1/8 Update – Local hero Rodriguez & Easton progress

There was a huge cheer for the winner of the opening race to the final day of the 1:8 Offroad World Championship, as Las Vegas’ own Dylan Rodriguez booked his spot in the 1/4 Finals.  The HB Racing driver would win the 30-minute encounter by 7-seconds from Joseph Quagraine and young Associated driver Alex Kosciuszek.  The last bump spot from the 1/8 Odd Final would go to 2014 Finalist Alex Zanchettin, the Italian benefiting from the bad luck of Xray’s Martin Bayer. Suffering a flame out as he pitted for fuel as the race leader, the Czech driver was still looking good to progress holding fourth with a lap to go but again his car would stop handing Zanchettin the spot in the 1/4 final. Another high profile European to have his campaign end in the 1/8 was Lee Martin, the British driver having had to qualify for the event through last Friday’s ‘Race In’. In the 1/8 Even, Billy Easton took the win continuing his bump up form, this being his 3rd time to bump up after a difficult qualifying.  Behind the Serpent driver was Darren Bloomfield, the Agama driver another of last night’s successful 1/16 Finalist.  There would be a great closing battle for the other two spots which eventually went to Cole Tollard and Marco Natale after a last last lap error from 3rd placed Jerome Aigoin.  The race would mark the end of 2008 World Champion Atsushi Hara as he could only manage 6th having started from 8th.

‘I just charged the battery and continued doing what I was doing last night’, was Easton’s reaction his latest bump up, his event having started out in the 1/32 final after struggling to get a good feeling from his SRX8 in qualifying.  The Serpent designer said, ‘I took a gamble on Holeshots but at the end the fronts were pretty shot’.  He continued, ‘we need to do something about that for the next one because I lost steering. Maybe other drivers had the same issue, but with it so dusty offline and the track getting blown out we need to try find a solution’.   The former electric offroad World Champion added, ‘I also have to make an extra stop because my engine is a gas guzzler and there is nothing we can do about that’.

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