Lucas Urbain – ‘Hiring Marc pi$$€d me off’

While racers are not known for always agreeing, one thing all the professional team drivers do agree on is that the TITC is the most difficult race in the world!  After the World Championships, this annual Bangkok based race has become the most significant electric touring car title drivers can secure.  Racing at the TITC you are putting yourself on a World class stage with the best in the business with the additional unique element of every driver having had the opportunity to complete days of pre race practice, something that eats into your excuses when the race doesn’t go your way.  So for these reasons it might not be the first race of choice at which to make your international race debut as the newest member of the full time professional driver ranks but that is exactly what Lucas Urbain will do later this week.  At the age of 34, Urbain will tell you himself that the opportunity to become a full time professional racer ‘came out of the blue’ adding ‘the idea was never a topic we talked about’.  An announcement on February 2nd however from Awesomatix changed all that and now this popular French racer switches from a decade of working in signalling with the French railway network to living every young RC racers dream of travelling the world racing and getting paid for the privilege.  Lucas’ journey to becoming a ‘Pro’ is an interesting one that started in 2000 when a certain Adrien Bertin came to his home town of Longwy and gave a demo with a 1:8 Nitro Onroad car.  That was the moment Lucas was ‘blown away’ by radio controlled cars and with his parents getting him his first RC car from a local hobby shop for Christmas that year, the seed was sown for his 24-year long road to obtaining the job description of Pro RC Racer.

Roll on a few years and the next significant moment occurred with Marc Rheinard’s first of two key parts in this story.  Seeing Rheinard race for the first time at the International Orion Carpet Race in Switzerland, Lucas was immediately impressed by the German’s driving ability.  ‘It was like he had a magnetic force pulling him to the apex.  It looked like magic how precise he was.  I was hooked by that.  Marc was the main guy and in his prime at that time.’  Red RC’s first dealings with Lucas would come in 2009 in Luxembourg when, driving a Losi JRSX-R, he TQ’d the final round of qualifying at the European Championship.  It was a result that helped Jilles Groskamp take the overall TQ from where he would become the Champion.  With this performance getting him a stint with Yokomo, he said nothing good came from that partnership except the start of a great friendship with the Japanese company’s then star driver Ronald Volker.  From Yokomo he moved to VBC Racing and from there onto Awesomatix in 2018 where Rheinard would play his second part in the story.  ‘When I joined Awesomatix they had just got rid of Viljami (Kutvonen) as their full time driver.  It had been a bad experience for them so they were in no rush to recruit a replacement.  I was just making it into A-Mains at the time.  I was definitely not Pro level and no one cared about my results.  After some time with the team I started to improve.  There were a combination of factors.  I was getting better with age and I put in the work to get the goals and when I saw the work pay off I wanted to do more.  Working better, eating better, sleeping better plus the support from Oleg (Babich) and Max (Mächler) were a huge part of my improvements as a driver.  Simple things like Max organising where to have dinner let me focus on racing.’

Announced at the 2017 TITC that Rheinard had joined Infinity after 22-years racing Tamiyas, after 2-seasons the new partnership with Infinity came to an end.  With the multiple World Champion on the market, Awesomatix seized the opportunity and acquired his services but Lucas wasn’t impressed.  ‘Hiring Marc pissed me off.  It was like a stone in my shoe but it made me more motivated to work harder to challenge him.  It was big motivation for me to get better.’  Asked about their relationship in the team, Lucas replied, ‘we have very different personalities.’  This new found motivation netted Lucas his first ETS wins on both carpet and asphalt making him now a prominent force in the team.  After his real job prevented Lucas from attending ETS Aigen and the European Championship ‘Max was pissed’.  ‘I had a contract with my job that for safety reasons they don’t allow me to have a side job but once work stopped me from racing Max said, ‘What about if we made you professional.’  For me it was no risk at all to go Pro.  A sabbatical is pretty easy with a state company so it was no risk at all to give it a go, although maybe it might be a different situation in 2-3 years time.’

Asked his feelings about making his International Pro debut at TITC, Lucas was very open and honest in his reply, ‘I am blown away by the reaction to me going Pro.  It’s a big deal.  I’m a very anxious person and I worry a lot.  Will I be able to do the job.  It is shiny and pretty at the beginning.  For now it is all good.’  He continued, ‘I did TITC once before and had a shot at the A-Main but ended up in B.  I know the vibe there.  This year the objective is to make A-Main but so much can happen with track conditions and I will be in lower practice group because I have no recent results from the race.  Many guys have experience from 10 years of TITC so they have good management when it comes to the changing conditions.  We aim to be very methodical.  The right method and people can give me an edge.  Max is going but not racing, so this is a big plus.  He can watch what others are doing.  We will have quite a few pair of eyes to help us.’

2024 TITC coverage presented by Hobbywing

Hobbywing is China’s earliest national-level high-tech enterprise engaged in R&D, production and sales of brushless power systems for UAV and RC models.  Committed to provide high power density brushless power systems for global customers, Hobbywing and the TITC have a deep-rooted history.  As early as 2009, Hobbywing’s ESC made its first appearance at TITC with this year marking a 15 years history of collaboration.  Except for the three years during the COVID-19 period, Hobbywing has consistently offered on-site technical guidance to its users at TITC, ensuring the optimal performance of their power systems and providing steadfast support for drivers, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the competition.

Ryan Maker – ‘Using this World stage as a test ground is both the most exciting and nervous thing I have done.’

Growing up I was a huge fan of Formula 1 and always tended to supported the underdogs.  Pre-qualifying was my favourite part of the Grand Prix weekend and my favourite team was Zakspeed.  That interest in the German team stemmed from an article in an F1 Magazine that compared the Zakspeed team and its budget to that of the all conquering McLaren team.  In the article it covered how the high cost of wind tunnel testing meant Zakspeed’s small budget forced them to come up with an alternative and that was the use of a water tunnel that was used by boat manufacturers to test hull designs.  Racing 1:8 Onroad nitro at the time, in the form of the very basic Team Associated RC250, I was inspired by the Zakspeed story I wanted to build my own R/C car and become a ‘Constructor’.

Unfortunately the furthest I got with my dream was building my own, roughly 1:10, electric R/C car as part of my final engineering exam in school that ran using the very basic electrics from a Mini Mardave.  Using a non CNC milling machine to individually make all the parts from nylon and a lathe to make the wheels from aluminium, my teacher was impressed and engineering ended up being my highest grade in my school exams.  Unfortunately that was the end of my dream of becoming a ‘Constructor’ (although I am currently researching building a Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) for a 24-hour bike race I organise).  While I no longer harbour ambitions to make my own car, I still get excited when I hear of someone’s passion product.  Like Andreas Myberg and Iris Racing.  For years myself and Andreas talked about him wanting to create his own touring car, a dream he realised in 2022.  A few months back during a conversation with all round good guy Ryan Maker he revealed to me he was working on plans for his own touring car but things were at a very early stage and it was too early for any announcements.  Now however he is about to mark a hugely significant occasion in RC Maker’s company history by giving their first ever car its international race debut at the TITC, a race which Ryan himself describes as ‘a bloody tough race’.

While family and business commitments mean Ryan travels less frequently to international races we have previously enjoyed the Aussie’s company at World Championships, ETS races and the Reedy Race of Champions.  Over his time as one of Australia’s top onroad racers, Ryan has built-up his very successful optional parts and accessory brand.  While part of the success of the brand is the high quality products he produces, it is also a lot to do with Ryan’s personable approach to racing.  Originally from Melbourne but now living on the Gold Coast, Ryan’s RC journey actually started with flying planes at the age of 8 with his dad who manufactured balsa wood kits.  Turns out young Ryan wasn’t into planes and wanted to race and by the age of 11 he was racing with a pull start nitro car.  It’s also his Dad’s plane making business that has fuelled and allowed the dream of Ryan making his own car, the SP1.  Starting RC Maker in 2018, he said his dad played a key roll and now an international brand he also acknowledges the roll played by Toni Rheinard saying he was ‘a big help in getting customers as he had such a big reach in Europe’.

After finding the right cutter for carbon, his dad’s machines all made for wood cutting, he said they also had a CNC machine of their own design made but they lacked the engineering knowledge and the pipe dream of one day making a car was far away.  Doing his initial RC Maker option parts design work in 2D for 2 years, watching Youtube videos on 3D drawing and learning how to do them himself was a key moment in moving another step towards making his first car.  ‘With 2D it is hard to see how all the parts fit together.  Doing them in 3D made the car possible.  From there I could break everything down into small achievable steps, the concept, then a bit more, before I knew it it was coming together.’  Still, having the design is one thing but producing all the parts is another.  Carbon parts was not a problem, that was after all his main business, but machined alu parts was an issue.  That was until the owner of factory in China offered to help with production.  ‘Of course I would love to make it completely in Australia but the costs would have made the car too expensive so this opportunity made everything a reality.’

Around May last year Ryan made his first prototype, ‘we made it happen with the machines we had.’  Taking 100s of hours to create, he said it was ‘still very far from something you could consider a raceable car’.  Testing this hand built car that featured lots of 3D printed parts at his local track England Park Raceway he said he knew comparing it to the AOC race that had been held there previously he knew he was onto something straight away with his design.  Not wanting to give away too much about the car’s design during our call, he did divulge that it has ‘a different suspension style and lower centre of gravity to other cars out there’.  After initial testing he ‘went into the nitty gritty to see how (he) could make it possible (as a production car).’  Now he has two production samples that he will race on the biggest touring car stage after the World Championships, the TITC.

Making his TITC debut in 2008, asked what makes this race so special, he said, ‘I prefer it to the Worlds atmosphere.  For so many drivers it is their favourite race.  There is not as much pressure as the Worlds but there is still a crazy level of competition.  It’s more competitive than the Worlds as you get lots of quick locals and drivers from Japan, then at the end of each day all the top drivers are having beer.’  He added, ‘It is mentally taxing.  It’s a race that sorts the men from the boys.  A good run is very rewarding and when they win you see the emotion as so much work goes into it because of the changing conditions.’

On his own expectations for the 20th running of the Bangkok race, Ryan said, ‘I’m not a world class driver so I don’t expect to beat Bruno (Coelho) but I know my level and can gauge off that if we have work to do with the car.’  He continued, ‘TITC is a bloody tough race and it’s the first race everyone knows I am running a new car and it’s an international stage.  Using this World stage as a test ground is both the most exciting and nervous thing I have done’.  Ryan is aware of the risks but said, ‘Stuff it, I have everything to lose but when the opportunity was presented to me I couldn’t not do it.  I’m not starting from nothing like Andreas with the Iris which was a completely new brand.  I already have the brand established and it is known for quality so this is a big risk’.  On his own performance he said, ‘I am at a Y in the road.  Racing results don’t motivate me anymore, performance improvements do.  I want to be back at the track helping others, not focused on results of your heats.’

Armed with just two cars for the race, Ryan plans to go two different directions with how they are set-up.  ‘Everyone else has previous TITC race set-ups.  I am starting from scratch.  Working on set-up is going to be new as the springs are unique to the car and a bit different, unconventional.  I hopefully have enough spare parts.  It’s definitely scary as I can’t ask anyone if they have spare parts I can use.’

2024 TITC coverage presented by Hobbywing

Hobbywing is China’s earliest national-level high-tech enterprise engaged in R&D, production and sales of brushless power systems for UAV and RC models.  Committed to provide high power density brushless power systems for global customers, Hobbywing and the TITC have a deep-rooted history.  As early as 2009, Hobbywing’s ESC made its first appearance at TITC with this year marking a 15 years history of collaboration.  Except for the three years during the COVID-19 period, Hobbywing has consistently offered on-site technical guidance to its users at TITC, ensuring the optimal performance of their power systems and providing steadfast support for drivers, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the competition.