Red RC » R On Road

November 4, 2019

Takahata crowned World Champion as Matsukura denied once again

‘To finish first, first you must finish’ was a phrase that rang true at today’s 1:8 Onroad World Championships in California as a rather sedate Main was turned on it’s head with 12-minutes to go with Mugen’s Shoki Takahata eventually crowned the new World Champion. The 1-hour encounter started out with Top Qualifier Dario Balestri leading from Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura but during his second fuel stop defending Champion Balestri would collect a badly released Greiner, the impact braking the body on the Italian’s car and ending his quest for 2 in a row. This allowed Matsukura to take control of the race. Having shown the world the class of driver he is when he led in France on his nitro debut two years ago before a flat battery denied him the title, everything looked perfect for the reigning 1:10 Nitro World Champion to make history and hold both titles consecutively but it wasn’t to be. With just two fuel stops separating him from winning, a rear pulley stripped and once again there was heartbreak for the Japanese driver and his mechanic Masayuki Miura, his race was done. Graduating to the lead it was another 1:10 World Champion who looked on target to finally match Adrien Bertin’s record as the only double champion in nitro onroad. Having found himself almost a lap down at the start following contact at the on the first lap and then receiving a stop & go for his bad release in the pits, Dominic Greiner was out front. Counting down the minutes he then hit trouble with just a little over 5-minutes left on the clock – the watching crowd in disbelief at the unfolding drama. Always within sight of the lead, Takahata was now the fourth different race leader, well clear of now second placed Takaaki Shimo. The manufacturer’s sole representative in the final, to the chants of ‘Mugen’ the 25-year-old crossed the loop to take a very popular first World title, while Balestri salvaged the final step on the podium behind the bridesmaid of nitro racing, Shimo.

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November 4, 2019

2019 Masters of Foam – Report

The annual Masters of Foam race was held at the Racing Arena Limburg this past weekend, attracting nearly 90 entries for the 1/12th scale Modified, Stock 13.5T and Stock 17.5T classes. In the fastest class of the weekend, Modified, it was Roche driver Ollie Payne with the overall TQ some six seconds in front of Project Godspeed’s Markus Mobers while Roche driver Jacques Libar came in 3rd. The opening two A-mains saw Ollie walking away with pretty dominant wins for an early overall victory as Markus Mobers and Jacques Libar ended the day in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Destiny’s Vesa Yli and Tim Altmann (KaTi) rounded out the top 5.

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November 3, 2019

Xray Racing Series Germany Rd1 – Report

The opening round of the Xray Racing Series Germany was held at the MAC Adenau club recently. Located near the legendary Nürburgring the track would host the event for the sixth time with the weekend having kicked off on Saturday. Sunday morning saw the so-called “Sunday drivers” practice for those joining the meeting only on race day, to make up for the alleged backlog of practice. After the drivers’ briefing, race director and timekeeper Uwe Baldes sent the participants into the three heats, with the best run to be counted by lap and time. The drivers were divided into the classes Touring Car FWD 17.5T, Touring Car Stock 13.5T and 1/12 GT 17.5T. In the Touring Car Stock class, the positions were hotly contested. With 27 laps in 5:02,042, the pole position went to Xray driver Joerg Baldes in front of his brand teammates Marc Stuebben and Tobias Hoefflin.

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November 2, 2019

Stunning drive puts Kurzbuch in final after start-line flameout

A stunning drive has put former Champion Simon Kurzbuch in the 1:8 Onroad World Championship Final in California. Suffering an engine flame out on the grid, the pole sitter for the second of the Semi Finals missed the start and had to be returned to the pits to be restarted as the rest of the field got underway and the general feeling of the stunned onlookers was the Swiss ace’s event was done. Kurzbuch however defied the odds, driving at 110% he started to put himself back in contention for a bump up spot as the crowd watch on in awe. Setting the fastest lap of the race he crossed the line in 3rd position to ensure he gets another chance to do battle with his great rival and reigning champion Dario Balestri. Up front in the Semi Odd, Jesse Davis made the race his own, leading home fellow Australian Jeff Hamon to secure both drivers their first 1:8 Worlds Final start. In the first of the Semi Finals, Dominic Greiner led from start to finish despite struggling with his engine with Shoki Takahata a close second and Toni Gruber third. Unfortunately for Lamberto Collari he fell just three minutes short of making the Main Final on the 10th Anniversary of his last World title after he suffered an engine flame out. With the second Semi the faster the finals, the two drivers to book their place in the main event at the 22nd running of IFMAR Worlds would be Takaaki Shimo and Carmine Raiola.

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November 2, 2019

Salven calls time on WC career

Michael Salven has called time on his World Championship racing career, one of nitro onroad racing’s best known figures made the announcement that having made his World Championship debut in California in 1987, that the 22nd running of the IFMAR 1:8 Worlds here in Fontana, California was the right time to take a step back from racing. The 58 year-old German, who has enjoyed all of his professional career with Serpent, a company which was instrumental in the early development of the class, Salven bowed out of the Worlds competition here this morning at Steel City RC Speedway when he failed to finish the 1/16th finals. Asked about his decision, he said, ‘The Pro guys turn up with everything sorted. I turned up here with three engines that still needed to be run in and it turned out none of them are very good. I will still race, I probably have a few more Euros in me, but its important I race because as the designer of our cars I need to know what’s going on’.

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November 1, 2019

Matsukura blitzes rivals in Super Pole

Naoto Matsukura effectively blitzed his rivals in Super Pole needing just three laps to set the fastest lap and book his direct starting position in the final alongside Infinity team-mate and Top Qualifier Dario Balestri. Only the second time Super Pole has been held at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships, the 2nd through 5th placed qualifiers had the opportunity to avoid racing in the Semi Finals with the process comprising of a 3-minute warm up following by 6-timed laps of which each drivers fastest was counted. With three of the drivers participants of Super Pole in France two years ago, first up was Jesse Davis with his best attempt a 14.640. Next to go was Dominic Greiner who was making his first 1:8 Super Pole. Timing issues however meant his run was restarted and after much deliberation between officials on how he could continue the run he was forced to start his timed run from the pit lane with just a single warm-up lap. Despite the disruption he improved on Davis’ time by 1/10th of second. Qualifying third overall, next up was Simon Kurzbuch who pushed Greiner off the top spot by 0.003 of a second. Last to go and knowing what he needed to do, Matsukura duly delivered a 14.449 lap to go quicker than Kurzbuch by 0.084.

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November 1, 2019

Balestri to defend World title as Top Qualifier

Dario Balestri will defend his 1:8 Onroad World Championship title as the Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s final at Steel City RC Speedway in California. The Infinity driver secured his fourth consecutive World Championship TQ when he topped the sixth & final round of qualifying ahead of Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner. With the first five qualifiers seeing 4 different drivers post TQ run, the final qualifying was a four way shoot out. Running in the second fastest heat Greiner did all he could to set the provisional TQ time while the other three contenders, Balestri, Naoto Matsukura and Kurzbuch set off in reverse order in the top heat. The first to post a second TQ run when he topped the morning’s Q5, Matsukura would unfortunately crash out at two and half minutes, leaving the battle between Balestri and Kurzbuch, their predicted pace up on the time set by Greiner. In the end Balestri had it under control finishing with 4/10ths on Kurzbuch. Overall Matsukura qualified 2nd followed by Kurzbuch, Greiner and Jesse Davis.

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November 1, 2019

Matsukura first to TQ for a second time at 1:8 Worlds

After an opening day of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships yesterday that produced four different TQ drivers, this morning Naoto Matuskura became the first driver to go fastest for a second time. Having TQ’d Q1 in cool morning conditions, the Infinity driver repeated the result on what is again a cold morning at Steel City RC Speedway. Pursuing top seed and team-mate Dario Balestri, a slight mistake from the Italian in the final minute of 4-minute run was enough for Matsukura to move to the top where he would stay to the end. Finishing 9/10ths ahead of Balestri who held on for another P2, the Q5 result means the honour of Top Qualifier at the 22nd running of Championship is looking like a two horse race between the defending Champion Balestri and the reigning 1:10 Champion Matsukura, although former champions Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner still have a chance. For the round, Greiner set the third fastest time followed by JJ Wang, Jesse Davis and Kurzbuch.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.