August 7, 2012

Dusty start to 1:8 Offroad Euros

There was a very dusty start to 32nd running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships as drivers took to the Fehring track in Austria today for the first of two free practice runs that make up the opening day’s action for the 5 day event.  Forced to abandon the Main final at the Warm-up event back in April due to rain, conditions this time round are extremely dry with a constant cloud of dust hanging over the track.  Having also hosted the 1:10 Electric Offroad European Championships just over 3-weeks ago, drivers who competed at those championship said brushes where left at each marshaling post so as the track could be cleaned after each run and this worked well and they are cant see why the same process could not be used this week.  Instead the plan for now is to water the track at the end of each night but having been watered last night by the local fire brigade the hot conditions will most likely see any benefit quickly evaporate.

Situated in beautiful countryside in the South East of Austria not far from the borders of Hungary and Slovenia, the track venue itself is an impressive set-up and bucking the trend of many of this year’s European Championships the event has attracted a full 180 capacity entry. One driver to fall fowl of the size of the entry is Team Durango’s Hupo Honigl who like Mugen’s Lee Martin came to the event in the hope of getting one of the reallocation places made once no-shows have been confirmed.  Martin was assured of his place when fellow British racer Craig Drescher was forced to pull out on the eve of the event but Honigl, who races under a German EFRA license and had his pit area all set up to go racing, failed to secure an entry despite him being one of Austria’s most successful international offroad racers. Honigl will stay on at the event and act as mechanic for team mate Joern Neumann, wiiner of the 4WD EP Euros here, who is driving a hand machined prototype Durango buggy.

Sporting a bandage on his left arm following an operation to correct a problem with a muscle that was causing him to lose feeling in his figures, Robert Batlle is very confident about the days ahead as the defending champion seeks to join the rather exclusive club of 3-time European Champions, the only two drivers to be able to lay claim to such an achievement being his great rival Renaud Savoya and fellow Mugen driver Daniel Reckward who was 3rd at last year’s event.  Describing the opening practice as a ‘systems check’ the Spaniard, who was declared the winner of the Warm-up Race, said based on the information gathered at the Warm-up his equipment is up for the job and it is now down to just getting on with the program but added there are 8-10 guys that have just as much a chance at the title as he has.  Expecting much tougher competition this year from Savoya, whom he replaced at Mugen when the French ace switched to Durango, he said with the three time consecutive European Champion now with Xray he is a serious contender for the win.  Regarding other contenders Batlle said newly crowned British Champion Elliot Boots is one driver who has come on a lot in the past 12 months and he will be one to watch.

Having failed to make the final at the Euros last year for the first time since 2005, dropping out in the 1/4 finals with a broken steering servo, Savoya said he has put that ‘nightmare’ firmly behind him and feels he has never been more confident than he is now even when he was on a run of 3 title wins with Mugen.  Quickly building a strong relationship with Xray he said they listen to his input and this has really helped with the development of the XB9.  Forced to run harder Sweep tyres than he wants as his box of tyres for the event have not yet arrived at the track, he said his buggy was overall easy to drive with the triple and corner jump the two areas he will focus on in the next practice as he would like to get the car to settle faster.

Also driving for Team Durango last year but putting his DNX408 into the Main final, Boots is now part of a strong Kyosho line up which also includes last year’s Top Qualifier & Runner up Jerome Aigoin and fast Swede David Ronnefalk.  The 19-year-old, who has dominated this year’s British National Championship wrapping up the title with one round still left to run, said he is really happy to be back driving Kyosho and that the MP9 suits his ‘aggressive balls out’ driving style.

One very noticeable thing in the pits here in Austria is the large manufacturer presence with a number of key American’s over to support their drivers.  One of 1:8 offroad racing’s best known divers, Adam Drake is over together with TLR team manager Kevin Gahan to support their main title hopefuls Darren Bloomfield, who is actually running one of Drakes own buggies, and Miguel Matias along with last year’s fourth place finisher Marcel Guske who just recently signed for TLR Germany from Mugen.  Richard Saxton is on hand to assist Team Associated which is headed up by Neil Cragg and Yannick Aigoin.  Aigoin is the last driver to win the title before the great Batlle/Savoya rivalry began when the French driver took the title for Xray in 2006.  As part of his move to Associated, Aigoin has been involved in developing the US brand’s presence in the French market which particularly earlier in the year left him with no time to devote himself to just driving but added since May he has been able to practice more and this has boosted confidence and understanding of the RC8.2.

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July 27, 2012

Rain halts qualifying, Q5 cancelled

During the fifth and penultimate round of qualifying at the Electric Touring Car World Championship rain brought proceedings to a halt.  The change of weather had been forecast and following a meeting of the IFMAR international jury, the decision was made that Q5, which had run up to Group 8 of 14, would be cancelled and that the sixth & final round of qualifying would run as a wet round.  As it is now a wet track, the start of Q6 had to be delayed so as the official controlled wet tyre could be issued to all competitors although they may still use their allocated dry qualifying tyres should they choose.  The arrival of the rain could have serious repercussions for a number of leading drivers as they have lost the opportunity to capitalize on the fresh set of dry tyres they had saved from earlier in the day.

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July 22, 2012

Day 1 of 1:12 Worlds just a formality for Matsukura

Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura stamped his authority on the opening day of the 1:12 World Championships in the Netherlands, the reigning champion topping the time sheets in controlled practice with the only 39-lap run of the day.  Making today’s practice look like just a formality in his quest to securing a third consecutive World title, the closest challenger to the Japanese star was his Yokomo touring car team-mate Ronald Volker, while a strong final practice saw a big improvement from 2010 European Champion Juho Levänen who ended the day third fastest.

Setting the fastest run time and a new outright fastest lap of 12.202 in the first of the two controlled practices, Matsukura couldn’t improve on his pace in the final 8-minute run as a change of set-up left his Yokomo difficult to drive and lacking steering.  Suffering a number of heavy crashes, that left the front end of his bodyshell featuring a number of extra holes, he eventually pulled up just before the 7-minute mark.  Despite this, the 18-year-old said he is very confident for tomorrow’s qualifying as reverting back to his CP1 set-up will give him a car that is quick and which he is also comfortable with driving.

Volker, who backed up his 8:02.694 in CP1 with a 8:02.883 in CP2 said his LRP powered Associated R5 was a little more difficult to drive second time round after he tried a different tyre compound.  Feeling there is potential to better his current pace the German ace said it was a matter of finding the limit at which the car’s improved speed is out weighed by it becoming too difficult to drive and making the risk of crashing too high for any advantage to be gained.

Having made just small gradual set-up adjustments over the day factory Associated driver Levänen said his Reedy powered R5 got better every run.  The Finn, who was runner up at the 2008 Worlds, described the car as being decent in the last run but added he should be able to improve it further tomorrow.  Having sourced sets of the same JFT tyres that Matsukura and Volker have been using he hopes this will further help him to reduce the gap.

Ending the day fourth fastest, within his CP1 time, was Jilles Groskamp.  The Dutch ace said his Onpoint Racing chassis was better in CP2 after changes gave him more steering, but more difficult to drive, a mistake costing him almost 5-seconds meaning he failed to improve his overall pace.  Knocking over a 1/10th off his best lap time in CP2, he said he will leave his set-up unchanged for the opening qualifier and try instead to adjust his driving to the better cope with the extra steering.

Having not featured in free practice, new CRC signing Marc Rheinard found good form in the first controlled practice to break into the Top 10 for the first time with the 5th fastest time ahead of British National Champion Olly Jefferies who enjoyed a clean run in CP2.  Having started the day with a single cell speedo the former European Champion switch to a regular Speed Passion speedo for the controlled practice which he said was more to his liking. Running the new narrow chassis which CRC are debuting at the Worlds, the German said switching the battery position from running the length of the car to mounting it across the chassis made it more comfortable to drive.  Trying a harder tyre in CP2 he said it was the wrong direction to take as it made the car very twitchy and he will revert back to the compound he ran earlier. His first 1:12 race since the last Worlds 2-year-old ago in Germany, Rheinard said one of the most important things in qualifying is going to be getting in a clean error free run.

Having featured strongly in four rounds of free practice, reigning European Champion Simo Ahoniemi could only manage 11th in controlled practice just in front of Team Associated’s Rick Hohwart.  The CRC team driver said he tried different tyres in both controlled runs and the car was not nice to drive but the Finn is confident that by switching back to the tyre selection he used to top FP4 he should be at the sharp end of the times sheets for the opening qualifier.

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March 26, 2012

Maifield wins big two at Pro-Line Cactus Classic

Ryan Maifield pulled off the big double at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic with the Team Associated driver successfully defending his 2WD & 4WD Buggy titles at the 26th edition of America’s longest running offroad meeting. Having made light work of 2WD Short Course title earlier in the day winning the opening two A-Main from pole position, the battle for the overall win in offroad racing’s premiere classes went down to the wire but the Arizona driver rose to the occassion in front of his home crowd to win both A3 Mains ahead of team-mate Ryan Cavalieri to claim back to back titles at the track that is just 10-minutes from his house.

Summing up his weekend Maifield said ‘it wasn’t the easier way but I got it done in the end’. Qualifying his Reedy powered B4.1 only fourth on the grid for 2WD he admitted that he thought the title had maybe slipped his grasp but he said a change of attitude for Sunday’s finals help turn things round. Holding back at the quad, the mammoth jump that caught out so many drivers this weekend, he finished second behind Cavalieri in A1 and Dakotah Phend in A2, but in A3 faultless drive by Maifield saw him take the lead half way through the all important 5-minute encounter. Eventually winning by 10 seconds this margin was the deciding factor in claiming the overall win as both drivers finished on 199 points.

Bringing the event to a close, the third and deciding 4WD Buggy Main was to be the highlight of this years Classic. With the title between Associated star Ryan’s the two World class drivers went for a thrilling climax to the race. Starting from the TQ spot Maifield lead from Cavalieri with the duo pulling clear of the international field. Hounded by the No.2 B44.1 three laps from home Maifield spun out at the end of the straight allowing the World Champion through but he recovered quickly and came right back at him to regain the lead to a huge cheer from the crowd. Pushing at 110% Cavalieri was the one to crack on the last lap as he got it wrong on to the main straight flipping his Orion powered buggy. Winning by 1.7 seconds it was clearly a huge weight lifted off Maifield’s shoulders who afterwards said racing in his home town in front of his parents and friends who came to the track to watch him race brought a lot of extra pressure but it also made winning that bit more special.

A good day for Team Associated as their drivers finished 1-2 in both buggy classes, rising young star Dakotah Phend completed the 2WD podium while Reedy Race Champion Joern Neumann claimed the third step of the 4WD Podium. While the Champions of the three other big classes at the Pro-Line Cactus Classic was decided in the second A-Main the third A-Mains would decide the rest of the podium. Joining Cavalieri on the Mod Truck podium was A3 winner Maifield and TLR’s Dustin Evans while in 2WD Short Course Kyosho’s Jared Tebo and Kody Numedahl, who won A3, completed the overall Top 3 behind Maifield. In the high flying 4WD Short Course class Hupo Honigl won the final A-Main to secure a Team Durango 1-2 behind Neumann with Top Qualifier Dakotah Phend ending up third overall.

Red RC would like to thank Pro-Line for making our first trip to cover the Cactus Classic possible and to Daniel Adams for once again providing us with a base in the pits for the weekend.

2WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 199 pts
2. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 199
3. Dakotah Phend – TLR – 197
4. Dustin Evans – TLR – 195
5. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 194
6. Travis Amezcua – Durango – 191
6. Steven Hartson – Associated – 188
8. Brian Kinwald – Associated – 188
9. Billy Fischer – TLR – 185
10.Brent Thielke – Associated – 184

4WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 200 pts
2. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 199
3. Joern Neumann – Durango – 196
4. Lee Martin – Tamiya – 195
5. Travis Amezcua – Durango – 193
6. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 191
7. Steven Hartson – Associated – 188
8. Billy Fischer – Associated – 188
9. Chad Due – Associated – 187
10.Hupo Honigl – Durango – 187

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