August 20, 2016

Matsukura sets early pace in China

sat_matsukura2

3-time 1/12th World Champion Naoto Matsukura set the early pace in free practice at the 1:12 World Championships in Beijing, China. With 6 of the 8 practices runs that make up the opening day of the 18th running of the championships completed, the Roche driver was fastest over three consecutive laps from reigning European Champion Alexander Hagberg and defending World Champion Marc Rheinard.  While the track layout is proving popular with drivers, the big complaint is the lack of traction something that isn’t being helped by the low 56 entry count.

sat_namematsu

With the fastest times of the Top 5 drivers all posted in P4, fastest man Matsukura summed up his earlier runs by saying, ‘the track is a little difficult because of the low traction and the layout too, there are many chicanes’.  Adding ‘the track is big but good’, the Japanese driver said the traction levels are not showing much signs of significant improvement.  Running gold compound Team Bomber tyres on his prototype Roche he said due to the low traction the ‘tyre wear is high’ but happy with their performance in the early part of the run he will try to make the car more stable through a setup change.

sat_alex

‘Struggling a little bit’ was Hagberg’s reaction to getting to within 6/10ths of Matsukura over 3-laps.  Running the production version of the prototype X12 2017, he used to win his 3rd consecutive European Championship this year, the factory Xray driver said he ‘runs out of grip at the end of the run’.  Getting 9-minutes of practice time each practice, the Swede wants to ‘preserve the rear tyres’ adding the traction is ‘surprisingly low’.  Running Hot Race tyres, he will try a different tyre size for his next practice as well as adjusting his tyre prep.  A fan of the 30 X 24 metre track which he described as ‘really big’, he added ‘it’s bigger than I’m used too, it’s nice’.  Feeling he needs ‘work on consistency’, he will make a small set-up change for the remaining 2-practice rounds.

sat_rhebods

A 1/10th of a second off Hagberg’s pace, Rheinard described his performance as ‘so, so’.  The Yokomo driver said, ‘I am still trying to find the right set-up and the right tyres, the grip is a bit strange’.  With ‘traction not really good’, the German said ‘over the run the pace drops a lot’ as the rear of the standard YRX12 becomes ‘loose’ so we ‘need to find grip’.  Asked about not improving on his P5 & 6 time he said, ‘Heat 4 was good but in the next two it was slower again for some reason’.

sat_akio

Running a prototype CRC, the brand with which Rheinard won his 2014 title, Tamiya Touring Car team-mate Aki Sobue posted the 4th fastest time.  The Japanese star, who finished 4th at the Japanese National Championship earlier in the year, said for 5-minutes the car is good but then it gets loose adding his CRC tyres are ‘maximum small’ by the end of the 9-minutes.  A driver more focused on his touring car efforts when asked about planned changes for the final two free practice run he replied, ‘I will let my mechanic decide’.

sat_kitazawa

Running a prototype Morotech which features a different carbon weave that makes it a lot stiffer with side aluminium braces running under the front suspension arms adding further rigidity, 2014 podium finisher Hideo Kitazawa described his opening performances as ‘so, so’.  Running YR compound Morotech tyres all round, the Futaba employee is like everyone else having a ‘problem with rear tyre grip’.  For the final two practice runs the Japanese driver plans to try a different rear tyre to improve his consistency over the run.

sat_bodyhebert

Completing the Top 6 with a time from his opening practice, Keven Herbert said he was ‘doing ok’ adding ‘it could be better, it could be worse’.  The Team Associated driver who is running a standard car continued, ‘I can do ok laps but its a little difficult to drive’.  Running JFT tyres, S30 on the rear and S35 on the front, the Canadian is looking to ‘find more rear grip’.  Planning to test a harder rear tyres on his next run, he feels if he can get the car ‘more consistent, it will be alright’. Behind Herbert, Yokomo driver Toto Ebukuro was 7th fastest ahead of newly crowned Japanese National Champion Hayato Ishioka. Chinese American driver JJ Wang would post the 9th fastest time with his Xray ahead of 2012 Vice World Champion Andy Moore at the controls of a Roche.

View our event image gallery here.

ISTCFooter

August 20, 2016

Chassis Focus – Marc Rheinard

LRSat-RheinardYok-9

Chassis – Yokomo YRX12
Motor – Muchmore Fleta ZX 3.5T
ESC – Muchmore Fleta Pro
Battery – Muchmore 8000mAh
Tires – Yokomo
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Xpert
Body – Protoform AMR

Remarks – Reigning World Champion in the 1/12th scale class, Marc Rheinard is racing the YRX12 chassis from Yokomo here in Beijing. Having tested on ETS carpet in Korea back in July in preparation for this race, he says the traction is lower here as the carpet is new and this is causing the car to slide around which means tire wear is high. Focussing on tire diameters to find the perfect balance, once that has been sorted he will move onto the perfecting the car’s setup.

Image Gallery

ISTCFooter

August 20, 2016

Track Focus – Fengtai Sports Center

sat_track

Track Name – Fengtai Sports Center
Host –  Car Modelling Association of China
Country – China
Location – Beijing Fengtai
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – ETS Carpet

RC Racing’s biggest prize is to be decided in the world’s biggest economy for the first time as China plays host to the 18th running of the 1:12 IFMAR World Championships.  Held in the Fengtai district of Beijing, the indoor race, which will be followed later in the week by the outdoor Electric Touring World Championships, is taking place at the Fengtai Sports Centre.  Built originally to house the softball stadium used during Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games, the centre is also home to the Fengtai Science, Technology and Sports building in which the Car Modelling Association of China have built an superbly presented temporary carpet track.  Such is the level of organisation for the Fengtai government funded running of the World Championships there is a staff of 30, half of whom are volunteers, to look after the 56 entries which is actually a 25% increase on the entries for the last 1:12 World Championship which were held in the USA.

Under the guidance of the Race Director Max Lim, the 6-day build has resulted in a meticulously detailed track that covers and area 30 metres wide by 24m deep. Positioned 4 metres in front of the driver stand, the layout was penned by Lim who said much of the track’s influence was based on driver feedback who favoured ‘a more technical’ layout. Using ETS black carpet, which they had brought in especially from the Netherlands, Lim said the considerable depth of the track has allowed the layout to also be ‘really fast’.  As a structure, the track sits 15 centimetres off the ground with each square metre of the track standing on 4 feet.  As lane dividers the track uses locally made plastic box piping which has been screwed into place.  Cut to 1-metre lengths Lim said this allows for quick & easy replacement should they get damaged by cars, him adding ‘we used this material so it takes the impact rather than breaking the cars’.   With the hall having 5 rows of sky lights providing natural light, this also presented a shadowing problem.  With the addition of banks of lights not a option as the building’s roof is not certified for the weight load, two star shaped light balloons hang above the track instead.  With two 2kw bulbs in each they provide a well defused light.

Giving his first impression of the track, reigning World Champion Marc Rheinard described it as, ‘a pretty nice track and it’s a good size’.   With the early fastest lap times in the region of late 12-seconds, the German continued, ‘the layout is tricky, there are many chicanes and everyone is crashing.  I think consistency is the focus rather than being fastest over a lap because every time you crash you risk tweaking the car’.  Thinking further ahead, he concluded, ‘its missing some passing points for the finals’.

Image Gallery

ISTCFooter

May 30, 2016

3rd Reedy Race of Champions title for Volker

LRSun-Champion

Ronald Volker is the 2016 Reedy Race Champion, the Yokomo driver securing the title at the iconic touring car race for a third time as the tie breaker was required to give him the victory over Christopher Krapp.  The 19th running of Mike Reedy’s unique heads up racing format, it would end up an all German podium at Tamiya Raceway with outgoing champion Marc Rheinard completing the Top 3 in California.  While Volker would effectively lay claim to the famous Reedy Race trophy with a 2nd in the penultimate round of racing, there was still a mathematical chance that a 26-lap winning time from Krapp could secure the Tamiya driver the overall victory.  Krapp would deliver the win but couldn’t manage the required time confirming Volker as the new champion before the 2009 & 14 Champion completed his 12th & final race out of which he would spectacularly crash after a coming together with Rheinard.  The best non-European finisher would be Japan’s Akio Sobue who finished 4th ahead of the Ryan Cavalieri who upheld the host nations honours.

LRSun-VolkerAct-2

‘I’m super happy with the win. This is one of the toughest races and also one of the best races to enjoy what we do’, was Volker’s reaction to what is his second win at the driver favourite Tamiya Raceway track, his first RROC win being at the Speedworld track before the race returned to what many feel is its spiritual home in 2014 when he won again.  The reigning ETS Champion said the event showed his team have made improvements to the BD7 and thanking his engineer Umino Yukijiro for his help he said ‘After this win I feel ready for the next ETS’.  Commenting on the concluding round of races, he said, ‘Originally I thought Chrissie had to beat my time but when I found out he needed to do a 26-lap run I know I could just go out and enjoy my races as the result wouldn’t influence anything’.  On that race, he added, ‘I was just trying to make a safe pass but got in a drag race down the straight with Marc, we touched and I went flying into the wall’.  Knowing the title was decided it was his second car he was using in the race adding it ‘felt great’ up until trying to exit the track boundaries.

LRSun-KrissiStand

‘In the end I was close’ said Krapp with a huge grin.  He continued, ‘After last year’s experience I just took it race by race. I can’t believe it yet’.  A driver who has struggled somewhat to find full form since moving to the Tamiya team, the multiple World Championship finalist said, ‘I want to thank Tamiya for giving me a great car and I hope I can bring this form into future races, especially the Worlds’.  Matching Volker for the most number of wins over the three days of racing, winning 7 of the 12 encounters, he said to stand on the podium at the Reedy Race of Champions on only his second attempt ‘feels good’.  Asked about his slim chance of taking the title and starting from P4, he said, ‘I knew if I could passed on the first lap I could try for it but I got stuck in second for a few laps and knew it was over.  After that I could just enjoy the race’.

LRSun-Invite-1

Reflecting on his event, Rheinard said, ‘with all that happened, 3rd is a good result’. The race’s most winning driver, the 5-time champion was referring to the draw picking out Rounds 7, 8 & 9 as the deciding factor of the race.  Racing against Volker in each, Rheinard would line-up at the back while Volker started up front adding this ‘gave him easy wins’.  Describing the race ‘a lottery’, the 4-time World Champion said a fairer system was needed for compiling the grids adding, ‘there is a Swedish guy who created a program that create grids that sees drivers all meet the same number of times, this would make for a much better battle for the title’.  Moving on from his issues with the draw, he said, ‘As a team we showed our new car is good.  Getting a 2, 3 and 4 shows all our cars are good and not just one’, that comment aimed at Yokomo.

LRSun-SobueAct

While finishing two places better than last year, matching team-mate Rheinard on race wins, Sobue was disappointed with fourth overall.  The 21-year-old who is over shadowing his World Champion fellow countryman Naoto Matsukura as Japan’s top driver, said he came to the Reedy Race aiming to at least finish on the podium.  ‘A good race for the team’, he said ‘driver and set-up issues on Day 2’ cost him a shot at the podium but he would ‘come back next year’.

LRSun-CavLead

Recording a Top 5 finish, having been 15th last year, Offroad ace Cavalieri said, ‘I’m very happy with my performance all week. I got a solid score’.  The multiple Reedy Offroad Champion continued, ‘I’m a little disappointed with some of my passing but it was a great event’.  Asked if he enjoys racing touring car, the Californian, the reigning US National Champion having won that title at Tamiya Raceway, said, ‘everyone keeps telling me to keep racing onroad but its hard with my schedule’.  He concluded, for sure I will come back next year’.  Behind Cavalieri, Rick Hohwart would enjoy one of his best finishes, the Reedy boss completing the Top 6.

InviteFinalResults

View our event image gallery here.

ReedyTCFoot