Ishima wins the first Sylvester Cup !

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert  - BELGIUM Romain Valter - FRANCE
DATE	27th to 28th of December 2008
LOCATION	Aarschot - BELGIUM

WEATHER Indoor track, but very cold. TRACK Indoor track, partly carpet, partly tarmac with some very technical sections.

RACE REPORT

The Sylvester Cup was organized by NBR Nuclea from Mol - Belgium and is the last race of the 2008 Belgian RC season. The members from NBR found a hangar in Aarschot and managed to turn it into a racing arena ! Respect for the work these guys (and girls) did !

The track wasn’t very big, but very amusing, a good length, a long straight and some very technical sections., part tarmac and part carpet.

The tryouts went very well for the Ishima Team. Raphael managed to get the fastest lap down on the track, 1 second in front of the second fastest car in the tryouts.

The next day it was time for the qualifications. Raphael was driving like he was on rails ! As a result he took pole position with 1 complete lap in front of second place man Jerome Sartel. Third in the qualifications was Romain Valter.

The half finals were no problem for Raphael either, he won the race with two laps in front of Jerome Sartel, who took second place. Romain Valter confirmed his third position.

Everyone who thought Raphael was driving on rails in the tryouts should have seen him drive in the finals. Our Ishima pilot was going like lightning ! In the end Raphael won the final with 5 laps ahead of second place winner Jerome Sartel. Romain Valter finished in third place.

This was another great weekend for the Ishima racing team where we went home with the following cups :
- First Place (Raphael Robert)
- Third place (Romain Valter)
- Pole Position (Raphael Robert)
- Fastest Lap (Raphael Robert)

Nothing more to do than to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New-Year and don’t forget to check out the Ishima Team in 2009 !
 

Ishima takes second place at the FS cup in China !

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert  - BELGIUM Romain Valter - FRANCE Joseph Quagraine - FINLAND
DATE	9th to 17th of December 2008
LOCATION	CHINA

WEATHER 25°C and dry TRACK Super organization an amazing track and great weather, the Chinese really know how to handle an event like this !

RACE REPORT

After a long flight of 12 hours we arrived in Hong-Kong. We picked up our rental car and drove another two and a half hours to reach our hotel, which was located about 30 minutes away from the track.

Early in the morning after a short night of sleep, we went to check out the track and perform some tests on our cars. The Ishima’s handled the track beautifully, very few adjustments were needed, WE ARE READY TO GO !

After the qualifications things were already pretty clear. The Ishima team took Pole Position (Joseph Quagraine) AND 3th (Romain Valter) AND 5th (Raphael Robert) position. This is going to be a VERY exiting race for the Ishima team.

Time for the finals (1 hour of racing). Joseph Quagraine had engine trouble, but still managed to finish in 10th place. Romain Valter was driving together with Kanai almost the complete race but saw his chances of being on the podium go up in smoke after an arm broke on one of his servo’s during the last 10 minutes.

Only one hope left for the Ishima team now, Raphael Robert. And Raphael delivered ! And how !  Raf finished only 21 seconds behind Yushi Kanai (World Champion 2000), this is AMAZING if you know he drove the last two minutes of the race with a nearly empty battery !

A small summary :
- Second place after Yushi Kanai : ISHIMA !
- Circuit track record : ISHIMA !
- Pole position : ISHIMA !

We’re sure, 2009 is going to be...how shall we say....special ! :-)
 

Ishima at the Offroad Meeting in Italy

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert  - BELGIUM
DATE	20th to 23rd of November 2008
LOCATION	Voghera - ITALY

WEATHER Indoor race track, but rather cold max 5°C during the day. TRACK A very nice track layout with some very fast and very technical sections, the underground was a hard packed surface but unfortunately it suffered from 2 days of racing, so for the finals and bump ups it wasn’t easy to drive anymore and lap times went down for everybody.

RACE REPORT

The Ishima team had their act together and managed to reach very fast lap times, we were so fast that we went directly into the semi finals and got a ticket for the “Race of Champions” on Saturday evening.

The “Race of Champions” was a special event with the 16 fastest drivers of the day. They had to drive a special US style final which means that every 3 minutes the driver in the last position has to stop.
At that US style race we finished at a very nice 10th place and this in freezing temperatures ! The race was held at 23.00h and with -4°C it was not an easy race to drive.

Back to the main event, the Arena race, on Sunday we started in 14th place in the semi finals. After a very difficult start we raced back to a top 5 place and during a close battle with Tortorici we ended in 6th place in that final.

The A final was a very close race but at this level, with many top European drivers we were very pleased reach the top 20 of this International indoor race.

 

Bad luck in Alicante - Spain

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert  - BELGIUM
DATE	10th to 12th of October 2008
LOCATION	Alicante - SPAIN

WEATHER Pouring rain on the first day. Plenty of sunshine during the rest of the competition. TRACK Long and very technical track with very fast sections

RACE REPORT

The last EFRA Grand Prix of the 2008 season, was held in Allicante - Spain.

The first day, things looked pretty bad, it rained the whole day and it just wouldn’t stop. However the next day, things cleared up and we enjoyed Spanish sunshine for the entire competition. At first glance, the track looked BIG and very technical, very straight and fun to ride. The surroundings were just magnificent and the competition was very well organized.

The qualifications the first day had to be stopped because the rain had turned the track into a mud pool. After the qualifications we entered the semifinals without any problems.

At the start of the semifinals our engine stopped and before we got it back up and running again, we had already lost 1 round to the competition. But then we took a flying start and with just 2 more minutes on the clock before the end of the semifinals, we caught up with the others and placed ourselves for the finals !

After the presentation of the pilots in the finals it was time to race !

We were driving a very competitive final, constantly switching places in the top 5. But then after half an hour disaster struck ! Our engine failed again and with pain in our hearts we had to abandon the competition.

The potential of the car was there but unfortunately the engine wasn’t up to specs.

In spite of our bad luck, we had a great time in Spain and hope to ride this wonderful track again in the future. Maybe the 2010 European B Championship ?

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Antonio of M Redis (Ishima distributor Portugal & Spain) for the help he gave us, making this an almost perfect weekend (DAMN THAT ENGINE !!!) !
 

Ishima at the indoor Grand Prix in Leipzig - Germany

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert - BELGIUM
DATE	3rd to 5th October 2008
LOCATION	Leipzig - GERMANY

TEMP 16° C WEATHER Indoor track TRACK Wooden Rally Game track with few small jumps

RACE REPORT

The Leipzig Grand Prix was held indoor at the International Fair. Inside, we saw that this weekend we would be driving on a wooden track. For the occasion the wood was painted gray to make it look like a liquid concrete track.

The Leipzig grand prix usually is one of the last of the season and introduces the start of the indoor season. The track presented reasonable traction but very few jumps and those that were there were quite small. It included 3 very technical sections through which you really had to be careful because even the smallest mistake would send you flying off...

In the qualifications, Raphael managed to place himself in the quarter finals.

Raphael went on to drive the quarter finals but also ran into engine trouble just before he could enter the pits.

Although we had some engine trouble, we still had a good feeling about the car, which was reassuring. Next year we’ll be back !
 

Blackjack Race

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Ishima - BELGIUM
DATE
LOCATION

TEMP   WEATHER   TRACK

RACE REPORT

This weekend a special race was held at the Mol track in Belgium in conjunction with Ishima Racing. The race format was similar to the 'Reedy style' in that there were only finals, and in keeping with the 'Blackjack' theme all finals were 21 mins.

The length of the final and astroturf surface meant racing was very close, mixed in with tactics on pit strategy. I

Ishima managed to take the win ahead of Paul Geelen with his MBX6 and Henoc Luis' RC8.
 

Ishima at the World Championships , Charlotte, USA

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert - BELGIUM
DATE	1st to 5th of september 2008
LOCATION	Charlotte, USA

TEMP 35° Celcius WEATHER Sunny and no wind for the last qualifying and finals. TRACK Hard surface, bumpy track with jumps and some wooden whoops. Very hard track which had to be rebuilt after practice.

RACE REPORT

After 10 hours of flight we arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The weather was dry.

The track looked very long with some big jumps and some very technical and fast sections.

We had a bad draw in the qualifications which meant we had to qualify as one of the last, which meant we were driving on a bad track. (everyone else had already used it to qualify before us)

From the 6 qualifications we ran, we managed to take a top 40 position twice. Bad weather stopped uw from doing this in all qualifs.

During the bump up we managed to take second place and never dropped out of the TOp 5. It looked like a great scenario to get into the higher finals. But all hopes were lost when we went off track and a marshal touched our flywheel . This stopped the engine, and made us loose too much time...the race was over...

It was a fantastic experience to be in Charlotte, we’ll be back !

>> more information :
http://www.2008usifmarworlds.com/index.htm
 

Ishima wins again at Nuclea Mol

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Ishima - BELGIUM
DATE	6th to 7th of september 2008
LOCATION	Mol - BELGIUM NBR (Nuclea)

TEMP   WEATHER   TRACK

RACE REPORT

The 4th and penultimate round of the Holland vs Belgium series held at the Nuclea track saw our Ishima driver win (again).

The Ishima team had a great weekend on the spectaculair track of Nuclea buggy racing.
The Ishima Rave M1.0R was no match for the competition with a TQ and a overall win with 1 lap in front.


FINAL RESULTS

- 1st place 43 laps Ishima Rave M1.0R / Medial Pro / Picco Evo3
- 2th place 42 laps Theo Kuijpers Associated RC8 / RB
- 3th place 42 laps Paul Geleen Mugen / Ninja


>> more information :
www.neobuggy.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4639
 

Ishima at the European 1/8th Buggy Championship in Greece

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert - BELGIUM
DATE	1st to 5th of july 2008
LOCATION	Heraklion - GREECE

TEMP 43° Celcius WEATHER Sunny and no wind for the last qualifying and finals. TRACK Hard surface, bumpy track with jumps and some wooden whoops. Very hard track which had to be rebuilt after practice.

RACE REPORT

After some practice rounds it was clear that the Ishima car was very fast on this kind of track. From the start we achieved some very quick laps so ut’s safe to say, things could not start any better.

In practice we tested the Katana and Adheris II Medial Pro tires and found that the Adheris II (M1 compound) was the tire to pick to keep going fast on this track.

Each qualifying round we went faster and faster. Round 4 and round 5 we were the fastest car on the track. An 8 lap finish placed us directly in the top-50. We were even more impressed by how the car held up. The built quality of the Ishima is really top notch, we didn’t break one single thing that race ! No plastic parts, no metal parts, no gears, no drive shafts , NOTHING ! (keep in mind that this is still a RTR car for 95%!!!)

We continued to go from 1/16th final to 1/8th final without any problems. In the 1/8th final Raphael was in 1st place before Daniel Reckward, Jerome Aigoin, lenzi Samual, etc... There was some extremely close racing done by all pilots, every mistake made was one too many and made you drop several places instantly. After 15 minutes in the 1/8th final, Raphael had some radio problems because of the scorching heat and he had to drop out of the race. We don’t dare think what would have been possible if our radio hadn’t broken down, seeing that Reckward did get a place in the main A final...

>> more information :
www.euros2008.gr
 

Raphael Robert finishes 2nd at MBRC GP in Belgium

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Raphael Robert - BELGIUM
DATE	June 2008

RESULT 2rd PLACE LOCATION MBRC - BELGIUM

RACE REPORT

We have a new factory pilot ! Raphael Robert earned his wings driving as a factory pilot for Hobao in the past, but he was quick to see the Ishima’s potential and changed teams.

In his first race at MBRC in Belgium, he already made a big impression, finishing second after “the French Pink Panther” !

>> more information :
www.neobuggy.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4191
 

Ishima finishes third in Bergerac.

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Ishima - BELGIUM
DATE	1st of june 2008

RESULT 3rd PLACE LOCATION Bergerac - FRANCE

RACE REPORT

• Bergerac was a very nice race for the Ishima. On this fast and challenging track there were 3 different kind of grip sections.
• There was classic hard packed soil, there were carpet sections and 2 corners were lined  bricks. To our satisfaction the Ishima car had no problems to handle all these different types of track. In the end we managed to get a third place in the “+40” final.
  
  >> more information :
  www.rcinfos.com/link.php?link=41
   

Ishima at Nuclea Buggy-Truggy Cup 2008

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Ishima - BELGIUM
DATE	1st of june 2008

LOCATION Mol - BELGIUM NBR (Nuclea)

RACE REPORT

This weekend, we put theory into practice. We had seen how the Ishima computer models behaved on high jumps, but we never tested this on a real track.

The first impressions were awesome! We were really driving our prototype to the edge and beyond ! No jump was too high for our Ishima buggy ! It went over the track like we were driving on an on-road track. Each lap we clocked 1 or 2 seconds faster than everyone else. This race was a very good test for the upcoming big indoor races starting in November.

For the moment we are already preparing for the Dutch International Truggy Indoor Masters  on 12-13 december 2008. Come and check us out !
 

Ishima test driving the first Ishima’s at Neo08

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Ishima - BELGIUM
DATE	21st to 28th of march 2008
LOCATION	Harper Admas College - England

TEMP 5° Celcius WEATHER VERY COLD !

RACE REPORT

The first real international test for the Ishima cars. Competing with the best drivers in the world, we still managed to get some very fast qualifying times. It was however a whole new experience to drive the Ishima on an American style  track like the one at Neo08.

It was nice to see our Ishima taking the American style jumps just as smooth as most common US buggy’s. For us, that was real proof that our Ishima car is ready and suitable for this type of track also.

>> more information :
www.neo08.net
 

Ishima finishes first at Nuclea’s 1st open race.

RACE DETAILS

DRIVER	Ishima - BELGIUM
DATE	9th of march 2008

RESULT 1st PLACE LOCATION Mol - BELGIUM NBR (Nuclea)

RACE REPORT

Our maiden race with Ishima buggy. Our idea to go to Nuclea was mostly to do some preparations and testing on the car for the Neo08 race two weeks later. Much to our surprise and satisfaction, WE WON THE RACE !

The competition was strong, because the Dutch delegation was also there to test their cars for the Neo08 race. So it was really a good test for our Ishima car.

Nuclea has a very fast track with big killer jumps and on this type of track it seems the other drivers were no match for the Ishima. We finished the A-main final with one lap in front of the Dutch 2007 champion.

The future looks bright !
 

Meet the Belgian
National Champion of 2008.
ISHIMA RACING !
 

March 1st

1st leg Belgian Championship

BELGIUM

March 28th - 29th

1st leg French Championship

FRANCE

April 10th - 13th

Neo Invitational

UK

April 10th - 12th

Grand Prix EFRA

ITALY

April 25th - 26th

2nd leg French Championship

FRANCE

May 3rd

2nd leg Belgian Championship

BELGIUM

May 8th - 10th

Grand Prix EFRA

FRANCE

May 23th - 24th

3rd leg French Championship

FRANCE

May 31st

3rd leg Belgian Championship

BELGIUM

June 21st

4th leg Belgian Championship

BELGIUM

June 27th - 28th

4th leg French Championship

FRANCE

July 7th - 11th

European Championship A

AUSTRIA

August 29th - 30th

French Cup

FRANCE

September 6th

5th leg of the Belgian Championship

BELGIUM

September 26th - 27th

5th leg of the French Championship

FRANCE

October 18th

6th leg of the Belgian Championship

BELGIUM