December 6, 2024

World Champions settle themselves in at FEMCA C/ship

With the FEMCA Championship due to officially get underway tomorrow morning, today’s open practice at the GDC track in Foshan, China, was a day for World Champions Bruno Coelho and Naoto Matsukura to get settled in on this their first visit to the impressively sized indoor facility.  Fresh from his World Championship win in the US, Coelho, who is in China as part of a 2-week trip that will also see him race 1:8 Offroad at next weekend’s annual SIGP race in Xiamen, was pleased with the data he has gathered from his time on the track with his Xray. While this evening saw the track and pits get much busier as more local drivers arrived for one of Asia’s most important touring car races, Infinity’s Matsukura felt he has a bit more work to do to get a handle on the differing traction he experience each run over the day.

Asked his first impressions of the track Coelho replied, ‘I was pretty surprised by the facility, it is my first time here.  I was not expecting such a good facility.  Big shout out to Gavin (Kwok) for everything he has been doing in looking after us on our first visit here and for also introducing us to the culture here.’  Visiting a major local tourist site yesterday as PR for the FEMCA Championship and the GDC track, the Portuguese driver continued, ‘The track is really good, it is really big, I was expecting much smaller.  The traction is really good and the layout is not that difficult which is good for the customers and for us Pro drivers so yeh I am looking forward to the next two days of racing’.  Admitting himself to the fact he has had plenty of track time since arriving in China, he said, ‘we could test a lot and everything is going good and we have also been busy with many questions from customers and been able to help them too which is really good.’  His first time back racing on carpet since his historic 3-in-row World title win at the Worlds last month, he said, ‘yes its our first time on carpet since the Worlds’ before laughing the fact ‘and our last time this year’.

Asked to sum up how open practice had gone, Matsukura said, ‘This is my first time here and the track is good.  The size is big which is also good and the layout is enjoyable to drive.’  He continued, ‘the traction is every time is different, in the morning to lunch, from lunch to afternoon, so it has been a little bit difficult to understand if the car is good.  If the car does feel good then after 30 minutes it has a different feeling so we will kind of have to gamble with set-up tomorrow.’  Asked when he last raced Electric Touring Car race he replied that it was at the TITC at the beginning of March this year.  The 2014 ISTC World Champion said while he hasn’t raced for the car for more than half a year it is ‘nice to drive again’ an electric touring car.  A racer who competes in multiple disciplines both on & offroad, his last race was the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship 2-weeks ago in Thailand.  Only his second attempt at the FEMCA Championship, a race that crowns the Champion of Asia, he said the last time was at the Yatabe Arena in Japan a number of years ago where he finished second to Ronald Volker, the German the winner of FIRC race here at GDC this time last year.

View our event image gallery here.

December 5, 2024

World Champions tour Foshan ahead of FEMCA C/ships

It’s not just all racing duties when you are a World Champion!  When you have 2 multiple World Champions in town you want to make the most of the opportunity to help promote RC Racing.  Well, that is exactly what happened today with Bruno Coelho and Naoto Matsukura ahead of this weekend’s FEMCA ISTC Championships in Foshan, China.  With his GDC Indoor Race Club track hosting this year’s FEMCA race that will crown the Touring Car Champion of Asia, Gavin Kwok took a number of the visiting drivers to the City’s Nanfeng Ancient Kiln which was built during the Ming Dynasty.  The oldest existing active ceramic wood-burning dragon kiln in the world it has a history of more than 500 years.  Accompanied by a photographer & videographer to capture the visit, things started off with an interesting novelty electric bus ride from the track to the city’s major tourist site.  With Matsukura sitting up front in the bus beside the driver, it would be a very entertaining ride and one which highlighted that the Japanese racer could have a career as a tourist guide once he decides to hang up his radio!!  With a day of free practice ahead of drivers tomorrow (Friday), the FEMCA Championship gets underway in earnest on Saturday morning with seeding followed by qualifying before finals on Sunday decide the new FEMCA Champion.  You can follow all the action from GDC here on Red RC over the next 3-days.

November 27, 2024

2024 1:10 Onroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

Exactly 10-years after it hosted its first World Championship, the very unique Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok, Thailand was once again the challenging battle ground for the 10th edition of the IFMAR 1:10 Onroad World Championship.  A track thats high traction challenged even the very best drivers in the world, following more than a week of action it was Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp who came out on top and in doing so became only the second driver ever to win both an Electric and Nitro Touring Car World title, the other driver being Naoto Matsukura who was once again in the mix this year.  Having already written about the official manufacturer stats in our race coverage, during our time in Bangkok we managed to photograph 11 cars from 5 different manufacturers which will have now compiled together for our latest event Chassis Focus index.


Jilles Groskamp (World Champion) – Infinity / Car as it came off track after winning 1-hour final

Toni Gruber (2nd Overall)  – Capricorn

Teemu Leino (Top Qualifier) – Infinity

Tadahiko Sahashi (Finalist/4th Overall) – Infinity

Thilo Diekmann (Finalist/10th Overall) – Capricorn

Naoto Matsukura (Finalist/6th Overall) – Infinity

Dario Balestri (Finalist/7th Overall) – Infinity

Meen Vejrak (Semi Final) – Capricorn

Bryce Butterfield (Semi Final) – Serpent

“Ferrari” Supanun Khwanyuen (1/4 Final) – Shepherd

Evan Huang (1/4 Final) – Xray

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November 23, 2024

Video – Main Final

Single camera driver stand view raw footage of the action from the 60-minute 2024 IFMAR 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship Title deciding main final held at Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok, Thailand.  Commentary thanks to Leonard Kee.

November 23, 2024

Groskamp back on top of the World

Jilles Groskamp is back on top of the World, the Infinity driver becoming the new IFMAR 1:10 Onroad World Champion at the Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok 12-years after winning the Electric Touring Car World Title.  Having booked his way directly into the 1-hour Main by winning Super Pole, Groskamp would in the end cruise to victory to become Nitro Touring Car’s 10th different Champion as outgoing Champion Tadahiko Sahashi struggled in his quest to be the first driver to successful defend the title.  Starting as the Top Qualifier, this being his second time to secure pole at the Worlds, Teemu Leino’s race lasted less than 10-minutes as the Finn flipped his Infinity after his second fuel stop and the impact with the boards broke a front shock.  With 2018 Champion Naoto Matsukura looking like he was on to repeat his earlier dominant Semi final performance, as the race reached halfway and he had a clear lead over the field, a touch of the curbing ended his challenge.  The subsequent impact after the roll would break a rear shock shaft but with the car still running on the spring he would limp home in P6, 7-laps down on his winning team-mate.  For 1:8 World Champion Dario Balestri a dead receiver battery would cause him to crash out of a podium finish and DNF with just over 2-minutes to go.  Behind Jilles, having managed to un-lap himself towards the end of the race, Capricorn’s Toni Gruber would claim second with tenth place starter Charlee Phutiyothin making it two Capricorns on the podium.

‘This one is special because my son was 2-years old when I won Electric Touring Car and this year my daughter is two and I win here in nitro’, was Groskamp’s reaction to his massively popular victory in a country that he used to call home for many years.  Running over how his race unfolded the Dutchman explained, ‘It was a good start, I felt the car was easy to drive.  Then Teemu rolled it and I was in the lead.  In the first fuel stop we had a slow stop and Naoto went into the lead and kind of pulled away.  I had already been a couple of times on two wheels and I knew my tyre strategy was only (to change) one side so I really had to drive my own pace and he pulled away a lot.  After 20-25 minutes I was second but Naoto had a big lead so I thought I just continue to run my own race because something can happen and it did, I think he flipped and broke something.’  The now 44-year-old continued, ‘we then changed one side of the tyres which was a risk but I knew I could do it so after 28-minutes we changed and after only a few laps they came in and I had a good pace.  Then Sahashi came in to change 4 tyres and I already had a lap & a half in front and from that moment on I just cruised around and tried to keep the car on four wheels.’  Describing the car as ‘quite difficult to drive at the end’ because of tyre size, he said, ‘I really drove the car as an EP car, I go slow in, use a lot of brake, just drive as smooth as I could, still I flipped one time at the end of the straight and from that moment on I knew OK I have to be very careful now so I let some guys go.  I said bring it home safely and I did, so it’s amazing.  I can’t really say how happy I am now.  For sure Naoto was the fastest and I think I was the second fastest but that’s OK.’

Reacting to his 2nd place, after a long pause Gruber said, ‘On one side I am happy and can cry but now when I see only 13-seconds to Jilles when we had a flame out and I had a mistake & flipped, it’s hard to image what could have been without these’.  The 2023 1:8 Onroad Vice Champion, continued, ‘starting from 8th and then having a flip that put me last, coming back step by step we where not so far away.  We made some little changes after the Semi and it helped a lot the car so I could drive easier because I feel no flip but you never know if you push more if it is going to happen or not.’  Doing a full tyre change, he said unlike his rivals he never considered only making an outside change, and that his flip in the race was a result of touching the curb adding the first left corner ‘was always a critical point for my car.’

A previous World Championship podium finisher in 1:8 GT, Phutiyothin was delighted with his podium finish.  The Thai driver said, ‘when we practiced here the car was very good but then once the event started the car was no good’ and he had ‘lots of engine problems’, however after a chassis and engine change on the day things counted most, ‘everything was super good’ with him stating ‘today was my day, the car was perfect.’  A finalist at last year’s 1:8 Onroad Worlds in Japan, choosing to change all four tyres during today’s final, he said everything ‘finally’ went as planned and he couldn’t have planned for the race to go any better.

Asked about his topple from the front of the race when looking so in control of proceedings, Matsukura, the only other driver to have won both the nitro & electric touring car WC titles coming in the race, said, ‘I just touched the inside curb a little too much and the car flipped into the wall which broke the shock.  I still had the spring (keeping the suspension up) so I could drive the 35-minutes left.’  The only driver to run a 14-second lap in the final, he added, ‘in the beginning of the race the car was perfect, and I was just driving, driving, you know, but on this track it takes just one mistake.’  Originally planning to stop for tyres at 40-minutes, believing he had damaged his tyre in the impact he told his crew to change the outside tyres early which was when they discovered the damaged shock and he knew his shot at regaining the title was over.

Asked about his race, Sahashi replied, ‘the start was ok but then I struggled to see in the dark.  The car was OK, the engine was OK, but the human not.’  With the final starting just after 16:36 local time while the covered track lighting was on, the lack of natural outside light did affect the brightness in the second half of the race.  While in contention for a podium, he said after his tyre stop his car was ‘very difficult’ and having made the decision to run positive front camber as the tyres worn down it left him with a challenging car to drive at the end of the race costing him any podium chances.’

View our event image gallery here.