December 4, 2015

Track Focus – HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex

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Track Name – HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex
Country – USA
Location – Omaha, Nebraska
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous key events hosted – 2013 & 2014 JConcepts Indoor Nats Finals, 2009 ROAR 1/10 Offroad Nationals, 2014 ROAR Electric Onroad Carpet National.

For the third year running the HobbyTown USA Hobby Plex facility in Omaha, Nebraska, plays host to the Finals of the popular JConcepts Indoor National Series.  The fifth stop of the tyre, body and option parts manufacturer’s annual series, the race has attracted a healthy 260 plus entries.  With 2WD Mod Buggy the biggest category it also looks set to provide the main action with the likes of new World Champion Spencer Rivkin, last year’s event winner Jared Tebo, 2014 INS Champion Ryan Maifield and multiple World Champion Ryan Cavalieri among the line-up.

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Situated about 45-minutes from Lincoln where the HobbyTown franchise started out, the impressive Hobby Plex facility is 11-years in business with the 32,000 sq feet facility housing a well stocked hobby store, an indoor carpet track and the indoor offroad track which hosts this weekends action.  Since it first hosted the JConcepts Finals in 2013, Store Manager Alex Sturgeon says there has been a lot of changes to the offroad track in terms of the dirt and how they maintain the track.  The purchase of a John Deere tractor and a tiller last year have made all the difference with Alex, himself an accomplished racer, saying it has resulted in the dirt blending better making it easier to build new tracks.

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Another big change relates to track watering.  Previously they didn’t water the track during race meetings but on attending his first Reedy Race at OCRC in California where they have a plumbed in misting system that changed. Unfortunately Nebraska experiences very cold winters, although this year’s temperatures are pleasantly warmer than the previous snow covered ground conditions of previous visits, so fitting a mister system was not an option but instead they manually mist the track every 2-hours.  This has the effect of making the track change and break-up less dramatically than when they didn’t water with Alex saying it makes it easier to choose what tyre to run for the event.

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Also changed from our visit in 2013 to the track is that the oval racing circuit that was located in the centre of the dirt area which elevates up towards the very high drivers stand, and which dictated the track layouts has been moved off to the right of the track.  While making for a slightly narrower area in which to build an offroad layout knocking about 3-seconds off the lap times, Alex said the smaller size is better suited to 1:10 and gives him a clear canvas to work with.  With the track to host next year’s ROAR 1:10 Offroad Nationals, plans are afoot to rebuild and improve the pitlane layout making access to the downhill track easier.

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Winner of both 2WD and 4WD buggy at the event last year, Tebo said this year’s layout is ‘pretty cool’.  The Kyosho driver said while its ‘not too technical’ it is ‘fun to drive and will make for very close times’ adding ‘you have to drive it pretty hard to go fast’.  Making his dirt race debut with TLR’s 22 3.0 this weekend, Maifield described the layout as ‘fun’ and ‘really flowing’ with the the biggest problem for him being that the track piping is higher than the track in some spots causing him to lose sight of the car.

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October 10, 2015

Offroad rookie Coelho is 4WD World Champion

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Bruno Coelho is the new 1:10 4WD Offroad World Champion, the Xray driver securing the sport’s top prize in Japan with a convincing victory in the second A-Main of the Yatabe Arena hosted event.  Coming into his first electric offroad Worlds as a relative unknown in the class, the Portuguese Touring Car star would become the second Rookie to triumph at the first Worlds to be run on astro turf, Spencer Rivkin winning the 2WD title at 16th running of the bi-annual IFMAR event earlier in the week.  A driver who burst onto the international scene when one year ago to the week he finished runner-up at the Touring Car Worlds in the USA, today’s result was made even sweeter by the fact that he would beat his onroad rival & reigning Touring Car champion Naoto Matsukura to the title.  With Coelho forced to sit out A3, Matsukura would take the win ahead of David Ronnefalk to finish 2nd overall with Ronnefalk completing the podium.

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A driver who has quickly amassed a worldwide fan base in onroad, thanks in part to him rocking the establishment in the Euro Touring Series and winning, Coelho is also popular for being humble, with that personality trait apparent by his somewhat underwhelming reaction to the biggest win yet of his career. Declaring himself ‘Super happy’, his team-mate Martin Bayer joking about his reaction by saying ‘yeah I won a race, its ok’, the 22-year-old was quick to highlight the effort behind his win.  ‘There was a lot of work behind this. I worked the least so a big thanks to Bayer and Juraj.  They developed the car and it really works amazing’. After a slightly controversial A1 win, when his rivals felt he shortcutted he track after a mistake while leading, the Top Qualifier said A2 ‘was all perfect’ joking ‘but A3 was boring’.  Having wanted to race the third final, he had to sit it out getting to watch the podium deciding battle from his position on the driver stand. A driver whose racing started out in 1:8 Onroad and who made his Worlds debut in Argentina in 2007 crashing out while leading his Semi Final to finish 12th overall & be crowned the Junior World Champion, Coelho said today’s victory was for his dad.  ‘I owe a big thanks to my father. He invested a lot of his life and money in me so this is for him’.  His first season as a professional driver he said he couldn’t have asked for much more in his first year in the job.  A multiple discipline driver, him recently being crown European Nitro Touring Car Champion, when asked what title he most wanted most to win next he said ‘Touring Car in China next year’.

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A driver who was widely tipped for the 4WD title, in particular after the opinion dividing decision was announced that the event would be run indoors on an artificial surface, Matsukura said his ‘qualifying cost him the title’.  Having won the Warm-up Race, the Kyosho driver said the final was always going to be a three way battle between himself, Coelho and Orlowski but missing out on securing P2 on the grid with a poor Q5 run left him always on the back foot in the finals.  The 22-year-old said he was too aggressive for the track but added ‘safe is not my style and thats why I miss the win’.  Commenting on A2 he said the race was ‘maximum shit’ after heavy contact from former 2WD World Champion Hayato Matsuzaki resulted in a broken spur gear.  With him and Ryan Maifield the only two finalist from the previous Worlds to make the A-Main, he said he was happy to finish second for a consecutive time adding next year I will win twice, referring to the 1:12 and Touring World title.  He also announced that he will make his 1:8 Offroad World Championship debut next year in Vegas as he moves into the class for the first time thanks to Kyosho.

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Claiming his first IFMAR podium finish, his previous best being 4th at the 1:8 Offroad Worlds in Argentina, Ronnefalk was very happy with 3rd.  Securing the final step on the podium with a second in the final A-Main, the HB driver said compared with 2WD earlier in the week they made a huge step forward for 4WD.  Having accepted third overall halfway through A3 he said ‘then Naoto crashed so maybe if I had been pushing a little more I could have got second overall’.  Still, being his first year with HB since a surprise switch from Kyosho the tall Swede said the result made for a great first season with his new team.

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Missing out on the podium, Michal Orlowski said ‘it wasn’t my day. I made so many crashes in the final but I am happy with 4th’.  The 14-year-old added that leaving Durango last November after they dissolved their race team no one probably expected him to be fighting for the World title but he is very proud of the Schumacher team today showing ‘the car and team are perfect’.  Commenting on A3 which he led off the grid as Coelho sat it out, he said he made a good start with the first couple of laps going well but then gave way to Matsukura rather than running close together and risking a crash but after doing that he crashed himself.  A driver well ahead of his age in terms of his maturity he said he was especially pleased that he ‘showed the world our new car is very good’.

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A driver who went into the third main with an outside chance of a podium finish after a great drive from 9th on the grid to 3rd in A2, Maifield would end up 5th and the top American, only two drivers from the powerhouse of offroad to make the final, the other being Jared Tebo.  Getting his TLR22-4 up as high as third in A3 before dropping back to 5th, he said ‘I wasn’t as fast as the others but was good getting through carnage’.  Describing himself as a ‘road block’ he said ‘eventually they got mad and pushed me out of the way’.  His first Electric World Championship’s with TLR he said, ‘I’m not happy we weren’t competitive but I’m happy to start 9th and finish 5th’.  With many feeling that the European’s would have the advantage on the astro turf track, that not proving the case as Tebo TQ’d and Maifield’s protege Rivkin took the win in 2WD, the Arizona driver said ‘it all about car set-up, if you have that you don’t have to be the best driver to be fast’.  He added with a good set-up, ‘the track is good to drive but its not good for racing’.  Saying ‘its not what I have grown up to enjoy as racing but I do think it has a time and place in racing but not at the World Championships.  Behind Maifield, making his first World Championship final, Tom Cockerill would complete the Top 6 for Yokomo on what was overall a disappointing performance for them on their home race but they can take some satisfaction from their efforts in putting on a very well organised event.

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View the complete final overall results here (PDF).

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October 10, 2015

A2 Update – Coelho is World Champion

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Bruno Coelho is the new 1:10 4WD Offroad World Champion, the Xray driver securing his first World title by backing up his A1 win with a faultless victory in A2 from Michal Orlowski.  A bad opening lap from Naoto Matsukura, the Kyosho driver making contact with the back of Orlowski’s Schumacher, would end the expected showdown between Coelho and Matsukura.  Intially dropping to fourth, the reigning Touring Car World Champion would, despite setting the fastest lap by almost 2/10ths, continue to fall back down the order, the pre-event favourite eventually pulling off with a minute thirty to run.  While Coelho controlled the race perfectly up front, it was Ryan Maifield who would be the surprise of the race, the TLR driver coming from 9th on the grid to complete the Top 3 despite his 22-4 stripping a front belt half way through the race.  1.5 seconds back HB’s David Ronnefalk would finish fourth with it all still to play for in terms of which two drivers will stand either side of Coelho on the Yatabe Arena podium.

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October 10, 2015

Coelho takes controversial A1

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Bruno Coelho has won the opening A-Main at the 1:10 4WD World Championships in Japan however the Top Qualifier’s win over Naoto Matsukura would be controversial.  Making a mistake at the tabletop causing his Xray to land off the side of the jump and onto the next section of the track, while he would wait on the chasing pack his rivals felt he should have given position as the error led to him shortcutting the track.  Resuming ahead of second place starter Michal Orlowski, Coelho would go on to win the 5-minute encounter by 2.3 second from Matsukura with David Ronnefalk completing the Top 3.  Unfortunately for Orlowski he would make a mistake on lap 3 that would drop him to 9th from where he could only recover to 6th.

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Commenting on his win, Coelho said ‘it was almost perfect’.  Giving his view of his mistake the 22-year-old said’, I made a mistake at the table top but already had a good lead but I still wait for second to be on my rear and I think it was fair’  Resuming racing after his accident in front of Orlowski he said after that the rest of the race was perfect and while Matsukura would close a little and then crash, he was able to drive within himself to the finish.  ‘Super happy’ with his XB4 he said the plan for A2 was to ‘try repeat A1 but without that one mistake’.

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Matsukura was pleased with his start and said Orlowski’s crash made things a little easier.  Feeling ‘Bruno’s shortcut was unfair’ he said he tried to put pressure on the No.1 car and a mistake in front of the drivers stand ‘let Bruno go’ and despite setting the fastest lap the gap was too much to pull back.  A driver not to relish the past the always spectacular driver said ‘I go for it next one’.

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Ronnefalk said after ‘a decent start’ he made one mistake that was enough to stop him from capitalising on both of Matsukura’s crashes.  The HB driver said his D413 was good and while he did manage to close on Matsukura in the final laps he settled for position saying he ‘didn’t want to mess up a 3rd’.  Running 4th when Coelho got it wrong at the table top, the Swede felt his rival ‘gained position’.  He continued ‘He should have at least let Naoto and Michal passed’ adding ‘its nothing against Coelho but IFMAR should have done something’.

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The driver to first come upon the recovering Coelho, Orlowski also felt the Top Qualifier should have given up position saying he should have been content with being lucky his car didn’t need marshalling following his mistake.  Commenting on his own race, the Schumacher driver said ‘the start was ok but Naoto was pushing pretty hard and under pressure I made a mistake’.  ‘I tried my best to get back position but the main problem was only my nerves’.

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