Fifth annual ‘Astra Nitro Cross’ gets underway in Czech Republic

Martin Bayer is best known for successfully representing the Czech Republic in Off road competitions around the world but once a year the Team Losi Racing driver puts something back into the sport by hosting a three day international event in his home town of Slavkov u Brna.  Also boasting a world class onroad track on the opposite side of the town which hosted last year’s 1:5 Onroad European Championships, this is the fifth running of the ‘Astra Nitro Cross’ event which has been responsible for bringing some big names to the Czech Republic including American stars Mike Truhe and Adam Drake who finished 1-2 here in 2009.

The 2011 ‘Astra Nitro Cross’ has attracted 105 drivers from 9 different countries with former European Champion Yannick Aigoin this year’s top international entry.  Currently on a roll in the French Nationals having notched up his third win in a row last weekend in the fourth round, the Losi driver is making his second appearance in the event and is set to push his team-mate Bayer, the defending champion, hard for the win on Sunday.

With the track located at the rear of his father’s car dealership, one would expect Bayer to have a huge home advantage but since creating the layout for the event two weeks ago he says he has been so busy with getting everything else ready for the race that he has had little time to do any running at all.  That effort put into organising the event is very evident on arrival at the track and is a credit to him and the crew of people he has gathered together for running it. Looking forward to a good battle with Aigoin, Bayer expects he will also face some though competition from Austrian Dominic Bauer who was a finalist at the Euro B Championships in France last month.

Runner up last year Ales Bayer, Martin’s younger brother, will be looking to mix it at the front once again as he makes his international race debut for Xray having only signed for the Slovak manufacturer a little over a month ago.  Used to working alongside his brother, having previously run a Losi, Ales will pit separately this weekend but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem because he will have Juraj Hudy, designer of the XB808, alongside him who along with Martin Hudy is competing in the event.

Other drivers who have the potential to show strongly over the next three days are Czech Xray driver Jiri Mara who was a finalist at Euro A Warm-Up Race in Germany and Losi driver Petri Myllari who last weekend finished fifth in the opening round of Finnish Nationals.

Opting to cancel the opening round of practice to allow the track extra time to dry out following some pretty spectacular rain yesterday, that left us to get stranded in a small town for over 2 hours as the cleared a mud slide that had blocked the road, drivers have 3 rounds of practice to learn the track before day 1 of the 2011 Astra Nitro Cross is brought to a close with the first of 6 rounds of qualifying.

View our event image gallery here.