Chassis Focus – Dario Balestri
Chassis – Infinity IF15 prototype
Motor – MaxPower Quadrifoglio
Fuel (handout) – Maxima
Tires (handout) – HotRace
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Savox
Body – Xtreme CZ1
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Sahashi tops first round of seeding practice
Tadahiko Sahashi has topped the first round of seeding practice at the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championships in Bangkok. The first of the day’s four seeding rounds threw up a number of surprises as the sun appeared for the final heat of the round leaving a number of the pre race favourites well down the order. 2013 1:8 World Champion Sahashi recorded the fastest 3-consecutive laps with a time of 46.351 seconds followed by his Infinity team-mates Jilles Groskamp and Milan Holthuis. Shinnosuke Yokoyama added some variety to the top of the times using his Mugen to post fourth fastest ahead of Andy Moore. For reigning Champion Naoto Matsukura a mistake cost him track time and he was only able to post the 14th fastest time just ahead of team-mate Dario Balestri. Having been fastest at the end of controlled practice Dominic Greiner found himself only 9th quickest.
Summing up his performance as ‘safe drive’, Sahashi added he got ‘lucky as others had issues’. Running the car unchanged from yesterday he said today he finds himself looking for more corner speed but cautioned it was a fine balance as too much could make the car easy to flip.
‘Not too bad’ was Groskamp’s reaction with him only 4/100th off his team-mate. He continued, ‘the track for Group 6 was a little slower so earlier heats got some fast times but overall 2nd is a good start’. The Dutch driver said the traction this morning was lower than other mornings and based on his experience of the previous days he went with a higher traction set-up but despite this his car was consistent’.
Fellow countryman Holthuis described the first run of the day as ‘really tricky’. With all drivers now on the official handout tyres, the 19-year-old said his car ‘was sliding around a lot at the beginning’ with the tyres taking a long time to come in. He explained, ‘the tyre wear is not zero but it is almost nothing’. Overall pleased with his IF15, he will leave the car unchanged for the start of the second round but plans to adjust the car during the 7-minute run.
Yokoyama was very pleased with his ranking for the round. The 30-year-old, who works for the iconic Japanese engine manufacturer OS, described his Mugen as being ‘really consistent’ but found himself with a little oversteer this morning. Planning to change his rear wing for the next round to try cure the oversteer he added, ‘every heat the track conditions change so it is difficult to predict what changes will best suit the track at that time.
‘An OK start for sure’ was how Moore described his run. With pre race testing ruling him out of IPD, he said based on his track experience and what he observed from watching the drivers in IPD he said what he though would work for controlled practice didn’t’ but today things were better. Running a more conservative set-up today he said it was maybe not the right direction and he benefited from drivers running after him having a slower run. The Thailand based British driver said he will ‘test a few things in the next one’ in the hope to improve his true pace.
Explaining his slow time, Matsukura said, ‘I made a mistake and broke a rear body post so I had to stop to fix this. This cost me track time so my tyres where then too big to get a good time’. Balestri said the sun made for two extremes on the track. Where the sun was shining the car had no steering but then shaded areas the car wanted to flip. The Italian added, ‘we keep trying’.
‘Horrible’ was Greiner’s response when as how his run had gone. The Capricorn driver said he made an adjustment to his steering but the sun completely changed the track. Flipping his car in the warm-up he badly chunked a rear tyre which he then had to complete the run. Looking to the second seeding round the German plans to revert back to a set-up he ran yesterday describing it as a good compromise for the varying conditions.
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Video – Free Practice
Some practice laps viewed from the drivers stand at the 2022 1:10 Nitro World Championship taking place at RC Addict in Bangkok, Thailand.
Chassis Focus – Gary Huang
Chassis – Xray RX8 2019
Engine – Max Power RP9
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Matrix
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Power HD
Body – Xtreme Super Diablo
Remarks – Winner of this year’s SIGP Gary Huang and mechanic Gavin Kwok were using the 2019 spec Xray RX8. Featuring the optional alu servo saver, alu front anti roll bar mounts, optional centre pullies and a 100gram brass battery mount, the Chinese team had to contend with setting up their car for the higher grip found this year compared to previous years.
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Gary Huang takes popular SIGP Nitro class win
Gary Huang has taken an emotional win tonight in Xiamen, China in the 1/8th Main final. The Xray driver overcame a flameout to take a very popular win in front of a partisan crowd at the SIGP. Behind it was Merlin Depta who finished in 2nd place, one and a half laps back, the German driver leading following the Chinese driver’s flameout. Completing the podium here at the ARC International Raceway was veteran Italian racer Marco Vanni. Pole sitter Jeff Hamon had a troubled race as he lost touch with Gary Huang early on before hitting major engine troubles, the result of the Australian having set his engine too lean prior to the final. Feeling the win was retribution for not being able to travel to the Worlds last month in California due to visa problems, long time mechanic Gavin Kwok was overcome with emotion as his driver took the checkered flag. Explaining his flameout, he said he was on his in-lap when the Max engine rolled to a stop near the end of the lap. The Xray driver was running 2 laps more than everyone else but he believes it was the smaller tires that had increased consumption and caught them out. Restarted and back on track he battled his way back from 4th, pushing like crazy to take over the lead again with 15 minutes left and hold on for the rest of the race and take his first SIGP nitro win.
Merlin Depta said he had ‘no pace and no tires’, the Serpent driver changing tires 3 times in the final. Explaining that when he ran yesterday evening the track was super sticky and so to be safe focused on making his car easy to drive but with the traction lower than expected the car ended up pushing too much. Leading for a time after Huang flamed out, he just didn’t have the pace to match the Xray driver and so dropped back to 2nd and battling with Ray Poon. Very pleased with his pit crew, the first time in the pitlane at a race for his girlfriend, Merlin was none the less pleased with 2nd place saying ‘I’ll take it’.
Taking the final podium spot, Marco Vanni joked that he was an ‘old man’ who just kept going, ‘just kept driving’. The Shepherd driver was also in 3rd place 2 years ago when he was last in Xiamen, saying he likes this area of China and especially the track will hope to be back again next year. Starting from 8th place, the Italian worked his way slowly and methodically through the field, taking the 3rd spot off Hong Kong driver Ray Poon 10 laps from the end of the race, the Infinity driver having led as the tire stops shuffled through having to settled for 4th. Hay Lai would finish in 5th place, just in front of Charlee P in 6th, who was another driver to lead until he lost a front tire exiting the pits after his tire stop.
In the GT class it was an epic battle all race long between Serpent driver and top qualifier Felix Law and 2nd place starter Charlee P driving for the Maxima team. The pair fought it out for the entire 45 minutes, never more than a few car lengths apart the whole time. Paphon took the lead about a quarter of the way through the race and held it for about 20 minutes before Felix took back with 12 minutes to go. From there they would push themselves even harder, with Paphon getting back in front and staying there for good with 10 laps to go. In the end only 2 seconds separated them. Afterwards Felix felt that his motor started to go rich which prevented him from being able to pressure Paphon even more at the end. Behind the lead pair young Guangzhou native Ma Haoran rounded out the podium, a finalist in the EP class yesterday, he put in a mature race to finish just 4 laps behind the much more experienced pair ahead. Behind the Xray driver Simon Kau was 4th, while Korea’s Choi Nak Sung completed the top 5.
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SIGP 1/8th Nitro Main final line-up complete
The first semi final (even) for the 1/8th scale class produced quite some drama as we lost two of our race favourites as an early crash and some later problems for Kim Ki Heung saw him finish down in 7th, while Meen Vejrak went out of the early lead having lost the back pressure tubing after his first stop, only rejoining later with a new one fitted having lost nearly 4 minutes. That semi final was won by Xray driver Gary Huang, who had been pressuring the Thai driver hard until their first stop. Infinity driver Ray Poon would finish in 2nd some 2 laps down on the leader, with Rocket Zhang piloting a Serpent a lap further down in 3rd. Chui Kai Leung was the last of the automatic bump ups in 4th.
In the second semi final it was a lot more straight forward with Serpent driver Merlin Depta taking victory by 6 seconds over Motor King who was just less than a second ahead of pole man Charlee P at the end of the 30 minute main. Italian driver Marco Vanni was the last automatic qualifier from this semi final but as it was a faster semi than the first, 5th place Hay Lai will take the last bump up spot to complete the 9 drivers that will join top qualifier Jeff Hamon in the 45 minute A-main final.
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