February 12, 2024

Thurston wins Rug Racers Round 4

Team Yokomo’s Alex Thurston has won the penultimate round of the popular UK series Rug Racers organised by Hertford Radio Car Club.  In the FTQ format qualifying, it was the Schumacher of OIlie Payne who took the overall TQ for the fourth round ahead of Thurston and Round 2 winner Elliott Harper.  With double A-Main finals,  A1 would see a great pass by Thurston that would get his Hobbywing powered BD12 to the front where he would stay to the finish to win ahead of Harper’s Schumacher and Round 1 winner Harley Eldbridge’s Xray.  With a mistake dropping Payne to P4, for A2 Thurston knew all he need to do was sit behind his rival to secure his first win of the current series.  Taking A2 by just 0.2 of a second from Thurston, Payne with secure second with former World Championship podium finisher Harper completing the modified podium.

Image: Alex Thurston [Facebook]


February 12, 2024

Groskamp wins 48th annual Florida Winternats

Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp has won the 48th annual Florida Winternats.  The iconic US nitro onroad, now hosted annually at the Nuggets Ranch RC Raceway in Arcadia which was built in 2010,  attracted 170 entires this year with 1:8 Open the biggest class with 46 drivers.  With five rounds of qualifying, each driver counting their single fastest 4-minute run, it was the Dutch driver who took the TQ with Q3 run ahead of the Capricorn of Germany’s Thilo Diekmann and Mugen Seiki of former 1:10 Nitro World Champion Ralph Birch.  In the 30-minute final, Groskamp lead early before Burch had a stint at the front until hitting problems and dropping to fourth at the half way distance.  This allowed last year’s Top Qualifier Diego Morganti’s Capricorn to lead briefly before Groskamp resumed the lead again.  Swapping position with Diekmann over pitstops, Groskamp’s Picco powered IF18 took the win by 3.1-second as Burch recovered to complete the podium.  With the fastest lap of the race Morganti finished 4th while 2023 Champion Eric Dennett came home P6.  In 1:10 Nitro Touring Car, Serpent’s defending Champion Bryce Butterfield topped qualifying from team-mate Jose Almonte but at the end of the half hour final it was Almonte who came away with the win.  Butterfield lead initially but was out just as the race reached 1/4 distance.  Behind Almonte it was  John Hodges and Franco Machado who completed the podium.  In 1:8 Nitro GT it was IGT8’s Paolo Morganti who secured the TQ ahead of 2023 Champion Amonte.  Setting the fastest lap of the race, Morgani would go onto to win from Lazaro Alonso after Almonte retired in the early stages of the final.

Image: Jilles Groskamp [Facebook]


February 7, 2024

Miedema joins Fenix Racing

Specialist 1:10 Formula 1 racer Jitse Miedema has joined Italian manufacturer Fenix Racing for 2024 on a multi year deal.  The ETS Winner, World Cup finalist, European Championship finalist and Dutch Champion joins Giorgio Favaretto’s passionate F1 RC brand after a long stint with Infinity having played a key role in the development of the Japanese company’s IF11 Formula 1 chassis.  Commenting on his new deal, the personable Dutch driver said, ‘Very happy to now be part of Fenix Racing.  Also I’m still very grateful for everything Infinity has done for me.  Time for a new chapter!!’  Miedema’s first big outing with his new car will be the International Dutch F1 Masters in March of which he is the defending Champion.

Source: Fenix Racing [fenix-racing.com]


February 7, 2024

Schumacher bolster MIBO entry with Kobbevik & livonen

Schumacher Racing has bolstered its entry for the upcoming MIBO International Race in the Czech Republic with the news Daniel Kobbevik and Pekko Iivonen will join Michal Orlowski at the second edition of the event on February 16-18th.  Having the British manufacturer previously confirming Orlowski would be taking on the event’s unique double track build, racing for both the onroad and offroad titles, he will be joined by Kobbevik in offroad and Iivonen in Touring Car.  A multiple Norwegian National Champion and former European Championship Top Qualifier, Kobbevik will be in the mix for Schumacher against strong opposition led by Sworkz’ Joern Neumann.  The 2023 Finnish Modified Touring Car National Champion, Iivonen has had a strong start to the 2024 season making the A-Main at the recent ETS Daun and he will be hoping to build on that as he goes up against the likes of Orlowski, Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker and Yokomo’s Christophet Krapp at the Sports V Hotel venue in Hrotovice.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]


February 5, 2024

Drake & Anderson join Hobbywing

Continuing its 2024 driver announcements, Hobbywing has confirmed top American racers offroad legend Adam Drake and 1:12 star Kemp Anderson have joined its official team line-up.  A major figure not just on the offroad track but on the racing scene in general, Drake will be a huge asset to the electronics manufacturer and with Mugen Seiki now involved in the 1:10 offroad market with the release of their MSB1 1:10 2WD Buggy, his deal with Hobbywing should be mutually beneficial.  Kemp, a leader driver on the US onroad scene, shot to international fame in December when he became the Top Qualifier at the IFMAR 1:12 World Championships in Florida using a Hobbywing ESC and motor and now for 2024 officially becomes a team driver as he continues his racing programme with Awesomatix.

Source: Hobbywing [hobbywing.com]


February 5, 2024

British GT12 Nationals RD5 Stafford – Report

The fifth and final round of the British GT12 National Championship took place at Stafford RCMCC on the 28th January 2024.  A fantastic turnout with 50 GT12 and 6 minis in support.  Despite the championship already being decided it was all to race for as some spots were still up for grabs. The day consisted of the usual format with 1 practice, 4 qualifying and 1 final for all racers.  Round one kicked off on a cold track, with Ewan Thompson taking the early advantage, recording the only 27 lap run in the first round.  Although Sam Coult and Alex Robertson were in hot pursuit.  On to round two and the top three were shuffled around with Sam Coult moving into P1, Alex into P2 and Ewan into P3 with only these three drivers hitting 27 laps.

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February 5, 2024

Lia takes 1:12 title at Snowbird Nationals

Donny Lia has won the 1:12 title at this year’s Snowbird Nationals in Florida, the Awesomatix driver taking the win ahead of Schumacher’s Ollie Payne and Xray’s Alexander Hagberg.  Finishing on the podium last year when Marc Rheinard took the win ahead of Hagberg, Lia would qualify third for this year’s event as Bruno Coelho took the TQ from former 1:12 World Champion Hagberg.  With a single 8-minute final to decide the 30th running of the world famous event, by lap 4 Lia was in front where he would stay til the finish having built up a 2.4-second advantage over second place which went to Payne, the British driver having started P4.  While Hagberg completed the podium, Coelho ended up P5 behind Keven Herbert who would become this year’s Snowbirds Mod Touring Car Champion.  The organiser of the annual MonTech NYGP in at 360V2 in New York, Lia’s win continues Awesomatix’ multiple year run of 1:12 titles at the Snowbird Nationals.

Source: Donny Lia [Facebook]


February 4, 2024

Hebert wins ’30th edition’ of Snowbird Nationals

Celebrating it 30th edition, the world famous Snowbird Nationals in Orlando, Florida, saw Xray’s Keven Hebert take the win in Modified Touring Car ending the winning run of reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho.  In qualifying it was Hebert who secured the TQ.  Running to the FTQ format, the Canadian set the fastest time of the four rounds of qualifying on the third of his attempts.  With Coelho suffering a DNF in Q3, the 2022 and 2023 Champion would count his Q2 time which was 1.5-seconds off Hebert’s impressive pace.  Setting his best time in the final qualifier Alexander Habgberg completed the Top 3 for the single A-main grid.  Setting the fastest lap of the race from the front, Hebert was able to gap the field for a convincing 1.8 seconds win over Coelho with Hagberg making it an all Xray podium.

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]