The inaugural “The Dirt Rio” took place last weekend at the AMA-UFRJ facility in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The facility was founded in 2004 with its focus on airplanes. In 2012, the club built an off-road track with the help of Hobby21’s owner Leandro.
The event hosted driver’s from seven different countries and The Dirt crew build a fun layout that made for great racing. The event kicked off with practice Friday night, followed by one round of controlled practice on Saturday morning. Qual points were used to set-up the finals using driver’s three best runs out of the four rounds of qualifying. Team Losi Racing / Nova Rossi / Pro-Line driver Adam Drake was the top qualifier in 1/8th nitro buggy and nitro truck. In the truck final Adam was able to take the victory with his Nova Rossi powered 8ight T 2.0 equipped with Pro-Line’s M3 Holeshot tires. In the buggy semifinal Adam used Pro-Line’s M3 Holeshot 2.0 tires to take the victory and switched to M3 Blockades for the longer 45 minute A final. In the buggy final Drake’s TLR 8ight 3.0 was on rail and he was able to power away from his competition with his Nova Rossi Keep Off 4 engine to take the victory.
