Urbain takes Q2 from Coelho at Asia Touring Car Championship

Lucas Urbain has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the Asia Touring Car Championship, the Awesomatix driver making the most of the challenging track conditions to top the times ahead of Top Seed Bruno Coelho and Akio Sobue.  With rain preventing any action at Hongyu GDC track yesterday, while a dry start to Sunday conditions would be much cooler and windier than Friday when it was Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura who took the opening TQ.  With Matsukura posting a time of 19/5:07.597 in Q1, even with a round of free practice run to open the day and get some rubber back down on the track, Urbain’s TQ time this morning was almost half a lap slower with the French driver running 19/5:14.210 with Coelho just 0.145 behind.  The top heat would see mistakes from a number of drivers including Matsukura who ended up P7.  Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski also had a spin, after which he said his car was OK as he held station on track with Urbain, but the almost 21-second lap 3 meant his time was only good enough for P6.  Another strong run from Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto saw him back up his Top 3 in Q1 with a fourth ahead of Axon’s Hayato Ishioka.

‘It was the radical opposite of Friday’, was how Urbain summed up Q2.  He continued, ‘my car was far too safe this time.  It felt good off the line but after I think 1-2-minutes I overshot the corner and I had to go full lock to recover and that is never good news on this track because I could feel my front tyre dropping and dropping, especially the last two laps.  I was struggling to make the car turn. ‘  He added, ‘I knew I was somewhere in front despite the lack of announcements because I knew my car was good & strong and it was a matter of keep going and maintain some sort of a gap.  It was up to .5 (of a second) at some point and Bruno caught up to 4/10th to finish 1/10 behind, thankfully it was enough.  It will need some changes to make it aggressive and more on the noise for Q3.’  On the track conditions today he said, ‘It’s windy and cold but for some reason it effects the balance in a different way we are used to because the more traction the more the car seems to be on the noise and now with lower grip it seems to make the car more stable for some odd reason, which is the total opposite to what we are used too.  I guess it is what we have to plan for and try to figure it out.’  He concluded, ‘I have changes in mind so it should not be too difficult to make it they way it should be for now.’

The defending Champion of the renamed FEMCA Championship, this race the biggest racing accolade in the Asian racing scene, Coelho summed up Q2 with, ‘It was a solid run, no mistakes.  The car was a bit pushy.’  The 3-time back to back World Champion continued, ‘We made some changes for the conditions because today is much less traction than the previous days so we tried to make the car easier to drive but it was way too easy to drive.  So it was pushy and slow.  I wasn’t able to make the first place but we will try to make it a little more aggressive for the next one but the conditions are quite difficult out there.  You can see many guys doing mistakes so we can’t risk changing too much.’

Reacting to performance, Sobue said, ‘It was OK, the car is getting better but it was a little bit difficult with the conditions with it windy and also dusty on the track.’  The World Championship podium finisher continued, ‘I am happy with P3 but for sure it was not easy.  On the first lap and the last lap I had some mistakes and big lose in lap time so I think, while not easy, I can fight the top guys.’  On Q3 he said, ‘For sure I try more set-up changes and see what we can do for the finals.’

Asked about his run, 2014 World Champion Matsukura said, ‘The first lap I had a spin.  I changed the set-up for the conditions and the rear had no traction.  It was only the first lap, the second lap the car felt OK but then after 3-minutes it’s like no traction.’  He added,  ‘I made a little mistake and Akio passed on my inside so I got outside then after I come back on the line I had no traction.’  Looking to Q3, the final qualifier, the Infinity driver said, ‘I need a completely different set-up.  The track is different today, after 3-minutes it is not only a drop in the tyres but also my car is loose so it’s difficult.  We will try to make more traction in the rear and lets see how that works.’

New cars & parts at the Asia Touring Car Championship

With the Asia Touring Car Championship unofficially the warm-up race for next April’s IFMAR ISTC World Championships in China, a lot of manufacturers are using this weekend’s race to test new parts and in some cases completely new cars.  As previously mentioned in our opening report from the Hongyy GDC track on Friday, Schumacher has a brand new platform with three examples running in the hands of Michal Orlowski, Mattia Collina, and Pekko Iivonen, all of the team well briefed to give away nothing about the British manufacturers latest project.  We also already know that Tamiya has new parts it is testing with the iconic Japanese manufacturer and it TRF designer Kiyo Suzuki not wanting to officially disclose any more details on what they are testing.  HPI, who excited the touring car world when they showed off a competition spec car they are working on back in October, are here with the car which now features a new chassis design.  While our usual Chassis Focus feature will be thin on the ground from this race, two manufacturers that have cars they can show us are Awesomatix and Xray.  Awesomatix said they take a slightly different approach to other manufacturers with their new car releases and they are running a standard latest spec A800RR as their development is always ongoing but Max Machler did say they might have one or two new parts come the World Championship.

Having only released their X4’26, Xray is running the car as standard however its designer Martin Hudy pointed out they are trying a steel chassis ahead of the release of this option for the car.  Asked what they were testing, Hudy explained, ‘because the car is new basically we are just testing everything that is standard in the kit, the only difference that we are testing the steel chassis that is coming as an option soon.  We are offering also the short arms as an option so we are now testing it in combination with the steel chassis which works pretty good for Jin (Sawada) so this is the main thing and there is no prototype parts.’  Another manufacturer who has only come to market with a new car relatively recently, Infinity has come to Foshan with a number of test part for its IF14 Speciale.  With designer Francesco Martini in attendance as mechanic for Bruno Coelho, the Italian said they are using the event to evaluate a number of different parts for this track and to see what work for the various track conditions they have experienced.

ARC is another here with a whole new platform, team driver Enrico Jung explaining it is 95% new parts.  The Taiwanese manufacturer ran the first version of what will be the new A11 in October and the team is now here with the second iteration after a number of parts have been adapted.  Close to the final version, the car is expected to be released before the Worlds with March set as the target date.   Over in the Axon camp, Akio Sobue explained their car has new World Championship parts specifically designed for the characteristics of the large and high speed Hongyu GDC track and the race’s GDC branded Sweep controlled tyres.  Winner of the opening race at the track in September, he said they are running new things in the rear section of the car such as a new bulkhead which is more stiff for greater stability on a track he described as ‘high speed’ and for a tyre that has ‘more high bit’.  They have also adjusted the weight balance of the car.

While not racing at the Asia Touring Car Championship, Serpent will join most of the teams as they stay on for a week of post race testing.  Arriving in China yesterday, speaking to Dominic Greiner at breakfast in the hotel this morning, the 2024 World Finalist said they have a new car and having only just got those parts he still has to build the car for testing.  With no sign of Ronald Volker just yet, the former World Champion another arriving for testing rather than doing the race, we don’t have any info on what Mugen Seiki have in the works for the World Championship.

Matsukura takes opening qualifier under lights in China

Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening round of qualifying under the lights at the Asia Touring Car Championship in China, the number 2 seed topping the delayed and eventful Q1 ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue.  With rain after seeding delaying the schedule at Hongyu GDC and a full round of practice run to get the track back up to speed, when the final run of the evening came around Top Seed Bruno Coelho would struggle.  The rear of his Infinity clearly not at one with the track.  Losing the car a number of times, Matsukura lucky to not collect his team-mate, the World Champion would end up P9 at the conclusion of the round.  With Matsukura taking the TQ by 1.2-seconds from Sobue, only Jin Sawada managed a faster lap time but pushing the limits of his electrics the Japanese Xray driver would run out of battery with a lap to go costing him a certain Top 2 run as he got a DNF.  Behind the Top 2, Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto made it a Japanese trio at the top of the times ahead of the all new Schumachers of Michal Orlowski and Pekko Iivonen with Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain completing the Top 6 for what could prove a critical run.  Having originally planned two qualifiers today because of the threat of rain, but only get one, the chances of a wet day tomorrow seem even higher as drivers left the track for the evening.

Summing up his run, Matsukura said, ‘At the beginning I was nervous a bit because I could not see my car.  My body is yellow and a little bit shiny so in the chicane it was very difficult to see but the car handling was pretty good, the pace was not bad.’  He continued, ‘At the start the car was a little nervous so I couldn’t hold the inside line but the time was not so bad.  Then after driving for a while the tyres came in and I could make my best lap.’  Having said at the end of seeding he would change his set-up for Q1 , asked if he did he said, ‘I changed it a little bit in the front.  We made it less low in the front and it was much better.  I think if there is no rain tomorrow we will try a bit more lower.  If it rains the the traction will be a bit low so we will think what to do for that.’  Asked about run time, that a issue facing all drivers given  the size and speed of the track, the multiple World Champion said,’ It’s border line.  I think one more lap maybe we can but a second lap we cannot, it is on the limit.’  Pitting next to Coelho, asking the Portuguese driver what had caused his issue he replied, ‘I don’t know yet, we need to find out what was the problem because our car was pretty good up until  now and very stable.  Now it was just spinning out everywhere so I don’t know.  It was something wrong with the rear or the tyres.’

‘Just OK’ was how Sobue summed up his opening effort.  He said while his car balance was better in Q1 than before, the track with its high traction and being more sticky had caused him to drive too safe at the start of the 5-minutes.  ‘I didn’t want to traction roll because I saw in the heats before many cars traction roll.  It was difficult for just 2-laps but after my car was easy but I was too cautious at the start.’  Asked about tomorrow, his immediate response, ‘tomorrow is rain’ he added, ‘I hope we continue to race but I’m not sure given the weather forecast so I hope we can at least get a second qualifier Sunday morning.’

Pleased with how his car went in seeding and opting to leave it the same for Q1,  Yamamoto was happy with his P3 performance.  The 2022 Japanese National Championship runner-up, said it was a clean run and the 26-year-old plans for now to keep his Speciale unchanged for Q2.

Reacting to his P4 for the opening qualifier, Orlowski said, ‘The car didn’t feel good, the track changed and keeps changing every run.  I find it different every time and its been a struggle but we are hear to learn for the Worlds so its all good.’  Asked about his programme with team-mate Mattia Collina, the Italian 17th fastest, the reigning TITC Champion said, ‘He is trying one thing and I am trying one thing and if we really like something then we try it on each others car.’   For the next qualifier the Polish driver said, ‘we see about the rain, I am not really too worried about it and we’ll try to think of ideas of how to make the car the best for this track.’  Asked the biggest point he is working on, he said, ‘Cornering.  I have to adjust my steering input going through the corner.  I can’t use the steering lock and just hold it for the corner, I always have to re-adjust and I lose a lot of time and I don’t have confidence.  It is unpredictable’

‘Not too bad’ was how Iivonen summed up Q1.  He continued, ‘I have been struggling a bit up to now.  The first days the car was really really good, it was amazing.  I was matching the pace of others but the track has been changing a lot.  Even though I have been practicing here a couple of times before (this weekend) the grip is way more than before so it is changing quite a lot’  Better know for his 1:8 Offroad exploits, main the Worlds final at the eBuggy Worlds in Portugal this year, hecontinued, ‘I think now the car was the best and we have figured some things out and it was really good.  I had a couple of mistakes at the start but it was a pretty clean run for me and I got back to the rhythm and it was pretty good.’  For Q2, based on it not rain, the Finn said, ‘I think I will keep it the same and see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully no rain, really wish, because I think it (the car) will be good.’

Leading the Awesomatix charge at the Asia Touring Car Championship, team-mate Marc Rheinard opting to not race but join for post race testing, Urbain said, ‘It was a bit too difficult to drive and I am kicking myself because I had 2 even 3 bobbles and it cost me like 2-seconds or something and if I look at the times I would have been fighting for TQ, but also I think everyone had some bobbles or drove too careful, one or the other.  My car was just too difficult, too much on the noise and it was a bit of a challenge to keep it on the asphalt if I am honest.’  Asked if this was due to the night conditions he replied, ‘I don’t know.  Right after the rain and we drove again it was already like this which was unexpected.  I don’t know if the rain changed the track slightly and now everyone is a little bit off and we need to adjust for tomorrow or if tomorrow is back to normal.  We are all learning I guess.’  On Saturday’s action he said, ‘we will see how it is first unless I have some clever idea overnight and I implement it for tomorrow, we’ll see at dinner what I can find out.’

Coelho top seed at stacked Asia Championship

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho is the Top Seed at a stacked Asia Touring Car Championship at the impressive new Hongyu GDC track in Foshan, China.   The defending champion of the race formerly known as the FEMCA Championship, the World Champion set the pace over the 4-rounds of seeding from team-mate & former World Champion Naoto Matsukura with the Xray of Jin Sawada completing the Top 3.  With the venue set to host the ISTC World Championships next April, this weekend’s racing while not an official Warm Up race has attracted all the major drivers and manufacturers with the exception of Mugen Seiki although winner of the last World Championship to be hosted in China in 2016, Ronald Volker will arrive over the weekend for testing with many of the racers staying for up to a week of further testing after the race.    In terms of cars, manufacturers are here with plenty of new updates/prototype parts and even completely new cars.  While Awesomatix is here with its standard car, Lucas Urbain 6th for them in seeding, at the other end of the scale Schumacher have a completely brand new car with Michal Orlowski ending up 7th in second.  Once the dominant force at ISTC Worlds, winning titles with Marc Rheinard who is not racing but is due to arrive for testing, and Jilles Groskamp, the Dutch legend racing in China for the first time in 10-year, iconic brand Tamiya are here with a number of updates to their car which is being driven by Souta Goto.  Unfortunately with a treat of rain for Saturday and light rain arriving at the end of seeding, it looks like the event may see some rescheduling.  The first two rounds of qualifying having already been brought forward to Friday afternoon.

While sounding like he spent the night at a karaoke bar, his voice sounding like it is about to go, Coehlo was happy with his on track performance so far saying, ‘The car is working pretty good’.  He continued, ‘we are trying many different things but for the moment it looks pretty good.  The car is not super different to what I have been running in the past at other races.’  While he took part in the track’s opening Offroad race, this is his first experience of the asphalt, he said, ‘I like the track, the surface is fantastic like very good grip, flat, so it is very good to work on the set-up and understand the car.  Also the conditions stay pretty much the same all day because there is no sun.  So it stays pretty the same and it’s good to understand the car.’  While the IF14 Speciale is still very new to the market asked about new parts for the race and the Worlds he replied, ‘for sure we have always prototype stuff that we test for the future and for upcoming upgrade on the car so we are working on that for the Worlds of course, but I can’t tell you which ones.’

Runner-up to Coelho at last year’s FEMCA race, Matsakura was very upbeat about being back in China.  He said, ‘I happy to come here for the FEMCA race and now my focus is on Touring Car and next year’s World Championship.’  One of a number of drivers that came to the track 3-weeks ago as part of electrics brand ORCA testing, he said in terms of the track layout he was already in good shape and this has allowed him to get straight down to work in trying car set-ups.  He added that his speedo is much improved too following the test with ORCA.  Making a change in the rear of his Speciale for CP4 he said it wasn’t good but he will revert back to what he had before and go with a different change for the opening qualifier.’  He added, ‘the beginning it is so good but after it drops down a lot so the 5-minutes is a bit slow but we have been improving that and hope to have it better for Q1 with the latest change.’

Only joining his younger brother Sin at Xray last month after a stint at Infinity, Jin Sawada summed up his Top 3 seeding by saying , ‘It’s going OK.’  His first time to the track which officially opened in September, the Japanese driver described the track as ‘big and high speed with good traction’ admitting it was easy to traction roll.  He said however for the fourth & final seeding that the set-up was good that this was now less of an issue.  Making changes every run, he said over 5-minutes it is very easy to make mistakes and with that in mind he will make a few adjustments for Q1 to make his car more easy to drive.

‘Not easy’, that was hoe Akio Sobue summed up setting the fifth fastest time 0.019 ahead of fellow countryman Ryosuke Yamamoto.  Winner of the track’s opening race, the Japanese Champion explained, ‘my car is not so fast in the beginning but I think 5-minutes is not so bad because I have more consistent lap times, not so much drop.  I see some drivers at the beginning are super fast and after 3-minutes the drop is huge’.  Another driver who took part in the ORCA test, asked what he is working on in particular he explained, ‘today every round is different with changes in the conditions.’  Asked about new parts on his car he replied, ‘we have a few new things, same like everyone.’

‘Doing alright especially in the last one, it is finally getting good again’, that was Urbain’s reaction after the final seeding run.  The French driver continued, ‘It was good early on but I struggled the whole day yesterday.  I had a big crash this morning but I think that big crash was revealing on the wrong direction I was doing so I undid a lot I did especially for seeding 3 when I had the crash and my car improved massively the last one, so it is actually promising.  I feel like I have a car I can fight with, I have some minor things I need to improve but it feels very good to drive.  It is all about the 5-minutes now because the drop is massive, the tyres are soft.’  Here for the ORCA test, asked his impression of the Hongyu GDC facility he replied, ‘It’s fantastic.  It’s a wow feeling when you get here. `Everything is fresh infrastructure not only here but in general. Everything is brand new, it works, technology is everywhere.’  On the track layout he said, ‘I would say the layout is too big.  I like the centre section, the centre chicane feels amazing there.  It is just the right section is a bit long and boring and even the modified cars feel actually slow on this track.  It’s a bit too wide and big, the cars even look small on the track but the surface is fantastic, it’s not like super high grip, it’s grippy but the corner speeds are really great and feedback on driving is really really fun.’

Winner of the 1:12 Asia Championship last weekend on the Hongyu GDC track’s indoor carpet track, asked how seeding had went for him Orlowski said, ‘We are slowly learning the conditions and trying something every run.  We are trying not rush things to make sure we understand what we are testing so one change each run.  The focus is the Worlds not particularly this race plus we are here for a whole week afterwards.’  He continued, ‘Small steps, a few steps forward, a few steps backward but we are learning every run.  It is tough here with the track and fast drivers who have been here before but we are slowly moving up.’