August 21, 2013

Choi takes Q2 in China

Dani Choi

Korea’s Dani Choi took the second round of qualifying at the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in China heading Q1 pace setter Atsushi Hara by 5.5 seconds with versatile Thai ace Meen Veijrak completing the Top 3. Choi said despite the track being a lot dustier than in Q1 his Sweep Exagon equipped Kyosho had better traction allowing him to improve his opening time by 5 seconds.  Describing the track as having got more bumpy in Q2, something he said he was able to drive around on this occasion, he said he will monitor the surface before Q3 to decide what changes he might need adding that he is pretty sure he will run a different spring on the MP9.  Running for the first time Alpha’s new Ryan Lutz exhaust to match up with the same named engine, he said it worked really well giving the engine a lot more bottom end power.

Hara

‘Car good, lap times good, just too many mistakes’ was how Hara summed up his second qualifier.  The 2006 World Champion said the spell of sunny conditions had made the track become very dusty.  Running AKA Impacts he said his tyres worked ‘OK’ considering the change and for Q3 he will hold off on making a decision on which compound of the Impact to run in the closing run of the day here at the Beijing Model Sports Association’s new track.  In terms of set-up, Hara said with three from the 6 qualifiers counting he wants to play it safe today and not change too much on the buggy which is overall working ‘well’ for him.  Planning a small change for Q3 in going for a lighter sway bars, he hopes this will get him his third good run so that he can use tomorrow’s three remaining qualifiers to test a few set-up ideas he has.

Meen Vejrak

Despite describing traction in Q2 as being lower than the morning’s opening round, Veijrak said his decision to change from Procircuit’s Roadrunner to Hot Dice tyre worked well.  Still however the Nitro Touring Car World Champion was not happy with his driving as he again made a mistake that cost him a potential second for the round.  In terms of his Mugen set-up he plans to extend his wheelbase for Q3 in the hope it will make the car more suitable to the changing track conditions.   For team-mate Chavit Saliguppa who was fourth fastest in Q1, a series of driver errors meant he would only post the 13th fastest time.

Kanai

Having switched from soft to medium compound AKA Impacts for Q2, Kyosho’s Yuichi Kanai said the hard tyre made his MP9 a little nervous at the start of the heat.  Setting the fourth fastest time, the famed 1:8 Offroad driver will make a call on his choice of compound nearer to the time of this evening’s final heat but in terms of his MP9 set-up will leave it as is.

Sheng Chie Huang

Sheng Chie Huang took his Alpha powered D812 to the fifth fastest time, a result the Taiwanese driver was very pleased about.  Running soft compound HB Grid Lock tyres, he plans to switch to AKA Impact for Q3 along with changing from a 2.5mm to 3.0mm rear toe block.

Dai Hiroki

Third fastest in Q1, Kyosho driver Dai Hiroki completed the Top 6 after a number of mistakes over the second of his 10-minute runs but says he is still happy with his MP9 and its just the driver that needs to be better.

Charlee Phutiyotin

Having suffered a flame out in his first qualifier leaving him only 17th, Charlee Phutiyotin posted the 7th fastest time in Q2.  Describing track condition as ‘super low grip’ compared to that of yesterday’s practice the fast Thai driver ran soft Procircuit Hot Dice but plans to switch to super soft for his next run.  Having just made the Top 10 in Q1, Sweep’s Ryan Lee improved his time by 5-seconds to set the 8th fastest time with Thai pairing Witsarut Rumlarp and Akarachai Boontham completing the Top 10.

Round 2 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:07.698
2. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:13.295
3. Meen Veijrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:18.697
4. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:27.752
5. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 19/10.31.452
6. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 18/10:00.961
7. Charlee Phutiyotin (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:03.972
8. Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:15.367
9. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 18/10:17.296
10.Akarachai Boontham (TH) – Mugen/Alpha – 18/10:18.491

View our event image gallery here.


August 21, 2013

Hara tops opening FEMCA Qualifier

Hara

Atsushi Hara, who only last Friday made the shock announcement that he was leaving HB, has taken the opening round of qualifying at the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in China.  Racing a Mugen, which the former World Champion went out and bought himself in a hobby shop in Thailand, the Japanese ace set the pace in the first of six 10-minute runs by just over 5-seconds from Korea’s Dani Choi and with Japanese Kyosho driver Dani Hiroki completing the Top 3 at Beijing Model Sports Association’s freshly built FT Offroad track.  With a difficult Visa procedure keeping defending Champion Kyle McBride away from contesting this year’s FEMCA Championship, the Far East’s equivalent of the EFRA European Championships, and thereby denying the Australian the opportunity to go for a third consecutive title, Hara’s TQ run endorses his status as pre-event favourite to take back the title he previously held.

Hara

His first time running the Mugen, Hara said the buggy is working really well but in the run he himself made a couple of ‘stupid mistakes’ which he feels amounted up to about 10-seconds in lost time.  Borrowing top US onroad racer JJ Wang’s pitman AI for this event, Hara has been using the Mugen website to get a set-up for the race which he said is now a combination of the standard MBX7 set-up and the one used by Robert Battle to win last December’s World Championship in Argentina.  Describing the track as a little different to yesterday’s practice, he said it was a little tricky at the start of the run as overnight repairs had changed the angles of many of the jumps, some having less of an angle while others were now launching the buggy much higher than before. Running AKA Grid Iron in Q1, Hara said they made his OS powered buggy easy to drive but they where a little too loose on a track which he described as having lower levels of traction compared to yesterday.  For Q2 he will switch to an Impact tyre.

Choi

‘Awesome’ was how Choi described his opening run despite the fact he got a Stop & Go penalty for having been deemed by race officials to have impeded Meen Vejrak when he was released from his fuel stop by mechanic and Sweep frontman Ryan Lee. An employee for Sweep where he was responsible for designing the ‘Birdy’ bodyshell he is running on his Kyosho, Choi was very happy with the performance of his Alpha engined MP9. Planning to just check over the buggy ahead of Q2 rather than make any set-up changes he will also stick with the same soft compound of Sweep’s Exagon tyre.  Lee, who is also competing in the event, took his TLR to the 10th fastest time.  Running Sweep’s Cubix tyre, he said the pin on the new set of tyre was too big and for Q2 he will follow his team-mate and switch to the Exagon.

Hiroki

23-year-old Kyosho Masters Champion Hiroki was very happy with his run to third saying that he really likes the track layout.  Happy with how his Reds Racing powered MP9 is working he plans to run everything as is for Q2 including staying on AKA’s soft Impact tyre.

Chavit

The best represented country in the event after China, 10 of the 14 FEMCA countries being represented here in China, Thailand’s Chavit Saliguppa took his OS powered Mugen to the 5th fastest time separating the Kyoshos of Hiroki and former World Champion & MP9 designer Yuichi Kanai.  The 18-year-old, who had some mistakes over the run, ran on AKA City Block for his opening qualifier but predicting higher traction for Q2 will switch Prolines Revolver tyres while leaving his set-up as is.

Kanai

Topping the time in yesterday’s practice Kanai is loving the track describing the layout as ‘super fun’.  Very happy with his pace, the Kyosho legend suffered ‘one big mistake’ but hopes  a clean second qualifier will net a better placing.  Running AKA Impact tyres for the round, he plans to leave everything as is for Q2.

Meen

Completing the Top 6 was reigning Nitro Touring Car World Champion Meen Veijrak.  The Thai driver said he drive to aggressive and this resulted in two costly mistake one of which say him get tangled with Kanai.  Also choosing the wrong tyre for the conditions of the opening heat having run Procircuit’s Roadrunner Meen will switch to the Hot Dice for Q2 which he said together with smoother driving should allow him to improve as his OS Speed powered MBX7 set-up feels good.

Round 1 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:07.526
2. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:12.696
3. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 19/10:22.367
4. Chavit Saliguppa (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:23.916
5. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:25.016
6. Meen Veijrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:27.571
7. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 18/10:00.082
8. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 18/10.15.799
9. Aeknurin Kanket (TH) – Xray/FX – 18/10:18.563
10.Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:20.257

View our event image gallery here.


August 21, 2013

Track Focus – Fengtai Raceway

Tues-Track-3

Track Name – Fengtai Raceway
Host – Beijing Model Sport Association
Country – China
Location – Fengtai, Beijing (20 km west-south of central Beijing)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Clay

The FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships takes place for the first time in China this week at an all new track in the Fengtai district of Beijing.  Located next to one of the stadiums built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games, the track is part of the development of an r/c car complex by the Beijing Model Sports Association which also looks after rc planes and boats and already has a building for that located just across the street.  A month ago nothing resembling an r/c track existed on the site until Charlie Siribodhi, organiser of the 2010 1:8 Offroad World Championships, arrived from Thailand last week with 6 of his Pattaya track crew to build the track for the event. As competitors from 10 of the 14 countries that make up FEMCA region started arriving on Monday the main building which house the drivers stand, pits, race control and media centre was only just a frame but some impressive construction work saw the building literally grow infront of their eyes in readiness for yesterday’s opening ceremony.

The layout was designed by Lung Chuan Lee from Tawian.  Lee, who as a day job works on designing and painting bodyshells, was invited to design the track for the FEMCA event by the Beijing Model Sports Association due to his experience in designing a number of tracks within China.  With the track producing around a 30-second lap time, pre-event favourite Atsushi Hara described the layout as ‘easy and friendly’.   The former World Champion said the high levels of the traction in some sections compared with the height of the drivers stand make it a little tricky to judge when driving.  While some sections of the track are a little on the narrow side, he said the positioning of the rostrum can make much of the track look narrower than it actually is and so you tend not to use all the available track.  For the Japanese ace the trickiest section is the opposing speed bump located after the big step-up.  In terms of traction on the freshly laid track, which has been sugar coated, Hara described it as ‘OK’.

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