Hamon tops final controlled practice ‘Down Under’

Controlled practice concluded at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney this evening with Jeff Hamon setting the fastest time for the 6th & final round.  Despite everyone, including Hamon himself, expecting it to be the rocket round of the day, the Serpent driver was unable to better his time from the morning’s opening practice.  Over his best 3-consecutive laps the Aussie was almost half a second off his morning’s 53.981 pace around the John Grant International Raceway.  With a cool morning turning to 30+ degrees heat when the sun reached its peak in the middle of the day, the 6pm timing of the final practice in theory was going to present racers with the ideal track conditions for quicker times.  With drivers pushing hard in the evening to improve on their times, the majority failed, with the only drivers in the Top 10 to achieve that being Natanaele Senesi and Peter Jovanovic.  Xray’s Senesi surprised himself with the third fastest time for the final round in between Gruber and defending Champion Joern Neumann.

Switching back to a standard chassis on his car for the final run, Hamon described it as ‘better’ but added ‘now I am looking to finesse what I have got with minor changes to things like droop and camber’.  He continued, ‘that should have been rocket round but no one went faster’.  Despite the slower track, Hamon’s advantage over his rivals was substantial with Gruber almost 6/10th off and he admitted that given how the track felt to drive he ‘wasn’t expecting the lap times I was getting’ also admitting he was pushing hard for a long run simulation.

Pleased with his run in the hottest part of the day when he was set the pace for CP4, after the final run Gruber said, ‘Now it is not so good’.  The European 1:10 Nitro Onroad Champion explained, ‘the track temperature is a problem for us.  We are still looking for more steering when the track is a little cooler.  When it’s warmer we have the steering we need and I was quicker than Jeff but now like in the morning I’m slower than him’.  Admitting the biggest issue he has is his lack of experience with the GT car and knowing what to do to improve the car for certain conditions.  Concluding on a positive note he said, ‘at least the final takes place at the time of day our car works best.’

Asked about his day, Sensei replied, ‘the whole day it has not been going good in nitro’.  The 24-year-old, who is also running in the non championship eGT support class and is very happy with that car, explained ‘when we make changes to the car nothing changes and I think the issue is the rear tyre compound.  In electric the tyre works perfect but I think that is due to the extra weight and aggressive power of the  electric car.  I need more flex as I lack overall rear grip but chassis and spring changes are making no difference.  For tomorrow I will make the car exactly the same as my electric including adding more weight to see if that helps it to work the tyres better’.

Neumann said they made adjustments to his Sworkz by running less rear toe-in and switching from Blitz’s GT6 to GT5 body shell based on how they expected the track would be. ‘I thought it would be very grippy but it was loose.  The car wasn’t so good,’  One concern the Offroad ace has based on today’s track time is the level of tyre wear, the front left on my most cars clear looking to be doing a lot of the work.  With drivers allowed just four sets of tyres,  Neumann pointed out that one of those will be required for the Semi Finals with only the Main final starters allowed an additional set of the controlled PMT rubber tyres.

‘Of course goal is to keep the title’ but ‘the class has changed a lot’ – Neumann on 1:8 GT World title defence

Think Joern Neumann and you think World class offroad racer.  The German is a multiple offroad European Champion, a multiple offroad World Champion Finalist and the only European to ever to win the legendary Reedy Offroad Race of Champions.  Ironically his biggest win in the sport didn’t involve navigating any jump sections, and this coming week the factory Sworkz driver will defend that title despite not having raced in the category since adding the IFMAR World title to his CV.  It’s January 2020 and the World has no idea of two major things that are about to happy – Neumann is going to become an onroad World Champion and a thing called Covid is going to shut down the World just afterwards!

Homestead RC Raceway in Florida would host the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship and a category then based on modified 1:8 buggies, Sworkz decided it should be represented – cue Neumann.  ‘Sworkz wanted to send a driver and I was free’.  With ‘cars in the beginning more like offroad’, qualifying showed it was still very much onroad as nitro onroad regulars locked out the Top 3 in qualifying, 1:10 Worlds podium finisher Alessio Mazzeo the Top Qualifier from 1:10 Nitro World Champion Meen Vejrak and 1:8 Onroad Worlds finalist Jeff Hamon in P3.  Come the 1-hour final however and it was Neumann who took the win from another Offroader Martin Bayer with 1:10 Nitro World Finalist Charlie Phutiyotin completing the podium.

Roll on almost four years and Neumann himself admits the GT landscape is very different, ‘the class has changed a lot. The cars are now more specific for onroad.  Swork have had to develop two new cars for the class which are a big step forward from the car we used last time’.  With previous onroad outings limited to a few fun ETS outings, while Neumann says the transition from offroad to onroad is no problem, knowing what to do with the car set-up is his biggest challenge.  Very aware of his lack of knowledge, he is quick to point out that making the long trip to Sydney is only possible due to Sworkz securing the services of Herfried Pucher.  A long time Sworkz driver, he was a big part of Neumann’s 2020 title success and is himself a front running racer in the GT class, making the European Championship final this year in Croatia.  Having not raced onroad since Florida, straight after the recent 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Arizona, Nuemann travelled to Italy for a number of days testing and not just to reacquaint himself with racing on flat asphalt but more importantly to build a working relationship with Pucher who he hopes can give him a title defending car set-up.  He said ‘without (the Austrian’s) knowledge it would be too complicated’ to try and defend his World title.  ‘It is so much more difficult now compared with 2020.  Now it (set-up) starts already with where you cut the holes in the body, that’s not like offroad.  Herfried knows the car and engine set-up.  The clutch and two speed are very important so if we have a good set-up I can handle the rest’.

With 7-minute run time a key feature of the class and a ruling brought in to limit ‘crazy’ engine development, Neumann’s trip to the Leno track in Italy worked out well for tying in with his engine sponsor Nova before his departure Down Under.  ‘We tested at Leno because it was only three hours from Herfried but it is also only half an hour from Nova so that worked out good.’  On the 7-minute run time, a number of driver switching engine brands for the event because of the nature of the John Grant International Raceway track adding an extra challenge of making run time, Nuemann admits ‘it is going to be quite difficult to make 7-minutes for everyone. Really you need to make 7:30’.

Also set to race the non World Championship electric class that will run alongside nitro so as to boost his track time, asked who he expects to be his main rivals, Neumann said, ‘I expect Toni Gruber to be fast and the guys from Italy are always fast in GT.  Jeff Hamon should be up there too.  The others I don’t know because I don’t race them before’.  Despite not knowing his rivals, Neumann’s goal for Australia is very clear, ‘Of course the goal is to keep the title’.

RedRC will be on hand to keep you fully updated on Neumann and Sworkz’s efforts at the Worlds when we kick off our coverage on Monday October 9th and tell the story of the 2023 IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship as it unfolds over the 6 days.  Being Red RC’s first ever 1:8 GT event to cover, we are excited to witness first hand the stacked manufacturers battle between Sworkz, Serpent, Xray, Hong Nor, Genius Racing and Capricorn, each of whom are fielding drivers quite capable of becoming World Champion.