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July 31, 2008

Euros 1/10th – Practice update

Jilles Groskamp

Drivers have had their first official practice run at the 2008 EFRA Euros here in Vila Real with most drivers reporting an incident free run. Jilles Groskamp suffered the biggest drama of the morning when he lost a front wheel off his Tamiya. ‘I adjusted the front camber just before my run and when I put on my front wheels I tightened the nuts by hand and then afterwards forgot to do them up properly. It was a novice error but then I am a novice driver.’ With all four wheels on his car, the Dutch racer said his car felt pretty OK.

Check out the full coverage on our event site here.

July 29, 2008

Daan Jacobs wins Rd4 Dutch 10th Nats

The 4th round of the Dutch 1/10th scale nationals took place at the super quick Baanbrekers track in Rucphen last weekend. Qualifying took place under great weather conditions and in the NK class it was the Xray pairing of Daan Jacobs and Maarten Van Lierop that took the top 2 spots on the grid, ahead of Serpent racer Ruud Schuitmaker and Kyosho Matrix sponsored racer Jurgen Geerlings. In the Nomac class, the pole went to Ricardo Dam, ahead of Ingeborg Gommers in 2nd, with Jurmin Etnel and Ricardo Hofmeijer rounding out the top 4. In the NK class race, there was a good start for Jacobs, who at the 10 minute mark had a substantial lead, but timing problems struck and the race was stopped to be restarted later after all the racers had time to once more prepare their cars. In the restarted event, which front runner Schuitmaker didnt take part in, Daan was once again able to pull out a lead of 3 laps and take the win from Pedro Rombouts in 2nd and Niels Pourchez in 3rd. The Nomac class saw little change from the starting order with Ricardo Dam winning from Gommers in 2nd and Ricardo Hofmeijer taking 3rd.

Click more to see the podium pictures… content

July 27, 2008

Vuga is European 1:8 Champion

Jernej Vuga is the new 2008 EFRA 1:8 Onroad European Champion after a thrilling final lap of the championships here in Valencia, Spain. The former Euro B Champion took the victory in dying moments of the very last lap as a very unfortunate Daniele Ielasi, who lead for most of the race, went off on the third last corner due to a flat receiver battery.

Check out our full coverage on our event site here.

July 27, 2008

Defending Champion Out at Euros

Lamberto Collari out

Big news from Spain is that defending champion Lamberto Collari is out after suffering a middle layshaft failure during the Semi Final A, which means that by 16:30 this evening we are guaranteed to have a new European Champion. The Italian star lasted just 4 minutes into the final having progressed from the 1/4 finals.

Check out our full coverage on our event site here.

July 26, 2008

Matrix sign Chris Tosolini for Worlds

We can exclusively confirm that Top US racing star, and 1:8 scale Worlds finalist, Chris Tosolini has signed to use Matrix tyres at the upcoming 1:10 200mm Nitro World Championships in Portugal. Cristian Boni the owner of Matrix, a young and ambitous Italian brand, gave us the scoop here at the 1:8 Euros in Valencia and told us that the deal will also include Tosolini running their foam range of tyres for the 2009 season in both Gas and Electric racing.

It is understood that rival brand ATS was close to a deal with the 2006 US National Champion for the Worlds but the Kyosho driver is understood to have been influenced by engine sponsor Sirio to run Matrix products thus ending ATS’s plans to recuit the American. The 2008 IFMAR 1:10 200mm World Championships takes place from 11-17 August and Red RC will be present to bring our readers live coverage from the Lisbon event.

July 26, 2008

Fantini TQ’s 2008 European Champs

He TQ’d the World Championships in Argentina last October and so came to Valencia with a World class reputation to protect and that’s exactly what Massimo Fantini achieved with a great qualifying run when it counted most. The Italian took advantage of the opening heat on Day 6 of the European Championships to post the TQ time when conditions at the Autet track where at their coolest. Driving a Serpent 960 powered by an engine bearing his own name, ‘Max’ Fantini set his time in the second round of qualifying to head a trio of Italians who are guaranteed a place on the starting grid for tomorrow’s all important 45 minute final.

Check out our full coverage on our event site here.

July 26, 2008

Ielasi fastest in Q3, Max still TQ

Daniele Ielasi

As predicted the second of today’s two qualifier was slower for most of the leading runners at this years Euroepan Championship, but none the less Daniele Ielasi managed to produce a great time to top the round from Shepherd team-mate Robert Pietsch. Ielasi’s 05:02.155 run was just 1.5 seconds shy of the time he set this morning that put him 2nd overall in the provisional qualifying order. Commenting on the run the Italian said, ‘The car was great, for sure the track was slower but my car worked good and the tank has lots of fuel left. I think later the track will be even slower but I will try to go faster’.

Check out our full coverage on our event site here.

July 26, 2008

Fantini TQs most important heat

Massimo Fantini TQ after Round 2

Massimo Fantini has TQ’d what is expected to be the most important qualifier at the 2008 EFRA European Championships, posting 17 laps in 05:00.214 to put himself in povisional pole for tomorrow’s Main Final ahead of fellow countryman Daniele Ielasi. Serpent driver Fantini was happy with his run but said if he had known how close he was to producing an 18 lap run he would have pushed harder over the final lap. The 2005 Champion dropped 4/10th on his final to conserve fuel but afterwards his tank appeared to have had enough for the extra pace required to make the first 18 lapper of the weekend.

Check out our full coverage on our event site here.