February 12, 2008

2008 Winternats – Monday practice

2008 Winternats - Monday practice

We are currently running about half a day late with our reports from the Winternats due to the time difference, with Tuesday’s qualifying now underway here is the practice report from Monday. Again the weather was very nice, at least for us Europeans, and in the 1/8th scale it seems that Kyosho racer Chris Tosolini is setting the pace with young Vincent Jackson also very quick as is Italian veteran Marco Vanni. In the 1/10th class there is more people battling at the front with the top qualifying spot looking to be between Jilles Groskamp, Ralph Burch, Mark Green and last years winner Paolo Morganti. This was the final day for the drivers to perfect their setup and will now head into qualifying with 2 rounds of heats for everyone on Tuesday. We hope to continue to bring you more pictures from the track, and a brief report, tomorrow. Thanks to The Border for sending us the information.

Click here to see all the photos… content


February 11, 2008

2008 Winternats – Sunday practice

2008 Winternats - Sunday practice

This years annual Winternats held at the Ft Myers track in Florida, is currently underway with a lot of the racers arriving on Sunday before the week of the event to get some practice in on this extremely tight and unforgiving track. Our site sponsors The Border are present with Michel Nijman racing and supporting Jilles Groskamp, and with the time left over will be sending us some photos and updates from the track. Here are the pictures from Sunday’s practice day which saw nice weather with temperatures around 26 degrees Celcius, perfect conditions for racing. As you can see from the photos, a lot of the Europeans are already at the track including multiple winner Michael Salven, who is contesting 2 classes, the Baldes brothers Jorg and Uwe and top Austrians Gerhard Kandelhart and Daniel Tomaschko. Also present racing for the first time with Motonica is new signing Josh Cyrul and new team mate Ron Atomic, who has also just been announced as a KO Propo racer. We hope to bring some more pictures and reports during the week as we get them.

Click more to see the photos… content


February 11, 2008

Ron Atomic joins KO Propo

Ron Atomic joins KO Propo

KO Propo America have been in touch to let us know that sedan racing ace Ron Atomic has joined their US team. Ron has proved he has what it takes and in the past five years has made the finals at many ROAR national events, and in doing so has shown great talent and a great work ethic. Ron will be using the new EX-1 UR and KO servos for year.

Source: KO Propo [kopropo.com]


February 9, 2008

Josh Cyrul joins Motonica

Josh Cyrul joins Motonica

We heard this mentioned at the fair on the Motonica booth but thought the announcement was still a time away, but today we have gotten confirmation from Motonica USA that Josh Cyrul will race their car for this season. Cyrul is a former IFMAR World’s TQ, and multiple national and international race winner and he brings with him many years of racing knowledge and engineering experience. His debut with the Motonica P8.0R 08 will be at the upcoming Winternats held in Ft. Myers, Florida and joining Josh will be sedan racing ace Ron Atomic and one of the best 1/8th on road drivers in the US, Scotty Barrera. This is the second announcement regarding Josh this week, having been confirmed as a TOP team driver on Thursday.

Source: Motonica USA [motonica-usa.com]


February 7, 2008

Josh Cyrul signs for T.O.P. Racing

Josh Cyrul signs for T.O.P. Racing

Tokyo hobbies Optional Parts (T.O.P.) have announced that they have signed top US racer Josh Cyrul who will be representing T.O.P. as a driver and engineer. Masato and Vincent Yip of T.O.P. Racing had the following to say:

We are extremely happy that Josh has decided to race for us. Not only is he a world class driver, but also a respected inventor and innovator. We are dedicated to making an impact in the R/C industry and we feel Josh is the right person to lead us.

Source: RC Tech [rctech.net]


February 5, 2008

Norwegian Winter Series Rd4

Norwegian Winter Series Rd4

The 4th round of the Norwegian Winter Series took place this past weekend hosted by Borg MRK, who presented the racers with a small and tricky circuit to race on. In qualifying for the modified class it was Adrian Berntsen that claimed the TQ spot in front of his Xray team mate Helge Johannessen in 2nd while the 3rd starting spot would be taken by Eirik Andreassen. The SuperStock (19 turn) class saw the best starting field so far this year, and all racers were out to stop Kyosho racer Marcus Alvestad’s winning streak, having won the last 2 rounds. Marcus however was still the man to beat in qualifying, taking the top spot in front of Petter Berntsen with Kai Ronning in 3rd.

Read the rest of the report here… content


February 4, 2008

Michael Salven to use Merlin Fuel

Michael Salven to use Merlin Fuel

Merlin Fuel have announced that German racer, and Serpent chief designer, Michael Salven will contest this season using their products. Michael has been 4 time European Champion, 2 time World Champion and has won lots of National titles in both 1:10th and 1:8th scale, which makes him one of the most experienced drivers around. Together with the Merlin R+D Department, he will be giving his input to help improve the Spanish company’s range of products.

Source: Merlin [merlinfuel.com]


January 31, 2008

Ielasi wins on debut for Shepherd

Ielasi wins on debut for Shepherd

We got word from Shepherd Racing that newly signed team driver Daniele Ielasi won last weekend in Lucca, Italy in his first race with the Velox. With the Shepherd team, consisting of Robert Pietsch, Patrick Schäfer and Armin Weihert, in attendance to give support, Daniele quickly became comfortable with the car and could improve his lap times constantly. The race saw 50 drivers in attendance including 2 time European Champion Dario Balestri as well as Marco Vanni and Stefano Puccinelli and after Saturday’s practice session it was clear that the battle for the win would be between Dario and Daniele. After 3 qualifying rounds on Sunday morning, and with drivers battling with fuel consumption, it was Balestri that took the pole position just in front of Ielasi in 2nd. With changes to his muffler prior to the final Daniele immediately jumped into the lead in front of Balestri, Vanni and Puccinelli and up to the first pit stop the Velox racer could increase his lead at the front of the pack. By the middle of the final there was a gap of 8 seconds between the first 2 racers but 6 minutes before the end Dario had to stop with glowplug failure while Marco Vanni also had to retire because of gearbox problems. This left Daniele to cruise home in first, taking his first victory in his first outing with his new team.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]