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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56 drivers remain in the running in Las Vegas

The 1:8 Offroad World Championships has been whittled down from its biggest ever entry to the final 56 drivers who will get a chance to race for the sport’s biggest prize in Las Vegas tomorrow.  A day of lower finals at RC Tracks of Las Vegas, the day concluded with the running of the 1/16 finals to decide the 8 drivers who would progress to Saturday’s showdown. In the end the 1/16 finals would produce contrasting winners with World Championship Rookie Colin Herzig winning the first encounter while veteran Billy Easton booked his place with victory of a 20-minute encounter that would end in a driver scuffle between Tanner Denney and Brian Baldo.  Convinced Denney had taken him out of second place with 1-minute to go as the pair ran side by side coming onto the main straight, both IFMAR president Dallas Mathiesen and Darren Bloomfield would have to intervene to keep the Spaniard separated from the American.

‘To be honest my race has been a nightmare, it had been going pretty bad and I would have been happy for it to be over already’ was how Easton summed up his win over Denney, Denney having beaten him to the win in the previous 1/32 final. The Serpent designer continued, ‘I was surprised how well that went. My car was really dialled. I had safe steering and it just slid over the bumps’.  Making ‘a couple of mistakes’ when asked about his SRX8’s improved pace he replied, ‘I don’t really know’ joking, ‘I just needed extra track time because I’m an old guy’. Behind Denney, video footage showing the TLR driver didn’t intentionally make contact with Baldo, Justin Wheeler, the younger brother of multiple Worlds finalist Josh, would complete the Top 3 while the final bump up spot of the day would be secured by Darren Bloomfield. The former European Champion started on pole and was having a good early battle with Easton but during his fuel stop with his tank puller stuck inside the car as his mechanic pulled it out he would also pull off the pressure pipe.  Having been dogged with bad luck in qualifying, the factory Agama driver said, ‘it looks like my bad luck isn’t finished’ but admitted there was some luck on his side in that his engine ran to the finish without the back pressure pipe.  A very irate Baldo would finish 3.5 second back in fifth.

Very happy to have booked his spot in the main day’s action at his first World Championship attempt, Herzig said, ‘I’m absolutely delighted to make into the final day’.  Having had issues with traffic in most of his qualifiers but getting a P15 in Q3 which he said, ‘helped a lot’, the 26-year-old said for his final he, ‘drove a clean race and just tried to be nice & smooth’.  From Monrovia, California, he added, ‘I knew I didn’t have to be fast as I could see the others were crashing’. Describing his OS powered Kyosho as ‘working really well’, for his 1/8 Final he plans to leave the car unchanged other than go with a different compound tyre to account for the the fact the race will in the Nevada sun rather than under track flood lights. 4-seconds back, European Championship finalist Oscar Baldo would finish second sending the Spanish Mugen driver through to tomorrow.  Also joining him in the 1/8 Odd Final will be Tyler Vik, the Xray driver bumping up for a second time having come through from winner the 1/32 final ahead of Meen Vejrak.  For former 1:10 Nitro Onroad World Champion Vejrak he would miss a second bump up by half a second with Steve Harris pipping him for fourth.  One big name to fall in the same final was 2013 4WD Electric Offroad World Champion Steven Hartson, the Associated driver suffered a flame out having bumped from the 1/32.

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