The 2019 edition of the EFRA 1/12 scale European Championships was held at the world famous Hudy Arena, in Trencin, Slovakia. The race saw a strong field of more than 100 drivers from 15 different countries. Championship crowns were up for grabs in two classes – 6.5T Modified, and 13.5T blinky stock.

The race was held over 3 days. Practice started on Friday, and the track soon started to come in, with decent traction levels already. I was setting the early pace in Modified, and Michal Orlowski as well as Ollie Payne seemed to be the two strong forces in the stock class in practice.

As qualifying started, I didn’t have a big advantage in pace anymore, as the first 3 rounds of qualifying were won by Jorn Neumann. Michal Orlowski also showed a strong early pace. After some setup changes and tuning of tire preparation and size, I was back on pace to take qualifier 4 and 5! The last round was a real thriller as it came down to just a few thousand of a second on the tie breaker, which eventually played in my favor, to award me the TQ spot! I was amazed to have turned things around and put my car on the TQ spot after qualifying! Markus Hellquist from Sweden had a very strong qualifying performance, putting his car on the 4th spot. Hupo Hönigl also made the A-final with his XRAY X12 in 7th!

In the modified finals, I was able to secure my 6th consecutive European title after two straight A-final wins. Consistency was key on Sunday as I tried to keep my car “between the boards” for the duration of the finals. It worked out perfectly as my car worked flawlessly on Sunday. I am extremely proud of this win! Markus Hellquist came very close to a podium finish, but eventually would finish 4th – which is still a very strong result in this competitive A-final. Hupo Hönigl moved up to 5th overall! Which meant, that we had 3 XRAY X12 cars in the TOP 5!

Modified Results

1. Alexander Hagberg – XRAY X12
2. Michal Orlowski
3. Markus Mobers

Race Report by Alexander Hagberg

Source: Xray