October 28, 2019

Davis set early pace at Worlds as drivers battle high traction

Australia’s Jesse Davis is the early pace setter at the IFMAR 1:8 World Championships in California, the Infinity driver fastest in the opening day of official practice and again after 2 of the 5 scheduled rounds of today’s action.  Behind, Dominic Greiner is second fastest today after topping the Round 7 of practice from reigning World Champion Dario Balestri and reigning 1:10 World Champion Naoto Matsukura.  Next up it is ARC’s Silvio Hachler with the Mugen of 2018 World podium finisher Shoki Takahata completing the Top 6 times for this morning’s opening two runs.  Super high winds overnight and this morning meant a delayed start to today’s schedule with the traction sprayed Steel City RC Speedway surface acting like a magnet to the dust blown in by the winds, winds that are forecast to return again on Wednesday when qualifying is to begin.  As a result of the delay, drivers now have shorter run but already the traction is back up to the ‘super high’ levels drivers are finding difficult.

Commenting on his pace, Davis said, ‘the car is good.  We came out here before the testing cut off for 4-days and got a good feeling with everything.  We’re trying to keep that going now and work through engine by engine to make sure they are all good’.  He continued, ‘we are doing a little with the set-up and fine tuning it as we go and trying to keep calm’.  Asked about the traction, he replied, ‘it’s quite high and we have got to run new tyres every run so it’s important to take caution at the start but the traction has levelled out now.  It’s not what we are used to or expect at a 1:8 Worlds but its good fun’.

‘Difficult’ was Greiner’s description of practice so far.  The Serpent driver added, ‘I was having problems with traction roll.  Every corner I am on 2-wheels and then when I try to throttle out of the corner it is doing strange things’.  The German continued, ‘we will try a different shock set-up now and see’.  Asked if the track was changing much between runs he said, ‘we are changing so much things (on the car) every run it is hard to say if the track is changing much, but for the evening we know the traction is even higher so it is even more difficult’.

With 3 more practice runs today and then a day of seeding practice tomorrow, Balestri said, ‘It’s going ok.  We are just testing.  We have a lot of time for this’.  The Infinity driver added, ‘we know the basic set-up from yesterday and the traction is back to the same as yesterday now’.  For his next run the Italian will test harder plastics on his car concluding he was just going through his planned programme.

Making a huge impact on the world of nitro onroad when he made his nitro racing debut at the previous 1:8 World Championship in France, where he lead the final, Matsukura was happier with his car in Round 7 of practice after struggling with the high traction yesterday.  He explained, ‘we came 2-weeks ago and the track was different so yesterday I can’t drive without flipping but now its getting better so now we can get back to our normal programme’.  Asked how he liked the track, the Japanese ace said, ‘I really like it.  The layout is like Japanese style and it also has the high traction’.

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October 28, 2019

Track Focus – Steel City RC Speedway

Track Name – Steel City RC Speedway
Owners – Phil & Kyle Goodwine
Country – USA
Location – Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt

Steel City RC Speedway plays host to the 22nd running of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship and the track has immediately made an impression on the drivers with reigning World Champion Dario Balestri going as far as describing it as ‘maybe one of the most beautiful’ he has driven on.  Its high grip levels however are set to be the greatest challenge to drivers over the coming week.  Only opened last year, the track is located at the full size Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and it has quickly established itself as one of America most high profile outdoor tracks.  Earlier this year it hosted the famed Reedy Race of Champions for electric touring cars after it lost its home following the closure of the Tamiya Raceway and now it has gathered together the best nitro drivers in the World to decide who is the No.1 come Saturday.

The story behind the track name and how it came into existence is an interesting one.  Originally the land the track sits on was part of the Kaiser Steel factory, the 2nd largest steel producer in the world during World War 2.  The company however went bankrupt and was bought by Penske, one of US Motorsport’s most successful teams, who built the full size motor speedway.  Running an electric touring car race in one of the parking lots during the Indycar weekend at the track, that was the start of the relationship between the real track and the Goodwines.  Father and son team Phil & Kyle Goodwine would negotiate a lease to build the impressive looking track that is now Steel City RC Speedway and their choice of red colour for the infield have made it one of the most distinctive and easily identifiable tracks out there.

Giving his reaction to the track, Balestri said, ‘it is super beautiful.  The layout is great and the surface is like a billiard table.  It is an absolutely great layout for 1:8’.  Asked about the high traction levels, the track being sprayed for traction, he replied, ‘the grip is amazing so even if you find a good balance you still need to manage your driving not to flip.  You are always on the limit’.

Former World Champion Simon Kurzbuch said, ‘the layout is really good.  It has a bit of everything, a fast chicane, a nice left section, it is really nice’.  While a fan of the layout, the Swiss driver added, ‘the grip is on a level that is not drivable yet, for me anyway so I am going to have to adapt my driving.  I have never experienced such high grip before.  In the morning and in the evening almost everyone flipped’.

‘It’s nice.  The layout is challenging and fast but the grip conditions make it very special, was Dominic Greiner’s thoughts on the track.  The former 1:10 World Champion continued, ‘we tested here before but now things are very different with way more traction so we can’t use any of the set-up from testing.  We need try to make it that the car doesn’t flip’.  The German added, ‘the surface is super flat, no bumps, and there is going to be less tyre wear with the high traction but with big tyres for quali it is going to be super hard to find a set-up’.

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November 10, 2018

World Champion Chassis Focus

Davide Ongaro (Italy)

Team Associated RC8 B3.1 – LRP ZZ.21c Davide Ongaro Edition – RunnerTime Fuel – AKA Double Down tires – Sanwa Transmitter – Sanwa Servo – JConcepts Silencer body

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November 10, 2018

Ongaro crowned World Champion Down under

Davide Ongaro is the new 1:8 Offroad World Champion.  The Italian became the youngest winner of the sport’s top prize with an impressive and dominant performance in Australia, to win the 1-hour final by 3/4 of a lap from Top Qualifier Ty Tessmann.  Ongaro initially battled with pole sitter Ryan Maifield after defending champion David Ronnefalk hit problems early and then Tessmann made a mistake that dropped him from 2nd to 5th.  Pulling clear of the field only alternate mistakes saw the order of the Top 2 change.  With 15-minutes on the clock, Maifield had a 4-second advantage and was looking strong but on the difficult track he relinquished that advantage on the top right side of the track and Ongaro went to the front.  From there he would take control of the race, his advantage at the midway point almost 7-seconds.  As he continued on his way to securing Team Associated’s first nitro World title, allegations of his car having a giro being proven unfounded afterwards, behind the battle hotted up between Maifield, Tessmann and the recovering Ronnefalk.  With one less stop to do than his rivals over the hour, Tessmann would secure his 4th consecutive Worlds podium taking his Xray to second, 9-seconds clear of Maifield’s Mugen.  For Ronnefalk his reign would end with 4th place the task of coming from dead last after 3-laps too much of a mountain to climb.

Once I had a good distance over Maifield I just tried to drive safe without mistake.”

Davide Ongaro

With a reaction to his achievement more akin to if he had just won a club race back in Italy, Ongaro said, ‘It was a really difficult, long race.  The first minute the car was not so good but after it was really good. Once I had a good distance over Maifield I just tried to drive safe without mistake’.  Having shot to prominence at the Worlds 2-year ago but lost out on a podium finish when his fuel pressure pipe came off, when asked what today’s win meant, the 17-year-old replied, ‘I’m really, really happy. I want to thank all my family, my friends and all the team in Italy and my sponsors too’.

It was tough out there the whole time. There was not an easy moment.”

Ty Tessmann

‘It was tough out there the whole time. There was not an easy moment’, was how Tessmann summed up the race. The Canadian continued, ‘I had a crash early on and had to battle in traffic for a while so by the time I got through that he (Ongaro) was too far ahead’. The 2014 World Champion added, ‘I thought my car ran good and my engine. We had no mechanical failures but Davide drove a great race and congrats to him on the win’.

This is my best finish at an 8th Worlds which just shows how tough it is. I think I have had pole 4-times but this is my first podium.”

Ryan Maifield

The only one to mix it with Ongaro in the final, Maifield said, ‘the beginning was really good and I though I had a really good shot. I made a mistake but caught Ongaro really fast’.  The American went on to say, ‘my car got difficult to drive because the dust came up a lot.  I tried to drive without mistakes but it was really hard. I also had to take my sunglasses off at one stage.  I tried to take at least 2nd but I didn’t drive a World Champion race, it was so hard’.  Commenting on the race while Ongaro’s car was being inspected for a giro, he said, ‘Davide drove a great race and I hope it was a clean win for him. It’s been a long week but I’m happy for my companies. This is my best finish at an 8th Worlds which just shows how tough it is. I think I have had pole 4-times but this is my first podium.  I’m not stoked with 3rd but I’m happy with it’.

It was just too hard to be that close to the limit on the longer run.”

David Ronnefalk

Explaining his early dramas Ronnefalk said, ’It was a weird start. The grease from the bearings got in the clutch and was making it slip like crazy. I couldn’t make it over the triple.  We did the same procedure as always and burned off the grease beforehand’.  Having to pit after his mistake, with pitman Adrien Bertin holding his car down so he could burn off the excess grease, he said he ‘thought it was broke’.  The Swede ‘came out dead last’ after his unscheduled stop but tried to ‘give it a go’ but the dusty track made it difficult to hit his lines and he ‘couldn’t catch Maifield and Ty’.  He concluded, ‘Davide did a great job. I couldn’t catch him after my problems. He deserved it for sure but at least I gave it a shot. It was just too hard to be that close to the limit on the longer run’.

View the complete event results here.

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November 10, 2018

Maifield on pole in Australia

Ryan Maifield will line-up on pole position for the 1-hour final that will decide who leaves Australia as the 1:8 Offroad World Champion.  The Mugen driver secured the No.1 starting position of the 13 car grid with victory in the second & faster of the two half hour Semi Finals.  In the first of the encounters, it was Top Qualifier Ty Tessmann who took the win but only after two late errors by Davide Ongaro.  Ongaro’s Team Associated went to the front after two and half minutes as Tessmann made a mistake.  The Xray driver briefly went to the front 3-minutes later when Ongaro had a mistake but another mistake from Tessmann handed it right back.  Tessmann then started to come under attack from team-mate Bruno Coelho putting up little fight as the Portuguese driver went through to second. Unfortunately it was short lived as the race hit half way Coelho ran out of fuel just as he was coming around to pit.  Ongaro’s advantage was now 2.3-seconds over Tessmann but with 4-minute left on the clock the Italian made a mistake that let his rival through. A racy Ongaro tried to take back the lead but a mistake inside the final 3-minutes put an end to that.  With the Top 5 directly bumping up, there was a good battle for 3rd.  Spencer Rivkin led that until a mistake at 7-minutes dropped him 4 places with the American never recovering. In the end it was Batlle that came out on top ahead of American duo Ryan Cavalieri  and Jared Tebo.  In the second of the Semi, reigning champion David Ronnefalk would have to settle for second behind Ryan Maifield. The Electric Offroad World Champion got the jump on the pole sitter off the start and lead early on before Ronnefalk took a lengthy turn out front until a number of mistakes dropped him back to second. Behind, having bumped up from the 1/4 Finals, Kyle McBride pleased the local crowd with 3rd place ahead of Naoto Matsukura and Riccardo Berton who had also come from the 1/4 Finals.

Commenting on his race, his winning time almost 11-seconds faster than that of Tessmann’s, Maifield said, ‘it was good. The car was good. It was easy to drive. I just had a couple of mistakes but got back in the groove’.  On his battle with Ronnefalk he said, ‘I was not really trying, I was just putting laps in. Overall it was a good run and when David had a few mistakes I was there to take it’.  Looking to the Main event, the culmination of 10 days of racing here in Perth, the JConcepts backed driver said, ‘we’ll make a tyre change for the final, something that lasts a little longer, and see what happens’.

‘Not bad’ was Ronnefalk’s view of the race.  Despite Maifield getting him off the line, the Swede added, ‘the beginning was very good. Me and Maifield pulled away and had a huge gap.  Then he crashed and I pulled away but I caught 5-cars at the same time. It’s hard enough to take care with the jumps but then I also now had other cars to take care of and I messed up twice so Maifield caught back up’.  Regarding his tyres choice for the Semi, he said, ‘I ran Detox but the track dried out and it was too hard to drive.  I will prepare Blockers and Detox for the final and decide what is best at the start’, he also plans to make his D817 ‘a little stiffer’. On starting position, he said, ‘Starting P2 is no problem. Once there is no trouble at the start we will be right there.

Reacting to his Semi, Tessmann said, ‘it was OK’, adding, ‘we tried different stuff in the diffs.  With rain in the Semi practice it was a mess so what we tried wasn’t good in the Semi’.  The 2014 World Champion also went with the wrong tyre saying, ‘we ran too hard a tyre.  We switched just before warm-up and it was not the right choice’.  He continued, ‘we’ll be ok in the main we’ll just go back with the diffs and tyres’.  Asked about the final, he replied, ‘that (the Semi) didn’t feel like 30-minutes out there so the 1-hour should go by pretty quick’.

‘It was really good but 30-minutes with Ty is difficult’, was how Ongaro summed up his race.  The breakthrough talent of the Worlds 2-years ago in Las Vegas, he added, ‘the track was difficult because it has a lot of traction now but in some parts of the track I was slightly faster than Ty. I was attacking at the end. I am confident for the final’.  Set to start 3rd behind Tessmann, he will change to a harder shock oil for the final but stick with his Semi tyre choice of AKA’s Double Down Soft compound long wear tyre.

2012 World Champion Batlle called his performance ‘so, so’. The Spaniard explained, ‘we changed the piston for the Semi because in the practice it was a little bouncy.  With the change the car was not squatting and had good rear traction but it was too soft for the Semi and it was moving around too much’.  On his own performance over the 30-minutes he said, it was ok but I had a mistake in the beginning and then had a lot of traffic.  After that I stayed 7-seconds from the leaders.  The speed as there. We had similar pace but I couldn’t get close to race them.  At least we are in the final and I have extended my record of the (driver with the) most World finals’.  For the Main he will tweak his set-up to have ‘less roll in the car’.

Completing the Top 3 in the second Semi, with his time putting him 10th on the grid behind the Renaud Savoya and Aaron Stringer, who got through on the fastest times having finished Semi A 6th & 7th, McBride said, ‘we are in there at least so I’m happy with that’.  His second bump up of the day the Australian said on the Semi his car was ‘a little edgy’ as a result of the track getting more grippy but he would adjust his set-up for that.  He concluded, ‘I’m not the fastest but I’m consistent so if we can make it easier to drive I’ll be good to go’.

New for the 2018 Worlds is the LCS (Last Chance Saloon) Final, a 15-minute affair that gives the Semi finalists who didn’t progress, the chance to become the 13th starter on the grid. A stacked affair, it was this year’s standout performer CJ Jelin who showed immensely cool shoulders as he saw off the pressure of former Worlds Top Qualifier Elliott Boots to book his first of what is sure to be many Worlds Final appearances for the 14-year-old.

View the complete event results here.

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