Coelho Top Seed in Thailand – Seeding Round 2 Update

Reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho is officially the Top Seed at the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Thailand, the Infinity driver counting the time of his opening seeding run after a crash on just his 3rd lap of CP2 which ending his run.  It would be main rival Michal Orlowski who topped the round but unable to improve his earlier time the Schumacher driver will carry the No.2 on his car for qualifying.  With the heat groupings now set based on drivers best 3-consecutive laps from the first two rounds, the third seeding run will determine how the leave the start line for the opening qualifier here at Huge RC Circuit.  With no change up front, the top improvement came from Marc Rheinard, the Xray driver managing to promote himself to 3rd but the big surprise would come from Coelho’s team-mate Viktor Wilck.  A surprise podium finisher for Serpent 10-years ago from P6 on the grid, the Swede tried a new set-up for CP2 that while he said ‘felt slow to drive’ gave him a quicker car.  He would go on to set the fourth fastest time ahead of top Awesomatix contender Simon Lauter and the impressive Antoine Brunet who is putting RC Maker in the mix – the latter 2 drivers unable to better their CP1 times.  The Top heat will be completed by Lucas Urbain, Soeren Sparber, David Ronnefalk and Ronald Volker, all four drivers getting a better 3-laps second time round.  In Stock, Oliver Bultynck kept yesterday’s momentum going again setting the fastest time in both seeding rounds to secure the No.1 race number for his Awesomatix in the top heat of the 7 groups.

Asked about CP2, Coelho replied, ‘It was a tough round, I did a mistake on the 3rd lap and the round ended there’.  On the mistake he explained, ‘They changed the layout basically.  They moved one curb, there was a painted curb and you could use it and now they decided to put there a big dot that you can’t touch.  So when you touch it now the car just flies, so I basically hit that curb.’

On his second seeding effort Orlowski, who crashed on lap 1 of the first round, said, ‘It was clean this time, I think a little slower than before so we’ll go back and try one last thing in the last one before qualifying.  Even though we went slower I think my pace was still OK.’  Chasing his first TC World title having TQ’d 2-years ago in California, he added, ‘we’ll just try and find the most speed possible for qualifying.  I feel comfortable driving around the whole 5-minutes so the set-up we are running is good.  We just need to keep up with the track changing cause I am sure it will continue changing.’  On the addition of the dot to the curb, asked if it caused him any issue. the Pole said, ‘My whole team was telling me to cut this corner more like the others but they stopped others cutting it but I still hadn’t learn to cut it and I guess I don’t have to anymore.’

Orlowski closes gap as Coelho tops 1st seeding round in Bangkok

Michal Orlowski has closed the gap to defending World Champion Bruno Coelho, the Schumacher driver looking now looking like he has the best 5-minute car around the Huge RC Circuit here in Bangkok as Day 2 of IFMAR ISTC World Championships gets underway.  With Coelho’s Infinity cars topping all 5 practice rounds yesterday, switching to running just a single white body shelled car in the opening seeding round this morning, while he topped the 3-laps just from Orlowski, it was Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter with the fastest complete run however take out a first lap crash by Orlowski and it looks like the Pole has the edge with just two more practice runs to go before the day ends with the opening qualifier.  Suffering a big crash on the first lap, giving him a lap 23-second lap time, almost 10-seconds off his fastest lap, he would finish 7-seconds off the pace of Lauter who was 0.29 up on Coelho.  Over 3-laps Orlowski was just 0.063 off Coelho’s time, a massive reduction on the 6/10ths advantage the Portugese driver had yesterday.  With the official ranking for the first seeding round Coelho from Orlowski from Lauter, we would see another strong showing from RC Maker’s Antoine Brunet who set the fourth fastest time ahead of the Xray’s of Marc Rheinard and David Ronnefalk, the newly crowned 2-time 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Champion having a good showing on what is only his second ISTC Worlds appearance.

With a clear confidence in his step after the run, Orlowski explained, ‘It wasn’t a good start as I destroyed the car on the sweeper but luckily the bodyshell was OK and the car was working fine.’  He added, ‘we made very big changes for this run so the car felt a lot different in a very good way and after that crash I did a very nice run so everything is good.’  The 25-year-old reigning 1:12 World Champion said, ‘We will make some small changes, maybe now a little bit risky because the 3-laps is already quite fast to seed in the top heat so maybe now a more risky change and see if we can find even more speed for qualifying.’

Reacting to yet another run at the top of the timing screens, Coelho said, ‘It was nice to make the 5-minute pace, which was positive’.  Asked if we was happy with his 5-minute pace, the 3-time back to back Champion replied with a not so confident sounding, ‘It’s OK’ going on to say, ‘for sure it is much better on 3-laps than 5-minutes but still it’s a long race.’  On track conditions, and one of the driver who tested here extensively ahead of event, he said, ‘it feels a bit more grippy today, different but more grippy I think.  For sure we are going to make little changes on the car to try make it a little more stable through the 5-minutes.’

‘It went quite well but it is still impressive to see the first laps of the fast guys or the legends, however you want to call them’, was Lauter’s reaction after CP1.  He continued, ‘It seems apparent they have the upper hand in the first 1-minute but in the end it is all about 5-minutes pace and I think we were not too bad.  Still something to find for sure but its open.  I think it’s a group of 5 or 6 guys that can do similar 5-minutes pace so for sure it will be a close one.’  The reigning Stock World Champion added, ‘everyone is trying to improve and we’ll try to improve the most.’  Asked what that something he need to find was, he replied, ‘that’s always a hard question.  We were discussing that because we have different opinions.  Driving wise it felt different to what Tim (Wahl) saw from down under the rostrum.  I think the most basic answer is finding more corner speed would be helpful but this is also the task that is endless and everyone has.’

Asked how he felt the first seeding run had gone, Brunet replied, ‘Pretty good.’  The Frenchman explained, ‘We found some pace in the overall 5-minutes, only the 3-laps was not good’.  Asked what the issue was at the end of the run, the 29-year-old said, ‘I am not confident with my driving in the last minute because the car is a bit snappy and then I have understeer so I need to improve that for CP2.’   On track conditions he said, ‘I feel a bit more grip now.  The patches (of track) that was not used for 1-year is now with more rubber which is good as the track is more consistent.  We will make just small changes only for the pace not for the speed, I think the speed is here now and we need to make the end of the 5-minutes in good condition.’

Rheinard summed up his run to P5 with, ‘I struggled a bit in the beginning driving wise and I didn’t have the grip so they pulled away.’  The German continued, ‘In the middle of the run I caught up to Bruno again and then I made a small mistake in the end.  My overall time is OK but when I see Michal, I think Michal on the 5-minutes now was really fast in this run even though he had a mistake on the first lap.’  He added, ‘So it seems now on the 5-minutes Michal is the quickest this round be we are going to adjust some things and hope to improve a bit more for the next one.’  Asked about his slow start to the run, the 3-time World Champion replied, ‘I don’t know.  Maybe I overshot here & there but I don’t feel like I have the bite from the beginning.  Like Bruno starts crazy fast.  I think that’s his car, I saw he used a different chassis than expected so maybe he has some advantage in the beginning but to the end I think it’s not a big difference.’

Day 1 complete, World Champion Coelho sets benchmark

Day 1 of the 2026 IFMAR ISTC World Championships is done and it is defending World Champion Bruno Coelho who set the benchmark all day, the Infinity driver topping all five rounds of free practice today in Thailand.  With drivers getting their first taste of the track’s updated Huge RC Circuit layout in FP1, any concerns of traction where quickly quashed as the grip came up quicker than anticipated, Coelho setting his fastest 3-consecutive laps in Round 4.  Starting the day with the second fastest time, Marc Rheinard would finish free practice with another strong run, his FP5 time the second fastest time of the day running a 41.075 – no one able to join Coelho in running 3-laps in 40-seconds.  Having lost his way a little with set-up in the afternoon, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would complete the Top 3 in the final run with the Awesomatix of Simon Lauter fourth fastest.  In the previous round the Stock World Champion would post the second fastest time in between Coelho and Rheinard with 2014 World Champion Naoto Matsukura clocking the 4th fastest time ahead of RC Maker’s Antoine Brunet.  It was to be a similar story of one driver setting the benchmark in the Stock class also with Oliver Bultynck fastest on every occasion.  The Belgian would cap off a strong opening day with his fastest time in the final run ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Max Machler as we head into seeding tomorrow and end Day 2’s action with the first qualifier.

Summing his first day as the defending World Champion, Coelho said, ‘It was a solid day I would say.’  He explained, ‘we tried many things back to back and tried different directions to see how the car reacts so it was a positive day.’  Asked about the track conditions for the final round, the Portuguese ace unable to better his fastest time from FP4, he replied, ‘the track was good, we just made a little change on the car it was not that good and also changed the second one which was a little bit better so we just have to decide now what we are going to run for the race’, drivers having to their single car IFMAR marked for racing proper here in Bangkok  Asked about his crash ahead of Rheinard, he said, ‘Yeah I touched the curb and I hit the wall’, the damage inflicted on the first of the two cars he ran in the round.

‘Improving’ was Rheinard’s reaction at the conclusion of free practice.  The multiple World Champion saying, ‘we still have some small changes but we are focused on 5-minutes and that is why I am running just one car and working on one car.  We made some changes and for sure they felt pretty good.’  A driver who won his first World title two decades ago this year, he added, ‘I think Bruno is still faster but we don’t know his 5-minute pace.  When he was behind me I could see in some corners I could pull away a bit and in some others he was just catching.  I let him by and wanted to follow him and see from the back of the car but then he crashed it so I couldn’t see anymore but I think we are actually not too bad.’  On how the track is evolving, the German said, ‘I am sure we will see a different track again tomorrow because I think they are going to sweep the track again tomorrow morning so I guess it will be different but maybe in a good way.’

Recapping his day, Orlowski said, ‘It was good.  The track changed a bit and we were thinking what to do to find steering.  I think that was the biggest issue, at the beginning we thought maybe the grip is really low and we need to find more traction but this was the wrong direction which we took for the middle part of the day.  For the last one I went back on many changes and just tried to find more steering with some extreme changes and it was massively better and we just need to go in that direction.’  Explain why he added, ‘I think the layout just requires more natural steering from the car which we were getting rid of during testing to make the car easier to drive.’  Chatting to Red RC just after the opening ceremony, the Polish racer added, ‘walking the track now it seems very close to what we had before and it is just the car needs a different balance.  We have lots of notes from the testing, and we have lots more practice tomorrow to find the right balance.  Once we have that I will faster on a single lap and more consistent on 5-minutes.’

‘I think it was a good day today’, was how Lauter summed up his performance.  The German explained, ‘the track evolved in a way that I think suits our car a little because we did not change that much on the set-up but the track came closer to what we need or what we want.’  This year’s TITC podium finisher added, ‘I expect it to get even more like this in the next day so this could probably be the right direction.  I mean obviously Bruno and Michal are the ones to beat here but both of them have not done 5-minute runs yet and I am quite happy with my pace (at the) end of the run.’  On changes made over the day he said, ‘I think the biggest change was a slight smoother overall car and electronics but that’s what everyone did I suspect because the left part you just roll the car through and don’t pull too much.  This is hard for me as a Stock driver to not over pull because this is usually what I tend to do so we need to find a good set-up for this.  Apart from this we just waited and hope that we worked in the right direction in IPD and Tim the week before’.  Lauter’s mechanic and very accomplished racer Tim Wahl took on pre-event testing duties reversing roles so then Lauter’s could do IPD.

Coelho remains in control in Bangkok with Orlowski closest to pace

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho remains in control in Bangkok, the reigning IFMAR World Champion’s IF14 Speciale fastest in all three free practice rounds so far at Huge RC Circuit.  Further back than expected in the first official practice of these IFMAR ISTC World Championships, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would get into the groove to be closest on pace in the the 2nd and 3rd rounds, the gap however still a considerable 4/10ths over each drivers’ best 3-consecutive laps.  In FP2, it was the Axon prototype of Akio Sobue who set the fourth fastest time from Marc Rheinard’s Xray and Simon Lauter’s Awesomatix.  Second fastest in the opening practice, Rheinard would come together with team-mate Alexander Hagberg after the Swede got out of shape, and then making a set-up change for FP3 it would be in the wrong direction.  With the track continuing to improve as the new sections after the layout change start to grip up, Coelho stepping into the 40-seconds for his 3-laps, French RC Maker driver Antoine Brunet set the 3rd fastest time ahead of Lauter and Xray’s Jin Sawada who set identical times.  Third fastest in FP1, a diff change in FP2 on Ronald Volker’s RC Maker didn’t prove fruitful and trying other changes in the latest round he declared they have a bit of work to do.  In Stock, Oliver Bultynck is the benchmark, the Belgian’s Awesomatix topping all three rounds.

‘Two solid runs again, we are have two cars and both are pretty OK I would say’, was Coelho’s summary of FP2 & 3.  Chasing title No.4 this week, he added, ‘We just now need to decide which one we are going to race.’  Running different set-ups on each car, he explained, ‘one is more safe and the other is more aggressive and we just need to see the direction the track is going.  We don’t know if there is going to be more traction or not.’  Asked how he feels the track is evolving, the humidity having gone up noticeably since lunch time, he said, ‘for sure the traction is going up.  I think now it is a little more stuck compared the first and second, now it didn’t really go up more compared to earlier, which is normal.  For sure the track will improve through the event and the grip for sure is going to go higher & higher.’   Asked if higher grip presented them with an issues, he wasn’t concerned saying, ‘It should be fine.’

Asked for a run down of where he feels he is at, Orlowski said, ‘we are in second and everything is going well.  We are running one car to see the 5-minute pace and obviously the track is a little different to testing but that was expected.’  The Pole continued, ‘We are adjusting the car towards the conditions keeping in mind the track will keep developing so so far everything is working well.’  Describing the new layout as ‘awesome’, he added, ‘I really like the left hand section, the twisty part, and you can really gain some time going through there.  If you are going safe you are just going slow.  The right side is mostly similar to what we had before.’  Asked if they were just working through their program for today, he said, ‘yes, we knew the track would be different so we started the same as we finished testing and we are adapting the car for the conditions but not going too crazy.  Just trying to keep up and understand how the track is changing.’

Asked about his Top 3 run in FP2, Sobue responded with, ‘not so fast but the car felt good and the lap times were ok but for sure Bruno is super fast at the beginning with his lap times and also consistent.  Also Michal is good.’  The Japanese driver, who was on the podium 4-years ago in Italy, continued, ‘For me I made a stupid mistake after 2-minutes.  I took too much curb and I flipped the car and it was broken.’  On the 3rd of his 5-scheduled runs today he explained, ‘now there was a big change in conditions and while our car was OK it felt different and the driver needed to adjust.  We need now to change the set-up for the next one, there is more rubber now in the track and the car feels more stuck.’  Describing the new track layout change as ‘good’, asked about the new car his Japanese chassis sponsor is using here, he said it has quite a few new updates since the TITC but added a new car kit release is some time away.

Reacting to his impressive pace, Brunet said, ‘It was a pretty good run after we did some changes with my mechanic.  We improved the car a lot from FP1 and FP2.’  Asked the main changes made, the 29-year-old said, ‘we just went back to our IPD set-up from Sunday and Monday and it seems a good way to go so we will continue like this and we’ll see for FP4 & 5 what else we can improve.’  Asked his thoughts on the new track layout he replied, ‘It is pretty technical but the grip is still weird compared to IPD because that layout wasn’t changed for a year.  We need to see how the grip will change for the rest of the week but it seems it is in a good way for qualifying.’

World Champion gets things underway at top of time sheets

With some having completed double digit days of testing and others just two days of IPD, with the 13th running of the IFMAR ISTC World Championships official getting underway in Bangkok today on a new layout it was Infinity’s Bruno Coelho who topped the opening times.  Chasing after a 4th consecutive World title here this week at the unique Huge RC Circuit, the Portuguese driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps as well as the only 13-second lap on the new World title deciding layout.  With the layout getting a generally positive reaction, it was Marc Rheinard, winning last time Thailand hosted these Worlds 18-years ago, who set the second fastest time for the reigning World Champion manufacturer Xray.  Suffering a heavy crash towards the end of the run which ended his first free practice early, 2016 World Champion Ronald Volker set the 3rd fastest time for RC Maker.  Making it four different manufacturers at the top of the times it was another World Champion with Awesomatix’s reigning Pro Stock Champion Simon Lauter living up to expectations of the German being one of the pre-event title contenders come Saturday.  A driver who has already tasted World title success at Huge RC Circuit when he won Nitro Touring Car here in 2014, Alexander Hagberg backed up Xray’s performance with P5 ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue.  Another of the pre-event title favourites, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski opened with the 8th fastest time behind Xray’s newly crowned 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Champion David Ronnefalk.

Summing up his first run on the new layout, having tested for more than a week on the old one, Coelho said, ‘It was nice to learn the new layout which is quite different compared to the previous one.’  Asked if he liked it, he replied, ‘Yeah I mean the left part is more a bit boring because you can not hit the throttle, you just need to let the car roll there.  I prefer the right side, it’s more my style but in the end it is OK.’  On his cars, this his ISTC Worlds debut for Infinity after 5 of them with Xray, the 2026 European Champion with the IF14 Speciale, said, ‘both cars worked pretty good.  We’ll make some small changes for the next round but focus is on still learning the track and seeing how the set-ups work.’

Looking pleased with his start to a day that will be made up of 5 free practice rounds, Rheinard described his effort as ‘not bad actually’ adding ‘it was pretty good and I drove only 1 car compared to Bruno who drove two so for sure the second car on the track is faster’.  The 3-time winning of these championships, a record he shares with Coelho, on his car he said, ‘It was pretty consistent, no big drop, I just need to make small changes, reduce some more power for this layout and get the car more rotated in the rear.’  He added, ‘Actually for the second run we don’t need to change too much cause the track changes more than the set-up will.’  On the podium in the US two years ago, on the new layout the German said, ‘I really thought the lap times were going to be longer but in the end I think it is going to be a faster layout than what we used to drive.  It’s more technical, slower corners, but faster lap time wise than what we ran on in practice.  So it’s a mix, fast on & off the straight and then technical in the middle.  I think it is good.’

Giving on a run down on his FP1, Volker said, ‘I was running two cars, the first car was similar to IPD, off pace and not a good feeling but on my second car we tried a new set-up, everything new basically.  I was very happy, so this is why I was up to P3.’  Explaining his crash he said, ‘Unfortunately (Mattia) Collina sided in front of me and I got collected and some stuff was broken on the front of the car so I on one hand I feel happy because I had pace but on the other hand it just sucks to start with such bad luck.’   Positive about the track changes, the German said, ‘I like the new layout a lot because I prefer hairpins and chicanes anyway and this suits my natural driving style a bit more.  Despite also not having a great (pre event) practice, I was hoping for any new layout but I am real happy with what they changed and how it is now.’

Asked his reaction to the first proper run of these World Championships, Lauter replied, ‘Mixed’.  He continued, ‘I think grip is very low so you just use the first run to get used to the new layout and the feeling for everything.  It is always important to get a feeling for the new distances on the rostrum, braking points, all that stuff.’  A driver who has established himself as a Modified front runner since permanently stepping up from Pro Stock after his WC win in Bakerfield in 2024, he added, ‘I think it’s very hard to judge things on the car because there was some guys running 2-cars, many guys running one car, and obviously the second car is always better so all god for now and we’ll see what progress will be made on track especially during the day.  We will see whether we get similar grip levels to IPD days or practice before, then we start to adjust but I think we are on a good base so nothing too big to worry about for now.’  A driver who ran just one car, asked about the track layout he said, ‘I think it is an interesting one.  I think it will be a challenge, not the usual style of big tracks where you just full send it and have hairpin stuff.  It’s still somehow edgy but in a different way I would describe it.  Overall corner speed is a lot lower but I like it.  It will be a challenge for everyone and we will see who manages best.’

Yokomo comeback with ‘Power from the Headquarters’ – ISTC World Championship

There was a time when we would attend either electric onroad or offroad races and Yokomo would be mentioned in the opening paragraph of every race report, they were a real force.  That hasn’t however been the case now for a number of years but 10-years on from winning the IFMAR Electric Touring Car World Championship, that race in China giving us the iconic photo of Ronald Volker’s mechanic Yukijiro Umino reaction to what a world title means to everyone involved, there are positive vibes coming from the Japanese manufacturer’s camp here at Huge RC in Bangkok.  With team leader Christopher Krapp admitting they are realistically not here with a chance of winning the 2026 World title, compared to 2-years ago there is a new energy in the team and a desire from the top management for the historic racing brand to return to being taken serious again as producer of competition level cars.  On arriving in Bangkok, less our luggage, returning to our hotel after buying some necessary supplies, the first RC racer of these Worlds we’d meet was Krapp.  A driver we have respected for always being personable, as always the German had a friendly handshake and positive energy but it was even more positive this time as he proudly introduced Yokomo’s new Managing Director and new Designer.  While many manufacturers are contesting these Worlds with skeleton crews, Yokomo is taking the opposite approach.  With Krapp and his crew hungry after their travels and looking for a food recommendation, pointing them in the direction of some good local street food we joined them for a catch up and that led to an interesting insight that we would follow up on the next day at the track on how Yokomo wants back in the game.

The last time we spoke with Krapp was at the beginning of the year when he raced at the annual MIBO International Race in the Czech Republic and it turns out he’s had a lot going on since then.  In August he became a father to his second daughter, and while a break from racing was planned for this special moment, it would be longer than planned as he suffered a slip disc that would require him to undergo surgery in September.  Less than ideal preparations for leading a manufacturer going into a World Championships.  Interestingly like Red RC, this is Krapp’s 9th ISTC World Championship both of us having made our Worlds debut in 2008 when it was also held in the Thai capital.

Having followed his progress ever since then, he made the D Main but two years later in Germany finished 4th in the World, and enjoyed one of the best race win celebrations when he won his first ETS race in Gran Canaria in 2012, asking him about this new enthusiasm for racing from Yokomo he replied, ‘I have been with Yokomo 10-year joining them in 2017 after the Worlds and I have been through many scenarios in Yokomo with like 3 owners.  I was there with the old owner Tom Yokobori, then we had two owners and luckily the new owner we have right now is having a new push in the top end scene.’  He continued, ‘The last 3-4 years I still competed in races but the development and everything was slow but right now the focus is more to the top end racing and that’s why they have sent Kazuki Yamashita the new designer and Daisuke Yoshioka, who was well known before as a top driver, and is now the Managing Director.  Having them here is cool.’  The 5 time Worlds Finalist added, ‘sure we are a small team, but a unique team, and it is just good to be present here and to have the power from the headquarter.  We are in the right direction right now.  You can see this with the signing of Luke (Holdsworth – Top British 1:10 Offroad racer) in the UK and we are here now testing new parts were as in the past years it was just the kit and that’s it.  The development is going better and is more active and hopefully we are going to be back were we belong because Yokomo is still an original OG brand.  Personally I have also just signed a new two year contract with them so really looking forward to this race and the future.’

On expectations for these the 13th running of the World Championship, Krapp said, ‘My aim is not to win to be realistic, I mean I was a podium finisher before but I know it is not going to work because all the other guys here are here for like weeks but still I am fit now again.  The surgery went well, and I can still drive good.’  Sharing the podium in Gubbio in 2022 with Bruno Coelho and Akio Sobue, he added, ‘I am doing good times and just trying to adapt everything to the unique conditions here because it is very strange let me say compared to the conditions we have in Europe but as a team we are working well.  We are not at the top top but I am doing good times and looking forward to the event.’  Asked if this event is a new motivation for him and the team, he said, ‘Yeah 100%, the last one was in America and we had a bigger team there but at that race already decisions were made so the motivation was not that high because we didn’t have the power from headquarters and obviously now for myself its great, I’m 34-years old and a well known racer who has done many races and to know you have the backing from headquarters and that you have the support is huge motivation.’  He added, ‘I still have it in my fingers and I know with the right support I can still make top result so for myself personally that’s a big boost.’  Asked about the first day of IPD, he replied, ‘It was a bit hectic today but I guess we have the first day already done and I am looking forward to more smooth running at the real event because now we are running two cars in 10-minutes so it is very very hectic.  I am looking forward to having more time when the Worlds actually starts.’