HB Europe have announced the addition of former European Champion and multiple Portuguese National Champion, Miguel Matias to their team. The former Xray driver recently left the team after being with the Slovakian manufacturer since 2014. It is understood that Miguel will attend both national and international 1/8th off-road events with HB’s range of vehicles.
Source: HB Europe [hbeurope.com]
This past weekend, the 2016 Dirt Nitro Challenge was once again held at The Fear Farm in Goodyear, Arizona. Joey and The Dirt track crew did an amazing job on the track build for this years event and it was a big hit with all the drivers. Kenny Brosh and Jimmy Babcock did another great job keeping the race program moving silky smooth all weekend long and with the total 1/8th race entries being limited to 600 this year, the event went off without a hitch and was very well received by all the racers. On Saturday night, the 30-Minute Expert Nitro Truggy A-Main event would be run. Kyosho America’s Colin Herzig would start 3rd on the grid and as the dust settled after the 30-Minute A-main, it was Herzig taking the impressive win by just under 1 second ahead of TQ holder CJ Jelin (HB). Victor Guerrero (HB) would go onto finish 3rd on the podium.
The Polish Benek Cup in Poland, considered to be one of the most popular races in the country, was recently held in the city of Lodz. Ales Bayer would be in control of things in the 2WD and 4WD Buggy classes as he not only TQ’d both categories but he also took the overall wins. In 4WD Szymon Luczak and Siwy Luczak would come in second and third respectively while the 2WD podium was completed by Wojciech Rzepecki and Sebastian Migal.
The recent third round of the Swiss Islikon Masters attracted a total of 100 drivers to compete in several electric classes including 2WD and 4WD Buggy. Xray’s Nico Schmid made a clean sweep both in the 2WD and 4WD Buggy classes by taking the TQs and wins to round out a perfect weekend. Second in 2WD was Team Durango driver Philipp Huber from Florian Schmid (Xray) in third.
French company RC Concept have announced the signing of Yokomo’s Tom Cockerill to their team for 2016. The UK frontrunner and 2015 IFMAR Worlds finalist will bring his speed and knowledge to the company and he joins swift team mates such as the recently announced Lee Martin and Reno Savoya.
Source: RC Concepts [rcconcept.net]
The recent opening round of the Australian Off-road Nationals in Tasmania saw the running of a Junior race on Saturday. Aaron Dexter would take the win in the Buggy class, coming from 13th on the reversed grid. He had a tough start into the main as he got bumped off the track but with 10 minutes to go he found himself battling for the lead. Suddenly Mitchell Steer, who was in the lead at that time, had a flame out when he came in for fuel. That placed Aaron first until he clipped the rope and crashed. That put Mitchell back into the lead but Aaron was able to apply pressure on him. On the second last lap, Mitchell crashed twice and Aaron managed to get a good enough gap to win and to be crowned the Australian Junior National Champion.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
The inaugural Trofeo PGRacing was held at the Le Pescine off-road track in Tuscany, Italy over the weekend. The event attracted both local talent and internationally experienced drivers such as Elliott Boots, Alex Zanchettin and others to race in several 1/8th off-road categories. The start of the Expert class A-main saw Davide Tortorici, Alex Zanchettin and Elliott Boots breaking away from the field early. Elliott tried to pass Alex which cost both a bit of time, allowing Davide to gap both. Once Elliott passed Alex he got his head down, beginning to chase Davide. Some 10 minutes into the race Boots finally found a way past the leader and he never looked back. Finding a good rhythm and not making any mistakes allowed Elliott to finally take the win despite some minor issues during the 45 minute A-main, such as not having track lights for around 5 minutes. Thankfully the track guys were able to light things up again and at the end Fabrizio Teghesi (Kyosho) and Alex Zanchettin (TLR) would complete the top 3 result behind winner Elliott Boots (Kyosho).
Source: Elliott Boots | Image: David Menichetti
For the second race of the Super Cup series racers headed South to the Coral Springs RC Track. The second round had 234 entries, another great turnout and even with Friday’s practice only going to 5pm, the day had a very large turnout of racers getting ready for Saturday’s event. On Saturday morning, registration went pretty smoothly and things kicked off right at 9:30am. A slightly damp but packed track greeted the morning qualifiers but with the sun shining throughout the day the track started drying and grooving up quickly.
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