June 4, 2008

Turkish Circuit Nationals Rd1

Turkish Circuit Nationals Rd1

We received a report from the opening round of the Turkish Nationals that was run on the beautiful track of Bursa last weekend. The Nationals are held for 3 classes – 1/8th, 1/10th Nitro Touring and 1/10th EP Touring and with Friday open for practice it meant that all drivers had plenty of time to test their cars. Lights were on all night and so practice started from 9:00am and lasted till 1:00am Saturday morning. The race schedule saw seeding and qualifiers on Saturday and Finals on Sunday. All three days bright and warm and the only problem was the big change in atmospheric pressure due to time, mountains etc. This challenged the nitro racers to find the right carb settings.

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June 4, 2008

Atsushi Hara confirmed at Team Orion

2008 Reedy Race of Champions

As we suspected back at the Worlds warmup, Team Orion have announced the return of one it’s all time favourite drivers, 2008 Reedy Race of Champions winner Atsushi Hara. Atsushi has had a long history and many victories with Team Orion over the years and after a little break joining Team Checkpoint, they are very pleased to welcome him back to their World Champion Team. “It feels like I am returning home”Atsushi commented on his recent visit to Team Orion USA. With Atsushi’s amazing skill combined with Team Orion’s new BL motors , ESC’s, chargers, as well as their award winning line of performance batteries, they see a bright future ahead together.

Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]


June 4, 2008

Ström & Christensen Nordic Champions

Ström & Christensen Nordic Champions 08

We received this report from last weekends battle for the Nordic Championship in 1/8th and 1/10th 200mm that took place in Hillerod, Denmark. The Nordics is a yearly competition where drivers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland meet to race for the glory of being the Nordic Champion. Saturday saw 5 qualifying rounds completed in very nice, sunny and warm weather. In the 1/8th scale class it was Shephard driver Martin Christensen (DK) who set the pace and made the TQ spot before the Kyosho trio Marcus Lindner (SE), Niklas Johansson (SE) and Roland Ström (SE). In the 1/10th 200mm class it was Martin Lissau (DK) who TQ’d followed by Helge Johannessen (NO), Martin Christensen (DK) and young Norwegian drivers Adrian Berntsen, all driving the Xray NT1.

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June 3, 2008

Marco Müller wins Rd2 Swiss 1/8th Nats

Marco Müller wins Rd2 Swiss 1/8th Nats

Last weekend saw the 2nd round of the Swiss 1/8th scale National Championships run in the west of the country in the town of Aigle. Qualifying saw the pole position go to Serpent racer Shasa Lackner, ahead of Novarossi team mate Marco Müller in 2nd, with Christophe Pethoud and Mattia Pesenti rounding out the top 4. At the start of the Final Shasa jumped straight into lead and started to pull away from Müller in 2nd place. Unfortunately for Lackner at the 35 minute mark he developed radio problems which caused him to crash his car, putting him out of the race. After this is was easy for Müller, who took the win ahead of Pesenti in 2nd while Andy Geisser claimed 3rd.

Source: Novarossi [novarossi.com]


June 3, 2008

Connolly dominates Irish Nationals Rd3

Connolly dominates Irish Nationals Rd3

Clive Connolly put the disappointment off just missing out on making the Main Final at the Euro Bs in Austria last weekend behind him when he took a clean sweep of wins in the latest round of the Irish National On road Championships on Sunday. The Team Serpent Ireland driver completely dominated 1:8 taking the TQ with his IDM powered 960 before going on to take the win from the Kyosho of Austin Elliot. Youngster Sean Doyle completed the top 3 at the St. Annes track with his first podium finish of the season. In the 1:10 200mm, championship leader Eoin Doran took the TQ with his Xray NT1 with Connolly’s Serpent 720 lining up second on the grid for the half hour final. The pair enjoyed a great battle for the lead for the first half of the race until Doran ran out of fuel as he entered the pit lane for a scheduled stop. The time lost in restarting Doran’s car was enough to give Connolly the break he needed to take his first 200mm win of the season. Chris Lawlor completed the podium with his Serpent 720.

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June 3, 2008

Bart Wubben wins Dutch EP TC Nats Rd2

Bart Wubben wins Dutch EP TC Nats Rd2

The 2nd round of the Dutch electric touring car Nationals were run last weekend at the HFCC track in The Hague. Saturday’s practice was run in dry conditions but on Sunday rain interrupted the qualifying causing round 2 of qualifying to be cancelled, leaving the racers on 2 rounds to get their fastest time in. Following the heats it was Serpent racer Bart Wubben that was on pole position in Modified, some 6 seconds in front of team mate Rob Jansen in 2nd, with Tamiya driver Arjen Potharst and Serpent driver Rene Cornella in 3rd and 4th respectively. The finals saw Bart and Rob pull away in leg 1 to claim to top 2 positions, while in the 2nd leg it was a repeat of Leg 1 at the front with Bart winning to take the overall ahead of Rob who claimed 2nd overall and Stefan Jansen taking the final spot on the podium in 3rd. In the stock class it was ETS Holland pole man Vasco Christiaanse that took the win for Kyosho ahead of 2nd place Michael Lepelaar driving a Tamiya, while Ronald Arts rounded out the podium for Serpent in 3rd.

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June 2, 2008

Rick V wins Dutch 8th Nats Rd3

Rick V wins Dutch 8th Nats Rd3

The 3rd round of the 1/8th scale on road Nationals took place at the weekend on the very fast Baanbrekers in Rucphen. The day started on a somber note with a 1 minute silence to remember Belgian racer Koen Joosens and a well known Dutch driver Raymond Soyer who was killed recently during his job as a fireman. Qualification on Sunday started on a wet track and only the 3rd run of heats saw dry track conditions, making this by far the fastest round. Only John Ermen was able to set a 23 lap qualification on his home track to take the pole position for the NK class while in the Nomac class Ronald van den Bergh was able to get the better of Jordy Blok to take the pole position. In the NK final John Ermen was the fastest man on the track but due to continued interference occuring in the same corner on the track he lost losts of time and could manage to take the 3rd place. The win went to round 2 winner Rick V racing a Mugen, 1 lap ahead of Kyosho driver Ilia Van Gastel in 2nd, with Serpent racer John Ermen a lap further back. In the NOMAC group it was Jordy Block that took the win, ending with an even faster time than Rick V who won the NK group. The Serpent driver took the win by 6 laps from 2nd placed Tim Bosman, while Jeroen Janken claimed the 3rd spot.

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June 2, 2008

EFRA Newsletter regarding copied bodies

Central Lola body shell

EFRA were in contact regarding an incident that occured during the 1/8th scale European ‘B’ Championships which were held 2 weekends ago in Kirchberg Austria. The incident in question revolved around the discovery of a number of copies of the very popular Central Lola body shell that were being used by some competitors at the race who had unwittingly bought them at the trackside shop. This shells were pretty close to an exact copy and even carried the same EFRA homologation number as the original Cental shell. EFRA has ruled that these copies are illegal and are currently looking into taking further action agains the manufacturer.

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