Batlle is World Champion

Spain’s Robert Batlle is the 1:8 Offroad World Champion after the factory Mugen driver dominated the 1-hour final in Argentina with the new MBX7 ahead of the HB D812s of Ty Tessmann and Atsushi Hara.

Provisions Main Final results
1. Robert Battle – Mugen/Novarossi – 76/60:45.260
2. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 75/60:13.874
3. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed – 74/60:01.333
4. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion
5. Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP
6. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision
7. Cody King – Kyosho/Orion
8. Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed
9. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion
10.Taylor Peterson – Mugen/Alpha
11.Lee Martin – Mugen/Novarossi
12.Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha

Full report to follow shortly

Worlds Final grid complete, Boots out

The 12 drivers that will battle it out for the 14th 1:8 Offroad World Championship title this evening in Buenos Aires has been decided but despite being the most spectacular driver all week and the man to top qualifying Elliot Boots won’t be taking part.  Boots retired his Novarossi powered Kyosho 6-minutes into the first Semi final with a steering servo failure in his MP9. Winner of the first Semi, pole position for the 1-hour race goes to Tessmann with Robert Battle who won the second Semi starting directly behind the Canadian.

The first Semi final saw Tessmann take the win from Associated team-mates Ryan Maifield and Yannick Aigoin with Warm Up race Top Qualifier David Ronnefalk fourth with his Kyosho. Securing the last direct qualifying position was US Mugen driver Taylor Petersen.  Big names to drop out at this stage of the event included electric Offroad World Champion Ryan Cavalieri, whose engine cut three times, TLR’s Adam Drake and Xray’s Renaud Savoya who both suffered flame outs.

In the second Semi which would prove the faster race and therefore provide the final two drivers to bump up based on being the fastest two drivers joining the Top 5 finishers from each of the 30-minute encounters.  The race was won by Warm-up Race winner Robert Batlle ahead of 2008 World Champion & 2010 Runner up Atsushi Hara with TLR’s Dakotah Phend third.  Defending World Champion Cody King who started the day out in the 1/8 final and is set make his 4th race start in the Main event finished 4th and his Kyosho will start sixth on the grid.  Lee Martin finished 5th to secure his first 1:8 Offroad World finals appearance while behind the British Mugen driver Xray’s Josh Wheeler and Durango’s Ryan Lutz secured the final two spots, Q4 TQ man Wheeler getting past Lutz on the last lap.

The biggest drop out of the second Semi was 2010 Top Qualifier and podium finisher Jared Tebo who flamed out three times putting him out of contention to progress.  Ultimately the American star would retire with broken front suspension on his Kyosho.

Grid for Main Final
1. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed
2. Robert Battle – Mugen/Novarossi
3. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed
4. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion
5. Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP
6. Cody King – Kyosho/Orion
7. Lee Martin – Mugen/Novarossi
8. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision
9. Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed
10.David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion
11.Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha
12.Taylor Peterson – Mugen/Alpha

View our event image gallery here.

King progresses to Semi Finals

Defending World Champion Cody King will progress to the Semi-final after the American scraped through from his 1/4 Final just ahead of Serpent’s Billy Easton.  Having bumped up from the early 1/8 final which he won, the Kyosho driver had a terrible start to the 30-minute encounter as his MP9 ended up on its roof leaving him last of the 12 car field as he needed marshaling.

Up front TLR’s young star Dakotah Phend controlled the race taking the win from A-Main Hobbies team driver Dylan Rodriguez with Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz third despite getting a Stop & Go penalty for bad refueling.  Phend’s team-mate Miguel Matias suffered cruel luck as he retired from a bump position with a steering servo failure.  Another TLR team driver to bow out was European Champion Darren Bloomfield who had the battery fall out of his transmitter during the race.

In the other 1/4 final, reigning electric offroad world Champion Ryan Cavalieri booked his place in the final 24 winning by 7 seconds from fellow American Barry Pettit who is having a great day having progressed from the 1/8 final which got today’s action underway.  ‘Mr. Fuel Economy’ Adam Drake who was the only driver to do 10-minute fuel stops, finished 3rd ahead of 3-time European Champion Renaud Savoya both progressing to the Semi final.  The race saw the demise of Matt Castellano who finished 5th and JQ Products boss Joseph Quagraine who had tyre issues needing to stop in the race to fit a new front tyre as the rubber had parted company with the rim.

Grid for Semi A Final
1. Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi
2. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed
3. Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP
4. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision
5. Davide Tortorici – Mugen/Bliss
6. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi
7. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion
8. Taylor Petersen – Mugen/Alpha
9. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated/Orion
10.Barry Pettit – Mugen/Novarossi
11.Adam Drake – TLR/Novarossi
12.Renaud Savoya – Xray/RB

Grid for Semi B Final
1. Robert Battle – Mugen/Novarossi
2. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion
3. Lee Martin – Mugen/Novarossi
4. Kyle McBride – Kyosho/Novarossi
5. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP
6. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed
7. Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed
8. Renato Tradardi Jr – Associated/Novarossi
9. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion
10.Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS Speed
11.Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha
12.Cody King – Kyosho/Orion

View our event image gallery here.

1/8 Finals Update

The final day of the 14th 1:8 Offroad World Championships has arrived and getting the day underway was the 1/8 Finals with the biggest news from the two 30-minute encounters being that defending World Champion Cody King, who ended up in the 1/8 B final after a disappointing qualifying in which he was only 38th, will progress to the 1/4 Finals.  The Kyosho/Orion driver had a slow start to the race but worked his way to the front to eventually take the win ahead of the Serpent of pole position starter Billy Easton, Team Associated’s Neil Cragg and Durango’s Joern Neumann. Nuemann who bumped up from yesterday’s 1/16 final started the race 9th and took the lead on the second lap and led for the majority of the race but having one more stop than his rivals, refueling on 6-minutes, he dropped back into the final bump position.  The same race saw the end of the event for 2006 World Champion Mark Pavidis who finished 5th.

In the earlier 1/8 A Final German Kyosho driver Carsten Keller took a comfortable win ahead of Australian TLR driver Craig Laughton who started from pole.  Just behind Laughton was American Mugen driver Barry Pettit with TLR’s Matt Castellano claiming fourth and the final bump up position.  The race brought to an end a good run for A-Main Hobbies team driver Chad Bradley who yesterday bumped up twice to make it through to the main day.  The American missed the cut by 4-seconds finishing fifth behind Castellano.

View our event image gallery here.

Lower finals complete, 56 remain

Following some rather freak weather conditions which caused flooding in the centre of Buenos Aires yesterday and the cancellation of the final round of qualifying Day 7 of the 1:8 Offroad World Championships was a sunny dry affair allowing the lower finals to be run.  While local TV last night reported 115mm of rain had fallen in one hour, covering the track prior to the wet conditions appears to have been effective as along with the spreading of a lot of wood shavings after, the first of the finals got underway just after midday.

The day ended with the running of the 1/16 Finals from which 8 drivers would progress to the big day.   The first of the 20-minute encounters was the 1/16 A final which would be won by A-Main Hobbies team driver Chad Bradley who had bumped up from the previous 1/32 A final.  Bradley took his Mugen to a comfortable win, 12-seconds clear of team-mates Marty Korn and Curtis Door.  The final driver to secure his pass through to tomorrow was Portuguese Xray driver Nuno Rebelo who finished just head of former multiple finalist Richard Saxton whose event has come to an end.

In the 1/16 B Final, the last race of the day, Team Durango’s Joern Neumann took his prototype Durango to the win 7-seconds ahead of the TLR of former World Champion and AKA co-owner Mark Pavidis.  While the 2006 Champion bumped up the same race would be the end of the event for past World Champions Greg Degani and Yuichi Kanai who had bumped up from the 1/32 B Final.  The final two drivers to make up the 56 drivers who remain in the event were French Mugen driver Nicolas Reynaud who was the winner of the 1/32 final and former European Champion Dani Vega.

View our event image gallery here.

Manufacturer Statistics

Below are the stats for the chassis and engines being used at the 14th 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The figures have been made possible thanks to Bernard Durand of Novarossi and the staff at OS Speed who shared the task of physically standing in pitlane to take note of the buggy and engine used by each and every one of the 147 drivers who are taking part in the 8-day event.

In terms of chassis popularity it is Mugen, who have come to these championships with their new MBX7, who are the most popular buggy with 40 drivers or 27 percent of the entry running the Japanese company’s car.  The second most popular choice of chassis is shared between TLR and Xray who are each represented by 22 drivers followed closely by the sports most successful manufacturer & defending champions Kyosho with 20 buggies. In total there are 15 different makes of chassis being raced here this week.

In terms of engines used, Novarossi are again like the last Worlds in Thailand the most popular with a massive 28% of the entry. That’s 41 of the Italian made 3.5cc engines powering buggies around the ‘Speed Paradise’ track.  OS Speed are the second most popular choice with 21 users followed closely by RB with 20 and defending champions Orion with 16. A total of 20 different engine brands are being raced.

While data for tyres was not gathered in the pitlane, we do know from the official entry list issued by IFMAR, on which 176 entries are listed, that AKA are the most popular tyre.  The defending champion rubber is being used by approximately half the field with Proline the second most used tyre.