The first race of the XRAY OFF-ROAD CHALLENGE took place at the North Portugal TROFA track on March 5th & 6th. It was held with the Portuguese Open Race, and the track and organizers did a superb job.
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There were in total 81 drivers coming to this race with a large XB8 community. One of the XB8 was driven by National On-Road Champion Joao Pedro Sousa, who was racing off-road for the first time and was doing extremely well.
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In the Final there were three XRAY XB8 cars: National Team Driver Carlos Hugo Ferreira, Regional Team Driver Guilherme Gonçalves, and driver Telmo Pedro.
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In the 3rd lap the XB8 of Guilherme stopped on the main straight and Carlos Hugo hit him from behind. As a result, Guilherme was out of the race and Carlos Hugo lost 2 laps from all the others. Driver Telmo Pedro had several problems with the engine and with 34 minutes into the race he had to stop, putting him in 9th position. Team Driver Carlos Hugo finished in 6th position.
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In typical style, European and World Vice-Champion Miguel Matias won this race 3 laps ahead of Rodrigoi Luis.
With three XB8 cars in the Final, we consider this a very good result; once only Mugen had also 3 cars in the Final, against two Kyoshos, one GS, and one Hong Nor.
The next race event will take place at the same track on April 2nd & 3rd.
Final Results Open Off-Road at TROFA
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1. Miguel Matias
2. Rodrigo Luis
3. Miguel Lopes
4. Paulo Stricker
5. Tiago Almeida 6. Carlos Hugo Ferreira - XRAY XB8
7. Joaquim Sacramento
8. Jorge Torres 9. Telmo Pedro - XRAY XB8
10.Guilherme Gonçalves - XRAY XB8
