German West 1:8 Championship Rd. 6

Last weekend took place the 6th Rd for German Nats. West

Once more, the rain was the unwelcome guest to the race. After a driver meeting the Race was stopped and they decided to count the race following the heats order.

Picture: RED RC

1. Karl-Heinz Meister - Serpent / Mega / Xceed
2. Tobias Hepp - Serpent / Mega / Xceed / Merlin Fuel
3. Steven Cupyers - Mugen / Sirio / Enetti
4. Uwe Baldes - Motonica / Team Orion / Xceed
5. Alain Levy - Serpent / Novarossi / Xceed
6. Joerg Baldes - Motonica / Mega / Cosmic
7. Ralf Vahrenkamp - Serpent / Novarossi / Xceed
8. Christian Wurst - Motonica / Sirio / Matrix
9. Frank Schewiola - Serpent / Mega / Xceed / Merlin Fuel
10. Rainer Rosskothen - Mugen / Novarossi / RPM

Source; Red RC

Tags: 1:8, Germany, Onroad, Racing

Nordic Championships

The Nordic European Chamipoships took place last weekend at Gotherborg track (Sweden).

Alexander Hagberg took the final victory and he has sent us a report about the race.

Merlin Fuel dominates Nordic Championships

The Nordic European Championships were held at the beautiful Väst-8 facility in Gothenburg, Sweden. I arrived at the track on Wednesday before the race to run in new engines and fine tune my starting setup.
The car felt good from the start and I went faster as traction gradually increased.

In qualifying I could win all 4 rounds easily with an overall TQ time of 4 seconds in front of Mugen driver Mikael Fransson. My TQ run was the quickest ever on this track and I also set a new lap record of 14.95. Norwegian XRAY driver Adrian Berntsen showed a good pace and could qualify as 3rd overall. Martin Christensen from Denmark ran a prototype Shepherd car, but had various technical problems and could only manage 4th spot.

For the final the weather was very unpredictable and the first 20 minutes was run on a wet track. However after consultation with my mechanic we decided in the last minute which wet tire to use and the choice proved to be the right one since I had a lot more traction than the competition. The difference was so big, that by the 10 minute mark I had built up a 5 lap lead. By the 4th pit stop the track had dried almost completely so we decided to switch to foam tires. Even though the tire change made me loose almost 3 laps I still had a comfortable lead to 2nd placed Magnus Vässmar. The positions stayed like this all the way to the finish line after a trouble free race also on the dry track.

Overall I had a very fast engine with low fuel consumption thanks to Merlin Fuel!

All in all it was another great win for me with Merlin Fuel and I am now looking forward to the EFRA GP which is held at this track in July. I want to thank my mechanic Niclas Nilsson, Edwin Suneson, Klas Runesson among others for all the help.

Final results

1 Alexander Hagberg - 149 laps - Merlin Fuel
2 Magnus Vässmar - 146 laps
3 Adrian Berntsen - 142 laps
4 Bengt Andersson - 139 laps - Merlin Fuel
5 Tom Erik Haaversen - 139 laps
6 Frank Andersen - 139 laps - Merlin Fuel
7 Mikael Fransson - 125 laps
8 Mickael Brandt - 117 laps
9 Per-Ola Hård - 114 laps - Merlin Fuel
10 Martin Christensen - 34 laps”

Thanks to Alexander for his nice report and congratulations for the victory.

Tags: 1:!0, Sweden, Touring

Swedish 1:10 Championship Rd.2

Last weekend the Årsunda Track held the 2nd round of 1:10 Swedish Nats.

Our Team Driver, Per-Ola hard, took the final vitory, TQ’ed and set a new laptime record in the track.

He has sent us a  report about the Race:

“Swedish National Series R:2
In the weekend of 23-24:th of May the second round of the Swedish national series was held in the middle of Sweden in a village called Årsunda.

The track is very technical and nowadays a bit bumpy so demanding for both the car and the setup, so some of the drivers started to practice allready on the Friday to get to know the track. Myself and some other drivers arrived Saturday morning to a wet track after some light rain the evening before, traction was very low so it was decided together with the drivers to add a little bit of sugar water during controlled practice to get the track in decent shape.

Saturday saw four rounds of qualifying first three dry ones in good weather and the last fourth one unfortunately rained out with some light rain in the afternoon. Qualifying went very well for me as my Serpent 720 with a RB T9 engine worked perfect, I could put a new lapreckord and take TQ with a 7 sec margin to second placed Edwin Sunesson running a Xray/Sirio, 3:rd was Markus Hellquist with his Kyosho/Orion car. TQ in the 1:8 class was taken my Magnus Bengtsson running a Mugen.

Sunday was final day and the weather was pretty good around lunch time, I got a clean start and starting working up a good lead to the others, at the end of the final I could drive a little slower to save the tires for the end but doing this I lost some concentration and made some driving errors so I decided to push some more again to get the focus back. After 45 minutes of racing I could score my first win of the season, it felt nice! I won two laps ahead of young Markus Hellquist and 3:rd position a few laps behind went to my good friend Thomas Livbom, all three of us live in Vaxjo in southern Sweden racing for the same club so that was very fun too!
In the 1:8 class Stefan Andersson won the final with his Serpent 966 car, well done Stefan!

I would like to thank the local club in Årsunda for hosting a nice race.
My next race will be the 3:rd round of the series in Gothenburg Sweden the first week of June, this race will also be the Nordic Championsships attracting fast drivers from both Sweden, Denmark, Norway and perhaps Finland.

Thanks to my sponsors for their great support:
Serpent Motorsport, RB Products, Merlin Fuel & GQ Products.

Happy Racing,
Per-Ola “Peo” Hard
Team Serpent”

Thanks to Peo for the report and congratulations for the victory!

Tags: 1:10, On Road, Racing, Sweden

Catalunya Reg. Championship Rd. 4

Last weekend we saw the 4^th Round of Catalunya Reg. Championship, held in Alcarrás Track (Lleida).

No different news. Robert Battle, makes 4 of 4 in the Reg, Champs in  a warm and beautiful sunny spring day.

The final Result;

1. Robert Battle - 59 laps - Associated / GRP
2. Patxi Peñas - 59 laps - Hong Nor / Picco / Merlin Fuel
3. Alex Calatayud- 58 laps / Associated / Merlin Fuel
4. Josep Galisteo - 58 laps Mugen / RB
5. Carlos Pineda - 57 laps / Mugen / Nija/ Merlin Fuel
6. Albert Navarro - 57 laps
7. Diego Araguás - 56 laps
8. Dani Battle - 53 laps
9. David Comas Moreno - 50 laps / Hotbodies
10. César Gil Blanco - 46 Laps
11. Alex Brujas - 42 laps / Associated / Merlin Fuel
12. Gerard Roig / 28 laps

Tags: Buggy, Catalunya, Off Road

Alexander Harberg reports from Swedish 1:10 Rd.1

Alexander Hargberg has recently joined Merlin Fuel Team.
Alexander is a well known dirver in EP Racing, 1:10 and 1:12^th scales.

This year he will be racing nitro for first time, in preparation for the  2010 EC in Gothenburg. He has sent us this report about his first ever Nitro powered race.

“The first round of the Swedish Cup with 1:10 and 1:8 GP cars was held in Växjö, southern Sweden on a flowing yet fast asphalt course. In attendance were myself, current Swedish champion Magnus Vässmar, former Swedish champions and Euros finalists Mikael Fransson and Per-Ola Hård among others.

This was my first race ever with GP cars, and after only 2 days of practice back home I felt confident that I could do well at this race.

The qualifiers went reasonably well for me as I in the 3rd round out of 4 could secure overall TQ with a 2 second gap down to 2nd placed Kyosho driver Magnus Vässmar. I also set a new lap record of 15.14 in this heat. Since I had not received my new Max Power engines in time for the race I ran one of my old LRP .12 engines which still gave good power for this medium sized track. The Merlin Fuel proved to be extremely powerful and helped me achieving great acceleration and top speed. The runtime was also an advantage since I could do one pitstop less than the other drivers in the 45 minute main!

I lead the 20 first minutes of the final before I had an engine stall which gave away the lead to 2nd placed Vässmar. With 2 minutes to go Vässmar lost his 2nd gear in the transmission and was running slowly around the track. I took back the lead and finished 1st overall with about half a lap down to second placed Vässmar and another lap in front of 3rd placed Mugen driver Mikael Fransson.

The race was a great experience and I am already looking forward to racing nitro again! I want to thank Merlin Fuel for their support which helped me win this important race!”

I forgot to add the list of top 10 results:

1. Alexander Hagberg - 170 laps - XRAY NT1 - Merlin Fuel
2. Magnus Vässmar - 169 laps - Kyosho
3. Mikael Fransson - 169 laps - Mugen
4. Per-Ola Hård - 167 laps - Serpent - Merlin Fuel
5. Alexander Andersson - 166 laps - Kyosho
6. Markus Hellquist - 165 laps - Kyosho
7. Ola Westholm - 163 laps - Kyosho
8. Edwin Suneson - 163 laps - XRAY NT1
9. Bengt Andersson - 162 laps - XRAY NT1 - Merlin Fuel
10. Johnny Karlsen - 156 laps - Kyosho

Tags: Racing, Sweden, Touring

Catalunya Buggy Reg. Championship 3 Rd.

The 3 ^Rd. for Catalunya Reg. Championship was held in Montjuic Track, the same that held a few days ago the 2^nd Round of Spanish Nats.

This time, the weather was sunny and the race could be  finished.

The final results;

1. Robert Battle - Associated / GRP
2. Carlos Pineda - Mugen / Ninja / Merlin Fuel
3. Patxi Peñas Hong Nor / Picco / Merlin Fuel
4. David Comas Hot Bodies /
5. Alex Calatayud Associated / Merlin Fuel
6. Agustí Saltó
7. Francisco Saura
8. Francisco Navarro
9. Jaume Figuls
10. Goyo Vidal
11. Juanma Lerma
12. Gerard Roig

Info and pics from pitlinerc.com

Link - Galería de fotos PITLINERC

Tags: Buggy, Off Road, Racing

Spanish 1:8 Buggy Nat. Championship Rd. 2 - Video

Here is a video about the 2nd Round of Spanish Nats. held last weekend in Barcelona.

Link to report and results

Tags: Buggy, Off Road, Videos

Spanish 1:8 Buggy Nats - Rd. 2

The 2nd Rd. of Spanish Nat Championship, was held in Montjuic track (Barcelona), near the Olympic Stadium.

107 Drivers attended the race. Saturday was sunny and clear with nothing remarkable.
After the qualifying rounds the provisional classification was the following:

1. Robert Battle
2. Javier Puché
3. A. Jesús Gómez Salmerón
4. Dani Vega
5. Alberto García
6. Alex Calatayud
7. Alex Brujas
8. Richi Gómez
9. Borja Hernández
10. Daniel Bernabé
11. Juanma Vera
12. Patxi Peñas
13. Josep Galisteo
14. Raúl daras
15. Alejandro Candel
16. Carlos Pineda
17. Gerard Roig
18. Raúl Peris
19. Angel Roque
20. Martín Roca

On Sunday morning while 1/16^th final, the sky turned unexpectedly black and the “great flood” happened over Barcelona track.

The track was half flooded and race director decided to cancel the Race. Some drivers were disappointed because 30 minutes later the Sun appeared again, and they thought they could have completed the race.

However, the Race director thought that with the necessary time to set up the track again and the race time remaining, they would finish latte in the evening, and some drivers had to make up to 1.000 kms to get back home.

So that, the final result is the same as Saturday qualifying heats.

Next Round will be held in Canary Island, at Telde track.

Image Gallery

Link to complete results

Tags: Buggy, Off Road, Racing

German West Nat. Championship Rd. 4

Bad Bresig, close to Bonn, held last weekend the 4^th round of German West 1:8 Nats.

Saturday was rainy, and no practice or qualifying was possible. The race director decided to offer two practice heats during Sunday Morning, once the track was dry.

Steven Cuypers TQ’ed followed by Tobias Hepp who matched the lap time.

1. Steven Cupyers 20 Runden 5.03.895 14.907
2. Tobias Hepp 20 Runden 5.06.252 14.907
3. Jörg Baldes 20 Runden 5.08.390 14.990
4. Karl Heinz Meister 19 Runden 5.00.209 15.205

The Main final was quite difficult with lot of incidents that went on after the race itself.TQ Steven Cuypers, had to retire before half time and some other drivers got several collisons.

Finally, Hepp, got the final victory, followed by Rd. 3 winner, Frank Schewiola and A. Vahrenkamp.

Final results;

1. T. Hepp/Serpent 966/Mega ZX/Merlin - 114 Laps

2. F. Schewiola/Serpent 966/Mega ZX/Merlin - 109 Laps

3. R. Vahrenkamp/Serpent 960/Novarossi - 108 Laps

4. A. Weyhofen/Kyosho/Orion - 103 Laps

5. R. Rosskothen/Mugen/ GRP/Merlin - 99 Laps

6. K.H. Meister/Serpent 966/Mega ZX - 94 Laps

7. J. Baldes/Motonica/Rex - 88 Laps

8. C. Wurst/Motonica/JP - 86 Laps

9. S. Cupyers/Mugen/Sirio- 47 Laps

10.U. Baldes/Motonica/Orion- 34 Laps

Thanks to Rüdiger and Tobias Hepp for the info and pictures.

More info at Red Rc

Tags: 1:8, Germany, Onroad

Spanish Championship 1:8 Onroad 1st Rd.

The opening round of the Spanish 1/8th scale National series was held last weekend at Club Pical Track in Valladolid. The race saw over 70 drivers registered.

The sunny weather all along the weekend let the drivers enjoy a nice racing weekend.

Sergio Montesinos got the TQ during classifications, followed by Victor González, Oscar Cabezas and current Champion Josué Artiles.

Oscar Cabezas had to fight against the clock to set up his brand new Motonica P81, received a few days before the race. The fastest cars (Oscar Cabezas and Josué Artlies)  recorded 104 km/h in the main straight during the A-Final.

Josue Arrtiles and Óscar Cabezas took the first and second position in the very first laps of the main final and the set a peace that none else could follow.

Both them were very close but the tire changing stop was faster for Josue Artiles, who won a few seconds to allow him to face the rest of the race with some  advantage.

We saw an interesting fight for the third place involving three drivers. Finally, former Spanish Champion, Victor González got the third place ahead Nacho López and Sergio Montesinos.

It seems that this season will be exciting and a close fight until the end of the Championship is expected.

The final result:

1 JOSUE ARTILES  153 45:11.202 Mugen
2 OSCAR CABEZAS  152 45:03.926 Motonica/Novarossi/Merlin Fuel

3 VICTOR GONZALEZ 151 45:11.632

4 NACHO LóPEZ LLUCH 151 45:13.159
5 SERGIO MONTESINOS ORTEGA 150 45:15.010

6 ISRAEL SOLÍS GÓMEZ 146 45:09.529
7 FRANCISCO JAVIER HIDALGO BONET 136 45:00.416
8 VICENTE ERES (M40) 136 45:10.961 - Motonica - Merlin Fuel
9 CARLOS PERACHO HERAS 128 45:03.522

10 FRANCISCO LARA (M40) 42 12:47.137

Full results at myrcm

Tags: 1:8, Onroad