One of these events and considered to be the first big race of the season for the Euros is the Montpellier Grand Prix held in Montpellier, France. Montpellier, the 7th biggest city in France is located in the south of the country, the City is about 6 miles inland from the Mediterranean coast on the river Lez. The city first was documented in 985 and throughout the centuries the city’s name comes up throughout this region's history. 

The Montpellier GP is the unofficial start to the European 1/8th Season, this race is like their DNC with all these drivers from Europe converging to do battle, American racers such as Ryan Maifield and Ryan Lutz have also attended this race but more on that later. 

The actual RC Club of Montpellier opened in 1986, I'm sure there were other GP’s but I was able to find out a list of winners that started in 2006 with Italian Legend Davide Tortorici winning the first ever race. The Spainard Robert Batlle has the most wins with 4 (2012,14,17&18) the UK’s Elliot Boots has won it 3 times for the Queen. Juan Carlos Canas was your last winner in 2020 (2021 canceled due to Covid) Other legends that have tasted victory here are French men Reno Savoya. Yanick and Jerome Aigon and Jerome Sartel. Pretty Ricky Berton was the last Italian to win in 2016 and Riccardo Rabbitti in 2009. This race has a prestige level of any other big event in RC IMHO.

Riccardo Rabitti 2009 Champion

Davide Tortorici 2006 Champion

For me as a RC Racing fan I love this race. It is old school Euro racing to its core. The track is permanent and has been the same for many many years. It is a throwback to the Old style of Euro tracks that are getting replaced by more modern style tracks. There are multiple surfaces but it is probably most famous for its polished blue concrete turn that looks so easy to navigate but yet so deceiving as it is like driving on ice. Throw in that dark black groove that forms as the racing goes on, a long straightaway , a tree, some elevation, jumps while not huge like other tracks are very challenging. Make no mistake this is a true Euro track in all ways and like most Euro tracks CORNER SPEED is what is important. 

Robert Batlle 2012 Champion

Montpellier is a track where local racers take it to the top names and you see some guys in the finals you have never heard of. I literally watched Carlos Dures, a fast Portuguese racer blow past Ryan Lutz to take the bump spot in one of the finals from 2020. The track is the great equalizer; they apparently treat the racing line with a mix of sugar and hot water. Also During the 2020 race we watched as the track was inundated with rain showers on the day of the finals. The track crew had the track up and running within an hour of the rain stopping by using saw dust and brooms.

Yannick Aigon 2010 Champion

One of the other things that makes Montpellier GP unique is that there is one tire that is exceptionally better than others here and that is the 6Mik Magnas. Talking to other drivers running other manufacturer’s tires they feel that they have found a solution to this issue with tires to go head to head with the 6Miks tires. We'll see if they have an answer or will we see drivers opting to run the 6Miks anyway.

This is also one of the races the Americans used to attend Ryan Maifield attended in 2012(Team Associated) and 2015(TLR) his best finish was 4th in 2015. Ryan Lutz (Nemo/Agama) was the most recent American driver to attend in 2020 and unfortunately for Lutz he was on the back foot from the start. Lutz would not make it out of the ¼ finals and would be taken out in the infamous Duares pass where the saying rubbing is racing can be applied to this situation. Montpellier is just one of those tracks that are unique where experience is key as a permanent track the more you race it the better you know it. Permanent tracks are not a thing in the USA but this is a topic for another day.

Robert Batlle 2017 Champion

This weekend starts the race to the World’s which ironically will be in Europe as the mind games, and jockeying for any advantage of their adversaries these top drivers all want to win make no mistake.

Juan Carlos Canas 2020 Champion

Will we see the young Spaniard SWORKz driver Juan Carlos Canas repeat and win like he done 2020?

Can Elliot Boots make it 4 wins and bounce back from a mediocre 2021?

 Will we see Davide Ongaro pick up where he left off in 2021?

The Dynamic Duo known as the Kilic Brothers are looking fast and ready to go. Can Berkan or Burak win or better yet go 1-2?

Will Pretty Ricky Berton win it for Infinity?

Can the veteran Mugen Driver Robert Batlle show the world he still has the pace of the younger drivers?

XRAY are hitting the races hard sending a full squad to France led by Bruno Coelho, let’s not forget the Baldo and Skidmore brothers who are always fast here.

Can the Shark Reno Savoya do it for Kyosho and France?

Which Mad Man Marco Baruffolo will show up with his Tekno ride?

Will we see Alex Zanchettin get back to his former glory with the Mayako MX8?

What young Euro Racer will make a name for himself?

There are lots of questions going into Montpellier and many will be answered and some will not. This is RC Racing at its finest and we look forward to seeing some great racing which we seem to always get at this race. I implore my American friends to forget about the lack of big jumps and the concrete surfaces and watch some of the best in the world duke it out in what is the Montpellier GP.

Also this will be the first race of our NNRC Euro Cup Series so these drivers will be awarded points for this race and there are no dropped rounds ! We are very excited for this race. It is great to see our European RC Family getting back to a normal schedule of RC Racing. The Montpellier GP will not disappoint !

Tune in this weekend and follow us on Facebook and House of RC as we follow the race this weekend and post up all the videos from the French RC media outlets!

One Love,

Lefty 

Photo Creds: Circus RC, REDS RC, 

Video Creds : Ryan Lutz , RC Mag