Practice underway at Worlds, Coelho sets early pace

After of months of preparations & testing by manufacturer & drivers, the IFMAR 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championships are finally underway in California with defending champion Bruno Coelho setting the early pace at Finishline RC Raceway.  With 5 rounds of practice on today’s schedule the biggest take after the opening two rounds of practice was grip, or more specifically the lack of it, the track completely different to what drivers had expected after previous visits to the track.  With the first practice round very much a systems check for drivers, issues with noise on the timing loop caused by a 7000 volt electric fence resulted in over an hour of a delay before drivers resumed with the second practice run.  With Coelho’s Xray fastest in both rounds, his 3-consecutive laps of the second practice a 33.146, it was Worlds Warm-up Race winner Akio Sobue who was closest on pace running a best time of 33.379 with Axon team-mate Hayato Ishioka completing the Top 3.  One of the favourites coming into this World Championship Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski set the fourth fastest pace ahead of Mugen’s Ronald Volker, Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and the Awesomatix of Marc Rheinard.

Chasing a third consecutive ISTC World title, asked about his first laps of the track Coelho responded, ‘The track is completely different than we were here’ joking ‘so what were we doing here for 2-weeks basically’.  He continued, ‘It is what it is and we need to adapt and change things to make the car works for the conditions but our car is working pretty good.  I am pretty happy about the start but it is how it finishes not how it starts so we will try to make the correct decision and keep on top of the conditions.’  Asked about the traction levels, he said, ‘the traction is coming up slow, it was never this low when we were here and it is also super cold, so basically nothing similar to what we had before’.  While waiting to see how the track evolves, the Portuguese ace who 10-years ago on US burst onto the touring car scene with his 2014 Worlds podium finish, said, ‘we will make small changes and try not make any wrong stuff so we still have a good flow on the track and with car and can keep it on the wheels.’

Summing up his first two outings on the track this morning, Sobue said, ‘My car feels good but for sure a different feeling from the Warm-up Race.  The track condition and temperature are a bit different and tyre is cold in the beginning but my car feels good.’  Running a prototype car which is the bases for a new car from Axon, the Japanese manufacturer describing it as 90% different to its currently available TC10 but also highlighting they don’t expected it to be released for some time, the 2022 Worlds podium finisher expects the track to improve but ‘slowly’, highlighting the wind is bringing dust back on to the track.  For the 3 remaining practices ahead of this evening’s official opening ceremony, Sobue said he plans to try some some small car changes as opposed to anything drastic based on the current low traction.

Winner of the 1up Racing West Coast Invitational at the track back in May, reacting to his two practice runs Orlowski said, ‘The track is completely different to what we know, the grip is much less and I don’t know if it is going to change or not so we need to move away from what we tested here and try some stuff we know from Europe and make some adjustments now.  We didn’t change much for FP2 and the track doesn’t seem to improve much a lot.  It seems it is gripping up differently to testing so a lot of changes but that is how the Worlds are, you prepare as much as you can and the conditions are totally different to what you expect.’  Asked his plan for the rest of the first day’s action, the Polish driver replied, ‘We need to see how the track evolves but we also need to make change because we can’t expect the track to come to the conditions of testing, it’s a risk, it’s a decision we need to make, we either wait and see or we need to adjust and see and come back in case it does.  At the moment it doesn’t seem like it will change and be like testing.’

Here with a brand new car from Mugen Seiki, a very upbeat Volker said, ‘I’m very happy with new car as it feels like a game changer, it’s a big improvement with its innovative design.  When I came pre-testing I wasn’t as confident with the Pre-Worlds car but now I think anything is possible.  I think the track conditions and everything is tricky and uncertain so not much time to get the car dialled in but I feel already it is pretty good’ adding, ‘the track is very easy to learn and drive’.  I didn’t come here for Warm-up Race when they had high traction but I surprised the traction is not so high so its uncertain for the day what the track will do but as always its the same for everyone’.  On making changes to his MTC3 prototype, the 2016 World Champion replied, ‘there is a lot to learn but the basic set-up from Robert’s (Pietsch) mind is already working great and he already knows what to change by watching my runs.’

Coming into these World Championships after a confident boosting European Championship win this year, asked how he found early practice Rheinard’s response was, ‘Not so good so far, feels like no grip, it’s like on ice so I don’t know.  When ever we practiced before the car always felt good but now in the low grip it doesn’t.  Let’s hope the traction comes up otherwise I think we are a bit lost.  Asked about the low traction, it quite windy this morning in Bakersfield, the Germany replied, ‘the wind for sure makes it worse but in general the traction is pretty bad and not what we are used.  Today is going to be pretty shitty with the wind, tomorrow should be better.  On changes to his car, the 3-time ISTC World Champion said, ‘I think it is more like the tyre prep right now because you can’t get so much from the car.’

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