. The format for the event was four rounds of qualifying by round by round, with the best two to count. Then followed by three leg finals for everyone. In 2WD it was very close throughout qualifying as the three star drivers were Michal Orlowski, Ben Jemison and Craig Collinson. Each of these three drivers TQ’d a round each, so it was all down to the 4th and final round of qualifying. Ben Jemison dominated this round so therfore would line up on pole position for the A-finals. Ultimately it was TQ holder Ben Jemison (Schumacher) who laid down a dominant performance in the triple A-mains to take the title from Team C’s Craig Collinson in 2nd and Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski 3rd.

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August 7, 2017

Jiri Benes wins Czech Senior Race

The popular 1/8th off-road Senior Race was held at the Horni Jeleni track in the Czech Republic. The organising club did its best to prepare a nice track after the Friday morning before the race was rained out. In the premier class of 1/8th Nitro Buggy it was Xray’s Jiri Benes with the TQ and win from Karel Hajek (Xray) and Jaroslav Valder (Xray) in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

View the final results here

August 5, 2017

Batlle on pole for 37th Euros

Robert Batlle will lead away the 13 drivers that will battle it out in Sweden to become Champion of the 37th running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships. The Top Qualifier won his Semi with the faster time of the two encounters with David Ronnefalk recovering from a bad start to win the other, just 1-second of a difference in their winning times after the 20-minute races. Keeping Batlle honest in the early part of the race and leading the Spaniard for a time before a costly mistake, Davide Ongaro would finish second to secure fourth on the grid. Behind Ronnefalk, reigning champion Elliott Boots having had a very comfortable lead early on over fellow Brit Darren Bloomfield would finish second with a difficult car to start his quest for a third title in a row from 3rd. Behind the Top 4, João Figueiredo will start 5th with former champion Bloomfield lining up 6th making it five different manufacturers in the top half of the grid.

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August 4, 2017

Batlle Top Qualifier in Sweden

Robert Batlle is Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Sweden, the Mugen driver producing a blistering final qualifier to leave his rivals stunned and deny World Champion David Ronnefalk a home TQ. Having started out yesterday unable to match Ronnefalk and reigning champion Elliott Boots, the 2-time former champion found his rhythm on Day 2 of qualifying topping both qualifiers to claim only his second ever Euros TQ, the last one being 10 years ago when he took his first title. With a TQ run in Q3, Ronnefalk would end up second to secure pole for the second of the Semi finals in which Boots, who took Q1, will start directly behind him. Fastest in the second qualifier, Davide Ongaro ended up 3rd overall and the Italian star will follow Batlle off the line in the first of the 20-min Semi finals. Former Champion Darren Bloomfield joins them while Riccardo Berton will complete the Top 3 starting line-up for the Semi B encounter.

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August 4, 2017

Karri Salmela doubles at Finnish EP Buggy Nats Rd4

Round 4 of the Finnish 1/10th Electric Buggy Nationals was held in Vantaa in sunny weather conditions. As the track wasn’t watered, the grip changed a lot during the day with the mornings offering high grip whereas the track got slipper over the day. This caught out Xray’s Joel Valander a bit as he was able to secure a round TQ in 2WD but he struggled with his driving over the day so it was Team Associated’s Karri Salmela who brought home the TQ and win with Joel in 2nd. Konsta Saarinen (Xray) would round out the top 3 result.

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August 3, 2017

Ronnefalk delivers in Q3 to hold overnight TQ in Sweden

Having thrown away potential TQ runs in the opening qualifiers, top seed David Ronnefalk finally delivered on his third attempt as Day 3 of the European Championship in Sweden comes to a close. Second fastest in Q1 & 2, the HB Racing driver would run the fastest time of the day in his third qualifier finishing 3-seconds up on Q2 pace setter Davide Ongaro. A further 2-seconds off, Mugen’s Robert Batlle would break into the Top 3 for the first time having thrown away competitive runs with mistakes on the last lap of both previous qualifiers. Unable to translate his strong showing in controlled practice yesterday into a competitive time in the first two qualifiers, Carlos Durães came good for the end of day run setting the 4th fastest time ahead Q1 top qualifier Elliott Boots.

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August 3, 2017

Ongaro takes second qualifier in Sweden

Davide Ongaro delivered a TQ run in the second round of qualifying at the Euros in Sweden, the Team Associated driver going fastest from top seed David Ronnefalk. Third fastest in the opening qualifier, the Italian would have a 1.5 second advantage over Ronnefalk, the HB Racing star again suffering costly mistakes over the 5-minutes. After almost a 5-hour wait between Q1 and the second of the day’s three qualifiers, Kyosho’s Riccardo Berton would complete the Top 3 as team-mate Elliott Boots had a tough round. The reigning champion would end up 13th fastest after ‘loads of crashes’ with the Q1 Top Qualifier putting part of his struggle down to tyres saying, ‘they worked this morning but not now’. Having opened qualifier with a P4, Mugen’s Juan Carlos Canas wouldn’t have a good Q2 getting a drive through penalty for stopping on track as he tried to allow a gap between himself and Ronnefalk at the start.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.