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Xray have announced that Austrian & former ETS Champion Herbert Weber has joined their Factory Team to race the Xray X1 platform. Winner of the very first season of Formula in the ETS, as well as a multiple winner in the Mibosport Cup, Herbert had the following to say:

I’m very happy and proud to be a part of the big Xray Factory Team. Big thanks to Xray for the trust in me and I can’t wait to hit the track with the Xray cars. I will give my best, and will represent Xray in best way possible. At races in Austria as well as internationally, I want to help all Xray drivers to find a good setup for their car. You can come and ask me any time.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

The 2017-2018 Essex Winter Series Presented By Infinity got underway this weekend. Once again, a full capacity entry provided a busy and competitive day of racing, as a an all-new track layout greeted the drivers to kick off one of the largest on-road series in Europe. Olly Jefferies, the winner of last year’s season-closing EWS International got off to the best start, topping the opening round of qualifying ahead of defending series champion Elliott Harper. Kyle Branson, the only driver to have beaten Olly in the UK so far in 2017, also remained in contention and took third in the round ahead of Chris Grainger. The top three were covered by just 7-tenths of a second after five minutes, highlighting how close the competition could be this season.

Despite the close attentions of his challengers, Olly managed to complete a clean sweep of qualifying with his Xray, taking all four of the rounds. Elliott kept him honest, his Schumacher frequently leading the heats at points each round, but at the end of the run it was Olly who always came out on top. Kyle also continued to impress, each time remaining in touch with the leading duo, and securing third overall for Capricorn. Chris’s Associated showed a new turn of speed and set the fastest lap of qualifying, but he wasn’t able to quite keep the pace up for the whole run each time, finishing a couple of seconds back on Olly each time. A third place in Q2 was enough to give him fourth overall on the A Final grid and a strong chance to challenge for the podium.

The single-leg A Final saw Olly lead the pack off, with the top four running in grid order. Elliott remained in touch with Olly through the early stages, but the 2017 BRCA champion made no mistakes and stayed out in front for the first half of the race. The action on track for the first three minutes was between Kyle and Chris, the two cars running virtually nose to tail and providing plenty of excitement for the spectators. But despite everything he tried, Chris couldn’t quite put himself in a position to make a move that would net him a podium finish at the end. As the race moved into the closing stages, Elliott found a new turn of speed and closed the gap on Olly at the front. Elliott began lining up a pass and kept his Schumacher tucked under the rear wing of the Xray in front of him. One opportunity presented itself to Elliott as the cars went into the fast front section of the track. But Olly kept his lines tight, forcing Elliott onto the kerbing and with a slight loss of grip, Elliott had a half-spin and thus lost any chance of completing the pass to take the win.

Behind the top four, a good run for Harley Eldridge from eighth on the grid saw her fighting with Matt White, with the youngster, now no longer classed as a Junior, securing fifth at the finish line.

Touring Modified A Final Result
1 (1) Olly Jefferies – Xray/Hobbywing
2 (2) Elliott Harper – Schumacher/LRP
3 (3) Kyle Branson – Capricorn/Tesla
4 (4) Chris Grainger – Associated/Reedy
5 (8) Harley Eldridge – Yokomo/LRP
6 (5) Matt White – Associated/Reedy
7 (7) Stefan Chodzynski – Schumacher/LRP
8 (9) Aaron Rose – Schumacher/Nosram
9 (10) Brian Eldridge – Yokomo/LRP
10 (6) Alan Bickerstaff – Associated/Reedy

In the Super Stock class, a number of new faces to the series throughout the field hoped to shake things up a bit – but defending champion Zak Finlay hadn’t read the script as he stamped his authority and took the opening round by just over three seconds. Last year’s perennial runner up, Tony Broad, found himself again in that position in the opening rounds, taking second behind Zak in Q1 and Q2, with Ashley Wiffen then securing second in the last two qualifiers. Crucially, Ashley’s best time was two-seconds quicker than Tony, leaving him to line up second on the grid with Tony third. Marcus Askell had consistent opening rounds to secure fourth overall, with Ricky Copsey showing a lot of single-lap speed, but unable to keep his car consistent for the whole run and thus lining up fifth.

The A Final demonstrated just why Zak is the current EWS and BRCA Super Stock champion, building an early lead of between two and three seconds as Ashley and Tony, as expected from qualifying, fought to be ‘best of the rest’. With both of the drivers veterans of the EWS championship, both having taken many podium results, they knew how to race each other and despite Tony’s best efforts, Ashley kept his car glued to the track and provided no opportunities for Tony to make a successful pass. Colin Jackson and Chris Clarke moved up from their qualifying positions and engaged in a battle with Marcus Askell, the three drivers eventually crossing the finish line separated by just one and a half tenths of a second. But none of the action behind troubled Zak at all, as he cruised to the victory to get his EWS championship defence off to the best possible start.

Touring Super Stock A Final Result
1 (1) Zak Finlay – Xray
2 (2) Ashley Wiffen – Awesomatix
3 (3) Tony Broad – Xray
4 (6) Colin Jackson – Schumacher
5 (7) Chris Clark – Serpent
6 (4) Marcus Askell – Xray
7 (9) Shaun Ogden – Capricorn
8 (10) Tim Hancock – Xray
9 (8) Jack Ioannou – Xray
10 (5) Ricky Copsey – Awesomatix

Source: EWS [ewsevents.co.uk]

Xray have released the 2018 version of their XB2 carpet edition 2wd buggy. Featuring a number of refinements throughout, the first of which is the new chassis made from 2.5mm Swiss 7075 T6 aluminium whose special design ensures that different areas of the chassis have the proper flex. The precision milling allows the chassis to be stiff enough to perform properly without risk of bending. To improve front chassis flex, the front composite chassis braces were redesigned and shortened to allow for mounting all-new graphite side guard braces for better stability and performance. In the rear,  the all-new narrower suspension holders with new rear suspension geometry gives increased rear traction. The gear differential has new diff-outdrives that are stronger as a result of a new hardening process that increases lifetime and reliability, and are now designed to be used with a new more durable 2.5mm pin on the drive shafts. Finishing off the improvements, are new 4.5mm off-set wheel hex hubs to compensate for the new narrow suspension holders and higher-precision shock absorber lower shims for more precise shock shaft movement.

View the complete XB2C 2018 presentation here.

Capricorn introduce the new ONE restrictor set. Provided in three different heights but all with 9mm diameter, the restrictors have been designed to be used on all Novarossi and OS on-road engines to fine tune the response of your engine. The shorter restrictor is meant to improve the bottom end power, while the longer one increases the top speed, all three giving different feelings to the user.

Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]

Round 8 of the 1/8th onroad National championship saw drivers travel to the Wombwell circuit for the second time this year. For those arriving on the Saturday for practice we were treated to a great buffet, thanks to Nicola Wood and Claire Carr, in celebration of Kath and Phil Carrs’ 70th birthday, which also featured a cake in Team Carr colours. The previous week had seen some of the UK drivers competing in the Worlds in France and after speaking with Wayne Briggs it sounded like all of those involved really enjoyed the experience.

Around 45 drivers were competing across the two classes again and it was good to see a few drivers from the past making appearances. 1/8 Circuit is definitely a class that once you’ve had a go at it you will inevitably return to at some point because of the buzz the cars give you.

The weather for the weekend was mainly cloudy but the rain held off, apart from a couple of drops. In qualifying, the battle seemed to be between Tim Wood and Andy Hastings but David Spashett put in a great last round time to go second quickest behind Tim. Also making the A final were Richard Hicklin Serpent, Michael Walton BMT, Neal King, Jason Frost, Clive Connolly, John Carr and Andrew North took 10th . Franck Dambrine was competing in the nitro class for the first time this year and Giorgio Acanfora topped the B-final. It was good to see Baj Panasar also making an appearance after all the history he has racing in the class.

In the electric class, it was business as usual for Alex Thurston at the front in dominant fashion, not too far behind Pete Hasting qualified second, Craig Woods third and Dan Jones fourth. Serpent locked out 8 of the top ten places with only Pete Hastings (Shepherd) and Geraint Williams taking 10th (ARC) running other chassis. Phil Hague and James Ellice had good qualifying runs also to make the A-final and gave them the chance to mix it with the regular A-finalists.

Finals
Niall Cochran dominated the Nitro C-final from Patrice Ladeveze by three laps, with Robert Stevenson taking the final podium position. Sam Snell driving Mugen easily won the B-final with a number of drivers crashing out from the front grid positions. In the A-final an early incident dropped Andy Hastings to the back of the field but Andy was to make a great recovery. Michael Walton and Clive Connolly were out early on with mechanical issues with others following shortly after. The race began to become a race of attrition with Wood in control out front from Spashett. Wood seemed to have engine issues, allowing Spashett to gain and the recovering Hastings was also closing in. The last part of race witnessed a great battle between the top three and Hastings was able to pass both drivers with a clear pace advantage to take the win. Spashett took second and Wood third, meaning the title will be decided at the final round at Cotswold between Spashett and Wood.

In the electric class Simon Parish took the B-final win from Devandra Mahatme and pole sitter Vincent Menzies took third. It was great to see him back racing 1/8 Circuit. The A-final also was ran over two legs, Alex winning from Pete Hastings and Dan Jones moved up to third. Leg two saw the same result but with Pete much closer to Alex. Overall, Alex Thurston took the win from Pete Hastings and Dan Jones third. The final round of the championship is at Cotswold.

Nitro Results A-final
1. Andrew Hastings – Shepherd
2. David Spashett – ARC
3. Tim Wood – Serpent
4. Richard Hicklin – Serpent
5. Andrew North – ARC
6. Jason Frost – Capricorn
7. John Carr – Serpent
8. Neal King – Shepherd
9. Clive Connolly – ARC
10. Michael Walton – BMT

Electric Results A-final
1. Alex Thurston – Serpent
2. Pete Hastings – Shepherd
3. Dan Jones – Serpent
4. Craig Woods – Serpent
5. Jamie Paton – Serpent
6. Phil Hague – Serpent
7. James Ellice – Serpent
8. Geraint Williams – ARC
9. Paul Bellinger – Serpent
10. David Gerard – Serpent

Thanks to Michael Walton for the report.

The first round of the Middle Swedish Indoor cup was held last Saturday in Örebro, Sweden. The track was tight and medium grip and a big challenge to all drivers. In Superstock it was Rasmus Karlsson who took TQ with 0,5sec ahead of Daniel Carlsson and in third spot Andreas Johansson. The finals saw some really good fights and Daniel Carlsson was able to win the first two finals to secure the overall win in the first race of the season. Rasmus Karlsson won the last A-main and put down a new lap record at the same time. Alexander Johansson was the best Debutant and got a nice price.

Final Results
1. Daniel Carlsson – Associated
2. Rasmus Karlsson – Schumacher
3. Per lindqvist – Associated
4. Andreas Johansson – Serpent
5. Andreas Gillblad – Associated
6. Fredrik Loiske – Associated
7. Patrik Fredriksson – Xray
8. Hans Ekberg – Serpent

Thanks to Daniel Carlsson for the report.

A sunny but chilly Sunday set the stage for the penultimate round of the 2017 Jokerteam GT12 Championship. Despite track temperatures barely reaching 20°C during the day, grip conditions were optimal thanks to the track’s treatment that the organisation was able to perform the day before the race. During the morning’s qualification rounds it was a tight battle between Mattia Dall’Oca (Team Schumacher) and Johnny Orsolin (Jokerteam) with the former coming out on top and locking the TQ spot with a blistering run in Q3. Johnny settled for 2nd on the grid ahead of Claudio Giovanelli (Jokerteam).

The finals again saw several wheel to wheel battles on the track, not only between Mattia and Johnny for the top spot, but also among other drivers for the lower step of the podium. With the overall final result uncertain until the very last few corners of A3, it was Mattia that finally came good in both A2 and A3, thus grabbing the 150 points reserved to the winner. Johnny was a close 2nd while Alessandro Giubbilei (Jokerteam) 3rd. Coming up next the Season Finale, Round 8 on October, 22nd when the winner of the 12th edition of the Jokerteam Championship will be crowned.

Round 7 Results (top 3):
1. Mattia Dall’Oca (Team Schumacher) – Atom CC
2. Johnny Orsolin (Jokerteam) – SupaStox GT
3. Alessandro Giubbilei (Jokerteam) – Atom CC

Overall Standings (Top 5) after 7 rounds (best 6 scores count):
1. Mattia Dall’Oca (Team Schumacher) – 899 points
2. Johnny Orsolin (Jokerteam) – 893 points
3. Alessandro Giubbilei (Jokerteam) – 886 points
4. Lorenzo Crepaldi (Jokerteam) – 878 points
5. Fabrizio Dall’Oca (Team Schumacher) – 722 points

Source: Jokerteam [jokerteam.it]

Pro Star RC have introduced these composite kevlar shock towers for the Sworkz s353 buggy. Made using their super hybrid composite, that includes blue or red fibres over kevlar with a carbon fibre core, they have developed this shock tower to not only be awesome looking but be structurally stronger and more durable than any other shock tower material on the market. The set includes both the front and rear tower in 5mm material and is available in blue or black.

Source: ProStar R/C [prostarrc.com]

New from Gravity RC are these offroad ride height dice, a simple and easy way to get your target ride height. Sold in a set of 3, the number facing up is the measurement (17-25mm) with each dice is 3D printed at a very high resolution to ensure its accuracy.

Source: Gravity RC [teamgravityrc.com]