Perfect race nets Sahashi World title

A perfect 60-minute display of driving netted Tadahiko Sahashi the 1:8 Onroad World title this evening in Japan.  Making his World Championship final debut, the Serpent driver cruised to victory to becomes the 11th driver to lift the biggest prize in the sport’s oldest category taking a comfortable win over the Mugen/OS pairing of Takaaki Shimo and Atsushi Hara.  The 19th running of the World Championship, Sahashi’s win marks Italian manufacturer Picco’s first World title in the sport’s Formula One category and the first title for Serpent since 1997.  In the pitlane it was Picco’s Eduardo Picco and Serpent designer Michael Salven who ensured perfect fuel & tyre stops en route to the 24-year-old taking a hugely popular win.

Commenting on the race Sahashi, the younger of the famous racing brothers, said he was ‘super happy’ to win especially in front of a home crowd.  Making two tyre stops, the first for just new ZAC tyres on the left side and the second for a full fresh set, he said everything went perfectly.  Complimenting the handling of his 977,  and the performance & run time of his engine, he was particularly thankful to his pit crew for their faultless stops. Running 5-minute fuel stops, he said once he got the gap over Shimo to above 10-seconds he started to control his pace.  Unable to hold back his emotions braking into tears as he drove his final lap, all his rivals paid tribute to his flawless drive.

Shimo was frustrated by not being able to take the challenge to his fellow countryman.  The pre-event favourite, said a wrong choice of set-up for the final left the rear end of his MRX-5 loose preventing him from staying in contact with Sahashi.  Happy with every other aspect of the final, doing two stops to change all four tyres each time, he said ultimately Sahashi did the perfect job including getting his set-up right for the track conditions and is the deserving winner.

Not called a legend of the sport for no reason, Hara’s third place finish continues a run of World Championship podiums.  Starting from fifth on the grid having qualified in the 1/4 finals, the former Electric Touring Car and 1:8 Offroad World Champion made it four consecutive World Championship podium finishes having finished 2nd in both the nitro and electric touring car Worlds and 3rd in the 1:8 Offoad last year.  Declaring himself ‘maximum happy’, he said while everything in the final came together including his partnership with former champion Kenji Osaka, he said he lacked pre-event track time to be a title contender.  Adapting his driving style more to how most 1:8 drivers race he said this helped a lot, highlighted by him recording the fastest lap of the race.  Making three tyre stops in the race, the first and third only being to change the left side, he said the strategy from Osaka was a good one.

Finishing fourth, having started from seventh on the grid, Mugen driver Shinnosuke Yokoyama was disappointed to lose out on a podium finish by just 2-seconds.  The 21-year-old, who was a 200mm Worlds finalist in 2010 where he also just missed out on the Top 3,  said his MRX-5 was really good in the race but engine flame outs during both his tyre stops cost him the place.

Taking the honour of being the best non-Japanese driver, Xray/Max driver Carmine Raiola ended the race in fifth having started 4th.  Making his first World’s final, the Italian National Champion said he was happy with result adding that having to make three more fuel stops than his rivals finishing any higher was always going to be a tall order.  Doing two tyres stops, changing all four tyres on each occasion, the 22-year-old said he was pleased with his race pace which saw him set the second fastest lap time to Hara.

Making his Worlds debut and putting himself in the final having bumped up from the 1/8 finals, Swiss driver Silvio Hachler was happy to finish in the Top 6 saying he gave his best.  The 21-year-old described the pace of the final ‘as incredible’ saying but for one mistake he felt he drove the perfect race but still it left him in 6th position such was the pace of the leaders.  Making three tyre stops, the first and last only for replacing the outside tyres, he said he was happy with that strategy.

Flaming out on the start line leaving him a lap down, HB’s Teemu Leino would finish recover to finish 7th on his and the R8 Worlds debut.  Describing 1:8 Onroad as the Formula 1 of r/c racing, he said he was happy to make the Main, with 1:8 Offroad now the only class he has failed to reach the final at a World Championship.  Following his flameout, he said he knew he needed to try something if he was to salvage anything from the race.  Starting the race with Protoform’s R18 which on new tyres worked well but then starting pushing as the tyres worn down, he changed to an R15.  Giving him more steering he said he declared himself happy with his overall performance in Japan.

Unfortunately having put in a stunning recovery drive in the semi final to make the Main, we never got to see European Champion Jilles Groskamp take the fight to the Japanese.  The Team Shepherd/Maxima driver was the only one to serious threaten the chance of a Japanese winner over the week, but a flame-out just 2 and half minutes into the race was the start of a troubled race for the Dutch ace.  Working his way back up to as high as third, in the second half of the race after changing all four tyres on his Velox V8 the engine suffered the first of a series of flameouts.  Pushing hard to try and make up time with around 5-minutes to go he hit a curb and with the car not feeling right he decided to pull in so as not risk interfering with the other drivers who where battling over podium placings.  Watching the final few minutes of the race from the rostrum he said looking at Sahashi driving he said even had everything ran faultlessly it would have been hard to beat the Japanese driver.

View the event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Tadahiko Sahashi is 2013 World Champion

Final Result
1.(1) Tadahiko Sahashi (JPN) – Serpent/Picco – 202/1:00:10.891
2.(2) Takaaki Shimo (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 201/1:00:02.178
3.(5) Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 200/1:00:09.866
4.(7) Shinnosuke Yokoyama (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 200/1:00:12.069
5.(4) Carmine Raiola (ITA) – Xray/Max – 199/1:00:11.554
6.(8) Silvio Hachler (CH) – Mugen/Novarossi – 196/1:00:17.373
7.(6) Teemu Leino (FIN) – HB/OS Speed – 190/1:00:15.105
8.(10)Charlee Phutiyotin (THA) – KM Racing/OS Speed – 187/1:00:07.416
9.(3) Meen Vejrak (THA) – KM Racing/OS Speed – 179/59:31.609
10.(9)Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Shepherd/Maxima – 178/56:13.274

Sahashi on pole for World Championship Final

Team Serpent’s Tadahiko Sahashi will start the 1:8 Onroad World Championship final at KeiTune Racing Speedway in Japan from pole position after the Top Qualifier took a faster win in the second Semi-Final than Takaaki Shimo managed in opening 30-minute encounter.  Starting from the front Sahasi lead from start to finish, the only blotch in the near perfect run being the loss of a rear wheel off his Picco powered 977 when he was released from his tyre stop.  Such was the Japanese drivers lead however once the rest of the field completed their tyre stops he was back in front eventually taking the win by over a lap from Atsushi Hara and HB’s Teemu Leino.  The story of the race however was the recovery drive from European Champion Jilles Groskamp.

At the start Groskamp found himself boxed out dropping him down the order as the Team Shepherd/Maxima driver tried to stay out of trouble but contact with HB’s Michihiro Takayasu would knock a shock off the Velox V8.  Driving one lap with the left rear shock off the car, he had to pit where crew chief Jarb Ratanarat fitted a new one.  Losing three laps in the pits and sitting in last position, the recovery drive by the Electric Touring Car World Champion was noting but spectacular.  Having suffered a similar incident in one of his qualifiers, Groskamp luckily decided to take a shock off his spare car and put it in his pitbox for the Semi, a decision he said after ‘saved the day’.  Totally fired up by the incident, having originally planned to drive a well calculated race, the Dutch ace drove the race of his life.  Setting the fastest lap, only him and Sahashi managing to break in to the 16-second lap times, he would work his way back up to fifth passing those ahead of him as though he was lapping them rather than unlapping himself.  With the Top 4 bumping up from each race, the last direct position in the Semi A going to Shinnosuke Yokoyama, Groskamp would claim his place in the Main with the fastest non-top 4 time with KM Racing’s Charlee Phutiyotin who was in the same race securing the final spot on the grid.

One big name casualty of the race was Miami runner-up Keisuke Fukuda.  Starting 5th, the KM Racing driver would lose the INS Box off his Picco engine on his first fuel stop.  Returning to the pits to have it fitted back on, it would come off again after he rejoined the track ending any chance of him progressing to the final.  With the Japanese driver out it means the podium in Chiba this evening will be completely different with Shimo & Hara the only 2011 finalists set to start the race.  The race also saw the end of the road for Miami finalist Takehiro Terauchi, the Mugen Novarossi driver running out of fuel just as the first round of fuel stops started. Former Worlds Finalist Oliver Mack would fail to finish, the Team Shepherd driver having a front shock come off which he believes was the result of a crash earlier in the race.

Grid for Final
1. Tadahiko Sahashi (JPN) – Serpent/Picco
2. Takaaki Shimo (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed
3. Meen Vejrak (THA) – KM Racing/OS Speed
4. Carmie Raiola (ITA) – Xray/Max
5. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed
6. Teemu Leino (FIN) – HB/OS Speed
7. Shinnosuke Yokoyama (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed
8. Silvio Hachler (CH) – Mugen/Novarossi
9. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Shepherd/Maxima
10.Charlee Phutiyotin (THA) – KM Racing/OS Speed

View the event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Semi-A Final Result

1.(1) Tadahiko Sahashi (JPN) – Serpent/Picco – 100/30:02.217
2.(10)Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 99/30:08.696
3.(8) Teemu Leino (FIN) – HB/OS Speed – 99/30:16.601
4.(4) Shinnosuke Yokoyama (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 98/29:49.759
5.(2) Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Shepherd/Maxima – 98/30:02.764
6.(7) Charlee Phutiyotin (THA) – KM Racing/OS Speed – 98/30:15.563
7.(3) Takehiro Terauchi (JPN) – Mugen/Novarossi – 97/30:10.519
8.(6) Michihiro Takayasu (JPN) – HB/OS Speed – 97/30:17.478
9.(9) Oliver Mack (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 71/22:22.462
10(5)Keisuke Fukuda (JPN) – KM Racing/Picco – 21/6:57.375