April 28, 2023

Batlle sets pace at Philippine Masters

Robert Batlle is the top seed for the Philippine Masters, the factory Mayako driver topping the single round of controlled practice from Davide Ongaro on the challenging Manila track.  With Race Director Scotty Ernst making the call to reduce the counting consecutive laps from the traditional 3 to 2 given the challenge of putting together 3 clean laps, Batlle’s best effort was 1:57.225 compared to the 1:58.176 of the race’s former Champion Ongaro.   Sworkz Micha Widmaier made it an all European Top 3 followed by local driver Daniel Miranda with Australian Jackson Beale completing the Top 5 from fellow countryman Jak Parsey.

While happy to kick off the start of official business at the top of the time sheets, Batlle said they ‘still have work to do’.  Supported at the race by the car’s design Joesph Quagraine, who is acting as his pitman, the former World Champion said some words of wisdom from JQ to settle down had helped with his clear run of laps.  The Spaniard said a change of tyre from open practice had also improved his buggy, the Hotrace’s Sahara Clay compound giving him better grip and traction and an overall better feeling with the buggy.  Landing on his roof during the run, asked how he felt he was on pace over 5-minutes, the first round of qualifying concluding today’s action, he replied it is difficult to be super consistent but towards the end of the run I was able to run four good laps’.

Having only arrived in Manila last night in time for dinner,  Ongaro is a day in deficit to his rivals in track time.  Describing his seeding pace as ‘overall good’, he added, ‘I need more track time, I am one day behind’.  The reigning World Champion said while the car is good their focus is already on getting the car set-up for the Main in 2-days time, he said the biggest improvements are to come from the driver.  Having to go up in his Team Associated buggy’s diff and shock oils for the 30 degree plus heat,  the Italian is running Matrix’s Block Hole tyre in clay compound.

‘So far so good’ was how Widmaier summed up his early performance.  The German came here with base set-up from team-mate Carlos Canas and described his car as working ‘great’.  The 21-year-old said his biggest focus for now is on his driving given that all his racing lately has been in 1:10 so he is still adjusting himself to the bigger buggy and track.  Building up his consistency with every run he is running TPro’s clay compound Matrix tyre.

Only taking up racing in 2019, this is Miranda’s first Philippine Masters and he is off to a solid start.  Running a HB Racing chassis, the 26-year-old said he is happy with the car and any improvements were going to come from his driving.  Choosing to run Procircuit’s Kamikaze tyre, he said ‘it is hard to be consistent on a track like this’ but the focus for now was on finding time in his driving.

From Brisbane, 17-year-old Beale described the track as ‘really challenging’ but added ‘it’s lots of fun’.  The Tekno driver’s first time here, he said he had to make quite a lot of changes to the buggy when he first got here but is pleased they now have a good ‘base’ to work from.  Using Jetko’s Red Devil tyre in ultra soft, he feels he could have pushed a little harder on his two laps and believes he has good consistency over 5-minutes.  Originally scheduled to be three rounds of 7-minute qualifiers, the sold out entry will now enjoy four rounds of 5-minute qualifying.

April 28, 2023

Philippine Masters – Track Focus

The Philippine Masters is back and is live in Manila today with a track best described as ‘challenging’.  Located in the capital city, the very 3D looking track is the creation of top Philippines driver Edward Sio, one of the people behind the Philippine Masters since its inception in 2015.  Having to move the track location a few hundred metres from its previous home, one of the stand out features of the move is the massive three story driver stand.  With the new track built during Covid restrictions, the reason for the massive structure was to meet the then guidelines on the spacing of people so each floor was used as pit area to ensure everyone was spaced apart.  Made from the same dirt of the original track, the build took 45-days.  Building the track to how Edward wanted it and rolling it to a flat surface, they then dug up around a foot into the top layer to allow for the all important bonding of final race surface.  Giving the 30 degree plus temperatures in Manila, just spraying the top layer would not last as the top layer would eventually break and reveal a dusty dry dirt.  Instead they soaked the loose 1-foot deep top layer with a mixture of molasses and glue before rolling to the finish they wanted.

As his inspiration for the track, Sio explained that Philippine drivers don’t travel internationally to races but they are keen to learn and try improve their driving so they brought that challenge to them with this busy lap.  Starting with a very simple track in 2015, he added ‘we have tried to make the track a little more difficult each year’ adding ‘the locals like it and are happy to be learning from it’.  He definitely delivered on the difficulty with this the most challenging yet as official confirmed by back to back reigning World Champion Davide Ongaro.  This is the Italian’s third visit to the track.  Approximately 60 metres at its widest point, the track is built on a plot of land which Sio describes as being shaped like a baseball field.  With a lot of elevation change over the lap, this presented its own challenges during the build with the equipment struggling in sections.  As part of the facilities the track has a hobby shop located in the lower level of the drivers stand and for this weekend the race has hired marshalled meaning drivers are spared standing in the hot sunny conditions between racing.

Asked his thoughts on the track, Ongaro replied, ‘The most difficult (track) so far. It’s fun and difficult.’  He added, ‘It’s a busy lap so you can’t relax’, pointing out the back section as the most difficult element of the lap.   He explained it was challenging to get the timing correct for the sequence of jumps.  Another World Champion contesting the 2023 Philippine Masters, Robert Batlle described the track as ‘super hard’.  Adding ‘it’s so difficult’, he said, ‘for the medium level driver maybe it’s too much, the 1-hour final is going to be very difficult’.  Asked what was making the track so challenging, he said, ‘it’s the angle of the jumps from the driver stand. They are really hard to judge’.  That said the Spaniard did go onto pay the track the biggest compliment possible by saying, ‘it would be nice to have a Worlds on this type of track’.  Highly experienced and well known Asian driver Ryan Lee called the track a ‘smaller version of C-Netic’ adding ‘I like this type of track, the surface is very smooth so you can get a good rhythm.’

Track Name – Circulo Verde Offroad Track
Host – Quezon City RC Car Club
Country – Philippines
Location – Manila
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Dirt treated with molasses & glue mixture

November 18, 2022

Video – Main Final

Watch how the 2022 IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship unfolded over 60-minutes of intense racing at the RC Addict track in Bangkok, Thailand, where a number of drivers take turns at the front. Commentary from the one and only Scotty Ernst.

November 12, 2022

Sahashi gains elusive ‘Double Champion’ status with victory in Thailand

Tadahiko Sahashi has gained elusive ‘Double Champion’ status with victory at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship in Thailand.  Starting 5th on the grid, the Infinity driver becomes only the second ever driver to win both the IFMAR 1:8 and 1:10 Nitro Onroad, Adrien Bertin’s feat finally being matched 18-years after the Frenchman became the first to achieved it in 2004.  A final that would see a number of drivers take turns at the front, when it counted most it was 2013 1:8 Champion Sahashi that lead them home.  Behind, there was an intense  battle for second as Dominic Greiner came under pressure from long time leader Jilles Groskamp but the only non-Infinity driver in the final was able to stave off the challenge.  Making his first Nitro World final, Electric Touring Car ace Viktor Wilck had an impressive race to fourth, his trademark colour scheme having been out front during the race.  Another finalist chasing ‘Double Champion’ status at RC Addict this week, Dario Balestri had the title in his grasps until he suffered a flame out as he left the pits following his tyres stop.  In the end the Italian would finish 5th.  Outgoing champion and Top Qualifier here in Bangkok, Naoto Matsukura was pulling clear early on. The tricky conditions however caught him out a number of times. The flip coming onto the main straight that sent his car into the bushes lining the outside of the track ultimately ending his chances of becoming the first driver to defend the title with 8th his final position at the end of the 1-hour encounter.

With the normal reserved Japanese driver’s winning reaction on the driver stand summing up exactly what the result meant, after Tadahiko said he was ‘super happy’, the double having been a ‘long time goal’ for the onroad nitro specialist.  While conditions where difficult leading him, like most of the grid, to flip during the race he said he ‘never gave up’ even while it looked like the race was going the way of others.   Going with a strategy to change only the outside tyres on his IF15 Prototype, he managed the tyre wear perfectly even managing to set the fastest lap of the entire event well into the closing stages of the final. Eventually crossing the line finish with a 3.5-second advantage over Greiner, asked about his nerves over the final few laps the 33-year-old said his ‘1:8 experience’ of winning the World Championship helped his ‘stay calm’ and bring it home.

‘Close’, was how Greiner summed up the final.  Suffering a number of costly flips early in the race, the Capricorn driver explained, ‘we changed the car a lot in the practice before the race but I still flipped four times and lost a lot of time.  The car felt good but it was on the edge.  I traction rolled two more times and maybe with two less flips we would have made it’.   The only driver to put it up to the Infinity team, the 2016 World Champion said, ‘We did our best but Tadahiko was better today.’   Asked about his tyre strategy which saw him change all four tyres at 28 minutes, race announcer Scotty Ernst even making comments on how perfectly it was executed, he said, ‘my tyres were done at the end so I don’t know if I would have made it just changing the outside.  I was also afraid of the gap difference with only doing 2 but Tadahiko showed it was possible’.

Having once again put his hat in the ring from the very start of the action at this World Championship, Groskamp said, ‘I am super happy to be competitive and on the podium at the World Championship.  On the other hand I missed the big chance to win’.  Talking through his race he said, ‘I only changed one side on my tyre stop and one time flipped.  Tadahiko was the man to beat, he had the fastest laps of the event.  He drove good man so to be 5-seconds off after a one hour race I’m happy.  I am also happy for Infinity’.  Changing his flight home to the Netherlands to tonight as his third child is due to arrive in the coming days and the rain day was not needed, he added, ‘On a personal level I am happy with the work I did to prepare for the race as well as preparing for our new addition to the family.  I’m happy I got the result because I think I deserve it’.

Wilck was very happy with the race he ran in the final.  The Swede said, ‘It was nice to be in mix but you never know what happens’.  He explained, ‘the first half of the race before my tyre change the car was very good and so was my engine and clutch.  I was on one pit stop less but then because we changed both sides in the tyre stop I lost a lap’.  Saying the 4-minute 30-second stops were ‘safe for us’, he said his clutch ‘went soft’ towards the end of the race leaving his engine ‘too slow’ to challenge for the podium, something he said was down to his lack of expertise with the engine and clutch.  He vowed to improve that knowledge for the future.

Winner of the Super Pole, that success that clearly was a massive relief for the Italian who openly admitted to finding the unique track conditions of these World very challenging & draining, Balestri said, ‘we had a strategy to run two less stops and I was managing the pace and it was all good’.  Changing all four tyres, it was during this stop that he was denied a shot at the title double, the 2017 1:8 World Champion explaining, ‘after the tyre stop I flamed out.  The race was finished then’.

Matsukura said it just took ‘a little mistake’ to derail his title defence.  He said, ‘on small tyres my car was difficult to drive and I just made a little mistake and flip’.  Surviving his first flip while in the lead with second place also flipping at the second time allowing him to maintain position, he said his chances of a result ended when he flipped coming onto the main straight sending his yellow IF15 into the local vegetation and needing to be marshalled.

View our event image gallery here.

November 12, 2022

Chassis Focus – Bryce Butterfield

Chassis – Serpent 750 EVO
Motor – OS T1204
Fuel (handout) – Maxima
Tires (handout) – HotRace
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Sanwa
Body – Xtreme CZ1

Image Gallery