Drake Sweeps Neo Buggy Invitational

[MattHiggins]

http://209.2.68.15:8011/pics/neodrake.jpg

From Neo Buggy:
Adam Drake Double Winner At Neo Buggy Invitational

The Neo Buggy Invitational is one of Europe's largest 1/8-scale off-road races with pro drivers attending from all over the world. US Drivers Adam Drake (Losi, Trinity), Andy Smolnik (CEN, OPS Radical), and Greg Degani (Ho Boa, Picco) put their buggies and truggies in both A-finals representing for the States. Adam Drake won both classes with his Team Losi 8IGHT and 8IGHT-T rides, which is an awesome accomplishment at a race of this caliber. Smolnik grabbed second in truggy with his OPS-powered CEN Matrix TR, while Degani finished on the podium with his Picco-powered Ho Boa Hyper 8 in 1/8-scale buggy. Here are the results from the A-finals.

1/8-scale winners
1 Adam Drake - USA - Losi/Drake
2 Davide Tortorici - Italy - Crono/Falcon
3 Greg Degani - USA - HoBao/Picco
4 Borja Hernandez - Spain - Mugen/Ninja
5 Robert Batlle - Spain - HoBao/Falcon
6 Andrew Smolnik - USA - CEN/OPS Radical
7 Jon Hazlewood - UK - XRAY/Recab OS
8 Jamie Booth - UK - Hong Nor/OS
9 Graham Alsop - UK - HoBao/RB
10 Christoffer Svensson - Sweden - Kyosho/RB
11 Lee Martin - UK - HoBao/Picco
12 Elliott Boots - UK - Kyosho/RB
13 Neil Cragg - UK - HoBao/RB
14 David Crompton - UK - Team Magic/RB

1/8-scale Truggy
1 Adam Drake - USA - Losi/Drake
2 Andrew Smolnik - USA - CEN/OPS Radical
3 Graham Alsop - UK - HoBao/RB
4 Richi Gomez - Spain - GS/RB
5 Stewart Wilcox - UK - Mugen/Ninja
6 Tommy Chung - UK - Kyosho/Sirio
7 Elliot Boots - UK - Kyosho/RB
8 Jamie Booth - UK - Hong Nor/OS
9 Greg Degani - USA - HoBao/Picco
10 Robert Batlle - Spain - HoBao/Falcon
11 Daniel Vega - Spain - Mugen/Ninja
12 Linus Thern - Sweden - Kyosho/RB

[zakerid]

Great showing... for both Losi and CEN.

[CarbonMadness]

Whats wrong with the Drake, his shell is just yellow. :eek:

[T/Losi]

Whats wrong with the Drake, his shell is just yellow. :eek:
:eek: Pretty plain looking

[suckfish]

Wow , what a great showing for Drake.. and Team Losi sure glad the Eight is under my christmas tree :)

[oOple]

heres a report and photo gallery :)

oOple - neo invitational 2006 (http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/)

Adam used the yellow shells for better visibility from what I was told. Congratulations to him - it was a real display as he was away from the start of 45 minutes and never looked back, awesome stuff.

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/final03.jpg

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/winneh.jpg

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/day2/bigimages/NO5E0536.jpg

[JEEL]

WOW...5 HoBao buggies in the Main!! Great showing for such a low cost buggy.

[Racing t]

how ugly does that yellow shells look.. LOL

[ElectricThunder]

heres a report and photo gallery :)

oOple - neo invitational 2006 (http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/)

Adam used the yellow shells for better visibility from what I was told. Congratulations to him - it was a real display as he was away from the start of 45 minutes and never looked back, awesome stuff.

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/final03.jpg

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/winneh.jpg

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/neoinvitationl2006/day2/bigimages/NO5E0536.jpg
Excellent pictures and coverage IMO. If it's one thing oople has, it's GREAT pictures and absolutely awesome reviews!

[R/C Kid]

I have flourescent orange body's that I use in the middles of summer for visibility it gets dusty enough that you have to change your airl filter when you pit in a ten minute heat!

[oOple]

Excellent pictures and coverage IMO. If it's one thing oople has, it's GREAT pictures and absolutely awesome reviews!

Thanks mate - its always nice to hear when people appreciate my efforts since it is just a hobby but hard work all the same.

[Paradoxmaker]

Great showing... for both Losi and CEN.

1 Carter
2 Cen
2 TM
4 Sportwerks
4 Hot Boddies
8 Crono
13 Losi
15 Kyosho
16 Hong Nor
17 Mugen
17 XRay
25 HoBao

Buggy count is based on the drivers list....

So how is that a great showing for Losi? Out of 13 buggies, they only got 1 into the top 14. Yes it won, but to me that does not say much about the rest of them. It tells me that the rest of their drivers are either not that good, very unlucky, or had very bad setups.

Then maybe it's not the buggy, maybe it's becasue it does not matter what Drake drives, he's gonna podium with it.

[enigma xr]

1 Carter
2 Cen
2 TM
4 Sportwerks
4 Hot Boddies
8 Crono
13 Losi
15 Kyosho
16 Hong Nor
17 Mugen
17 XRay
25 HoBao

Buggy count is based on the drivers list....

So how is that a great showing for Losi? Out of 13 buggies, they only got 1 into the top 14. Yes it won, but to me that does not say much about the rest of them. It tells me that the rest of their drivers are either not that good, very unlucky, or had very bad setups.

Then maybe it's not the buggy, maybe it's becasue it does not matter what Drake drives, he's gonna podium with it.

Very well said, i can only agree with you.
But you no what the saying is : what wins on sunday, sells on monday :)

[prodot]

Please bare this in mind, every car on that list has been out for well over a season apart from the Losi ! The drivers who were running the Losi 'apart from the Drake' would of only had there cars at most for about 8 weeks and with the weather raining so much they would not of had much time or chance to learn the car or set up! And yes while I agree that the Drake would be on the podium no matter what car he drives, he is not just winning races by the odd second or so, he is winning them by quite a huge margin, and this is against the best drivers in the world! When the Drake was racing the Jammin, he was one of the fastest Rally X drivers in the world, But now that he races the Losi, I believe that he is now possibly the 'fastest' Rally X driver in the world!! Yes the Drake is good! But because of how good the Losi is! he is now exceptional! The only people I have heard trying to put down the Losi are shop owners who don't sell Losi, Team drivers who race for another company but who secretly wish that they were racing the Losi and people who have not even driven a Losi, went out and bought another brand and are now secretly wishing they had got the Losi instead! This is not to say that all other cars are rubbish, they are not, BUT at this moment in time the Losi is the fastest, best handling with the best 'maximum performance based' innovative design out there!!

[Paradoxmaker]

Please bare this in mind, every car on that list has been out for well over a season apart from the Losi !
Um, no they all have not all been out for over a season. The Hyper 8's (hoboa) have only been out what 4 or 5 months? And the Team Magic has only been out for 2 weeks(?) and yet they still managed to get 1 of the 2 they ran into the top 14.

The drivers who were running the Losi 'apart from the Drake' would of only had there cars at most for about 8 weeks and with the weather raining so much they would not of had much time or chance to learn the car or set up!
So your telling me that a Pro Level driver can't learn how to set up their car to win unless they have more than 2 months to work with it?

The only people I have heard trying to put down the Losi are shop owners who don't sell Losi, Team drivers who race for another company but who secretly wish that they were racing the Losi and people who have not even driven a Losi, went out and bought another brand and are now secretly wishing they had got the Losi instead!
I'm not trying to put down the Losi at all, I'm simply stating that IMO, if the buggy is such a leap forward in design that everyone tries to make it out to be, there should of been at least a couple of them in the final. Instead there was only one, driven by perhapses the best driver out there

[JohnCary]

The other thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that the Losi eight is a USA built buggy and doesn't quite have the rep. over the entire world yet as compared to brands such as Kyosho, HoBao, Cen, and XRAY. Granted, I'm sure the Eight is sold world wide at this point but it doesn't exactly have the same rep as all the other brands when it comes to 1/8 scale buggies. most of the drivers on that drivers stand already have current contracts that were probably signed well before the Eight was released. Even if they just renewed a contract that doesn't mean that Losi is going to sponsor the whole world just because they have a new vehicle out. Its quite clear that Losi chooses they're drivers wisely and this careful selection shows they only choose to sponsor the very best drivers that also care about the sport rather then getting free supplies and a pay check, Adam Drake is a prime example of this. Don't knock a company based on how few cars it has in the main because that has nothing to do with it, you need to look at who's on top, in this case it's Drake/Losi. Better yet, don't knock them at all, be proud of the racers that made it into the main and finished in the main.

my 2 cents.

[suckfish]

Drake is the man to beat on the race track.. but Losi still took the WIN.. Thanks Drake
2nd place is just that second whether 5 or one Losi made it to the finals.

[chase]

heck yessssssss

my uncle is gettin me an 8 truggy and a muggy 4 no reason

[Brit_bulldog]

Please bare this in mind, every car on that list has been out for well over a season apart from the Losi ! The drivers who were running the Losi 'apart from the Drake' would of only had there cars at most for about 8 weeks and with the weather raining so much they would not of had much time or chance to learn the car or set up! And yes while I agree that the Drake would be on the podium no matter what car he drives, he is not just winning races by the odd second or so, he is winning them by quite a huge margin, and this is against the best drivers in the world! When the Drake was racing the Jammin, he was one of the fastest Rally X drivers in the world, But now that he races the Losi, I believe that he is now possibly the 'fastest' Rally X driver in the world!! Yes the Drake is good! But because of how good the Losi is! he is now exceptional! The only people I have heard trying to put down the Losi are shop owners who don't sell Losi, Team drivers who race for another company but who secretly wish that they were racing the Losi and people who have not even driven a Losi, went out and bought another brand and are now secretly wishing they had got the Losi instead! This is not to say that all other cars are rubbish, they are not, BUT at this moment in time the Losi is the fastest, best handling with the best 'maximum performance based' innovative design out there!!






The Main reason IMHO is that this is a very typical track that Drake and the Americans drive on every week.
Look at where the drivers come from who finished well and you will see that the americans all did well.

you would have expected the home drivers to do well but it was obvious that they was not as comfortable with this track as the yanks. to my knowledge this is the only track of its kind in the Uk and it only open for one meet a year.

As already quoted many times you can give the best drivers in the world an average car and they will perform.

Just look at what Dave Crompton achieved with the Crono. :teacher:

[RespirologyRC]

What no Revos???! LOL Drake is the man and he would have won the Pro Series MT if he didn't have small mishap. Everyone knows it. Drake and LOSI ARE #1

[glassdoctor]

Yep, only one Losi made the A.

But look at the others with only one buggy in the A:
Mugen,Xray,HongNor,Cen,Crono,TMagic,Losi

Two cars in the A:Kyosho

Five cars in the A:Hobao

So nobody has huge braggin rights here except maybe Hobao, even though they had a lot more cars there.

[Lamouche]

Hi from France,
I think Adam Drake is a very good driver, but he win on an "american style track". Like say an other member of the forum, sunday he win, monday he sale, it's a promotional race ;)
For truggy race, remember this classe is not an EFRA classe, and the other driver race only because their sponsors sale truggy :p
I'm a moderator on a french forum, and every body reconize Adam Drake and the 8ight are very good.
Wait for the Farm II :roll2: