Chassis – Team Associated RC8 B4.1
Engine – O.S. Speed B2105
Fuel – Rapicon
Tires – JConcepts Dirtweb 2.0
Radio – Sanwa M17
Servos – Sanwa PGS-XB II
Body – JConepts S15
Notes – Adrian is running ONG brand Shock Caps, Wing Button, and Power Switch.
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Chassis – Infinity IFB8
Engine – O.S. Speed B2105
Fuel – Maxima 25%
Tires – HotRace Sahara
Radio – Sanwa M17S
Servos – Sanwa PGS-XR II
Body – Infinity
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Infinity’s Kouki Kato has opened qualifying at the Sunpadow International Grand Prix with a TQ run, the top seed fastest over the 8-minute heat ahead of Xray’s David Ronnefalk and Infinity’s Bruno Coelho. While Kato TQ run was never in doubt there would be some issues with timing in the top heat as a result of the qualifiers being extended from the traditional 5-minutes to 8-minutes. With drivers forced to stop for fuel in the qualifier, a number of drivers would not have their laps counted as the came in to pit lane, Coelho, David Ronnefalk, and Jason Nugroho all effected by a problem with the loop under the paved pit lane entry. While there was some deliberations following the completion of qualifying with buggies being push back & forth over the loop on the main straight and in pit lane, it was finally decided to credit drivers with the missed laps meaning Ronnefalk got his second 3.162 seconds off Kato’s pace with Coelho joining them on 15-lap runs a further 1-second back. Showing P2 on the timing screen’s at the end of the run, Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen would end up 4th after the corrections with Adrian Wicaksono from Indonesia completing the Top 5.
Reacting to his TQ run Kato said, ‘I was able to make a good run. I ran a good pace and was consistent. I think it was a clean race and I had no issues with traffic.’ With the run bringing Friday’s action to a close, the reigning Japanese National Champion, that title defence coming up very soon, said he struggled a little with the fading light adding it was not easy to see in the distance. In terms of the track conditions, he felt Q1 traction was ‘a little low’. Heading into Day 2 of qualifying, 4 rounds on the schedule, Kato feels tyres are going to be his focus saying, ‘maybe we need to find a good tyre. Now I am using the (Hotrace) Sahara but sometimes the Bangkok is better so tomorrow I need to choose the right tyre for the time.’ Asked about eBuggy, him setting the second fastest time behind his team-mate Coelho, the 19-year-old said, ‘I made some mistakes, 3 mistakes for me. On the last lap I also lost 2-second. The car is ok so hopefully I will be better tomorrow.’
Pleased his corrected result, Ronnefalk said, ‘Nitro was good. I had a mistake in pit lane and also some traffic on the first laps and then of course the issue with the loop.’ With his pitman here in Xiamen, Adam Izsay, having given more details on his ‘mistake in pit lane’, highlighting the Swede crashed on the way in and then again on the way out, Ronnefalk laughed and replied, ‘You can mention that’. Overall the 2016 World Champion said, ‘the speed was very good but I had the mistake with a lapped car on the second lap and the shit in the pit lane, which I need to solve myself for tomorrow.’ On how the track is evolving he said, ‘I think it was better than the first day I was here cause it didn’t get as rough in the end of the day. They put a lot of glue, like they are doing again this evening, so I think it is holding up pretty well compared to what we expected.’ P3 in the first eBuggy qualifier, which was held just as the sun began to set, last year’s winner said, ‘Electric was interesting because Bruno and I were adjusting the sun blind because he needed it down but if it was down I couldn’t really see the track so we came to a compromise were I pushed his loose part up but then after three laps that part came back down and I couldn’t see the track. I had to stand tilted sideways which made it difficult for a few laps and I had a mistake because I was not focusing on what I should have been focusing on.’
Summing up his qualifier, at the end of which he said he was shocked to hear over his headset from his pit man that he was showing in last place, Coelho said, ‘In total I missed 5-laps. I only had a small bobble and the run was pretty good. The lap time was there, I had the fastest lap time of the qualifier.’ He continued, ‘The car was a bit difficult to drive but was very fast, it was a pity the laps were not counting. Luckily there was more people having a problem which means there was some problem with the loop which the organisation is trying to fix for tomorrow.’ Back on his Buggy he said, ‘We didn’t find a little more stability on the nitro but it was fast so I was happy.’ Asked how far apart his Nitro and eBuggy are in terms of set-up, his eBuggy taking the Round 1 TQ, he replied, ‘they are very close. Weight distribution is different but we need to find out why the nitro is more difficult to drive than the electric because the nitro has the pace but is not amazing the pace, I mean I am little bit faster but nothing almost, so there is no reason for it to be so difficult to drive because sometimes when you are a second faster it is ok to be difficult but if it is only zero something there is something we can still work on. The electric one is very easy to drive and fast so I am pretty happy with it.’
‘Nothing special to really say’ was Iivonen’s thoughts after Q1. The Finn continued, ‘The car felt the best it has actually been. I have been the whole day with Bangkok (tyres) and I think Sahara would have been faster so tomorrow I will test that and see if it will be the case. If that’s the case then my car is actually quite good and should be on pace.’ With his car standing out on track as the darkness fell, he explained, ‘It was actually getting quite dark already and it was good that I had the Glow Stick RC antenna on my car and that was the only thing I saw when I was driving, it was good.’ On eBuggy, in which he also got a P4, he said, ‘I made a small mistake on the back and got the worst out of it and lost a third place there otherwise it was quite good. The pace was better and also that car is much better than before.’
Another first timer to the 2017 1:10 Offroad Worlds track along with Kato, Iivonen, young Korean talent Jung Hyunkyu, and fellow countryman Nugroho, Asian Buggy Championships podium finish Wicaksono was pleased with his Top 5 opening effort. Describing the track as ‘challenging’, the Team Associated driver said ‘it has been a while since I drive on a track like this but I think it not only requires speed but also requires consistency & patience on top of set-up of course.’ Happy with his run, he said he had only one bobble in which his car turned over itself so he didn’t need to be marshalled and he didn’t lose much time.’ Owner of the West Side Raceway offroad track in Jakarta, asked if he was happy with where he was on car set-up, he replied, ‘No, no, still many thinks to work on but I think the last few days I worked mainly on shocks but I think I need to work on the diffs a little bit. Although it is bumpy and dusty on the outside, I think the racing line is starting to groove so I think I need a little bit thicker oil in my car.’
View our event image gallery here.
While some had their reservations regarding how the cars would perform around the large Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track and in particular its long straight, it would ultimately prove a huge hit with drivers at the IFMAR 1:8 GT Worlds and showcase the impressive speeds at which 1:8 GT cars now run. The third running of the 1:8 GT World Championship, it was great to see such a diversity of manufacturers make up the World Championship deciding 1-hour final with 7 different brands forming the 11 car grid. A very popular brand in South America, it was Italian manufacturer WIRC who was best represented with three cars, Brazil’s Flavio Elias going from winning the last chance final to finishing on the podium. A brand which at the last World Championships was a solo personal project of its driver Michael Kocher, the Andrea Contarini designed car only offered then to customers as a eGT kit, Raptor has since through the involvement of Gimar become a major player with their star driver Alessio Mazzeo doing the World Championship double in Santiago. In Nitro GT their two cars on the grid would go on to achieve a 1-2 finish.
Taking the TQ honours, Serpent would also have two cars in the final. With one car each Senesi Motorsport, Xray and IGT8 completed the line up of different brands. In terms of engines Gimar was the most popular with it powering 5-drivers. While absent from the event as a car brand, Italy’s Genius Racing, who were Top Qualifiers in Sydney, proved the most popular body with 8 drivers running their GT Fury shell. With Red RC able to make the very enjoyable and welcoming trip to South America to cover the GT Worlds for a second time thanks to the support of Sweep tyres, Energy fuel, and 2023 World Champions Hong Nor, over the condensed schedule we managed to photograph 8 cars from 6 different manufacturers for our ‘Chassis Focus’ including the Top 2 finishers in the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric GT World Championship. As the supplier of the controlled tyre with is D-SPEC GT 40, Sweep came in for a lot of driver phrase for how its tyre performance as his Energy who fuelled everyone for the event.
Nitro GT
Alessio Mazzeo – Raptor (Q2/World Champion)
Flavio Elias – WIRC (Q5/P3)
Andrea Catanzani – Serpent (TQ/P4)
Natanaele Senesi – Senesi Motorsport (Q3/P5)
Alex D’angelo – Capricorn (Q4/P10)
Diego Morganti – IGT8 (Q7/P18)
Electric GT
Alessio Mazzeo – Raptor (TQ/World Champion)
Natanaele Senesi – Senesi Motorsport (Q2/P2)
Chassis: Raptor
Engine: Gimar Jupiter GT
Radio: Sanwa Exces ZIII
Servos (Steering/Throttle): Sanwa XB2
Body: i-Fenix
Tires (handout): Sweep D-SPEC GT 40
Fuel (handout): Energy 16%
Notes:
Mazzeo’s car was fitted with Raptor’s own optional Front and centre weights.
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Raptor/Gimar driver Alessio Mazzeo has gone from being close in the past to becoming a double World Champion in less than 24-hours, the Italian taking the biggest win of his career today when he executed a flawless drive to win the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro GT World Championship final in Chile. Winning the Electric GT World title yesterday in Santiago, and having hinted at what was to come as he put in a sterling performance in the battle for the Nitro TQ honours in the final qualifier, lining up behind Serpent’s eventually Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani, he and Catanzani were the class of the field. From the start of the 1-hour Main they pulled clear of the field around the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track with it looking like the stage was set for a battle between the two different generations of drivers. Unfortunately that anticipated fight to become the World No.1 lasted just four & a half minutes. Catanzani would suffer a flame out and his demise was only the start of more problems to come for Italian drivers, the nation dominating qualifying and locking out all four direct qualifying spots in the main. 11-minutes in and Natanaele Senesi suffered the first of numerous flame-outs. With Alex D’Angelo holding a comfortable second, just as Mazzeo put a lap on the Capricorn driver 36-minutes into the race, the 2023 Worlds Top Qualifier would come to a stop on track. The issue proved terminal, his throttle servo having failed. This promoted Carli Lopez to second making for a Raptor 1-2 on track. Despite this being his first World Championships, the 21-year-old drove a superb final to maintain his position and take a hugely popular second place. A driver who is no stranger to the World Championship stage, Brazil’s Flavio Elias would turn around a day that started off in the worst way possible when he was taken out of his Semi by another driver in pit lane while in a bump up position. Having to go through the Last Chance Final, the WIRC driver won that to line up as the 11th car in the final and through all the drama found himself finally achieving a World Championship podium finish, a recovering Catanzani just 3-seconds back when they crossed the line.
While somewhat muted after his Electric GT Championship win, given the classes small entry, it was contrasting raw emotion for Mazzeo on taking the nitro title win. Joining Toni Gruber and Joern Neumann as champions of the category, asked how it felt to become a double World Champion in the space of 24-hours, the super friendly Italian replied, ‘It’s incredible, I don’t think I realise yet what has just happened.’ He continued, ‘Today was a special day. I was not stressed, I was really calm, and I was really confident in the work of Giovanni, Marco and my father back home, and I think we deserve this title. I followed this dream from when I was young. I was scared to make this long distance from my home but I did it to realise my dream and what I suggest to everybody if you are scared of something you need to fight it so you can realise you dreams.’ On his title win race, which looked near perfect from the outside, Mazzeo explain, ‘we lost almost 1-lap. In the pit lane two times we had problems with the body, and I also lost 5-seconds with a crash with a lapping car but from the beginning I saw I had the speed. When I see Andrea flame out, and I am really sorry for Andrea but he will be the future of this sport and will be a champion for sure, but when I see his car stopped I said “today can be the day”. After that I just managed the car to the end and said to Giovanni when there was 2-minutes remaining we had won but before the last lap at the end of the straight I lose the rear and we broke the wheel and we arrive at the finish with a broken wheel, for this my last lap was 25-seconds.’ While many of his rivals had engine issues, the long time Gimar driver said, ‘we choose not the power, we chose to be safe and with the decision to risk or not I prefer to be safe because I was fast so I didn’t want to go faster. I know this kind of final is very long, I had done them many times and I lose many times, so the choice was perfect. The car was really perfect, everything worked good, the fuel was amazing, the tyres were perfect – that’s a dream.’
Reacting to his second place, Lopez said the biggest stress of the race for him was traffic, saying he had to deal with it a lot. Asked how his race had panned out, the Puerto Rican driver replied, ‘All the time was OK, no flame out, the only issues was in the final 10-minutes one tyre exploded which we had to change. With the one new tyre I put more steering on my radio but once the tyre warmed up it as all OK.’ With the Sweep controlled tyre coming in for much phrase for its performance at these championships, he added, ‘I don’t know why we had this failure with the tyre because for me they are a good tyre and I like them a lot. Maybe it was just the 1-hour final.’ Qualifying sixth overall to line-up on pole for the Semi B Final, which he went on to win in the fastest time of both Semis putting him fifth on the starting grid, Lopez said while this is his first World Championships it is not his first time to race with the Italian. Last year he travelled to Italy to take part in a round of their National GT Championship, the standard one of the best in the World as highlight here in Santiago, adding he ‘wasn’t surprised’ by their speed here and that he ‘needs to go race with them more in future’.
Getting close to a podium with fourth at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Brazil back in 2015, a decade on Elias was delighted to finally secure a Worlds podium finish. After his dramas in the Semi, the Main Final started out looking like it might go the same way. From last in the grid, a good start would move him up to fifth briefly before he was flipped over after contact from another car which put him back in last place. With the pit lane closed for the first 7-minutes of the race, he would then run out of fuel after six & a half minutes however by the time his car was recovered and restarted, pit lane was open and he did suffer any penalty. He said after that, pitting between 6 and 6:15, that the rest of the race was fine and he could climb back up the order and capitalise on the issues of other drivers. Elias will return to track in a month and a half’s time when it is the turn of the 1:8 Onroad class to decide its next World Champion at the impressive CACH facility.
An understandably dejected Catanzani summed up the outcome of looked like a promising championship as ‘disappointing’. Making a name for himself on his Worlds debut two years ago in Sydney, the 20-year had an impressive Day 1 of qualifying securing the TQ honours with three consecutive TQ runs ask about his final he explained, ‘We flamed out at 4 or 5 minutes for no reason, I don’t know why. Then we restart, the race was long so we continue to race but we flamed out another time in the pit stop so we changed glow plug.’ He continued, ‘we also broke a wheel so we had to change tyres so maybe without his a podium was still possible. The car was feeling strange and I thought the car was broken but when we checked it it was the wheel.’ With the fastest lap of the final, asked about the chance of having another go at Worlds success in Chile at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, which start at the end of November, he said he still needs to discuss his participation with Serpent.
