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April 16, 2013

Michael Salven wins German-West 1/8th Rd1

Last weekend the first round of the German-West nationals took place in Sinzig and Michael Salven made this report. ‘I was really looking forward to it, since I was eager to get more running with the all new 977 Viper. Saturday was very busy with 74 drivers trying to get their cars working for this track. It is a technical track with a very fast sweeper at the end of the straight. That very corner gave me a lot of headaches, since I knew we could do it full throttle last year. For some reason I could not do it, I had too much understeer while all the rest of the track was fine. I tried a few things but I still had an issue there. Finally The solution was to run the car narrower in the front and a softer front anti-roll bar. I also moved the weight as far back as possible and while it still was not perfect, it was very good. I managed to take TQ, but my teammate Rene Püpke gave me a hard time taking second spot with his Viper. Semifinal went well for me, while Rene had to retire with a lost c-clips on his two speed. We still had four 977 Vipers in the final. Right from the start I could manage to drive away from the pack, followed by Karl-Heinz Meister also with the Viper and later by John Ermen when Karl-Heinz was hit by engine troubles. After ten minutes I made sure I keep the lead and took no risk, winning the race with two laps in front of Steven Cuypers. An excellent third place by Christian Wurst with the first race back in the Serpent camp made a perfect start for the Viper in Germany.’

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

April 16, 2013

Jovanovic & Hamon wins NSW State titles

Australian NSW State Championships were held recently at Moorebank Raceway in Sydney. Capricorn driver Peter Jovanovic dominated qualifying taking the top spot in both 1/8th and 1/0th scale. In the 1/10th final, using his Lab C02, Lab SQR-R engine & Capricorn tires, he took the win by less than a lap ahead of Jessie Davis in 2nd and Jeff Hamon in 3rd. In the 1/8th final he was equally fast but a mistake as well as his engine running too rich causing it to run out of fuel, meant he only finished 2nd behind winner Jeff Hamon, with Andy Bishop completing the podium in 3rd.

View the 1/8th podium here

April 16, 2013

Marek Cerny joins Xray factory team

Xray have announced the signing of top stock touring car driver Marek Cerny to their factory racing team. Marek has been racing the Xray as a private driver and with the astonishing and constantly improving race results they have rewarded him to join the official Xray factory racing team. Marek had this to say:

I am very lucky and happy to join the Xray factory racing team – the professionalism, dedication and working atmosphere are second to none. I have raced the Xray T3 and T4 already for last two years and both performance and reliability are just perfect for me and recently allowed me to win in some very highly competitive races such as ETS or nationals. I would like to thanks especially to Martin Hudy for all his advices, support and trust in me.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

April 15, 2013

Lemieux & Hebert win Mile High Indoor Champs

This past weekend some of the best on-road drivers in North America met at 5280 Raceway in Denver, Colorado for the second annual Mile High Indoor Championships. Multiple time national champions Paul Lemieux, Keven Hebert, Rick Hohwart, Josh Cyrul, and world champion Ralph Burch to name a few were on hand to test their skills in both modified touring car and modified 1/12th scale. Paul Lemieux was able to control the pace in modified touring car not only setting an untouchable 32 lap pace to TQ, but also all brought home the win for Xray and RC America. Keven Hebert of Team Associated had the field on lock down in modified 1/12th scale with a TQ and the win. Recently Crowned ROAR National Champion Randy Grosse brought home the win in WGT. Drew Ellis of RC America took the TQ and overall win in 13.5 touring car with his Xray T4. Team driver Mike Haynes was able to TQ and win 13.5 1/12th scale. Joe Trandell was able to take the win in stock 1/12th scale with a very competitive battle in A3 over Mitch Witteman who TQ’d the class. Bill Sydor was able to TQ and win Stock Sedan and Brent Klingforth brought home the win in VTA.

View the other final podiums here

April 12, 2013

Western German Championship opener – Preview

An impressive starting field of 75 drivers, lots of racers from abroad and an excellent weather forecast – the Western German Championship is awaiting a terrific season opener this weekend. At the 254 metre track of the hosting club MCC Rhein-Ahr, located near the Rhine river, the race will see the 1/8th on-road class 1 and 2 as well as 200mm touring cars. A total of twelve drivers from five foreign countries will turn the regional qualifying round for the German Nationals to an international affair. Reigning champions Uwe Baldes in the 1/8th and Bernd Rausch in the 1/10th class will enter the season with the prestigious starting number 1, with the starting number remaining permanent for all racers and races in Western Germany including the Nitro-West-Masters.

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April 12, 2013

Bultynck & Vekemans win at Belgian Cup Race

The Belgian Cup Race took place in Héron and it was Olivier Bultynck who took TQ in front of Manuel Henriet and Yves Zoma. The touring car modified class saw a fast and tight race between Olivier and Manual with the latter taking the win with former 200mm nitro racer Maxim Claes, taking the third spot. The second final had Olivier taking a close win as Manuel never was in the position for a clean overtake. Maxim again took a third place. The third final would decide the race win and saw Olivier taking off and never looking back. This handed Olivier (Yokomo) the win in front of Manuel (Awesometix) and Maxim (Yokomo).

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April 10, 2013

Rick Vrielijnck wins Rd1 of Dutch 1/8th Nationals

The first race of the Dutch nationals was held on the MRG track in Genk, Belgium. With a small line of grip and slippery as ice if you go outside it is a very tricky track, even with the use of tire additives which is legal this racing season. In the NK we had 23 drivers and now following EFRA there is no direct finalists. While this track is a Belgian track it was Dutchman John Ermen setting the fastsest qualification time folowed by RickV and behind them the Belgian drivers Gunther v. Steay and Robin d’Hondt. In the half finals John had a collision and had to retire. The new construction of the finals has directly proven that the normal 4 fastest drivers have to race for a final place and is creating less room for errors. In the other half final it was RickV winning the race without problems making pole position for the final. After an hard race it was RickV taking the win followed by Robin d’Hondt with just 8 seconds distance and with a huge 4 laps distance on the 3rd podium spot Steven Cuypers.

Continue reading the report here

April 10, 2013

Hagberg & Cerny winners at Xray Challenge Italy

Last weekend the Xray Challenge Italy was held at the great facilities of RC Landia, in Scandiano, Emilia Romagna, Italy and Alexander Hagberg sent this report. The event was booked out in few days due the limit of 100 entries maximum. The race was split in three classes: 1/12, Touring Car Stock and Modified. Drivers from Italy and surrouding countries entered the race. Xray had most of its European team present, with team leader Martin Hudy, Marek Černý from the Czech Republic, myself, Magnus Vässmar and Niclas Nilsson from Sweden, Marco Kaufmann from Germany as well as the Italian stars Francesco Martini and Alessio Menicucci.

Continue reading the report here