The 2013 Grand Prix de Pierrefeu had Agama’s Jerome Sartel taking the win from Guillaume Herbert (Agama) in a difficult final, darkness, dust and windy conditions made for hard times for the drivers and spectators. Jerome finished one lap ahead of Guillaume with the Mugen triple of Tom Robin, Tony Robin and Nicolas Vouilloz completing the top 6.
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The 2013 C-Netic Challenge took place at the Wiyung International Buggy Track in Surabaya, Indonesia this past weekend. The track is probably one of the most brutal known to off-road racing with its banked and curved jump sections, lap times in the 50’s and the hard, abrasive surface that is reminiscent of the one drivers faced at the 2010 Buggy Worlds in Thailand. Beside the attendance of many Asian hot shots the “International R/C Buggy Championship” also had a good amount of foreign drivers to offer such as Kyle McBride who lead the Australian delegation, Jared Tebo from the U.S., Teemu Leino, Renaud Savoya, Joseph Quagraine and Robert Batlle who came over from Europe while Atsushi Hara and Yuichi Kanai flew over representing Japan with the latter three being current or past 1/8 Buggy World Champions underlining the international flair of the event.
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The 4th annual Indoor Dirt Race took place in Edling/Wasserburg. Contrary to its name the race is one of the biggest indoor carpet races in Germany with a record entry of 152 racers in four classes. The crew around Bernhard “Dirty B” Bachmann created a very challenging track and the new carpet made for very high traction. Friday saw some group practice followed by two rounds of times practice on Saturday morning. Next up were three rounds of heat qualifying with the final chance to get into the desired A-main was on Sunday morning with the last round of qualifying followed by triple mains. After the timed practice the groups were reseeded based on the two fastest consecutive laps. In 2WD Buggy, Oli Scholz with his Team C TM2 was fastest followed by EOS Rd1 winner Hupo Hönigl who had Markus Metsch, Patrick Hofer and Benni Gröschel in tow. In the 4WD class Scholz was in front again but challenged by Benny Gröschel, Hupo Hönigl, Patrick Hofer and Markus Metsch.
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The final race of the 2013 Short Course Showdown Nationwide Tour was hosted by HobbyTown USA HobbyPLEX Raceway in Omaha, Nebraska. JConcepts’ Dave Duncan made the trip from Florida, he arrived on Thursday afternoon as the track crew was putting on its finishing touches on the fresh new layout. Friday practice was very busy with lots of racers dialling in their trucks for the weekends event. As the day progressed, the groove developed and lap times got faster and faster. The format was to run 3 rounds of qualifying on Saturday and main events on Sunday. It was announced just before Round 1 started on Saturday that there would be a 4th round of qualifying on Sunday morning giving some drivers one more chance to make the show. After 3 rounds of qualifying were done Saturday evening, Dave Duncan secured the TQ spot in Stock Short Course. Scott Brown and John Walentia were sitting second and third in the Modified 2WD SCT class.
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Following last weekend’s EFRA AGM in Zagreb, the European governing body have announced the (provisional) dates for next year’s European Championships with the 1/10 IC Track Euro date still needs to be finalised. A busy summer season with 3 ‘B’ championships, a 1/8th flat chassis Euros and 2 40+ titles along with the usual ‘A’ titles up for grabs. Full AGM details can be found here.
March 20-23 – 1/12th scale Euros – Scandiano, Italy
May 5-10 – 1/10th on road ‘B’ Euros – Madrid, Spain
May 26-31 – 1/8th on road ‘B’ Euros – Bologna, Italy
June 6-8 – 1/8th off road ‘B’ Euros – Madrid, Spain
July 11-13 – 1/8th off road 40+ Euros – Fehring, Austria
July 14-19 – 1/10th EP off road Euros – Trelleborg, Sweden
July 21-26 – 1/8th on road ‘A’ Euros – Kirchberg, Austria
July 31 – August 3 – 1/10th EP on road Euros – Madrid, Spain
August 1-2 – 1/8th on road Flat chassis Euros – Gubbio, Italy
August 4-9 – 1/8th off road ‘A’ Euros – Sand am Main, Germany
August 11-16 – 1/10th on road ‘A’ Euros – Autet, Spain
August 18-23 – 1/8th & 1/10th on road 40+ Euros – Ruphen, Netherlands
View the full calendar here (XLS).
Viper R/C announce the latest addition to their team in the form of Chinese pro level driver Le-Hua Lin who recently secured a podium spot in the 4WD buggy class at the 2013 FEMCA championships. This is what Le-Hua has to say about the deal:
I am very proud to be part of Team Viper in the coming 2014 season. I will do my best to race in every event, and to support more Viper customers in local market. In the 2013 FEMCA race in Taiwan, I had my first hands-on experience with Viper products. I was extremely surprised and satisfied with the performance of VTX10R ESC as it was able to run 4WD buggy without a cooling fan. The first impression of driving VTX10R was its powerful output, and yet still so smooth in corners. It provides much more performance that allows me to attack the track aggressively. The throttle control gave me perfect balance to clear all technical jumps. The lap times dropped by a full second compared to my old ESC. I appreciate very much for this opportunity from Viper R/C.
Source: Viper [viper-rc.com]
Florida’s best racers made their way to Bashers RC Raceway in Palm Beach Gardens for the second round of the fall session. Many came early for practice and a club race on Friday. It was poised to be a great weekend with a feel of electricity in the air. 138 entries would fill the 20 heats to seed racers in the top qualifying spots. Stock 2WD buggy had JConcepts Team Driver Riker Gatenby on top of the field of 23 to a time of 20/5:12.692. Seven drivers would start the C-main for 2 bump spots to the B. After changing positions many times Nate Adair and Matt Bradford Jr., were able to hold off a hard charge from Ron Viesins to the B-main. Brian Buckley lead every lap of the B-main, but the show was put on by Matt Bradford Sr. Matt started in the 2 spot but fell to 7th after a multi-car pile-up on lap 2. Rich Schafer and Robert Molina would be back and forth for the final bump spot for many laps all while Matt was working his way back though the field racing clean and consistent laps. On lap 11 Matt made his final pass of the B-main into 2nd and the final bump spot. As the tone sounded for the 10 racers of the A-main, Riker set sail and never looked back. Glenn Worthington finished 2nd with Billy Bruce 3rd, Rick Jacobs in 4th and Jovan Cruz 5th.
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Maximus RC Raceway located in York, Maine hosted the 2nd Annual Team Durango North East Indoor Championships. JConcepts’ Mike Wilder qualified 4th on the grid for the highly contested Mod Short Course class. He made his way to the front fairly quick during the main and after a late race battle with Matt Olson, Wilder was able to take the overall victory.
Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]
