1/16 Finals Update

The penultimate day of the 15th running of the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Sicily was made up of the lower finals and the last chance for eight drivers to make up the 56 drivers who get to race in the big day of this extended event.  Running up to & including the 1/16 Finals, the concluding two races of Day 9 would see success for Portuguese drivers, Xray’s Bruno Coelho and Serpent’s Carlos Duraes.  In the first of the 20-minute encounters, the Top 4 progressing to tomorrow morning’s 1/8th A Final, newly crowned Portuguese National Champion Coelho took victory by 5-seconds from France’s Jo Bacro followed by Italian Alessandro Stocco and German driver Hannes Kaufler.  Having bumped up after winning the 1/32 A Final, top Austrian offroad racer Hupo Honigl looked set to take his Team C through to the final day.  Running ‘an easy second’, as the race entered the final 5-minutes he would crash at the chicane breaking his car, putting him out on the spot.

In the 1/16 B encounter, the race was much closer with just 8/10ths separating the Top 2 at the flag.  Having lead 2/3 of the race with his all LRP buggy & engine combination, former European Championship finalist Marcel Guske would lose the lead to Duraes in the final 5-minutes.  Behind, Italian Kyosho/Novarossi driver Federico Ruggeri claimed third ahead of the battling Jorge Soler Diaz and Lorenzo Crolla.  On the final lap a move by Crolla saw the Frenchman spin out the Spaniard to take fourth but Crolla, who set the fastest lap of the race, was penalised for the move giving Soler Diaz back the final bump up spot.  The race would see the demise of some big names including 2006 World Champion Mark Pavidis.  Having won his 1/32 Final, the TLR driver would tangle with another car down the main straight on lap 2 resulting in both drivers ending up against the pitlane wall. Ending up being a 50-second lap for the AKA front man the incident ended any hopes of a bump up with his race ultimately ending with a flame out in the final minute.  Also ending their event in the race were 2012 Semi Finalist Barry Pettit, the Mugen driver missing the cut by 4-seconds in fifth, and fellow American Travis Amezcua.

View the complete results online here.

View our event image gallery here.