Efra Euros @ Fehring

Hupo Honigl in the hope of getting one of the reallocation places made once no shows have been confirmed. Martin was assured of his place when fellow British racer Craig Drescher was forced to pull out on the eve of the event but Honigl, who races under a German EFRA license and had his pit area all set up to go racing, failed to secure an entry despite him being one of Austria most successful International off road racers!

Sporting a bandage on his left arm following an operation to correct a problem with a muscle that was causing him to lose feeling in his figures, Robert Batlle is very confident about the days ahead. Expecting much tougher competition this year from Savoya, whom he replaced at Mugen when the French ace switched to Durango, he said with the three time consecutive European Champion now with Xray he is a serious contender for the win.

Quickly building a strong relationship with Xray Savoya said they listen to his input and this has really helped with the development of the XB9 Forced to run harder Sweep tires than he wants as his box of tires for the event have not yet arrived at the track, he said his XB9 was overall easy to drive with the triple and corner jump the two areas he will focus on in the next practice. Boots is now part of a strong Kyosho line up which also includes last years Top Qualifier Jerome Aigoin and David Ronnefalk.

One very noticeable thing in the pits here in Austria is the large manufacturer presence with a number of key Americans over to support their drivers. Adam Drake is over together with TLR team manager Kevin Gahan to support their main title hopefuls Darren Bloomfield, who is actually running one of Drakes own cars and Miguel Matias along with last years fourth place finisher Marcel Guske who just recently signed for TLR Germany from Mugen.

Richard Saxton is on hand to assist Team Associated which is headed up by Neil Cragg and Yannick Aigoin. Aigoin is the last driver to win the title before the great Batlle Savoya rivalry began when the French driver took the title for Xray in 2006 Since May he has been able to practice more and this has boosted confidence.

By RedRC