August 24, 2016

Xray set early pace in Beijing

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Xray have set the early pace in practice at the 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championships in Beijing, with Bruno Coelho topping the times for the first two practices from team-mate Alexander Hagberg.  With the opening practice the first time cars have ever run on the newly resurfaced Fengtai R/C Model Area asphalt track, it was Hagberg who took the initial bragging rights and with the laps time improving by 1-seconds in the second of the opening day’s six free practices, he again set the fastest lap but over three consecutive laps it was Coelho who was marginally quicker – 0.025 the difference.  Behind the Xray’s it was Yokomo’s Ronald Volker who completed the Top 3 followed by the Serpent of Viktor Wilck and Capricorn of Marc Fischer.  With the first of the cars hitting the sugar watered track at 08:30, all the competitors coming out to watch Heat 1, the overall reaction to the layout and early traction is proving very positive.

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Having only arrived in China yesterday, getting down to work immediately with an interview for Chinese television at a new indoor track in the city, Coelho said ‘I think its a good start, not perfect but we’ll get there’.  Describing the track layout as ‘fun’, the Portuguese driver, who burst onto the electric touring car scene at the last World Championships 2-years ago where he became Vice Champion, was ‘impressed by the traction’ over the first two 5-minute runs.  In terms of his Hobbywing powered T4, the ETS Champion said, it is ‘missing a little traction and steering’ but added they will ‘work on it’ for the next one.

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‘Finally I have traction compared to stupid 1:12 scale’ was Hagberg’s reaction after FP2,  the reigning European 1:12 Champion having a terrible run at the 1:12 Worlds earlier in the week.  Describing his touring car as ‘really good’, the Swede said they would ‘keep working to fine tune the set-up for qualifying’.  Commenting on the track, he said, ‘it is really nice’ adding, the layout is good, its flat and a good size’. A driver who has endured a tough 2016 season, losing his 200mm World title earlier in the month in Italy, Hagberg has the car’s designer Martin Hudy as his mechanic this weekend, Hudy opting not to race this Worlds but instead focus on team support and so far it appears to be working.

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‘A good mix between being technical & fast, I like it’, was Volker’s reaction to the track.   3/10th off the Xray’s, the German said, ‘we are bit behind the Xray guys but so far so good’.  Saying he ‘didn’t expect the traction to be above medium’ he added, ‘and that’s what it is, so it’s quite as I expected’.  In terms of his LRP powered BD7, the reigning European Champion said, they will work on some small things to ‘try get a slightly better balance’.  Team-mate Nicolas Lee would be the next fastest Yokomo, the Singapore driver posting the 7th fastest time.

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While he would do just little more than half of the second practice after he lost a wire from his motor, needing to fit a new one for FP3, Wilck said his 4X was ‘working pretty good’.  Completing the second practice on used tyres, this year’s World introducing an order for qualifying of when a driver must use new tyres or old tyres, the Swede said the ‘feeling is ok’.  Continuing, ‘it is a little loose’ he added ‘but the track should come in later’ making for conditions for the used tyres.  For Q3, he will ‘play around with shock oils’.

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‘An ok start, I’m a little surprised actually’, was how Fischer summed his performance over the opening runs.  Running two cars each run, he said the car with the optional chassis was a ‘little better’ having ‘more overall grip’ than the car with the standard kit chassis.  The German said the cars also feature a different shock set-up and he will ‘just change small things’ for the next run.

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The leading Tamiya, Christopher Krapp posted the sixth fastest time but the overall mood in the TRF pits is low.  Over 3/10th off Coelho on his best single lap, Krapp said, ‘the 1st one was pretty rough but for the second the feeling was ok’.  Declaring they have ‘some set-up issues’. he continued, ‘its a new track and need to see how we can go in the right direction with set-up’.  With ‘everyone trying something different’ for FP3, the German said afterwards they will get together and ‘brainstorm’ to come up with a set-up.

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Reigning champion Naoto Matsukura, who could only manage the 40th fastest time, was brief with his summary of the first two practices saying ‘Not good.  No feeling, No steering’.  Tamiya team-mate Marc Rheinard would fare slightly better on the time sheets with P8 but described it as a ‘horrible start’.  The 3-time Champion added, ‘it feel like driving on ice. I have no grip at all.  We are pretty wrong with our set-up’.  Fellow World Champion Atsushi Hara, racing a Kyosho as a privateer, completed the Top 10.

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August 24, 2016

Track Focus – Fengtai R/C Model Area

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Track Name – Fengtai R/C Model Area
Host –  Car Modelling Association of China
Country – China
Location – Beijing Fengtai
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Asphalt

Having successfully hosted the 1:12 World Championship indoors in the Fengtai Science, Technology and Sports building, the Touring Car Worlds moves outdoors to another part of the Fengtai Sports Center which centres around the 2008 Beijing Olympics Softball stadium.  They say first impressions last and on arriving at the track one cannot but be impressed.  Obviously putting some of their Olympic experience to good use on entering the facility you immediately get the feeling this is something a bit special.  Situated next to the offroad track that was built to host the 2013 1:8 Offroad FEMCA Championship, the unique aspect of the 9th running of the 1:10 Electric Touring Car World’s is that the surface and layout has never been driven on prior to the opening round of free practice.  Originally built in September of last year, the track got new asphalt last month in preparation for China’s first hosting of an IFMAR World Championship, it expected to host its second next year for 1:10 Offroad, and with no teams or drivers having run on it before it has added a extra element to this year’s title.

Arriving to a security check, where you pass through a scanner, you then enter the massively long pit area.  120-metres long and all glass down the right hand side about half way down is the door to the track and impressive driver stand structure which houses everything needed to run a World Championship event.  Such is its size that on the same floor as where the drivers stand for their races there is a press room on one side with race control mirroring it on the opposite side.  Two stairways up to the top floor keep the flow of drivers, officials and press flowing without disturbance to racers.  One nice touch of these and the 1:12 event is a drinks area just off the pit area for racers where they can get complimentary juices, tea, coffee and bottles of water.  For lunch, a huge marquee has been erected across the street with this also set to be used for Saturday night’s award ceremony.

In terms of the track, which is over looked by a 300 + seater grandstand, it covers an area 68-metre long by 38-metre deep.  Featuring 16 turns, the layout is defined by steel dividers with the infield painted blue. Commenting on the layout as he watched the first heats of practice, reigning World Champion Naoto Matsukura said, ‘It’s a good layout, I think I will like it’.  Designed by Lung Chuan Lee from Tawian, who has designed many tracks in China include the Fengtai R/C Model Area offroad track, Matsukura feels the layout maybe a little tight.  He also pointed out that the curbing is nice and low in some areas but quite high in others and with a straight edge on the inside of the higher ones he said if you go off you will be stuck inside the curbing.

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August 22, 2016

Matsukura is 1:12 World Champion

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Naoto Matsukura is the 1:12 World Champion for a fourth time.  The Japanese ace, who burst onto the international r/c scene when he won his first World title in 2008 aged 15, took back the sport’s biggest prize with an impressive recovery drive to make it 2 wins from 2 in the second A-Main in Beijing.   Starting P2, China being his first Worlds not being the Top Qualifier, Matsukura came out best from a third lap pile up involving the Top 3 to go to the lead but almost immediately threw it away with a mistake of his own dropping back to fifth. With Sobue the new leader, Matsukura set about his recovery with his Roche clearly the fastest car on the track.  On the limit trying to keep his lead and under pressure from Matsukura, Sobue would too lose the lead with a mistake and once passed Matsukura took complete control of the race to win ahead of Rheinard to put himself into the history books as the first driver to hold both the 1:12 and Electric Touring Car World titles simultaneously.  A win of a very entertaining A3 would give Rheinard the overall runner-up spot with 1:12 Worlds debutant Sobue completing the podium for the 18th running of the championships.

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‘I don’t remember any of the 8-minute, I know I made a mistake one time’, was Matsukura’s reaction after the race.  The protege of Masami Hirosaka, from whom he is now only one title away from matching the 1:12 legend’s world title tally, the 22-year-old continued, ‘the feeling of this win is the same as when I won my first World title,  I am so happy to take back the title’.  Making this title even more sweet he said was the fact that this is his first race having his father as his mechanic, his dad clearly overcome by the win as he congratulated his son after the race.  His first world championship since his shock departure from Team Yokomo, Matsukura thanked Roche owner Max Ma and Patrick Poon, along with his team-mates, for making today’s win possible.  He said he also owed a huge gratitude of thanks to his family and his girlfriend for their ongoing support.  With the historic significance of today’s win, he said he was now more determined than ever to complete the 2016 Worlds by doing the double come Saturday, when the Touring Car World title will also be decided at Fengtai Sports Centre with the racing moving outdoors on to a brand new asphalt track.

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Commenting after another disappointing race in A2 Rheinard said, ‘I had no grip. I was just sliding around trying to hold the car on the track. I think the breaks before the final are effecting the traction’.  Asked about the early incident with Matsukura and Sobue, of which he came off the worst, the German said, ‘Somebody touched me but I don’t really know what happened’.  With Rheinard taking the 1:12 win from Matsukura before the then Yokomo driver went on to win his first touring car World title, the 3-time Touring Car World Champion said , ‘I lost this one so all I have to do now is win later in the week’.   Finishing the event by winning the closing race and reflecting on the finals as a whole he said, ‘It was not my day but I didn’t drive good’.   Even though he won A3 he wasn’t happy with his early driving over the 8-minutes, ‘I spun out and dropped to fifth and thought I am not even going to make the podium but got my head down and got back to the front so it worked out’.

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‘I’m happy to finish on the podium for my first time (doing 1:12 Worlds) but its not the best result, I wanted the win’.  Commenting on A2 which he led, the CRC driver said, ‘my car was difficult to drive, the track as loose and I was super on the limit trying to keep the lead’.  Losing that lead with a mistake when he tapped the corner pipping, he said ‘Naoto was faster’ adding it was only going to be a matter of time before he would take the lead.  Switching for A3 to the same set-up he used yesterday when he TQ’d the opening qualifier, he said this gave him a ‘super good car’ adding it was a ‘maximum close race’.  Making a mistake while trying to get passed leader for much of the race Hideo Kitazawa as they battled for second, Sobue would drop to 7th in the final 2-minutes of the race recovering to 5th by the finish. With 2014 podium finisher Kitazawa getting second it was Sobue’s P2 race time in A1 that would give him the tie breaker over Kitazawa for the final podium placing.

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With Kitazawa taking fourth ahead of fellow Japanese driver Toto Ebukuro, Japan the power house nation at this year’s championships filling 4 of the to 5 spots, Juho Levanen would be the best Team Associated driver finishing 6th ahead of team-mate Keven Hebert.  Shanghai based American JJ Wang gave the locals someone to cheer on finishing his first 1:12 Worlds in 8th with Masatsugu Ido and Hayato Ishioka completing the Top 10 of what is the sport’s original electric World Championship class.  With China doing an impressive job in hosting the World Championships for the first time, and while the 50 entry count was up slightly on the 2014 numbers, with all A-finalists clearly the best in the world, it is clear that in the best interest of keeping 1:12 alive, IFMAR, the drivers and all involved manufacturers need to collectively work together in finding solutions that make the class more appealing and try and return it to it hayday when far more World Championship touring competitors took part.

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