Lauter delivers opening TQ in Thailand

One of the most unassuming drivers in the Touring Car’s top flight category, Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter delivered an impressive TQ performance in the opening qualifier at the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Bangkok this evening.  Having hinted at his potential with some competitive 5-minute form in practice, the German would top the first of the six scheduled qualifiers by 7/10ths of a second from an equally impressive Jin Sawada who came in under the radar after seeding into the second fastest heat.  Behind the Japanese driver, this his first Worlds with Xray, was another Worlds debutant with the Slovakian manufacturer Marc Rheinard.  No stranger to World Championships, Rheinard completed the Top 3 1.1-seconds off his former team-mate Lauter.  The driver to actually lead out the first round of qualifying, Michal Orlowski would end up 4th fastest, the Schumacher driver showing great respect to Lauter by opening up for German as his car wasn’t exactly as he planned for the qualifier.  Behind the Polish driver, Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain posted the 5-fastest time ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue.  It was to be a less than ideal start to the campaign of defending World Champion Bruno Coelho.  Having been the benchmark in practice over 3-laps and securing the Top Seed honours, he would suffer an early spin in Q1.  Chasing a fourth consecutive title here at Huge RC Circuit, explaining his mistake the he said, ‘the car in the beginning felt like it was wobbling on the long corners so I tried to avoid that by not steering too much but then on the end of the straight I went a bit wide and I probably picked up dirt and then I lost the rear of the car.’  Having become accustomed to Oliver Bultynck being at the top of the times in the Stock class, Q1 saw that change as his Awesomatix team-mate Lukas Ellerbrock took it from the Belgian.  Having seeded P6, the 2026 TITC Open Brushless Champion snatched the TQ run on the final lap from Bultynck by 0.169 of a second with Max Machler completing the Top 3.

A very popular TQ run from Lauter, putting it to the reigning Stock Class World Champion that he had hinted he had good qualifying pace, he said, ‘Actually the 5-minutes were not too good in CP2 and CP3 so we had to change something.’  With his mechanic Tim Wahl’s role in the rise of Lauter as one of the worlds leading driver widely acknowledge on him taking the result, the 31-year-old said, ‘I think obviously that we improved because usually the track is fastest in the evening but it seems to be similar to CP3 so probably the long break did something to the track I don’t know.’  He continued, ‘The first minute I tried to stay safe and I thought OK there is probably something in this and it paid out very well but shoutout to Michal as well for opening up because this not everyone would do, so thank you very much, super fair.’  Asked about tomorrow’s qualifying action, 3 rounds on the timetable, he responded with, ‘I try my best, that’s what I always do and then we will see where this leads me.’

Not surprised by his strong opening performance, the 27-year-old tipped by many as one to watch ahead of these Worlds, Sawada said his car has always been good on 5-minutes.  On his seeding in Heat 12 of 13, the former Infinity driver who made the B-Main in Bakersfield 2-years ago, explained, ‘on 3-laps it was not so fast but after the car is very consistent and easy to drive.’  Finishing 7/10ths off the TQ time, he said he should have been closer but a crash in the middle of the main straight ahead of him caused him to slow down as he didn’t know where the car had ended up and this cost him .4 or .5 of a second.  Set to make a change to his car for Q2, he is confident he can repeat the performance.

With these 13th running of the ISTC Worlds marking 22-years since he made his Worlds debut and won in Kissimmee, reacting to his opening effort Rheinard said, ‘A solid start let’s say points wise but I still struggle in the beginning a lot.’  He continued, ‘Ronald was catching, everyone was catching me.  It’s shit to see the front pulling away and the guys behind catching but I knew in the middle of the run I was going to find my pace and I did.’  He added, ‘I had some rough laps on to the straight going super wide, the car felt pretty light in the front so I could not go perfectly straight but to be on P3 is a good start.’  An issue that the German has reported all day, his car lacking pace in the opening laps of the run, asked if he was going to just work with this or try something different, he replied, ‘We are going to check.  We knew at the night time Awesomatix was going to be faster than they are in the day time so tomorrow is going to be different again until the last qualifying run.  We are going to do some more changes we’ll try tomorrow morning in the practice and hopeful find more in the beginning (of the run)’.

Summing up his P4 with ‘it was OK’, Orlowski explained, ‘I really wanted to change something on my car cause I was expecting my car to start to over rotate on corner exits towards the end of the run but I did not have the time because I was rebuilding the car for the last controlled practice.’  The 25-year-old continued, ‘and then I had issues to make the body shell fit the box (technical inspection) so I just ran out of time and said OK maybe it will be good enough but it wasn’t.’  He added, ‘but I am pretty sure I know exactly what the issue in the set-up for this grip tonight and we’ll probably try something small in the morning and I think it will be good for the rest of the race.’

Looking very pleased with his performance, Urbain said, ‘I always had the 5-minutes in me since the beginning, my 3-laps were never very strong but always there or thereabouts between Top 4, Top 5 on 5-minutes but right now I just feel ecstatic for what Simon just delivered.  Like the work those two put together not only is amazing but also played a crucial part into my program as well because I have been testing here for the last 2-weeks.  Started with a base set-up which Timmy (Tim Wahl) took over during the IPDs and whatever they implemented on the set-ups I gradually implemented on my program as well for the race and every time I did what they did I made a step forward so credit were it is due because I improved a lot due to them.’  The Frenchman added, ‘Simon is just on another level now mentally and skill wise so I am so happy.’  Asked about trying to repeat tomorrow, he replied, ‘oh no we go better.  Objective is minimum Top 5, if I can squeak myself into the Top 3 somehow, the car feels really good it’s down to me.  I had a couple of mistakes here & there so for sure I can do better.’

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 ended 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.’