Takahata becomes 2-time World Champion in Chile

It’s a very elusive club and up to now it has been exclusive to Italians, but today in Chile Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata became a multiple 1:8 Onroad World Champion with a perfectly executed 1-hour main.  Starting from fourth on the grid, once the 2019 World Champion worked his way to the front he would take control of the race eventually winning by over a lap from Simon Kurzbuch to give the new MRX7 a 1-2 finish.  Takahata’s win would be made all the easier after issues for Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani, who needed to make a body change in the race, and star of this week’s action Maxime Ripoll, the French teenager robbed of a second place finish as reward for his impressive efforts when his engine came to halt with 6-minutes remaining.  While Kurzbuch benefited from this, with a fast charging Catanzani recovering ground, there would be a late & intense battle for the runner-up spot that also involved Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, the trio all running together on track.  As the race approached the final minute, Catanzani having just got passed Gruber would then attempt a pass on Kurzbuch but contact was made resulting in his Serpent having a spin as the other two continued.  The super fast Italian, who was the only driver to run a 17-second lap in the Main, would however get back up to Gruber and snatch the final podium position on the last corner of the last lap.

Describing himself as ‘proud’ of his own performance today and at becoming World Champion once again, Takahata was quick to address the big talking point of these Worlds, the absence of the Infinity team.  Having given up his first title to Dario Balestri 2-years ago in Japan, where the Italian joined Lamberto Collari as 1:8 Onroad’s only multiple World Champions, the 31-year-old, who has limited english, said, ‘I wanted to race with Dario but he wasn’t here this time.  I still gave a World Championship effort and I happy for that to win today’.  On his his final, those at the CACH track who witnessed his drive agreeing the Japanese driver’s performance would have been difficult to beat no matter who went up against him, he said his strategy was to go ‘maximum attack’ from the start of the race.  With that approach paying early dividends he added that once he was in the lead he just controlled the race adopting ‘a safety drive’.  With his crew delivering perfect pit stops and a full tyre change at the mid distance point, he said he knew the World title was his once Ripoll came to a stop on track.  A cooler day overall with less blue skies than the rest of the week, and the wind seeming to taken its regular afternoon slot off today, Takahata said the final was also the best track conditions for his car adding he felt he could have pushed a lot more if had needed to respond to a challenge from his rivals.

Having come through the Semi Finals after missing the new for 2025 Top 4 direct to Main qualifying slots, reflecting on his final Kurzbuch said, ‘as you have seen we struggled in the last days and now we gave everything in the final.  We lost our direction lets say and tried to work with what we have.  Many people helped me here so from the final point of view I could pass Fuhrmann immediately and Toni in the first minute but after that the other two where too fast.  I tried to give everything, and I did and 2nd was the maximum we could take out of today.’  With that result giving Mugen Seiki plenty to celebrated, the Swiss driver said, ‘It’s amazing for Mugen and the Sanada team, it couldn’t be better for the new car.’  On his strategy for the race, he said, ‘all went ok, the second tyres stop was a bit slower than the first but everything went as planned.’  With the capital of nitro onroad racing, Italy and the iconic Fiorano track, hosting the next World Championship in 2027, Kurzbuch concluded, ‘now we will reset before we comeback stronger for Italy.  We are already looking forward for it.’

‘It was good until the first tyre change when I a big mistake in the pit’, that was how Catazani summed up his race.  The 20-year-old who led the first quarter of the race continued, ‘we lost a lot there but we continue our race and I think we made a good recovery, we put on a good show for those watching, so I am happy about that and happy with the podium but I know that in my mind that with the pace it could have been more.’  Needing to change his body, he explained, ‘I arrived at the pit lane and braked maybe too hard and I got stuck in the barrier.  I could see no marshal was coming so I tried to get unstuck but the body got stuck.  I never seen a body get stuck like this, so we got a little bit unlucky but it was my mistake.’  On his attempted pass on Kurzbuch for second he said, ‘we touched and I lost time.  I was think it was finished for a podium but then on the last lap I see Toni a little bit struggling so I pushed super hard so I tried and it worked all good to get on the podium.’

Asked about his race Gruber replied, ‘we set the engine too rich in the beginning and I lost a lot of speed.  Also the car was extremely difficult to drive with this engine setting.  Out of the corner I feel nothing, I lost a lot time so after, I don’t know how many minutes, we tuned the engine.  Then it was good and I could feel the car much better and the lap times was much but already we lost too much time.’  On losing out on the podium on the last lap the German said, ‘In the end it was big mistake from my side.  I made a mistake the corner before the last corner.  I touch the corner marker.’  He added, ‘I hoped that when, not intentionally, I give the position to Catanzani near the end that when he was third behind Simon and I know Catanzani is much faster that they might tangle.  It happened but only for one guy.  In the end it was a P4.’

‘Disappointed of course.’ was Ripoll’s reaction to having just completed his first World Championship final.  He continued, ‘When you are P2 for almost all the race and 6-minutes before the end you have a problem for the moment it is hard.  But this is the race, 1-hour is super long.  Like I said before anything can happen, sometimes it is good sometimes it is not.’  Suffering an early incident 7-minutes into the race where his Xray ended up on its roof, the 19-year-old explained, ‘Toni and Simon was behind me and a guy in front made a mistake, he clipped the inside of the corner, and lost the car and I had nowhere to go.  I went straight into him and my car went flying.’  Managing to recover from that and get back up to second unfortunately a podium on his Worlds debut wasn’t to be.  While his crew performanced an ultra fast engine change he would finish P8.  Putting it to him that while the result didn’t reflect his performance, the event had brought his talent to the World’s attention he replied, ‘In Europe my name was already known because I make a podium but now yes I am better known.  I will definitely come back stronger and next time I will go direct for the win.  We have the mindset to win now.  Here it was a bit unexpected to be at this level but next time we will know that we can do it.’