October 5, 2020

Mihelic is 2020 Austrian National 1/8th onroad champion

This past weekend the final round of the Austrian 1/8th IC championship took place at the beautiful Morac-Ring. In the low grip conditions it was Xray driver Nejc Mihelic who took the TQ followed by Herfried Pucher and Tobias Sutrich. In the very even superpole battle it was Tobias who joined Mihelic as the direct qualifier in the finals. Having found a reliable and fast setup in the direct finalist training Mihelic set with the fastest lap of the weekend on his way to another win in front of Herfried Pucher and Patrick Schweinzer. The result ensured Nejc Mihelic was crowned Austrian champion, followed by Herfried Pucher and Leonardo Varga.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]


October 2, 2020

Ronald Völker joins Mugen Seiki

Having dropped the bombshell on Wednesday that he was leaving Team Yokomo, Ronald Völker has just been confirmed as a Mugen Seiki driver. The former World, European, ETS & Reedy Race Champion will now head Mugen’s EP onroad race team, a move that shows very clearly the ambitions of the Japanese company within this category. Having only entered the ultra competitive touring car class for the first time back in 2017, they have always had a competitive platform but up until now were lacking a tier-1 driver, which they now have with Ronald. Völker, who is currently leading the ETS standings after 3 rounds, will have to adapt quickly to the all new MTC2 if he is to maintain that lead with the 4th round of the series taking place in less than 2 weeks. Mugen had this to say about the new deal:

Mugen Seiki is very proud to announce, that former IFMAR World Champion and multiple European-, National- and ETS-Champion Ronald Völker has joined their electric on-road team! Ronald will bring his amazing speed and all his knowledge into the team and he will campaign the all new MTC2 platform at all upcoming races. We are looking forward to a successful long term partnership with him. “Welcome to the Mugen family Ronald!”

Source: Mugen Europe [mugen.eu]


September 30, 2020

Ronald Volker shock departure from Team Yokomo

In big driver market news, Ronald Volker has announced his shock departure from long time sponsor Yokomo. The German was with the Japanese brand for 11 plus years and won everything there was to win including his World title in China in 2016. Yokomo has gone through some major changes in the passed 12 months with the famous marque changing owners and with Volker handling the onroad team activities alongside driver duties, this will leave a big hole in their team. Ronald gave the following statement:

After more than 11 years, from now on I am no longer part of Yokomo anymore! It was my decision to leave and my decision to look for a new challenge. I can not really describe how thankful I am for taking the opportunity back in 2009 to join Yokomo under Mr. Yokobori and to be able to stay for so many years. I grew in that period as a better driver and person in our wonderful RC World. Together we came a long way which personally highlighted in winning a World Championship and multiple European and ETS Championships, Nationals and many other events. Additionally we had developed some amazing cars within a great team and I had the chance to meet tons of people worldwide and collect so much experience which I never even have dreamed of.


September 28, 2020

Kurzbuch sets up Swiss title showdown with Rd2 win

Round 2 of the Swiss 1/8th onroad Nationals were run last weekend at Modell Rennsport Club St. Gallen where wet weather greeted racers on Saturday for qualifying. Mastering the difficult conditions it was Rudi Scherer that would come out on top, ahead of multiple ENS Champion Simon Kurzbuch in 2nd with Luca Martinelli and Oliver Krähemann completing the top 4 direct finalists. On finals day, Sunday, the weather had improved and so in the 45 minute main final the pecking order had been restored and so it was Shepherd driver Simon Kurzbuch that would take a decisive victory by over 3 laps. The runner up spot went to Andy Geisser, with veteran racer Jürg Nydegger completing the podium in 3rd place. The final round of the series will be held at Simon’s home track in MRCL Modell Rennsport Club Langenthal, where the title will be decided between himself and Silvio Hachler, the latter having won the opening round of the series.

Image: Susanne Sue Pfeffer


September 21, 2020

Volker victorious as ETS gets back on track

The Euro Touring Series (ETS) finally got back underway last weekend, after the Coronavirus situation forced the delay to the 2020 season. The newly re-surfaced and re-configured Arena 33 circuit in Andernach, Germany was the host for the return of the famous series and attracted around 200 entries – impressive given the situation and the travel restrictions that continue to affect events in Europe. In the Modified class, Yokomo’s Ronald Volker took the first two rounds of qualifying, putting him in a strong position early on. The German driver led Q1 ahead of Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain and Xray’s Bruno Coelho, whilst Q2 saw second and third places reversed as Urbain showed his intention to challenge the “big three” at this event. Marc Rheinard took the challenge to Ronald in Q3 to get his event back on track, the Tonisport/Awesomatix driver leading Volker and Coelho in the round. Q4 would then decide pole position between the two German rivals, but it was Urbain who took his first ever ETS round TQ to lead, leaving Rheinard in second and Alexander Hagberg having his best result in third. This left Volker on pole, ahead of Rheinard, Urbain, Coelho and Hagberg.

Continue reading the report here


September 18, 2020

2020 GenevaModelCars Series Rd4 – Report

The fourth round of the GenevaModelCars Series 2020 was held recently at the GEMC track in Meyrin, Geneva. With 47 drivers attending in three classes, Touring 13.5T boosted, FWD 17.5 zero timing and Formula 21.5T zero timing all run under perfect weather conditions. The layout chosen for the this round was challenging, as it was both technical and fast at the same time. In the Touring 13.5T boosted class, that is run on Hudy A1-36 spec tyres and without traction compound, Xavier Deparde (Xray) secured the pole position followed by Bastien De Marco (Awesomatix) and Alexis Banderier (Awesomatix). After three entertaining A-mains, Xavier took the overall win, in front of Bastien and Sébastien Leuenberger (Xray).

Continue reading the report here


September 16, 2020

XRS Italy 2020 – Report

The XRS Italy event was held this past weekend at the marvellous facilities of Club Automodellistico 5 Colli in Gubbio, Perugia. The race saw 110 entries in 6 different categories. In the TC Modified class, it was the current World Champion Bruno Coelho who lead the way, in front of Alexander Hagberg, and Alessio Menicucci. The top two would finish in the same order after the triple A-finals, but Alessio Mancini moved up to 3rd, and snatched a podium spot from his team mate, The modified class was a blast to watch, with the cars reaching 125 km/h on the long Gubbio straight.

Continue reading the report here


September 15, 2020

Kurzbuch & Greiner make it 2 from 2 in 2020 ENS

The winners of the 1:8 Scale and 1:10 Scale Class of the opening round of the 2020 Euro Nitro Series last month were once again the drivers to beat in their respective 45 minute long finals at Round 2 of the shortened series, which took place at the famous Apeldoorn circuit in the Netherlands. Due to the seemingly ever-changing travel restrictions in place, it was unfortunate that some drivers had to make a last-minute cancellation to their entry – perhaps the most notable being the Italian Infinity pairing of Dario Balestri and Carmine Raiola. However, their role to lead the 1:8 Scale Class for the team was taken up by the Dutch pairing of Jeffrey Rietveld and Rick Vrielijnck, who performed admirably – Rietveld even topping the Controlled Practice to be the top seed for Qualifying. Teemu Leino was again absent due to the conditions imposed by his native Finland, so once again Milan Holthuis slotted into the front of the Infinty team’s 1:10 Scale assault.

Continue reading the report here


Tonisport
Mibosport
LC Racing
VP Racing
T-Works