Coelho adds FEMCA title to CV
Bruno Coelho has added a FEMCA title to his racing CV, the multiple World and European Champion now official the Champion of Asia in Electric Touring Car. Securing the overall TQ at the event hosted at the GDC track in Foshan, China, the Xray driver continued his dominant form into the finals. Cruising to the win in A1 ahead of former World Champion Naoto Matsukura, he sealed the deal in A2 with another text book race this time ahead of team-mate Shin Sawada. A3 would then decide which side Matsukura and Sawada would stand next to Coelho on the events impressive podium presentation, the entire race weekend taking RC events to a very high level in terms of presentation. Leading away the field in the closing race, Matsukura would see off a determined challenge from his fellow Japanese driver even surviving heavy contact with the boards to win A3 and claim the runner-up spot, the same result he achieved on his only other previous FEMCA ISTC Championship appearance. With racing on carpet somewhat an alien experience for Sawada, he completed the podium. Qualifying fourth, Japanese Offroad Champion Kouki Kato would finish in that position ahead of the Awesomatix of Maxim Laverychev who went one better this year than he achieved on his first visit to the GDC track last year.
Reacting to his FEMCA title win Coelho said, ‘It was a very good race and it was very nice to be here. I have never been to a FEMCA Championship before so it is very nice to attend. This kind of race in Asia is very important for me as I have many sponsors here so it is always nice to come here to say thank you to them and also show my image here and not only on the other side of the world. It was a very nice race and it gave us the chance to test many things together with our sponsor who where here like Hobbywing. The have a new speedo and it was nice to work with them trying to find out new things on the speedo. The race ran really well for us even when the traction went down a little bit we were able to change the set-up and get the car working well. Today the grip came back up again and I was able to do the same lap times as I was doing in practice 2-days ago when the track was really really good which means the car was on point.’ While the touring car race is done, today’s win doesn’t mark the end of Coelho’s stay in China. Next weekend he will make the switch to offroad for the SIGP in Xiamen. First however he will do a little more sightseeing tomorrow with race organiser Gavin Kwok for he is very grateful for his and the Hongyu Group’s hospitality throughout the race. Asked if he was looking forward to SIGP, Coelho said, ‘Yes but for sure it will be tough cause Ongaro is coming, the World Champion is coming, which will make things for sure super tough but I will have the help of my team-mate David Ronnefalk and we will try to get Ongaro for sure.’
Another driver very grateful to Kwok for the hospitality, both he and Coelho enjoying doing a photo & video shoot at a local tourist site ahead of the Championship, Matsukura said while second overall was ‘OK’, given his last Electric Touring Car race was the TITC back in March, he always wants better. Summing up his weekend, the 2014 ISTC World Champion said, ‘with the tyre here every time in practice it was getting better traction but then when the race started sometimes the track had low traction and that was challenging. Sometimes you needed more traction like this morning but then after in the final too much traction, so this result is not bad after a long break from touring car.’
Like Matsukura, Sawada wasn’t content with his result. Asked if was happy with his podium finish the 20-year-old said, ‘I wanted more’. The Japanese did however enjoy his battles in the finals with Matsukura despite being unable to get by, his 2nd place in A2 coming when his rival touched the curbing and traction roll. With little or no carpet tracks in Japan Sawada unable to test said these FEMCA Championships where challenging due to surface with the changing tractions level further compounding that challenge. Winner of the Hobbywing Cup here in China earlier this year on asphalt, struggling to know which direction to go with his set-up, he did try the same set-up as team-mate Coelho but with a different driving style he would still have to learn to adjust that to his liking.
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