Round 3 of the Swedish Nitro On-road Cup was held in Trolhättan on a beautiful track with a nice flow and with 22 drivers from Sweden and Norway in attendance. After four rounds of qualifying it was Mikael Fransson (Serpent) who took the TQ honours some 3.5 seconds in front of Marcus Lindner (Shepherd). Lars Haugen (Mugen) and Bengt Andersson (Shepherd) would round out the top 4 result so far.
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Savöx have announced the signing of Germany’s Tobias Kerler to their talented team of drivers. The Serpent racer, who made the 1/8th scale final at last month’s second round of the ENS in Austria, will use Savöx servos in all of his rides from now on.
Source: Savöx [savoxtech.com.tw]
Shepherd have announced the signing of Dutch front runner Rick Vrielijnck for the remainder of the 2015 season. The 9-times Dutch national champion and multiple EC-A, World Championship and ENS finalist plans to race all remaining major 1/8th on-road events, such as the ENS and Euros in Ettlingen, the ENS final in Fiorano and the Worlds in Brazil. Rick had the following to say about the deal:
I’m very excited to join Team Shepherd and I’m very thankfull for this opportunity. As I was looking for a car that suits my driving style better and a team that is always working hard to support their drivers Shepherd has been the right choice and I’m glad that they were also excited to work with me. I’d like to thank Mugen for their support in the past year.
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
The third round of the Spanish 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals was hosted by the Autet Club track in Almussafes, home of last year’s EC-A 1/10th 200mm European Championship A. The qualifying was dominated by young talent Ruben Olivares with his Novarossi-powered Shepherd as won four of the five qualifying rounds to take the TQ. The 2nd spot went to former Spanish Champion Jonnhy Pastor (Mugen/Novarossi) followed by Victor Pelaez (Serpent/Tesla) and Sergi Franch (KM/Novarossi). Nacho Lopez, who made the ENS final in Aigen and who grabbed the TQs at the two previous National rounds, struggled in qualifying due to a broken pipe and thus a lack of power.
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The third round of the Dutch 200mm Nitro On-road Nationals was held at the Baanbrekers track in Rucphen, home of last year’s 40+ European Championship. Weather predictions for the weekend were good and apart from a few rain drops it stayed dry all of the time with the track being in perfect condition which was reflected by the very quick times set in qualifying. The Dutch Nationals are run with mandatory Novarossi Sturm engines and Hipex low noise pipes and despite this being a somewhat “budget” solution it is a very powerful package as the times set were only a couple of tenth off of the current track record. In qualifying the battle for the four direct qualifier spots was very close, Daan Jacobs took the TQ with his Serpent followed by Pedro Rombouts (Xray). The 3 spot would be taken by John Bruins (Capricorn) with Serpent driver Julius Kolff only 0.13 seconds behind in 4th. Milan Holthuis would miss the direct final entry by only 4 tenths. Overall this was the closest qualification this year.
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One of the largest outdoor asphalt races in the USA, Big Fat Turkey Race went off in Camarillo, CA at the Roadrunners R/C Club. This marked the 9th annual running of the confusingly-named event, which used to be held on Thanksgiving weekend, hence the name. Racers from all over California and neighbouring states made up a field covering a wide range of classes. The track layout was fast and flowing which made for great racing under the SoCal sunshine all weekend long. An interesting twist to the race format saw the use of qual-points with no drops, meaning it was imperative for racers to complete all three qualifiers, cars intact. In the top class, Open TC, Randy Caster was the driver to beat all weekend. He drove to TQ in 2 of the three rounds of qualifying to secure the top spot on the grid, and then went on to sweep the first two legs of the A-Main to take the overall title. Steve Weiss and Jovan Madriaga came in 2nd and 3rd. Touring Car Superstock saw local favourite Oliver Clipper dominate the class, taking TQ and the first 2 A-mains as well.
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The fourth qualification round for the Polish Electric On-road Championships was held in Jelcz-Laskowice this past weekend. Saturday started with dry weather and five rounds of qualifying with the triple finals would be run on Sunday after a delay due to overnight rain. In the finals of the Formula class it was Michal Milanowicz who came out successful by winning A1 and A2, coming from the 2 spot on the grid. Krystian Sobala finished the day in 2nd while Jan Ruman rounded out the podium result.
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Round 4 of the British 200mm Nationals was held at the Wombell track. The weather was decent with temperatures above 20°C, but the windy conditions and very bumpy surface made it difficult to get a good set up. The grip level was very low to start with but did improve a little later on. The competition was very tough and at the end of Saturdays practice the top drivers were all separated by just 1/10th of a second. On Sunday the temperatures were cooler and there was much less wind. In round 1 of qualifying it was Mark Green who set the pace from Alex Thurston and John Zottl. Round 2 saw Thurston finish just ahead of Green with Zottl again taking 3rd but all three drivers were slower than before. The third qualifier saw Thurston finish in front of Green again while Joe Kerry took 3rd overall after missing the opening two qualifiers with some radio problems. Into the last round of qualifying and Joe Kerry was matching TQ pace until a small mistake ended his chances. With Mark and Alex also not finishing their runs, it made way for John Zottl to come through and take 3rd overall for the final.
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