24 remain in Reims

After a morning of lower finals the 33rd running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championship has been whittled down to 24 drivers who will now compete in the Semi finals in search of one of the 12 places in the evening’s title deciding 45-minute encounter. With the Top 16 decided in qualifying the 20-minute 1/4 Finals decided who joins them with the 1/4 A final ensuring two young chargers keep their hopes of making the main event in Reims. Starting from pole, up & coming 12-year-old Italian Davide Ongaro took the win, the European B Championship Top Qualifier taking his Mugen to a 10-second winning margin over the S-Workz of Portugal’s Carlos Duraes. Third place went to Nicolas Rodriguez who just held off Spanish star of the future Oscar Baldo, the 16-year-old securing the final bump-up spot to join his older brother Bryan in the Semi finals.

In the second of the 1/4 finals former champion Daniel Vega managed to get pass JQ boss Joesph Quagraine, who started from pole, late in the race to put his Agama in the same Semi in which World Champion Robert Batlle starts No.1. Having qualified in the 1/8 final it was a good morning for Mugen’s Simon Willetts, having just bumped up on to the back of the 1/4 final the British driver moved up through the field to finish 3rd just behind JQ booking his place into his third final of the day. Also coming up from the 1/8 Final Finald’s Ari Heinonen claimed the final available spot for the Semi finals.

Notable names that will play no further part in the event include HB’s Teemu Leino who starting second in his 1/4 Final had a fraught race plummeting down the order to eventually finish 9th. The same race also saw the end of the road for multiple electric offroad European Champion Hupo Honigl, the Durango driver only able to finish 6th. In the other 1/4 final we saw the demise of reigning European B Champion Marco Buruffolo and former Worlds finalist and LRP team driver Borja Hernandez.

Semi Final A Grid
1. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion
2. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion
3. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi
4. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat
5. Renaud Monin – Mugen/Bullitt
6. Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi
7. Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Novarossi
8. Bryan Baldo – Mugen/Novarossi
9. Davide Ongaro – Mugen/RB
10.Carlos Duraes – Sworkz/RB
11.Nicolas Rodriguez – Hongkor/Falcon
12.Oscar Baldo – Mugen/Novarossi

Semi Final B Grid
1. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi
2. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision
3. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP
4. Joern Neumann – Durango/Picco
5. Jerome Sartel – Agama/Bullitt
6. Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS
7. Neil Gragg – Associated/LRP
8. Miguel Mathias – TLR/RB
9. Daniel Vega – Agama/Bullitt
10.Joseph Quagrine – JQ/JQ
11.Simon Willetts – Kyosho/Novarossi
12.Ari Heinonen – Kyosho/Alpha

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