Track record tumbles at Singapore Nitro GP

The track record at the newly resurfaced RCMC Marine Parade track has tumbled today in practice ahead of this weekend’s Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix.  The 20th Anniversary of the race, lap times got quicker and quicker over Friday’s running with double World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi setting the latest benchmark with a 15.457-lap in his afternoon running.  With the previous record standing at 15.9 and set 10-years ago shortly after the track’s previous resurfacing, today’s times are considerable faster than last year’s best of 16.1-seconds.  With an entry list that reads like a World Championship, it was the Mugen Seiki of reigning 1:8 World Champion Shoki Takahata who set a new record in the morning before reigning Electric Touring Car World Champion Bruno Coelho upped that pace.  The Portuguese driver’s time was short lived however as Takahata produced a 15.5, his first visit to Singapore’s only permanent track clearly not hampering his form.  The day however would end up being Sahashi’s as he found another tenth of a second from his Infinity IF18-3 but with three rounds of qualifying tomorrow and the high level of drivers taking part it is widely expected the record will tumble further.

As the winner of last year’s Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix, and a driver with vast experience of the track, Infinity’s Dario Balestri was very complimentary of the resurfacing work which was crowd funded in a project led by Daryl Thong, who is this weekend’s Race Director.  The 2-time 1:8 World Champion said, ‘For sure they make a great job with the asphalt because last year there was a couple of bumps at the end of the straight and we needed to make a strange line, now it is really nice to drive.’  Here together with his engine sponsor and mechanic Massimo Fantini of Max Power, the Italian added, ‘the grip in the new asphalt is quite good so we are looking forward to enjoying the race this year.’  Another positive of the new surface is the reduced tyre wear, last year being relative high, with Balestri saying it is ‘now normal’ adding ‘it’s like 1mm in 3, 4-minutes which is good.’  In terms of his car and what he has been doing in open practice, drivers joined yesterday on the track by Formula 1 World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, he said, ‘we are using the days to test small things and also Massimo is making a lot of tests with the engines but this is a good race for this because we have many World Champions, it’s like a World Championship.’

Despite playing an active part in taking down the track record over the day, Takahata summed up his day’s performance as average.  What will be his final race of the 2026 season, the 32-year-old Japanese driver said he was still trying to adapt his driving style to the track.  More used to racing on tighter tracks that are common in Japan, he said the RCMC layout is much more open and high speed and this is something he is still getting comfortable with.  A driver who last year in Chile joined Balestri and Lamberto Collari as the only repeat winners of IFMAR original World Championship, on set-up he said he is trying something different on his MRX7 each run, mostly making small adjustments, as well as different engine set-ups given he is also a Max Power team driver and Fantini is on hand.

A driver who took the JMRCA Japanese National title away from Takahata earlier this year, at the Infinity International RC Speedway in Suzuka, Naoto Matsukura is another driver able to give a good insight into how much of an improvement the resurfacing has been.  Back to back winner of the event in 2023 and 2024, the newly crowned 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion said, ‘The new surface is really good and it’s a completely new feeling to drive, its pretty good for me.’  He added, ‘Now there is no bump and also the track is very consistent and with high traction.  The tyre wear is also a lot less.’  Asked about changes to his car he said, ‘I actually do no changes and just drive.’  Asked about adjusting back to 1:8 after racing 1:10 200mm, this his first 1:8 outing since Gubbio, he said, ‘actually after Gubbio I drive a lot of EP Touring Car but it feels good to drive 1:8 again.  It is fun, a good feeling, good steering, 1:8 is good.  It has high traction like 1:12 so I’m happy.’