Picco have announced the signing of Dino Giacalone. The young Italian made the final at the 2012 Euros in Cassino and will assist Edo Picco in developing and testing their new 2.1cc nitro engines. Expect to see Dino at upcoming National and International race meetings.
Source: Picco [teampicco.com]
Xray announce that 200mm Nitro World Champion Ralph Burch will stay with the Slovakian manufacturer trough 2013 and that the US super star will participate in all on-road classes this year. Additionally he will race electric off-road races with the new XB4. Ralph says:
I have been racing with Xray team since the very beginning since I have started to race the very first T1 more than 12 years ago. Over the years we have built a very effective team work & cooperation which has resulted into some of my best achievements in my racing career including the World Champion title. I am very proud to represent this finest company and I am very happy that our cooperation will continue and I hope some more great results will come either for me or for anyone at the Xray team. I have been available to any Xray drivers with any their questions or comments and I am looking forward to see you all during the 2013 at the races.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
Paolo Morganti put the new Serpent Viper 977 on top of the podium at the FSS Race in Florida this past weekend. The race was used as a test for the upcoming Winternats that will take place at the Fort Meyers based track this February. The FSS Race also saw the growing group of 1/8 GT racers run their cars, and Desoto was able to win the race with Serpent Cobra GT, followed by his team-mate in 2nd.
Click here to view the GT class podium
The 2nd round of the Norwegian National Series was held at the Vianett Raceway in Moss. The track is a small indoor track with a tight but flowing layout. The pace was set at the first qualifier with Petter setting laps as fast as he did in practice. Magnus Guttormsen, a 10 year old local driver, was just behind finishing second despite some close encounters with the track barriers. In the second qualifier Petter was even faster and Magnus hit trouble when a battery connector came loose. In the third qualifier Petter was still lightning fast, with Magnus just a few seconds behind. The third spot went to Rune Svestol who pulled 33 laps just like Magnus.
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Exotek Racing report that Mark Smyka has TQ’d and won the F1 class at the 2013 Snowbirds Nationals. Mark piloted his Exotek F1R to 3 out or 4 heat wins and found the car to really suit his driving prowess. Also used by Mark were Exotek F104 adjustable front arms which were a great tuning aid for the carpet conditions at the Snowbirds.
Source: Exotek [exotekracing.com]
SpeedMerchant team driver Donny Lia brought home the hardware in 1/12th 13.5 Pro Stock at this year’s Snowbird Nationals held in sunny Orlando Florida. The unique 24-hour format race features Road Course and Oval broken up into 12-hour intervals and has attendance of up to 500 race entries every year. Due to work commitments, Donny wasn’t able to fly down to the race until Wednesday evening, missing all of the organized road course practice. Using the race qualifiers for gathering your set-up information is never ideal, but sometimes it’s your only option. Donny’s Rev.7 was quickly on pace and his SpeedMerchant ‘New School’ front suspension was carving up the track. After some small tweaks early Sunday morning, we knew we had the car to beat in the A-main later that day.
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Serpent team driver Marc Fischer from Germany has won the 1/12th modified class at the recent Snowbird Nationals race. Marc took TQ in front of Xray’s Paul Lemieux and AE’s Keven Hebert and was able building a 4.5 second gap in the A final handing him the win in this class. He also pulled the fastest 1/12th lap with his Thunder Power powered S120 LTX car and also finished second overall in 1/10th Mod TC making him the 2013 On-Road Snowbirds Champion.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
At the 2013 Snowbird Nationals, the World GT class was well attended with a large number of competitors and teams entering the event. Going into the final round, CRC’s own Brian Wynn would find himself at the bottom of the A-main and needing a good run in the final round to stay in the show. In that final round, a good run would be an understatement as Wynn took his very stock Gen-X 10LE to the top of the A-main with a TQ run, from zero to hero in just 5 minutes. Brian was joined in the A-main by early TQ Frank Calandra, last years defending champ, Max Kuenning and Timezone Champ Randy Grosse. Brian took the lead early and never looked back with smooth lines and won his class using a Slider Pod converted CRC Gen-X10 LE car.
Source: CRC [teamcrc.com]
