HB Europe have announced the signing of Morgan Renzi to their nitro on-road team. The Italian will campaign the company’s R8 1/8th nitro on-road car and he plans to attend at all major races in Italy while also providing technical support for HB racers with the help of Alessandro Sabbatini.
Source: HB Europe [hbeurope.com]
Zen Racing have announced that the 1/8th scale racer Andy North will join the team for the 2016 season. Andy, the current British Open Champion and veteran Mugen driver, will focus on local races this year but he will very likely return to national events soon. Andy had the following to say:
I am very privileged to be asked by Paul and especially David Spashett of Zen Racing to test the ARC 8.0 chassis of which I have accepted to race in the 2016 British racing season. I firstly have to thank Mugen Seiki Europe and especially Stefan for their direct supporting after the Ted Longshaw era of which I have been racing Mugen products for the last 14 years and since the MRX3 incarnation. I am however good friends with David Spashett and Pitman Richard Sheriff on a personal level away from racing which makes this deal even more special to me and a no brainer going forward. This year will also see me become a Dad for the first time in April so my racing will be limited to local races in the short term but I expect to complete the full championship come the end of the year since nitro racing is in my blood. I am very much looking forward to working with all the Zen Racing Team and producing good results.
Source: Zen Racing [zen-racing.co.uk]
The Pista Verde track in Fener, Italy played host to the Gara delle Frittelle race this past Sunday. Classes run were 1/8th on-road 1/8th 2WD and 1/10th Touring and in the premier class of 1/8th Nitro On-road it was Mattia Collavo who set the pace after the qualifiers by taking the top qualifier position and he would also come out fastest in the A-main, scoring not only the win but also the fastest lap of the event.
Source: Novarossi [novarossi.it]
Creation Model have announced the signing of former HPI/HB factory driver, Andy Moore to their team. The 2006 Touring Car World Champion joins his former team mate Teemu Leino, who only just recently teamed up with Creation Model, to run the company’s Infinity brand cars while also helping with development of future projects. Andy has the following to say about the deal:
I’m extremely happy to announce that I am joining Creation Model to run their Infinity brand of cars. This exciting new company has an amazing passion for R/C and I hope my experience will help them while working together on future projects over the coming years. See you all at the track soon.
Source: Creation Model [creationmodel.net]
The fourth round of the Rebels Race was recently held in Trutnov, Czech Republic. The somewhat smaller amount of entries allowed for a lot of track time for the attending drivers with four qualifiers and four final legs. In the Touring Open class, Petr Grof won two qualifying rounds to take the overall TQ from Polish guest driver Vita Hola. Lukas Gombik would round out the top 3 so far. In the Touring Stock class Vita was on a mission, winning all four qualifiers to grab the pole position for the quadruple A-mains.
Elliott Harper has won the 2016 International Carpet Challenge, by taking victory in the first two legs of the A-final. The British Schumacher driver, who started on pole position, faced competition in both A1 and A2 from second placed starter, Yannic Prumper, for the first minute or so of each run, but by half distance each time he had opened a lead to around one and half seconds, which he would then control until the end of the five minute encounters. Commenting on the win, Elliott described it as an “awesome weekend [for me] and a great event”. He also wanted to thank his Schumacher team mates, their combined testing and knowledge sharing being a key part of his success this week.
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The opening round of the Speed King Tour 2016 was held at the Rajiten Nagoya indoor tarmac track in the Aichi prefecture in Touring Modified, Touring Stock and a Stock Oval class. 2015 JMRCA Touring Modified national and reigning Speed King Tour champion, Akio Sobue (Tamiya) instantly showed his speed on his home track, taking the TQ and with it the pole position for the A-main. Privater Kazuya Saito grabbed the second spot on the grid with his Awesomatix A800, leaving many factory drivers behind.
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Yannic Prumper topped the final round of qualifying that was held at the 2016 International Carpet Challenge this morning. The run allowed him to secure second place on the grid, beating Kyle Branson on the tie-break. However, this was not enough to deny Elliott the overall TQ, the Schumacher driver saying that the surprisingly fast track conditions this morning “caught him out a bit”, but now knows what he needs to adjust for the finals. Olly Jefferies will line up fourth for Xray, with Fast Finn Viljami Kutvonen fifth overall with his Awesomatix. Chris Grainger will start sixth, the multi-time UK Champion, well-known as not the biggest fan of carpet racing, joked that after securing sixth he would “need a lie down”. Polish youngster Michal Orlowski was the top junior, seventh overall, in front of the Tamiya of Germany’s Christopher Krapp, Leo Arnold (Xray) from France and Paul Pinkney (Schumacher), making it five different nationalities in the main final and seven different manufacturers.
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