1:8 Offroad Euros fires into life
The 31st running of the EFRA 1:8 Offroad European Championships fired into action this morning at the rather unique hill side Sand-am-Main track in Germany with the first of two rounds of practice that make up proceedings for the opening day.
At last year’s event, held in Portugal, Renaud Savoya made history as the first driver to secure three consecutive European titles and asked this morning if he can go for a fourth he gave a cautious reply saying the challenge would be extra difficult his year. Winning all his titles with Mugen, the ‘Shark’ moved to Team Durango for the start of the 2011 season and summed up his chances by saying, ‘It would be a challenge to come here and win with the same car but running a totally different car makes the challenge even greater. Getting to the top is hard, staying there is even harder’. Durango have a brought a number of new parts to Germany the main one being a new steering set-up but having not had the chance to test them prior to the event Savoya is reluctant to run them. Planning to try the new steering set-up in practice he said while it may improve the car, running untested parts is risky as their durability is not proven. Such a move at the 2005 World Championships when they changed the steering set-up on his Mugen resulted in him loosing out on a place in the final when the change led to a servo failure.
Winning the 2010 title ahead of Robert Batlle, the last man to hold the European title before his three year reign as Europe’s No.1, Savoya is tipping the Spaniard for the title here in Germany. With the 2007 Champion joining Mugen after his departure, Savoya said Batlle has a good combination in terms of equipment and he is going to be ‘hard, but not impossible, to beat.’
The winner of the Warm-up race in May, Batlle is widely tipped as the favourite coming into this 5-day event. Asked if this added any extra pressure he said it didn’t and his aim which was to give his best was the same as always. Running a new longer chassis he is confident his buggy is better than it was for the warm-up and having been in with a chance of victory for the last three years he said if his luck sticks he is confident he can get the job done. Batlle said he would rather see the European Champion decided over 5 separate races rather than on one single 45-minutes as just one small problem can leave you empty handed despite months of hard work and preparation just as happened to him in Greece in 2008 where he dominated much of the event.
Eight of the 12 finalists from last year’s Euros have switched teams in 2011 with third place finisher Miguel Matias switching from Losi to newcomers JQ Products. Following his legal battle with the Portuguese federation to secure himself an entry, the former Champion said he is just ‘happy to be here racing doing the sport he likes’. Asked about his chances with the new car he said its still a very new project but since the start of the season they have made a lot of improvements and he is looking forward to this event. Admitting he would be happy to get the car into the final come Saturday he said he’s got to take it one step at a time and the first target is on getting into the Semis.
A small tight track many believe it will suit Losi’s 8ight. Newly crowned British Champion Darren Bloomfield was runner up at the Warm-up race but 2006 Champion Yannick Aigoin believes this is going to be the most competitive Euros. Quietly confident that they have a good chassis for the sub 28 second lap track layout, the experienced Frenchman said all the drivers have to work much harder now at fine tuning their car and the day of still being in with a chance of success with an ‘OK’ set-up is gone.
While one would expect big name drivers to attend what is the biggest race of the year for Europeans two such drivers have only just managed to get an entry. Although a finalist last year when he finished 9th as a driver for Losi, Britain’s Lee Martin only got news that he had a place on Thursday. Due to the high level of race commitments as the lead driver for Tamiya Racing Factory including preparations for the 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championship that took place in Finland last week, Martin didn’t do enough rounds of the British Championship to secure himself a spot for the Euros. Another team driver in a similar predicament was Team Durango’s Hupo Honigl. The Austrian arrived at the track with no entry and only got confirmation he could race at this morning’s team managers meeting when Austria where awarded two places after 8 drivers originally entered failed to turn up.
One drivers whose event got off to a bad start before the track even went live is top Spanish racer Borja Hernadez. Luckily he took his Mugen buggy and radio on as hand luggage on his flight over as his check-in baggage has gone missing with the airline having no record of the bag containing all his tools and spares. Unable to trace his bag, Hernadez will have to borrow everything to work on his buggy for the event but is hopeful things can only get better.
The importance of 1:8 Offroad to the industry is clear to see here at Sand-am-Main with a lot of factory support staff doing the rounds in the pits and a large manufacturers’ container area. One such figure is former world champion Mark Pavidis who has traveled over from the US to support drivers running his AKA range of tyres. Tyres are set to play a big part this week and there is importance is highlighted by the amount of tyres Proline have brought to the track. Having to cover all possibilities they have 3500 pairs of which they only expect to use around 300.
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