VP Pro is proud to officially announce the release of their new tread pattern – Impulse to their competitive 1/8th scale buggy line up. The Impulse tyre has been manufactured for use on indoor or outdoor clay tracks where a minimal dust grove has formed. The tyre itself utilizes a square symmetrical tread pattern that offers plenty of contact patches for consistent traction and when equipped with the VP insert foams and wheels the Impulse provides excellent performance. Available now in two compounds SF and UF for various conditions.
The dust has settled, and only the rubber that produced the optimum racing line remains at A Main Hobbies’ Silver Dollar RC Raceway. With hundreds of racers competing in the Inaugural Silver Dollar Off-Road Challenge thousands of laps were put in by racers who ran on the new surface and said it was one of the best they’d ever competed on. Racers were also stoked with the 16 features world-renown track builder, Joey Christensen, utilized to create one epic 1/8-scale layout.
After the runaway success of their ASIA Contest in Thailand, BittyDesign are giving their EURO Contest a little push, reminding drivers that its only a month away and entries are due to close June 9th. Entry fee is 50 euros for open or pro and 30 euros for brushless, the event will be held 21-23 June at the Barco offroad track – widely known as the track with the most ‘US’ style layout in Italy with lots of jumps and high speed spections, redesigned after last year’s Euro contest at the same track.
Not only is the track an attraction for racers but located in the Reggio Emilia region in northern Italy, its only 40km from the Ferrari & Lamborghini factories – well worth a visit in their own right!
A great weekend for racing during the Chaos on the Coast point series put on by the Space Coast R/C Raceway. Jason Ruona, Paul Wynn along with a great group of JConcepts drivers were out to support the monthly event held at the Cocoa Beach, Florida facility. 2wd modified was hotly contested all day with JConcepts driver Daimon Borkowicz taking the round 1 TQ with Paul Wynn in 2nd. For round 2 the track speed picked up and Paul Wynn was able to stay consistent throughout the 5 minute qualifier resetting the TQ by a slight amount over Daimon. The 7 minute A-main was the show of the weekend. Paul Wynn took the early lead and held off Daimon and Billy Easton in the early going.
Neo Buggy & DXR are pleased to officially announce entry for the 2013 Neo Race is now open, unofficially called the ‘1/8 buggy Indoor Worlds’ due to the highest calibre of racers the event attracts year after year.
The 8th running of the Neo Race sees a few changes, the biggest include a date change from the regular Easter slot to a summer event: 22-26th August 2013; knowing the British weather as we do, the roof will probably come in handy though! The Agricultural College Harper Adams in Shropshire is once again the venue for the event, now 5 days in length with increased track time for all participants as well as a special 1/8 electric buggy class – limited to 30 drivers, the main nitro buggy class is limited to 250 entries. Not to mention a cool new style of logo for the event, designed by Maugrafix!
Qualifying will use 6 minute heats and the best four rounds from six will count. After the success of the special races in the past they return with a few additions; juniors final, oldies final, the Dash4Cash for the top qualifiers, Bash4Cash, Last Chance Qualifier and a ‘Pole Position Challenge’ – details revealed soon.
The organisers hope to once again welcome some of the finest 1/8 Buggy drivers to attend this prestigious annual event. Enter via www.RC411.net, see the ‘Sign Up page’ for details how to enter.
The second round of the UISP Lazio Regional Championship took place last weekend in Guidonia, Rome. It was Intech team driver Daniele Chicca who claimed victory with his BR-6 ahead of Sammartino Alessandro and Fontani Gianluca who finished second and third respectively.
Borja Barrios has won the San Joan de Moro race which took place yesterday! Borja made fourth in qualifying as he experienced problems with his steering system but later went on to win the semi-final from second on the grid. After starting in pole position for the main final, Borja was clipped by another driver pushing him back down the pack. However after putting away consistent lap times with his Soar SR21B engine he was able to claim victory after the current leader experienced a flame out at around the 15 minute mark.
EFRA’s European warm up in Reims, France started out under overcast conditions for most of the weekend but would descend into farce during the semi finals as the race was stopped 10mins into the first semi with all drivers except leader Reno Savoya having suffered water related issues due to the huge amounts of water on the track. Despite terrible conditions (part of the perks of racing outside) Savoya was the only driver along with Chris Svensson, able to keep their equipment going without a problem – as a sign of protest after the race was stopped, both kept doing laps – clearly unhappy with the Officials’ decision which would see the event based on qualifying which would hand current World Champion Robert Batlle the victory, although unlikely to be a trophy he looks back on with fond memories – as an out and out racer; preferring to win his events on track. However, sometimes TQ’ing is half the victory and Batlle mastered the tricky Reims track which saw racers running slicks down the 109mm legal limit – the smaller the tyre dimaeter the faster the car.
XRAY duo Bayer & Savoya negotiate the slightly damp track… (Photo: Denis Nean)
Qualifying witnessed Nemo Racing’s Pink Panther Jerome Sartel claim Q1, before Robert Batlle TQ’d rounds two and three in impressive fashion, Q4 going to Jorn Neumann, rescuing his quali effort after a somewhat lacklustre showing up to that point, the German racer wheeling his Team Durango expertly round the special chalk track of Reims. With the final result based on qualifying, the top 12 is as follows: strong performances from Lee Martin – the Brit showing that he is clearly ‘in tune’ with his nitro racing this year also Oscar Baldo, the young Spaniard shining in the shadows of Robert Batlle and older brother Bryan.
RC is all about progression and fun. The team at Southern Alley had continued their upgrade of the facilities and the racers were greeted with a new layout and a track that had been marked with new red piping. It looked amazing. With a helpful couple of days of midweek rain the surface was amazing for practice on Saturday and looked good come race day on Sunday. The big question for all drivers was would the moisture hold throughout the day under the sun and 35 degree heat. Three rounds of qualifying of 10 minutes were run with the best one to count. Christmas tree finals were planned to get under way after the lunch. For the Italian engine maker Novarossi it looked like being a good day as their drivers Didier Perrin and Ben Panic wheeling their Mugen and Kyosho cars would end round 1 just 3 seconds apart at the top of the timesheets. The new layout was a good mix of jumps, sweeping and tight turns – it lacked a long straight but it made the infield huge with the layout six lanes deep.
