1/8th Finals Update

The opening race on the big day here in Thailand, the 1/8th B Final, saw Pre-Worlds race winner Meen Vejrak take victory from South African Dean Steenmans, who bumped up from yesterday, with  Joseph Quagraine third.  Having led the race early on a flame-out for 2000 World Champion Yuichi Kanai ended his chances, although he got running again the Kyosho driver would retire 18 minutes into the half hour encounter.  The big battle of the race was for the final bump up spot between 2004 Champion Guillaume Vray and the recovering Levi Jackson who suffered a flame at the 22 minute mark.  Holding the spot with a minute to go Vray broke his Mugen allowing Jackson to bump up for a second time and into the 1/4 finals.

In the 1/8th B final up front Czech Team Losi driver took a comfortable win ahead of Spain’s Borja Hernandez and America’s JR Mitch.  There was heartbreak for Korea’s Dani Choi as he was on target for his fifth bump up but with less than three minutes to go the front right hinge pin on his Agama came out. Trying to continue on three wheels he was easy pray for Chad Bradley who, despite hitting tyre problems on the final two laps, took the all important fourth place. Another to suffer cruel luck was Swedish Kyosho driver Linus Thern,  holding a bump up position he went out at the half way mark with a throttle servo failure.

View the official event results here.

View the event photo gallery here.

Lower finals provide thrilling action

Day 6 of the 2010 IFMAR 1/8th off road World Championships saw the running of the lower finals, but with 8 lucrative places in the big day tomorrow still up for grabs there was plenty of thrilling hard fought action.

Starting with the 2048th final and ending with the running of the 16th finals the day saw the end of the event for one of the five Buggy World Champions competing here in Pattaya. After a torrid qualifying 2002 Champion Greg Degani ended up qualifying in 106th, leaving him to start out the day in the 128th final. Driving his Z-Car, the American was on a roll bumping up 4 times and into the 16th B final where he would join 2004 Champion Guillaume Vray. While the battle up front saw American teenager Levi Jackson win over veteran Associated driver Richard Saxton and South African Dean Steenmans, the battle for fourth was the focus of attention, with commentator Scotty Ernst really putting on a show as the two former World Champions battled it out for the last bump position. With two laps to go in the 20-minute encounter Degani moved to fourth briefly, but a mistake allowed Vray to regain the spot. Despite intense pressure, with Chad Philips also getting involved, the French Mugen driver held on to progress to tomorrow morning’s 1/8th B final.

The last race of the day also saw the battle for the final bump up spot go right down to the line – literally. Having been a reserve for the event, former Touring Car World Champion Surikan C, who bumped up from the 1/32nd final, would get the win with his Xray but only just from Jammin team driver Chad Bradley. Two corners from finish Korea’s Dani Choi, who started off in the 1/128th final went on his roof. Getting going just ahead of fourth placed Richi Gomez they touched slowing the latter slightly, which allowed France’s Jerome Sartel to dive down the inside of the Spaniard at the final corner. Gomez’s Mugen rolled just before the loop and Sartel took the last bump up position of the day.

Also racing in the last final of the day was 2008 World Finalist Taylor James, but the American went out just after the half way stage of the race ending his 2010 World Championship campaign. One driver deserving a mention for his efforts today is Hong Kong’s Wei Ping Hu who raced five finals having started out in the 1/1024th and worked his way up to the 1/64th. 56 drivers remain in the event and our coverage, which has been possible thanks to the support of Team Durango, LRP, Reds Racing and Team C, will continue in the morning with updates after each of the finals.

View the official event results here.

View the event photo gallery here.

Magical Top 16 decided

Qualifying for the 2010 IFMAR 1:8 Off Road World Championships is over with 16 drivers now able to relax some what having successfully completed the first stage of the event by qualifying directly for the Semi finals.  Having already wrapped up the honour of becoming Top Qualifier at these World Championship this morning in Q5, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo topped off the perfect day with another fastest run in final qualifying.  Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield, who needed to add a good result to his tally, took second in Q6 moving him right back up the order to fourth in the final qualification ranking.  The only other driver to TQ a round here in Pattaya, defending Champion Atsushi Hara was third fastest to move into second overall ahead of Adam Drake, who had his worst run of the event with 9th.

A rather uneventful final qualifier the biggest losers were Losi’s Matt Castellano and Xray’s Teemu Leino who were pushed out of the Top 16 by Maifield and Josh Wheeler.  28th after Q5, Wheeler saved the best for last as he took his Xray around in the 4th fastest time to secure the final direct qualification spot just behind Joern Neumann who gives LRP’s S8-BXR evo buggy the honour of being best placed of the many new manufacturers making their World Championship debut here.   In terms of nationalities, qualifying endorses the United States status as the powerhouse of 1:8 Off Road with 9 of the 16 drivers being American.

Finalists at the last World Championships Robert Batlle, Jesse Robbers, Travis Amezcua and Taylor James didn’t make the first cut.  Batlle, Robbers and Amezcua will line-up in the 1/4 Finals while James has set himself a mammoth task needing to survive four finals if he wants to again be in the World’s most important buggy race having qualified down in the 1/16th final which means he races tomorrow.

A rest day for the top 48 drivers, tomorrow’s schedule will see up to and including the 1/16th final being run from which eight drivers will progress to the big day.

Final Qualification Ranking – Top 16
(Best 4 of 6 rounds Counted)
1. Jared TEBO (USA) – Kyosho/Orion – 737
2. Atsushi HARA (JPN) – Hot Bodies/OS – 730
3. Adam DRAKE (USA) – Losi/Novarossi – 726
4. Ryan MAIFIELD (USA) – AE/Reedy – 726
5. Billy FISCHER (USA) – Losi/Novarossi – 716
6. Cody KING (USA) – Kyosho/Orion – 715
7. Renaud SAVOYA (FRA) – Mugen/RB – 715
8. Ryan CAVALIERI (USA) – AE/Orion – 710
9. Miguel MATIAS (POR) – Losi/RB – 695
10.Mike Truhe (USA) – Losi/Orion – 694
11.Tyler TESSMANN (CAN) – Hot Bodies/OS – 692
12.Darren BLOOMFIELD (UK) – Losi/NR – 689
13.Yannick AIGOIN (FRA) – Losi/NR – 689
14.Jeremy KORTZ (USA) – Hobao/Werks – 687
15.Joern Neumann (DE) – LRP/LRP – 680
16.Joshua WHEELER (USA) – Xray/OS – 680

View the official event results here.

View the event photo gallery here.