Coelho opens FEMCA C/ship at top of SP1

After a very impressive ceremony this morning at GDC to officially open the 2024 FEMCA ISTC Championship in Foshan, China, it was the Xray of Bruno Coelho that set the opening pace when cars hit the track at midday.  After his well executed speech during the opening ceremony, getting up on stage probably the most daunting things the World Champion has faced so far, the Portuguese returned to the environment he is far more comfortable with to set the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the first seeding round ahead of the Infinitys of Naoto Matsukura and Koki Kato.  A driver who took part in the inaugural FIRC race last year, Maxim Laverychev would take his Awesomatix to the fourth fastest time ahead of the Xray of Japanese driver Shin Sawada with top Indonesian driver Bowie Ginting completing the Top 6 for the first of the three seeding rounds.

Summing up the first round of seeding practice, Coelho said, ‘It was a good run, with new tyres the car is always slippery so it was kind of weird for everybody on the track but the car is working good and I am not going to change anything because I am waiting for the tyres to come on point and from there on if I need to change any I will deal with that but for now it is pretty good.’  Asked about tyre wear he replied, ‘It’s actually not really high that is why we need to run a lot of times to get them to the best shape.  Yesterday I think I did like 15 runs on the same set of tyres and they were still very good and all the time you drive the better they come in.  The tyre wear is nothing.’

‘Low traction’ was Matsukura response after his run.  The former World Champion elaborated, ‘the beginning was low traction and normally it gets better but I don’t know this time it didn’t really improve over the run’.  Suffering one mistake over the 5-minutes that saw his car execute a number of rolls, he added, ‘I think the car is a little bit loose in the rear so we will make a change to get more rear traction.  And we hope also the tyres will also improve but even with this we need to change the set-up.’

Kato described his first effort as, O’K but we know new tyres have completely different traction so I just focus on getting laps on the tyres.’  Planning to leave his car unchanged for the second run, the Japanese Offroad Champion said he might change his body shell saying ‘I want colour’.  Running a one colour florescent yellow Twister he only has his colour scheme painted body in a Twister Speciale but he still feels he would still prefer to drive in his colours.

Finishing 6th at GDC last year Laverychev was content with his run saying, ‘The was good but the important thing for me was get good track time to understand the tyres correctly.  Sometimes you might not have a good set of tyres but I think these are good because I have pace.’  Asked if he planned any changes to his car for SP2 the Russian said ‘I think I will wait and change something for the 3rd practice but for now I leave it the same.’  As a driver who raced on the previous GDC layout asked about this year’s track he said, ‘I think it is very fast.  Not what you normal have with European tracks, it has more flow and more speed but I like it.  Also it is less dangerous than before because they changed the curbs and now I use one body for 3-days and no problem compared to last year.’

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World Champions settle themselves in at FEMCA C/ship

With the FEMCA Championship due to officially get underway tomorrow morning, today’s open practice at the GDC track in Foshan, China, was a day for World Champions Bruno Coelho and Naoto Matsukura to get settled in on this their first visit to the impressively sized indoor facility.  Fresh from his World Championship win in the US, Coelho, who is in China as part of a 2-week trip that will also see him race 1:8 Offroad at next weekend’s annual SIGP race in Xiamen, was pleased with the data he has gathered from his time on the track with his Xray. While this evening saw the track and pits get much busier as more local drivers arrived for one of Asia’s most important touring car races, Infinity’s Matsukura felt he has a bit more work to do to get a handle on the differing traction he experience each run over the day.

Asked his first impressions of the track Coelho replied, ‘I was pretty surprised by the facility, it is my first time here.  I was not expecting such a good facility.  Big shout out to Gavin (Kwok) for everything he has been doing in looking after us on our first visit here and for also introducing us to the culture here.’  Visiting a major local tourist site yesterday as PR for the FEMCA Championship and the GDC track, the Portuguese driver continued, ‘The track is really good, it is really big, I was expecting much smaller.  The traction is really good and the layout is not that difficult which is good for the customers and for us Pro drivers so yeh I am looking forward to the next two days of racing’.  Admitting himself to the fact he has had plenty of track time since arriving in China, he said, ‘we could test a lot and everything is going good and we have also been busy with many questions from customers and been able to help them too which is really good.’  His first time back racing on carpet since his historic 3-in-row World title win at the Worlds last month, he said, ‘yes its our first time on carpet since the Worlds’ before laughing the fact ‘and our last time this year’.

Asked to sum up how open practice had gone, Matsukura said, ‘This is my first time here and the track is good.  The size is big which is also good and the layout is enjoyable to drive.’  He continued, ‘the traction is every time is different, in the morning to lunch, from lunch to afternoon, so it has been a little bit difficult to understand if the car is good.  If the car does feel good then after 30 minutes it has a different feeling so we will kind of have to gamble with set-up tomorrow.’  Asked when he last raced Electric Touring Car race he replied that it was at the TITC at the beginning of March this year.  The 2014 ISTC World Champion said while he hasn’t raced for the car for more than half a year it is ‘nice to drive again’ an electric touring car.  A racer who competes in multiple disciplines both on & offroad, his last race was the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship 2-weeks ago in Thailand.  Only his second attempt at the FEMCA Championship, a race that crowns the Champion of Asia, he said the last time was at the Yatabe Arena in Japan a number of years ago where he finished second to Ronald Volker, the German the winner of FIRC race here at GDC this time last year.

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World Champions tour Foshan ahead of FEMCA C/ships

It’s not just all racing duties when you are a World Champion!  When you have 2 multiple World Champions in town you want to make the most of the opportunity to help promote RC Racing.  Well, that is exactly what happened today with Bruno Coelho and Naoto Matsukura ahead of this weekend’s FEMCA ISTC Championships in Foshan, China.  With his GDC Indoor Race Club track hosting this year’s FEMCA race that will crown the Touring Car Champion of Asia, Gavin Kwok took a number of the visiting drivers to the City’s Nanfeng Ancient Kiln which was built during the Ming Dynasty.  The oldest existing active ceramic wood-burning dragon kiln in the world it has a history of more than 500 years.  Accompanied by a photographer & videographer to capture the visit, things started off with an interesting novelty electric bus ride from the track to the city’s major tourist site.  With Matsukura sitting up front in the bus beside the driver, it would be a very entertaining ride and one which highlighted that the Japanese racer could have a career as a tourist guide once he decides to hang up his radio!!  With a day of free practice ahead of drivers tomorrow (Friday), the FEMCA Championship gets underway in earnest on Saturday morning with seeding followed by qualifying before finals on Sunday decide the new FEMCA Champion.  You can follow all the action from GDC here on Red RC over the next 3-days.