Orlowski to defend TITC title as Top Qualifier

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski will defend his TITC title in Bangkok tomorrow from pole position after taking a somewhat anti-climatic final qualifier at RC Addict this evening to become Top Qualifier once again at the iconic race.  His closest challenger, Bruno Coelho had injected a level of excitement into proceedings when he took the penultimate qualifier to set the stage for a showdown but the World Champion didn’t have the pace in the ‘Happy Hour’ evening conditions to prevent Orlowski taking his fourth TQ run of the event.  While Orlowski and Coelho have the edge on the rest of the field, Akio Sobue again put in another Top 3 run and that’s where the 2-time Champion will start from, many predicting the Axon driver might in fact have locked in the best grid position should, as we have seen in the past, fireworks go off at the front.  A great day from Simon Lauter sees the race’s 2024 Open Brushless class winner line up fourth on the grid ahead of team-mate Marc Rheinard, the chances of the 3-time World Champion winning again in Thailand two decades after his single TITC win looking a tall order.  While many full factory drivers had their struggles and failed to make the A-Main, Korean racer Ji-Heon Yoo made Awesomatix the best represented manufacturer on the grid securing P6 ahead of Infinity’s Viktor Wilck, Xray’s Jin Sawada, Axon’s Hayato Ishioka, and Tamiya’s Souta Goto who got the tie break on the Mugen Seiki of 2024 Top Qualifier Ronald Volker to complete the grid.  In Open Brushless having qualified & finished P2 last year, Lukas Ellerbrock is the Top Qualifier ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Oliver Bultynck who TQ’d the final qualifier.  Winner of Q4, Thailand’s Natthawat Rungcharat starts 3rd for Xray.

Summing up the final qualifier Orlowski said, ‘The last run my car felt a little bit better than the run before.  I was starting behind Bruno so I just wanted to close in a bit and just stay there but I could see I was catching and he was pushing real hard and making some mistakes so once I got in front I just could cruise around.’  On his second consecutive TQ honours he continued, ‘I am happy to be on pole again but tomorrow is a new day, different track conditions and we are all getting new tyres, so hopefully the car works well.  We will see if we are going to adjust it in anyway for the conditions but basically we need the car and tyres working well tomorrow and to deliver.’

Reacting to his Q5 performance, Coelho said, ‘We knew it would be hard to beat Michal on these conditions so we gave it our all and unfortunately it was not possible, but tomorrow is another day and I think that is the key words’.  A race where no one remembers second place, he added, ‘Anything can happen tomorrow, we will give our all.  If we crash we crash’, a full statement that he is all in to become the race’s most successful driver, an honour he currently shares with Atsushi Hara.  With his IF14 Speciale strong in the warmer conditions while Orlowski’s Schumacher prototype has a distinct advantage in the cooler conditions, asked about the finals, the first up just before 11:00 in the morning local time, Coelho whose last TITC win came from P2 on the grid replied, ‘Our car is working pretty good on hot conditions but I don’t know the weather for tomorrow yet, I didn’t check, but if it is hot we normally have a better car but we will still work to improve more on that with the car set-up.’

‘I’m happy with P3’, was Sobue’s response when asked about his starting position.  Winner here in 2018 and 2020, both times with Infinity, he continued, ‘In the last one the car was a bit difficult, still stable, but I needed to be careful of the white line and also I made many smaller mistakes that cost me time but I am happy with my position for tomorrow.’  Asked about the finals, the 2022 World Championship podium finisher said, ‘You know some times P3 is the best position, some times, but I will try to catch the front guys and if I have pace I will go in the fight, I will do my best.’  On his pace in comparison to the Top 2 he agreed he was a little bit behind but he said as a driver he has many many little mistakes so there is potential to improve stating ‘the car is really good’, his car running a number of prototype parts for an upcoming TC10 kit revision.

‘I am absolutely stunted about this’, was how Lauter reacted to claiming P4 on the grid, the German qualifying 9th on his Modified debut last year.  On his final qualifier he said, ‘basically it went like the others.  I had some driving mistakes still so I think the car is better than the driver at the moment, it also means if I keep it clean tomorrow in the finals there is a good chance to be in the mix for the podium at least.’  He continued his game plan is to ‘survive the first laps and then see if something happens in front or not.  I have Marc behind which is super hard because he is probably in race craft the best or one of the best out there but still I was faster today on 5-minutes, all the time I had a mistake I could recover something from him.  He is my team-mate so for sure he will be more cautious with me than other guys.’   Asked as a former Open Brushless winner, winners not allowed to defend that win, about how he is enjoying the step up to Modified at the TITC he replied, ‘I only participated once in Open Brushless class but while I enjoyed it Modified is a different level and I think that is clear to everyone.  Open Brushless is close and you need to drive good but Modified is even closer and if you don’t drive perfect you have no f##king chance.  Those guys in front are basically Aliens, I think everyone know this from ETS, Worlds or what ever but at the same time this means something can happen at the front and especially at this track so I think there is quite a chance for a podium.’

Calling his Q5 run ‘the same story’, Rheinard added, ‘it doesn’t feel like my car anymore since qualifying, I am completely lost.’  Putting it to him that race craft is his thing he replied, ‘but from 5 I don’t know. I know it is good that Bruno is behind Orlowski and in the day time the gap isn’t that big so for sure something can happen but my pace is just not there and there must be a lot happening in front to get a result.  He concluded, ‘I will be still there, I will still try my best but I am not so confident right now.’