With the start of the 2016 off-road season in the Philippines this recent February, drivers were eager to get some laps under their belts before the annual pre-summer track renovations. The season started with Raffy Abello mounting back-to-back wins, continuing a streak that started in 2015. Raffy dominated and finished a lap ahead of the competition in the first and second rounds.
Source: Team Associated [teamassociated.com]
Hot Race Tyres have announced the signing of Germany’s Kim Einert to their team. The young lady will use the company’s tyres in her upcoming campaign that will include attendances at the National Championships, the Euros in Spain as well as the NeoRace in the UK.
Source: Hot Race Tyres [hotracetyres.com]
The Euro Offroad Series is set to finish where it started with the organisers forced to find a replacement venue for the fourth & final round in Austria after issues arose regarding the preparations of the temporary Mattsee venue. Having opened Season #5 with a very popular first visit to the famous Nurburgring racing circuit last September, the EOS will now return to the German venue where the 4WD Buggy Champion will be crowned. Able to retain the original April 29 – May 1 date, the season finale perfectly coincides with Round 2 of the the full size VLN Endurance Championship which will host a 4-hour race on the legendary 20.8km Nordschleife circuit.
Continue reading the announcement here
The annual Chi-Towin Shootout was held this past weekend at Leisure Hours Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. As usual the event attracted both local talent as well as nationally and internationally experienced racers, such as Ty Tessmann, Travis Amezcua, JP Richards and others. In the premier 2WD Modified Buggy class HB/HPI’s Ty Tessmann would take the win in the A-main some four seconds in front of Cole Tollard (Team Associated) and Corey Liebherr (Team Associated). The 4WD Modified Buggy class then again saw Ty taking the win, this time in front of JP Richards (Team Durango) with Brad Shearer rounding out the top 3 result.
View the 4WD Modified Buggy podium here
The opening round of the Spanish 1/8th E-Buggy National Championship was held this past weekend at the RBR36 Arena in Barcelona. Home soil for Robert and Dani Batlle the event would see the two brothers in a fight for the overall win. Dani Batlle (Mugen/Hobbywing) held the upper hand after the qualifiers when he was tie on points with Robert Batlle (Mugen/LRP) and a better tie-breaker handed him the pole position for the triple 10-minute A-mains. Robert though would strike back by taking A1 and A2 in style to grab the overall win early. With a second place in A1 and a win in A3 Bryan Baldo (Mugen/LRP) would secure himself the runner-up spot in front of Dani Batlle who scored two third places. Oscar Baldo (Mugen/LRP), coming from the 7 spot on the grid, would round the “family affair” top 4.
Source: InfoRC [inforc.net]
Last weekend saw Singapore holding its first ever Offroad Indoor Carpet Event – aptly named ICE – at the nation’s famous Science Centre. Over 60 racers signed in for the three classes of 2WD Open, 4WD Open and a Junior under-12 race. The event was run on a custom-built carpet track and saw all racers running on the new track with a new layout on new tires for the first time. These conditions, coupled with a strict no-additive rule, made for an incredibly fair and exciting race. The 2WD Open Buggy practice and qualifying saw racers clocking faster laptimes with every round as setups were tuned and the handout Sweep Nonslip tyres started to groove in and generate more grip. Topping the table on 2 of the 3 qualifying runs, Mark Lim would take a convincing TQ position with Vincent Yong in second and Jeremy Hong qualifying third.
Continue reading the report here
The King of Whiteman race was held at the MORBC track in Perth, Australia, on their newly refurbished clay surface track. The one day race meeting had three qualifiers and A/B/C finals with 30 minute mains. The Nitro Buggy A-main had Kyle Francis (Tekno) having a great start, as he passed the leader on the opening lap but a collision let him drop back to 7th. He then played catchup for the next 20 minutes and ultimately managed to close on the leading group of Josh Pain (SWorkz) and Steve Smith (Mugen). At the 24 minute mark Kyle was able to take the lead and at the end he took the win some 9 seconds in front of Josh. Steve would round out the podium in third. The 30 minute Truggy main again saw Kyle Francis (Tekno) running into trouble on the opening lap, that let him drop to 7th. Up front Aaron Dexter (Xray) and Fabio Silvi (SWorkz) battled for the lead but on lap 12 Kyle got into front and never looked back. Behind him Aaron and Dexter were in a fight for the runner-up spot and ultimately Aaron would come out successful when Fabio crashed his truck on the final lap. This allows Aaron to take the second place behind Kyle while Fabio had to settle for third.
Source: Tekno [teknorc.com]
The fifth round of the Slovakia Cup was held at the iconic Hudy Racing Arena in Trencin. The event saw the running of several electric on-road and off-road classes and it not only attracted some of the country’s fastest drivers but also guests from Austria and Germany. The Touring Modified class was won by Xray’s own Martin Hudy from team mate Patrick Gollner. Capricorn driver Zdeno Kunak rounded out the top 3 after the A-mains.
Continue reading the report here
