March 1, 2024

Coelho holds overnight TQ in Bangkok

With Day 1 of qualifying at the 20th edition of the TITC complete it is Bruno Coelho who holds the overnight TQ in Bangkok.  The Xray driver would take both rounds of qualifying on today’s schedule helped by top seed Ronald Volker having a 360 spin while on TQ pace run in Q2.  The second of the four qualifiers would be a repeat of the opening round in terms of the Top 3 with Alexander Hagberg 3rd fastest having been the pace setter for a time during the 5-minute run.  After an early mistake and a bad set-up choice in Q1, Naoto Matsukura would get a P4 on his second attempt ahead of Souta Goto driving the new Tamiya TRF421 which is making its race debut here.  With many of the leading drivers having moments it was the Xray of Shin Sawada who was running in the second fastest along with Goto who completed the Top 6.

‘It was a tight qualifier with Ronald at the beginning’, was how Coelho summed up Q2.  Chasing a record equaling 4th win at the TITC, he said, ‘at the start of the run he is strong but in the middle my car is better. It was close but then he spun out.  Everything is super tight’.  A slower run than Q1 by almost 2-seconds, asked if he was able to improve his car between rounds having found his X4 ‘tricky to drive’ in the middle of round 1, he said, ‘it was still difficult to drive so if we can solve that for tomorrow we have a very good chance.’

Asked about his run Volker replied, ‘to be honest I am very disappointed.  I was in the lead and everything seemed fine but then I did a 360.  I’m not sure how.  I lost it on a bump I guess and handed it to Bruno.’  The Mugen Seiki driver continued, ‘I shouldn’t be too disappointed because it’s complaining on a high level but it would have been nice to get a TQ and go into the next day even (with Coelho).  One year ago I was having one of my worst races so it is great how well things are going this year so far but I need to do a better job tomorrow.’  Setting the fastest lap of Q2, on his MTC-2R’s performance he said, ‘the car was great.  Like everyone it is not easy to drive but it had the pace.’

While repeated his Q1 result Hagberg was very positive about his second effort.  A double winner of the TITC, he said, ‘that was really good.  I was able to lead for a bit.’  He continued, ‘I was able to push the car very hard but maybe I pushed too hard and overheated the tyres because I started to struggle with staying on my lines and lost contact with the Top 2.’   Explaining he had a bit of a scare before the start when his car got hit by another driver, he said ‘luckily the car was ok’ and looking to tomorrow’s concluding two rounds of qualifying he said if he can ‘maintain (his) driving lines’ for the 5-minutes he is confident he can be in the mix.

Explaining that a set-up change for Q1 left him with a ‘very nervous’ car resulting him traction rolling on the first lap, Matsukura reverted back to his previous set-up and everything was ‘fine again’.  Suffering a crash at the chicane the former World Champion lost 1.5-seconds admitting he was luck to get 4th for the round over 3-seconds off the TQ pace.  With 2 of the four rounds to count, he said the focus for tomorrow is to get another good points finish in Q3 as he needs the points to try and lock himself into the A-Main.

After an additive mistake in Q1, Goto said he was able to realise the improved set-up they found for his car in this morning’s free practice.  16th fastest in seeding he said yesterday his car was ‘so, so’ but today it is working very good and some overnight set-up changes.  The 23-year-old said, ‘For Q1 I left the additive on for too long and I had no grip’.  The first race for the latest competitive touring car from the iconic Japanese brand, it great to see TRF’s Kiyokazu Suzuki and Takayuki Kono here and both racing, Goto said Q2 was a clean run and with the car working now he will stay with the same set-up for Q3 tomorrow.

View our event image gallery here.


March 1, 2024

Chassis Focus – Naoto Matsukura (Infinity)

Chassis – Infinity IF14 II TE
ESC – Orca OE1 Mark II
Motor – Orca Modtreme 2 4.5T
Battery – Orca 6090mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Futaba T10PX / CT702
Body/Wing – Xtreme Twister / RC Mission 0.7

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March 1, 2024

Coelho takes opening qualifier at TITC

Bruno Coelho has kicked off the defence of his TITC title in the best way possible by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying at the iconic Bangkok race.  Second behind Ronald Volker in the single seeding round yesterday evening, the Xray driver reversed the order in the first of the four qualifiers by topping the round by 7/10th over the Mugen driver.  Held just after midday local time on a very hot track, behind the Top 2 there was a considerable gap.  The third fastest time was set by Alexander Hagberg who was closely followed by Marc Rheinard and Akio Sobue, the Top 5 all previous winners of what is widely regarded as the most difficult race in the world.  Making it five different manufacturers in the Top 6, Xpress team driver Yugo Nagashima put in the sixth fastest time.

Summing up his opening effort as ‘pretty good’, Coelho said, ‘the conditions are pretty hard because the asphalt is super hot today’.  He continued, ‘in the middle of the run my car was tricky to drive and I was just trying to keep it on its wheels but the last 4-laps I had to push hard to keep ahead of Ronald after he was able to close the gap I made at the beginning.’  Asked what his issue was mid run the Portuguese driver said, ‘the car is rolling too much.  It’s getting so hot.  We never drove in this heat yet so we need to work on the car for that.’

‘P2 is not a bad start and I had a small shot at the end to challenge Bruno’, was top seed Volker’s reaction to Q1.  He added, ‘He pulled a gap at the beginning but the last minute I was very close to him.  I was reducing the gap but then I caught two backmarkers and that cost me time as well as putting me out of my rhythm, I lost time but maybe it did not cost me anything in the overall result.’  A driver who openly admits that the RC Addict track has always tested him, the German said, ‘it was still enjoyable to challenge for TQ at RC Addict cause it didn’t happen in a long time.’  On his car, the former World Champion described it as ‘slightly difficult’ adding ‘the grip was a bit lower today, not by much, and they will make small adjustments for Q2 while also trying to judge what the tyres will do.

Hagberg said his run had a ‘couple of small mistakes’, the Swede highlighting a mistake on his first lap which he said caused him to lose his ‘confidence’.  He said overall his ‘speed was OK’ but he was ‘not able to challenge the Top 2’.  A two time TITC Champion, on his car he said, ‘in general my car is pretty good so I will just fine tune the set-up but I think it’s my driving I need to work on more’.

‘Slow but no mistakes.  The points are OK but pace & car wise it was not OK’, was how Rheinard summed up the first qualifier.  The multiple World Champion who has only won the TITC once in his illustrious career, way back in 2006, said, ‘It felt like I had no grip but still the car was trying to flip.  I had no feeling, the car felt like it had no connection to the track.’

Winner of the event in 2018 and again in 2020, Sobue was much happier with his car today.  P7 in seeding, the Axon driver said, ‘the car is better now.  We made a small change and the balance was better’.  He added, ‘The car is good but my driving was a little cautious at the start.’  The Japanese driver was also a little frustrated after losing time when he caught Rheinard and Lucas Urbain.  With Urbain having had a crash earlier in the run he said, ‘Lucas had a crash and I was faster driver (on pace) but he wouldn’t open for me.  I tried to make a pass and he didn’t open and I crashed into him and I lost a position’.  Encouraged by his car’s Q1 performance he said the plan is to ‘improve the driver’.

Seeded in the second fastest heat, Nagashima summed up his Q1 with ,’It was good, I’m happy’.  Running a number of parts that will form the next kit release from Xpress, he said they made a little change to the car from yesterday adding the the ‘hotter conditions are better’ for his car.  While overall liking the new track layout for this year’s TITC he said the chicane is ‘challenge’ given its high speed nature.

View our event image gallery here.


February 29, 2024

Chassis Focus – Lucas Urbain (Awesomatix)

Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – Orca OE1 Mark II
Motor – Orca Modtreme 2 4.5T
Battery – Orca 6090mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa m17 / MKS 575 SL
Body – Xtreme Twister Speciale

Image Gallery