Chassis Focus – Vening Zhuo (Awesomatix)

Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – Hobbywing XR10 Pro
Motor – Hobbywing G3 5.0T
Battery – GensAce Redline 4200mAh
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Savox
Body – Xtreme Twister Speciale

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Volker Top Qualifier at inaugural FIRC

Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker is the Top Qualifier at the inaugural Foshan Invitation RC Championship.  Heading up the international entry at the new Chinese race that the organisers are aiming to establish as a major annual event,  the former World Champion secured pole position for tomorrow’s triple finals when he made it three from three in the penultimate round of qualifying at the recently opened GDC Indoor Track.  Once again it was Chinese driver Vening Zhuo who would be Volker’s closest challenger but the German edged back out his advantage over the Awesomatix driver in the third round.   Competing the Top 3 for the round would be Marco Ma, the Xray driver managing his first 23-lap run of the day ahead of the Xpress of Yugo Nagashima, the Top Seed also putting together a 23-lap run.

Having started the day with a frustratingly difficult seeding round that left him only able for the 13th fastest time and which put him in the second fastest heat for qualifying, Volker said, ‘I happy to TQ overall after my very bad seeding and end the day in a good way’.  On the run that sealed him the overall TQ, drivers counting 2 of the 4 rounds, he said, ‘I had a perfect start but then had some light traffic.  The car has improved as the tyres aged but you can see everyone else improved too.’  Improving on his best time by over 3-seconds, he is keen to have a bigger advantage over his rival and will use the fourth & final qualifier to run his MTC2R with a little less toe in as well as a different front shock set-up to try and getting better steering and a better overall balance for the finals.

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Volker again Q2 as Zhuo reduces gap

Ronald Volker made it two from 2 in qualifying at the inaugural Foshan Invitation RC Championship but Chinese driver Vening Zhuo got even closer to the German as they both became the only drivers to produce 23-lap runs at the GDC Indoor track.  Having taken the opening qualifier by a comfortable 3-second margin, in Q2 of four Volker’s advantage was less than 1.3-seconds as Zhuo put in another clean round and Volker continued to deal with the traffic of the second fastest heat.  Surviving a moment with Simon Nicholson, when the Australian got his Yokomo up on two wheels and both cars touched, Top Seed Yugo Nagashima would get third for his efforts ahead of the Xray of Jerry Dai.  His Xray team-mate Marco Ma, third in the opening round, had been on his a strong run but suffered a late incident that dropped him from the top of the timing screens and to 7th for the round.

‘So far so good.  I’m glad to get another TQ run in but it is still a weird feeling watching the top heat when I am marshalling’, was how Volker summed up the second qualifier.   Improving his overall pace by around 3-seconds, he said his car ‘started great’ but as the run went on he started to lose steering.  Suffering ‘another bump’ with lapped traffic, the former World Champion plans to make a small adjustment to his MTC2R to get more steering for the penultimate qualifier when he has the potential to secure the overall TQ.

Opting to not make anything changes to his Awesomatix after Q1, Zhuo said he benefited from the higher traction but in terms of the car’s performance it was a repeat of Q1 with the car getting lose after 2-minutes.   Nothing too serious that he can’t deal with, he said he do one more run with the car as it is and then use the fourth and final qualifier to ‘try something’ in preparation for tomorrow’s triple finals.

Nagashima again described his run as ‘not good’.   The Japanese driver explained, ‘the first 1-minute the car is too stable and then after 2 or 3 minutes it was no steering.  There is no balance’.  Looking to Q3 the Xpress driver said he needs to try something different on the set-up but cautioned the change would be ‘not small but not too big either’.

Opening qualifying with a P5 and now backing it up with a P4, 19-year-old Dai summed up his event so far going ‘quite good’.  The Shanghai based driver, who is on his second visit to the track having attended its opening race back in October, said he hasn’t changed his car set-up today and instead has been waiting for the tyres to come in.  The only adjustment he said he has done is on his radio adjusting his steering curve from 10% to minus 7.  Admitting to a preference to racing outdoors on asphalt he said the left side of the track has been casing him some difficulty but overall he pleased with how he’s been performing on the carpet.

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