Lutz is top seed going into Nitro qualifying in Xiamen

Ryan Lutz is the Nitro buggy top seed for Qualifying at the 2018 SIGP as he put in a blistering time to go nearly 2 seconds faster over 3 consecutive laps than 2nd placed Yusuke Sugiura. The US driver putting his time down to tweaks made to the car’s setup to make it harder, having felt that the setup he copied from Jonathan Yeung for Rd2 was too soft. Behind Sugiura in 2nd was fellow Japanese Kyosho driver Wataru Takashiro who finally found his rhythm to demote Hu Weiping who will rely on his CP1 time to seed 4th with Chen Guanxian, Jonathan Yeung and Kaja Novotny all improving in the 3rd round to complete the top 6.

Very impressed with the setup he has copied from Hong Kong team mate Yeung, especially how it handles the bumps, Lutz made his dampers harder for the final round of practice and also applied a rear linkage change from the setup that he hadn’t yet put on his car. Now much happier with his car he plans to go slightly harder in the rear shocks for the 1st qualifier tomorrow morning to make the car better on landings off the bigger jumps and plans to use one of the qualifiers to try a harder tire, switching from super soft to soft AKA Impacts.

Japanese driver Yusuke Sugiura felt his car was quick but not stable enough to be consistent over 5 minutes due to the many bumps on the track. For the opening qualifier the Kyosho driver plans to go softer on his damping to cope with the track conditions and make it more stable and consistent but overall he said the car was ‘not bad’.

Kyosho Japan team mate Takashiro said his car was now better than before, continuing the learn the track as the previous days testing had been rained off. Saying his first round this morning was terrible, it took him a while to figure out how to improve the car but now it was ok. With some ideas on how to further improve the car he said the track is getting slippery but followed that up with ‘but I like low traction’.

Hu Weiping made it three Kyoshos in the top 4 places despite not improving on his CP1 pace. In the final round of practice, the Chinese National Champion admitted to making too many mistakes and with the setup changes he made not working he will now revert back to the setting he started the day with going into Q1, with the exception of the change to harder Sweep Defender tires.

Completing the top 5, Chen Guanxian said the set-up changes he is making to the car were improving his Agama each run but also feels he is getting used to the track. For the first of 3 rounds of qualifying tomorrow morning the Taiwanese driver doesn’t plan any changes, instead focussing on just driving the car.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Sugiura heads Controlled Practice at 2018 SIGP

Controlled Practice is in full swing here in Xiamen, China and it is Japanese Kyosho driver Yusuke Sugiura who heads the Nitro times with an impressive 2nd round run that saw him move to the top of the times, leapfrogging Ryan Lutz, the American failing to improve after trying a complete setup change. Chinese National Champion Hu Weiping would remain in 3rd, who along with young Hong Kong driver Jonathan Yeung, failed to improve in the 2nd round as track conditions changed and the surface got more dusty.

Kyosho team driver Sugiura is a fan of the track but feels the surface has changed a lot since the first practice run, saying it was wet and loose in the morning and now it is very dusty and loose. Setting the fastest lap of the event so far with a 34.596, set on the last lap of CP2, he is still getting used to the track and puts his improvement down to that as well as a change from Proline Blockade M3 to AKA Impact Soft long life tires. For the final practice to be run later this afternoon he plans to try a damper change, going to harder oil because of the warmer conditions.

Fastest in the first practice this morning, for CP2 Tekno star Ryan Lutz made the decision to completely copy the setup of team mate Jonathan Yeung having ‘watched his car and it looked good, how it absorbed the bumps was amazing’. Feeling the setup he ended up was too soft for his liking, rolling too much in the corners, he now has a good base and will tweak it to get it to his liking.

Top Chinese driver Hu Weiping would end up in 3rd, some 4 seconds back over 3 laps, the Kyosho racer going the wrong direction in tires for CP2, switching from Sweep’s Defender to Pixel tires but ending up with no traction as the track started to break up in the sections that were damp this morning. For the final round of practice today Ping will go back to the Defender but choose for a harder compound.

Hong Kong Tekno racer Yeung was 4th fastest following the two round of controlled practice having made lots of changes to his car to improve stability and make it land better. Enjoying the dusty conditions and the track layout, his main problem is with traffic as he was placed in the 3rd fastest heat and in the challenging S-section is running into a lot of crashed traffic which is hampering his pace.

Rounding out the top 5 after 2 rounds is reigning Taiwanese Champion Chen Guanxian driving the Agama car and chasing setup with him feeling his car was too stable in the opening round this morning but becoming too aggressive in the 2nd round, something he puts down to the damp track in the morning and the higher temperatures in the afternoon.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Track Focus – Xiamen ARC International Raceway

Track Name – Xiamen ARC International Raceway
Host – 3-Circles
Country – China
Location – Xiamen
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Sugared and glued dirt

Host of the most recent IFMAR EP Offroad World Championships, ARC International Raceway are hosting their annual big money offroad race at their impressive facility situated in the grounds of the 3-Circles battery factory in Xiamen, China. The second time running the event, which also has an onroad variant run on the large tarmac track that is set next to the dirt track, this year’s SIGP has attracted a large entry with close to 200 entries spread across both 1/8th nitro and EP Offroad.

In terms of the track itself, its has been made bigger again to fill the full 75m x 40m track area having been reduced for the 1/10th scale Worlds back in November. Designed once more by Lung Chuan Lee from Taiwan, the building process started 3 weeks ago and was only completed last Saturday after which it was treated with glue and sugar and covered in tarpaulins having rained since.

With the sun now out it means most drivers are only getting their first taste of the track this morning, one of those being visiting US Tekno driver Ryan Lutz. Asked for his thoughts on the track he really liked the size and layout, saying the jumps were pretty straight forward with the main challenge in the first of 3 controlled practice sessions being the damp mud patches on some of the corners which are very sticky. When the track dries however he feels the right side S section coming off the back straight is the most technical, needing to ensure you don’t carry too much speed off the back straight to be sure you are lined up perfectly.

Image Gallery