Wing Car Races 2002 Wing Car Races 2003 Wing Car Races 2004 Wing Car Races 2005 Wing Car Races 2006 Wing Car Races 2007 Ranking Wing Car Racers starting 2008 Season

39th EUROPEAN G7 WING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP - LAHIA (SF), March 15-16 - IOC RACE

LEO HONGISTO WINS HIS 3RD WING CAR EURONATS

March 17, 2008 - Up to yesterday the following racers won three times the European G7 Wing Car Championship: Bernd Möbus (D) in 1973-1981-1985; Lasse Åberg (S) in 1986-1987-1988; Vladimir Horky (CZ) in 2000-2002-2004 and Juha Yli-Sipola (SF) in 1995-1996-2007. Only Mario "MSP" Schöne (D) won four times: in 1990-1991-1997 -1998. Now we have a fifth racer having won three times the European G7 World Championship. It concerns Finland's Leo Hongisto who won earlier in 1995 and 1996. Shortly after his second win Hongisto quit wing car racing and switched to R/C racing. In 2004 he made his come-back reaching a first summi end 2007 when he won the German Wing Car Masters ahead over Vladimir Horky. Yesterday, on the "slow" Blue King of Lahia in Finland he could beat Horky again, winning his third European Championship.
We found 31 racers at the start, half of them (15) being from Finland. Sweden was present with 6 racers (Lasse Aberg being absent). From the 10 others 2 came from Czechia (Josef Korec being absent), 2 from Germany, 2 from the USA (Skinner and Mack), 1 from Slovakia and 1 from Brazil. Biggest deception was that Mario "MSP" Schöne (D) didn' show at Lahia (whilst at the end of 2007 he was present at the German Wing Car Masters in Brühl). Another important absentee was Petteri Pirhonen (SF).  The poverty of European wing car racing was once more evident at Lahia, since wing car racing remains restricted to Finland, Sweden, Czechia, Germany and Slovakoia. Compared to 25 years ago we lost wing car racers from Holland, from Portugal, from Spain, from Austria, from Switzerland, from France, from Italy and from Norway. We cannot be blind for the anaemia of wing car racing. Earlier this year only six racers showed at the famous Barnburner in the States. Especially in Europe number of Blue King tracks dropped from year to year. Symptomatic for the crisis in wing car racing is that IMCA finds nobody who wishes to receive for free a brand new ultra fast Blue King, even not at Zlin, having closed its doors. The major problem is that a Blue King track needs a large race location, that the rents for such locations are high, and that the number of typical wing car racers in Europe drops from year to year. The success of wing car racing in Finland and Sweden cannot hide that wing car racing is dying in the rest of Europe, where scale racing and model car racing are several times more popular.

 
1. Leo Hongisto SF 344.19 557.00 969.50
2. Vladimir Horky CZ 383.09 559.00 953.00
3. Juha Yli-Sipola SF 365.00 531.00 931.00
4. Vlado Okali SVK 351.00 545.15 925.00
5. Esa-Pekka Söyrinki SF 364.86 572.29 917.00
6. Atte Lyyski SF 376.19 545.00 907.00
7. Jari Porttinen SF 365.00 530.00 876.00
8. Mikael Silén S 352.00 534.00 779.00
9. Stefan Törnfeldt S 361.25 528.43 -
10. Jyri-Ville Pouttu SF 374.76 518.18 -
11. Atte Hietalahti SF 379.94 516.39 -
12. "Gugu" Bernardino BR 349.04 514.00 -
13. Anders Gustafson S 347.00 501.50 -
14. Harri Nykänen SF 330.00 474.40 -
15. Veli-Matti Kantamaa SF 359.20 470.00 -
16. Juho Sippola SF 350.00 466.13 -
17. Zdenek Benes CZ 361.10 - -
18. Andreas Karisson S 357.50 - -
19. Kimmo Rautama SF 354.90 - -
20. Olli Kantamaa SF 347.00 - -
21. Bill W.H. Skinner USA 336.00 - -
22. Pekka Sippola SF 331.34 - -
23. Per Persson S 320.00 - -
24. Rainer Borsutzki D 317.00 - -
25. Niko Sorsa SF 316.00 - -
26. Jeff Mack USA 310.00 - -
27. Hannu Laitinen SF 307.09 - -
28. Richard Jonsson S 283.60 - -
29. Heijo Thinschmidt D 282.64 - -
30. Iso-Aho Tuomo SF 272.20 - -
31. Lalla Andersson S 187.00 - -
 

Contrarily to previous years we received not the smallest information concerning the European Championships. Indeed organisers preferred to inform ... an American web site but not the most consulted web site in ... Europe: IMCA's. Strange organisers who try to tell the rest of the world that this were only the 30th Wing Car EuroNats in history. As can be seen at our page on earlier results, the Wing Car EuroNats are the oldest in the world, with a first edition in 1970 (whilst the oldest G7 USRA Nats dates from 1971).


26th EUROPEAN G27 WING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP - LAHIA (SF), March 15 - IOC RACE

GOOD OLD VLADO OKALI WINS G27 EURONATS

March 17, 2008 - One can hardly say that the organisers of the ESROC Nats respected the traditional press relations ESROC always had. Results were even not published on their proper web site but exclusively at the OWH. But at the OWH we could only read the names of the 8 first in G27 (even the number of achieved laps or the number of entrants at the ESROC G27 were not published). All we know is that Vlado Okali (SVK) won ahead over Bill W.H. Skinner (USA) and Mikaél Silen (S). Earlier a One Motor Group 7 race with 33 entrants was contested. Here Vladimir Horky (CZ) was the winner ahead over Vlado Okali (SVK) and Mikaél Silén (S). The complete result of the ESROC OMO Race can be found on Paul Kassens's OWH. [JPVR]

 
2008 ESROC G27 EURONATS  

2008 ESROC OMO G7

1. Vlado Okali (SVK)     1. Vladimir Horky (CZ) 721.23
2. Bill W.H. Skinner (USA)     2. Vlado Okali (SVK) 706.48
3. Mikaél Silén (S)     3. Mikaél Silen (S) 699.22
4. Juha Yli-Sipola (SF)     4. Jari Porttinen (SF) 699.11
5. Richard Jonsson (S)     5. Atte Lyyski (SF) 690.38
6. Stefan Törnfeldt (S)     6. Juha Yli-Sipola (SF) 687.81
7. Vladimir Horky (CZ)     7. Anders Gustafson (S) 674.72
8. Harri Nykänen (SF)     8. Harri Nykänen (SF) 674.12

32nd AUSTRALIAN G7 WING CAR NATS - DANDENONG, VICTORIA (AU), March 22-23 - IOC RACE

"MISTER TIM" TYLER DOES IT AGAIN!

He wins the best attended Australian Nats of the last 20 years!

April 3, 2008 - After having won the Australian Nats in 2003 and 2006, Tim Tyler finished last year as third to Ivan Wearne. Earlier, in 2005 he was runner-up to Vlado Okali in 2005. In 2004 he finished as runner-up to Geoff Little. In 2002 he was runner-up to Peter Dight. That means that at all entries he finished among the top-3. This year, in the best attended Australian Nats since at least 210 years, he had no ^problem to beat Brazil's Jose Mario Serra and good old Wayne Bramble. The last one is together with Dennis Traeger and Peter Dight one of the icons of Australian wing car racing. Tim Tyler seems on his way to join the famous trio. After the 32nd Australian Nats Tyler is the best ranked Australian racer in the IOC-list. He collected already 131 IOC points (against 168.5 for Wayne Bramble). Tyler is also a good model car racer. At the upcoming IMCA Worlds he can win enough IOC-points to pass Bramble as best IOC-ranked Australian racer.
This year all the best Australian wing car racers, being still active, were at the start. Among them also the 2007 Australian champion Ivan Wearne. Unfortunattely he missed the main final for 33 laps in Semi A. Two other well-known Australian racers - "Stumpy" and Geoff Little - missed the main too. In the main - full of crashes - Tim Tyler had no problems to let Jose Mario Serra nearly 100 laps behind.
At the 32nd Australian Wing Car Nats, the old 1"633 record has been improved by Carl Nielsen, realising a fastest lap in 1"592. No other racers went under the old record. [JPVR]

 
racer Qualifications Consi Semis Final
1. Tim TYLER (AU/NZ) 1"695 - 598 999
2.  Jose Mario Serra (BR) 1"697 - 620 901
3. Wayne Bramble (AU) 1"814 - 552 859
4. Tony Pye (AU) 1"703 - 571 827
5. Lindsay Byron (AU) 1"658 - 556 753
6. Garry Johnson (AU) 1"699 - 586 687
7. Charles Rickards (AU) 1"933 376 566 617
8. Keith Wade (AU) 1"702 - 521 339
9. Ivan Wearne (AU) 1"771 - 533 -
10. Mick Belot (AU) 1"822 - 461 -
11. Geoff Little (AU) 8"884 337 395 -
12. David Fitz (AU) N/T 294 365 -
13. John Favorito (AU) 1"873 372 358 -
14. "Stumpy" (AU) 1"650 - 307 -
15. "Mudd" (AU) 1"799 - 293 -
16. Carl Nielsen (AU/DK) 1"592 - 9 -
17. Billy "K" 6"687 249 - -
18. Michael Thorby (AU) 2"334 77 - -
19. Mikey "B" (AU) 9"224 62 - -
20. Chad Raven (AU) N/T 36 - -