The Picco Cup was held this past weekend at the Roma Cross Village track in Italy. The event attracted some of Italy’s fastest off-road drivers to compete against several guests from abroad and ultimately Mugen’s Marco Natale came out successful in the 1/8th E-Buggy class, taking the win from Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro on the runner-up spot.
Source: Mugen Seiki [mugen.eu]
A round of the Czech Open series was held at the Horni Jeleni track recently. Xray’s Max Gotzl would hold the TQ until the third round when in the fourth and final qualifier Xray team mate Kaja Novotny, who struggled in the opening rounds, out-qualified him for the overall TQ. In the semifinals Kaja secured himself the pole position for the A-main and on lap three a small mishap of Kaja allowed Max to take the lead that he would extend after the first pit stop. About mid-race rain started to fall which made conditions tricky. Max lost some ground but ultimately he was able to bring home the win from Kaja, who had to make an additional fuel stop, in 2nd while Ales Bidovsky (Xray) had to settle for 3rd overall.
Korean company Highest has announced the signing of multi-times European Champion, Jörn Neumann to their team. The Serpent factory driver will use Highest servos in all of his rides and he has the following to say about the deal:
I am very thankful to be a part of the Highest team. The performance and design of their servos are incredibly good. I am looking forward to use them in all my cars. Thank you again for getting me on the team.
Source: Highest [highestrc.com]
Schumacher Racing and the Euro Offroad Series have extended their partnership for the 2017/18 season. After two successful seasons using the Schumacher Minipin, the EOS, and also the Mibosport Cup, will move to a new Schumacher tyre, called the Cactus, for next season. The Cactus has been specially developed for EOS style carpet and offers improved driving feel, faster lap times, and longer life. It has been extensively tested on both new and well worn carpets and should be a popular control tyre choice for 1/10th off road carpet racing next winter. The tyre will become available in August and more details will follow soon.
The recent NOOB race in Singapore was once again held on a loose dirt track, making for completely different traction conditions after the previous day’s Urban Astro Buggy Champs held on astro turf. Xray’s Kum Yew secured the TQ honours while teammate, Dennis Chiang would line up on the 2 spot on the grid. In the finals, Kum Yew got off to a bumpy start when a collision at the new step down feature dropped him down the field. Mark Lim capitalised to take the lead, with Danny Png in 2nd and Dennis in 3rd. With Kum Yew suffering a DNF, the race finished in that order. In leg 2, while Kum Yew led off the start, he lost the lead to teammate Dennis after a coming together with a back-marker. Calm and measured driving saw Kum Yew regain the lead from Dennis that he would hold onto for the win. This set up an exciting showdown for the final leg with three drivers still in contention for the overall win. After a clean start, the pair of Kum Yew and Dennis led the field around. With growing confidence, Kum Yew put in consistent laps to pull away from the field. However, traffic at the tight step down feature caught Kum Yew out once again and allowed the chasing pack to close in on him. Kum Yew once again dug deep and managed to complete the rest of the final mistake-free to win leg 3 and secure a hard-fought overall win. Dennis recovered from a rough final to finish overall 2nd, while Mark Lim was overall 3rd.
The recent Quebec Indoor Nationals saw Mark Sousa walking away with the double title after coming out fastest in both the Pro Buggy and Pro Truggy classes. Eric Deschenes came in 2nd in the Buggy class while Sam Langer completed the top 3 result. In the Pro Truggy category Mark was sidelined by 2nd placed Eric Deschenes while Carl Boulaire had to settle for 3rd overall.
The recent Race for Autism was held in Madera Acres, California in several nitro and electric 1/8th scale classes. In Pro Nitro Buggy it was CJ Jelin who took the TQ and he would also set the fastest time in Nitro Truggy. In the Pro Nitro Buggy main CJ Jelin (Xray) lead from tone to tone with only a couple mistakes to grab the win from Xray teammate Tyler Vik. Kyosho’s Ryan Kenny completed the top 3 podium result.
Continue reading the report here
The opening round of the Swedish 1/10th Electric Off-road Nationals was recently held at the Green Hill track in Stockholm. The weather was quite cold and windy but a good turnout of racers made for fun and tight racing. The qualifying was a 3-horse race between Team Associated’s Elias Johansson, Wilhelm Sköldebrand and Niclas Månsson, the later ending up taking the overall TQ. In the opening A-main, Elias Johansson was able to grab the win after having a mixed first part of the leg but with about 50 seconds on the clock the leader made a mistake which promoted Elias into the lead. A2 again saw the leader making a mistake, this time at about halftime. Elias would benefit and he was able to bring home the win and with it the overall victory from Niclas Månsson 2nd and Wilhelm Sköldebrand 3rd.
Thanks to Elias Johansson for the report.
