Chassis: Shepherd Velox V10
Engine: O.S T1204
Exhaust: O.S T-1070C EFRA 2672
Radio: Futaba
Servos (Steering/Throttle): Futaba HPS-CT700
Body: Xtreme CZ1
Tires (handout): Matrix
Fuel (handout): Maxima
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With seeding practice underway at the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand, it is defending Champion Tadahiko Sahashi who leads the way with 2 of the 4 rounds completed. The Infinity driver who secured his title 2-years ago on the opposite side of the capital city, set a fastest 3-consecutive laps of 45.540 as driver grapple the Huge RC Circuit’s challenging high grip levels that constantly change over the day. With Sahashi second attempt 3/10ths slower, it would be Thai driver Game L. Mongkolpan who would set the pace of SP2 6/100ths of a second up on Sashasi. With drivers best two points scores to determine the order of tomorrow’s qualifying heats, overall it is free practice pace setter Teemu Leino who holds P2 at the halfway mark ahead of fellow Scandinavian Wilck Viktor with Mongkolpan holding fourth having only managed the 13th fastest time in SP1. While Sahashi comes into the 10th running of these World Championships aiming to become the first driver to defend their title, current 1:8 Onroad World Champion Dario Balestri will chase the record of becoming the first driver to hold both title simultaneously with the Italian completing the Top 5 ranking going into the lunch break.
Qualifying fourth when Huge RC previously hosted the Championship a decade ago but retiring from his Semi Final on that occasion, Sahashi joked the track hasn’t got any easier in the 10-years that have passed. Feeling things are going better this time round, asked about his car, the Japanese driver said overall it was working well but given the ever changing track conditions he is having to make little changes each run to keep up with how the track is. While Huge RC is a covered in track, the outside weather conditions at the time of each run effect traction considerably and it is knowing what to change the key to a good run. Another factor is the tyres and while wear is low, there is also a big difference between new and second run tyres given the sensitive nature of the balance of the car in the high traction. While reporting understeer in SP2, Sahashi was not too concerned going into the second half of today’s action, the real business end of things getting under way tomorrow with the first 3 of 6 qualifiers.
Asked to sum up his performance so far, Leino responded by saying, ‘Yes it is all good. Yesterday was a good day, today the track is a little bit different so we need to find a little more pass.’ Top Qualifier at the 2012 World Championship, which like the 2022 Worlds was hosted at the city’s other famous circuit “RC Addict”, the Finn added, ‘the trick is that when you start to add the steering on the car then it start to flip so you always need to be on the edge but then the weather changes a little bit, you have sunny days or raining days and you need to try with the set-up a little bit.’ Asked about his previous experience of the track’s high grip from 2014, when he TQ’d two rounds of qualifying but ended up lining up in the 1/4 Finals, Leino replied, ‘this time there is more grip, it’s just crazy grip this time and it is the battle with that which is the biggest challenge for everyone.’
As the reigning European Champion of the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car class, Balestri was quick to sum up all 58 drivers view of the Huge RC Circuit by saying, ‘this track is one of the most difficult situations of the grip we have found in the last 10-years I would say.’ The Italian continued, ‘but thanks to our guys testing here we arrived with a good balance already. The factory brings some upgrades for this track so the car is very good and you see Infinity is all competitive, we just need to find the right window with the tyres to be fast.’ Highlighting the car having 50grams of weight on the front and super short shocks, he said the most important thing comes from the shock set-up with him running very heavy oil and very soft springs. On tyres he explained, ‘When you start on new tyres you are half a second slower almost, the car is understeering but then it starts oversteering so you need to balance the steering. The wear is so low but I think it comes from the track when the tyres absorb some additive they start to flip the car so its important to balance the first window with the tyres second window.’ Asked if he liked the track layout, he said, ‘yes I like it but it would be even nicer with a little less grip, maybe it would be more fair for everybody also.’
Coming into these World Championship as the reigning 1:8 GT World Champion, it is fair to say the mood in the Toni Gruber camp is very low. One of the few drivers expected to mount any kind of serious challenge against Infinity making it three titles in a row, the Capricorn driver is at a loss to explain his lack of pace. Sitting down in P22 with a best run of the 19th fastest time for SP1, his time 1.3-seconds off Sahashi’s effort, asked if he could give us an update on how the event has started out the 2023 European Champion replied, ‘Are you sure?!’. After a long pause he added, ‘to sum it up so far we are struggling with the conditions.’ Asked if they have been making any progress with getting the car to his liking he replied, ‘if you look at the lap times no. Of course at the beginning you need to learn the track so the lap times improve but then for the last three days we stay the same. Sometimes we can drive a little bit easier, some times it is more hard but it’s the same lap times.’ Admitting they are running out of ideas to try and also that many changes in different directions with the set-up have resulted in little to no change in the feeling of the car, he said his biggest issue is that he doesn’t have enough of a feeling from the car to ‘drive relaxed, if you have to push a lot then you make mistakes and can’t drive the right line.’
With no official factory entries from Mugen Seiki, Shepherd or Xray (World Champions here in 2014 with Alexander Hagberg), the originally awarded host location of Costa Rica deterring a lot of manufacturers from supporting the already niche category, all the weight of nitro onroad pioneering manufacturer Serpent falls on US racer Bryce Butterfield. The reigning ROAR National Champion finds himself P18 after two seeding runs and explained his situation as a, ‘work in progress’ adding, ‘the balance feels pretty good but the overall lap time is not producing right now. We have a really good car for qualifying maybe but for 3-lap right now we are missing it so we are still looking.’ Asked if qualifying runs were not the ultimate goal, he replied, ‘If I am honest I would always like to be a little bit faster so we are going to make same changes and if we don’t like them we can go back.’ Asked about the challenges of having no team-mates to work with in terms of set-up he admit was ‘it is challenging especially on a track I have never been to before’ and while used to high traction circuits in the US he added the grip here was ‘on another level’.
View our event image gallery here.
Last weekend Indonesia played host to the season finale of the 4-round Asian Buggy Championships. The all natural dirt West Side Raceway track, which is owned by very competent racer Adrian Wicaksono, would prove challenging but a big hit with racers, the event bringing drivers from 12 different countries to the capital of Jakarta. While Kouki Kato took the win for Infinity, overall it was the Sworkz of Australian Christian Wolhuter who became the inaugural Champion of the 2024 season. Rewarded for his efforts in hosting the race with a podium finish, WicaksonoIt’s Team Associated made it three different manufacturers in the Top 3 at the end of the 1-hour final. Attracting over 130 entries, we got the chance to photograph 8 buggies from 5 different manufacturers including the Xray of promising 12-year-old Indonesian talent Yansen Wijaya, who, like a certain 3-in-row World Champion, races using a Sanwa stick radio. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage of the race, we have compiled them all in our latest Chassis Focus index.
Kouki Kato (TQ/Winner) – Infinity
Christian Wolhuter (Q4/P2 – Overall Champion) – Sworkz
Adrian Wicaksono (Q5/P3) – Team Associated
Naoto Matsukura (Q2/P13) – Infinity
Jason Nugroho (Q3/P10) – Sworkz
Jonathan Yeung (Q8/P7) – Tekno
Zac Ryan (Q10/P8) – Team Associated
Yansen Wijaya (Q12/P11) – Xray
Infinity driver Kouki Kato executed a perfect race to win the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships in Indonesia, the Japanese driver winning the fourth round in Jakarta from the Sworkz of newly crowned overall Champion Christian Wolhuter. Lining up on pole position for the 1-hour final at West Side Raceway ahead of team-mate Naoto Matsukura and Wolhuter, Kato quickly gapped the field and grew that advantage over the rest of the 15 car grid as his rivals made errors and later hit problems. While Kato ran his own race out front, the focus turned to the battle for 2nd between Wolhunter, Matsukura and Jason Nugroho. Unfortunately leading local challenger Nugroho and Matsukura, who had just set the fastest lap of the race, would both suffer the same faith within 5-laps of one another as they needed lengthy pit stops to fixed rear suspension links on their cars. With Kato winning by over a lap from Wolhuter, it would be the Team Associated of track owner Adrian Wicaksono who completed the podium, a just reward for both his driving in the final and his efforts in staging the Asian Buggy Championships first race in Indonesia. Finishing on the same lap as Wicaksono having held the final podium position for a time, Mayako’s Joseph Quagraine finished fourth.
‘For me it was a perfect final because I could make a consistent race with no mistake so I am very happy’, was Kato’s reaction to winning on his Asian Buggy Championship debut. The only issue for the 18-year-old would be his body shell not sitting correctly, something he said was caused by it braking as a result of how it had been cut out. But the raised body didn’t bother him as he said he was ‘only thinking’ about his driving adding also that he had no issue with maintaining that focus for the 1-hour. Changing to a heavier diff oils in his IFB8 given the duration of the final and the local hot temperatures, he described his car in final as was best it was all weekend and he could ‘make fast pace’. Set to try to defend his Japanese 1:8 Offroad National title next month, he said today’s win was perfect preparation for that race with the host track having a similar surface.
Very pleased with his effort in Jakarta, Wolhuter summed up 2nd place with, ‘It was awesome racing against everyone and huge congrats to the other podium finishers. The car was very good but I think our tyres wore out maybe half way through the race and this made keeping consistent very difficult’. Enjoying his battle with Matsukura he continued, ‘Naoto pushing me was insane trying to keep on line, I was trying to keep my own lines as well but he was faster than me. At the end of the day though unlucky for him he broke and I got the better end of the stick but it was a great race’. On his strategy for the final, the Australian said, ‘We put in a new engine just in case so we weren’t too sure of the fuel mileage so the first two pit stops we came in around only 7, 7 30 (minutes), something like that so after those two stops dad had a look at the fuel tank and noticed we could go a lot longer’. On his overall title success in the Asian Buggy Championships, this being the first year points were awarded over the four race with the best three to count, he said doing the championship has hugely benefited his driving. ‘It 100% has benefited me, different tracks, going from oiled tracks to slippery tracks to very rough tracks, it has been a massive experience’. He also agreed racing against drivers such as 6-time World Champion Matsukura has also brought on his racing. Not just taking the Nitro Buggy title, Wolhuter completed the season double by also claiming the eBuggy title with the win in Indonesia.
Asked to sum up his race Wicaksono said, ‘I just drove consistent and somehow the guys in front of me had problems so I got third’. Asked how it felt to get a Top 3 finish he replied, ‘To be able to be on the podium at your own track at such a big event is such a nice feeling, I’m happy.’ With his pit crew pulling off some very impressive stops and launching the car down pit lane at a velocity that looked quicker than the top speed of the buggies down the main straight, he acknowledged their work saying, ‘they have been doing really well, they have been with me since I started RC, they always did an amazing job so thanks to them also.’ Asked if he had any troubles during the race he said, ‘No, no trouble, I had like three bobbles but that was it. I did have a flame out coming in on the second pit stop and that was because the track was dusty and I pushed more so that’s why the fuel didn’t make it.’ After all the hard work of successfully putting on the country’s biggest international buggy race since it hosted the World Championships in 2006, the friendliness of Indonesian’s really standing out, asked if he plans to do it again his response was, ‘Scotty (Ernst) asked me two days ago the same question and I said ‘Scotty please don’t ask me this weekend, lets finish this one and then we speak’ but yes if everyone is happy to come here why not.’
Summing up his race JQ said, ‘I had a good start, I think for me I had good pace in the beginning and I figured if I just keep going like this I will be on the podium cause people are going to flame out and have issues. I was very close to being right because Naoto had an issue, I was battling with Jason and he flamed out or had an issue also and then I was in third but I knew Adrian was catching me and then we battled for maybe one stint.’ He continued, ‘I knew he was faster than me, I had to get out in front of him, we were pitting at different times, and he just beat me coming out of pit lane, then I knew I was probably going to be fourth and that’s how it ended.’ He added, ‘But you know on the other hand he was my host, he invited me here, so it is good I didn’t beat him as that would have been rude.’ Asked how his pit stops went in the final, the Finn replied, ‘I was worried about that because I didn’t have a pit guy here but luckily we managed to find a guy who speaks English and another guy with a fuel gun. We practiced three stops, I rolled the car in and they did their thing, and then we went through how we were going to communicate and do the pit stops, and it was really good actually, really on point, no issues at all. The only problems were my own mistakes, I had a couple of bad laps, other than that it was surprisingly good as I haven’t been racing and this track is very difficult, so I’m happy.’
Chassis – Tekno NB48 2.1
Engine – Alpha Falcon
Fuel – Merlin
Tires – VP Pro 814 (front) | 810 (rear)
Radio/Servos – FlySky Noble Pro + / PowerHD GTS6 (Steering) | S35 (Throttle)
Body – Leadfinger Racing
Remarks – Instead of the standard kit clutch Jonathan is running a 4 shoe clutch from Alpha.
Chassis – Xray XB8’24
Engine – O.S. Speed B2105
Fuel – VP Racing
Tires – Pro-Line Electrons
Radio/Servos – Sanwa Exzes ZZ / Savox SB2290 (Steering) | Sanwa PGS-CXII (Throttle)
Body – Kit
Remarks – At just 12-years of age Yansen is a big Lamberto Collari and Jared Tebo fan. His Collari interest is reflected in his choice of Exzes ZZ stick radio which when he started out racing 5-years ago he tried to use in the same way as the onroad legend who pushes the stick down for throttle and up for brake. His paint scheme was inspired by Tebo, as before driving an Xray, Yansen ran a Tekno buggy.
