Mega Racing reports – “Continious development in cooperation with the Mega racing team and Picco has  brought some important modifications, now to be presented in the Mega DS-4 line-up. Pricing on the Mega engines will remain on the very affordable level as before. All engines are also available as Mega Powerpack, which is engine combined with pipe-set and handy Mega engine bag, to protect and transport your valuable engines.” Details can be found here.

“The all new Cirtix R8 represents the best of all worlds for 8th electric buggy and truggy racing. The small footprint fits any application with room to spare, and the super tough integrated alloy heat sink case keeps it protected and running cool under harsh racing conditions. The Cirtix R8 runs both sensored and sensorless motors for the ultimate in flexibility and smooth power delivery. The included Cirtix pocket programmer makes dialing in race settings easy and fast – no laptop needed! We recommend our revolutionary new Cirtix slotless sensored motors to use along with your new R8 for maximum speed and torque in your 8th buggy or truggy. Please visit www.SpeedPassion.net for more details, and to find a dealer near you!”

Xceed has announced the release of their new XPT glow-plugs which have been manufactured from superb quality stainless steel and feature a perfectly isolated pin. Find out more here.

Neo Buggy reports – “Team Associated drivers Richard Saxton and Ryan Maifield are said to be running an updated Reedy engine; rumoured to be a ‘Speed’ version of the current engine. At the Dirt Nitro Challenge Maifield in particular suffered engine problems and having qualified poorly by his standards at the Silver State things appear to be tough, however at the time of writing he just made the transfer to the Amain.” Find Out More…

Xray reports – “The year 2010 kicked-off very nicely with the annual DHI Cup in Denmark. The organizers have been constantly improving this race and its popularity has moved this race into a high-level race event. After a short break during the Xmas holidays we were back into the middle of the action. The race was not so bad for XRAY and in the beginning it even looked very promising but in the final results we honestly could have done better or used a bit more good luck. I do not know why or how, but in the last several major electric touring races Team XRAY starts off with incredible performance setting the pace in practice but once the qualifiers starts the competition eliminates those differences. This was the same situation at DHI.” Read More…

Axial Racing has announced their 2010 Video Awards, with several thousand dollars in prizes. Details can be found here.

Shepherd reports – “From 01/03 – 07/03 the warm-up for this years IFMAR World Championship 1/10 Nitro Touring Car was held in Houston, Texas. For Team Shepherd it was quite an important event as it was the real first test with the team under race conditions with our latest development, the Velox V10, against other international top drivers. As announced before, Shepherd’s team drivers Jilles Groskamp, Daniele Ielasi and Josh Cyrul joined the factory staff around Patrick Schäfer to prepare for this years major event in July. Unfortunately the team had to deal with some travel issues like missed and cancelled flights, but on thursday finally everybody was ready at the track and the first practise sessions already looked very promising. The team tested the soon to be released spool as a replacement for the front differential and all drivers liked it very much. During qualifying it was difficult to get a clean run because the racing line was very narrow on this challenging track but nevertheless 3 Shepherd drivers made it into the top ten. Daniele Ielasi qualified directly for the 1 hour final on 3rd position, Jilles Groskamp just missed the direct qualification on the 5th postion and Patrick Schäfer ended up on 10th position. As Josh Cyrul still had to break in his engine during qualifying he had to start in the quarter-final.

On Saturday the lower finals were scheduled, but as there were only two 1/8th finals, the rest of the day the track was open for free practise. Everybody took the chance to prepare for the finals and some setup changes were tested. On Sunday the first driver to run was Josh Cyrul. He had no problems to bump up to the semi-final where he joined Patrick Schäfer starting from the 3rd position. The start of the semi-final was a mess and in the first corner some accidents happened. Unfortunately Patrick was hitted by another car from the rear and had to get the assistance of a marshal. Accidentally the marshal pushed the body behind the rear wheel and Patrick had to enter the pitlane to get some help from his mechanic Alex. Having not finished the first lap he was already 2 laps down on the rest of the field. Josh had a good start and was able to climb some positions in the ranking. Both cars were fast and Patrick was able to recover to the 3rd place during the next 20 minutes. But when returning to the track after his penultimate pitstop somebody putted a car in his way at the end of the pitlane and he crashed his V10 irreparably. Josh had more luck as he was able to bump up to the mainfinal on a safe 2nd position.

In the second semi-final Jilles Groskamp started from the first position. After a safe drive he finished the 30 minutes race on 2nd place and joined Daniele and Josh in the final. With three cars Shepherd had the most cars in the final of all manufacturers. To gain as much experience as possible the team decided to try to different strategies. Daniele and Josh started the race with only one set of tyres prepared, Jilles Groskamp planned to do a tyre stop.

Also in the finale the start was a desaster. Daniele could take profit from a start crash of Burch and Tosolin took the early lead. Josh had a clean start but Jilles lost a screw and it took nearly 3 minutes to repair his car. Soon Paolo Morganti passed Daniele but he knew that Paolo would have to do a tyre stop. Meanwhile Josh Cyrul improved to the third position right behind Daniele. After the tyre stop of Morganti two Shepherd drivers were leading the race. Unfortunately both couldn’t cross the finishing line in first position. 10 minutes before the end Josh was pushed into the boards by another car and broke his rim while Daniele had a flameout and lost a lot of time. At the end he finished in third position behind Paolo Morganti and Ralph Burch.

Although none of our drivers could claim the victory It was a great week of racing with 3 cars in the main final and Daniele on the podium. The team worked together very well and a lot of good ideas came up. As also the facility was nice and the organizer staff very friendly, we are looking forward to a great World Championship July.”  Shepherd

“Xray has announced the release of their new NT1 Alu Lightweight Locating Collars – “Strategically-lightened alu locating collar made from tough 7076 T6 alu replaces the composite collar used on the front middle shaft or 2-speed shaft. Rotating mass is reduced without sacrificing strength or durability. Xray

• Fits front middle shaft and 2-speed shaft
• Strategically-lightened
• CNC-machined
• Tough 7075 T6 Aluminum
• 2pcs in a set”

“Optimize your Blitz tyre collection with this exclusive Tire Holder! Utilizing a tough yet attractive aluminium rod, hex adapter and serrated wheel nut, the Tire Holder keeps you organized by holding four Blitz short course tires together. Now you won’t have to worry about loose tires rolling around in your pit box or hauler bag!” Find Out More…

OCR reports – “Tim Nicol driving his new RB powered Mugen MBX6, was in fine form to start the season, putting in a couple of impressive round wins to take the outright Round 1 Series podium. Although not getting it all his own way with Tony Knauth, driving an RB powered Hyper 9 also taking 2 round wins, Nicol and Knauth swapping the outright lead throughout the night. Round 1: Saw a great battle off the start with Sergio Manalvo – MBX6 taking the Holeshot just 0.4 seconds ahead of Knauth – Hyper 9, Manalvo holding the lead for more than half the race only to run out of fuel, leaving the battle to Knauth, Phillip Ciccone – MBX6 and Tim Nicol – MBX6, Knauth taking the win to start the season well, just 5.84 secs ahead of Ciccone and Nicol holding on for third. Round 2: Saw Gary Bui – Xray 808 get a 0.5 second Holeshot over Nicol, only to get caught up in the first few laps, leaving Nicol to run away with it, with Skip Jackson – MBX6 right on his tail finishing just 1.97 secs behind at the end, Ciccone in third another 7 seconds down.” Read More…