August 21, 2013

Choi takes Q2 in China

Dani Choi

Korea’s Dani Choi took the second round of qualifying at the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in China heading Q1 pace setter Atsushi Hara by 5.5 seconds with versatile Thai ace Meen Veijrak completing the Top 3. Choi said despite the track being a lot dustier than in Q1 his Sweep Exagon equipped Kyosho had better traction allowing him to improve his opening time by 5 seconds.  Describing the track as having got more bumpy in Q2, something he said he was able to drive around on this occasion, he said he will monitor the surface before Q3 to decide what changes he might need adding that he is pretty sure he will run a different spring on the MP9.  Running for the first time Alpha’s new Ryan Lutz exhaust to match up with the same named engine, he said it worked really well giving the engine a lot more bottom end power.

Hara

‘Car good, lap times good, just too many mistakes’ was how Hara summed up his second qualifier.  The 2006 World Champion said the spell of sunny conditions had made the track become very dusty.  Running AKA Impacts he said his tyres worked ‘OK’ considering the change and for Q3 he will hold off on making a decision on which compound of the Impact to run in the closing run of the day here at the Beijing Model Sports Association’s new track.  In terms of set-up, Hara said with three from the 6 qualifiers counting he wants to play it safe today and not change too much on the buggy which is overall working ‘well’ for him.  Planning a small change for Q3 in going for a lighter sway bars, he hopes this will get him his third good run so that he can use tomorrow’s three remaining qualifiers to test a few set-up ideas he has.

Meen Vejrak

Despite describing traction in Q2 as being lower than the morning’s opening round, Veijrak said his decision to change from Procircuit’s Roadrunner to Hot Dice tyre worked well.  Still however the Nitro Touring Car World Champion was not happy with his driving as he again made a mistake that cost him a potential second for the round.  In terms of his Mugen set-up he plans to extend his wheelbase for Q3 in the hope it will make the car more suitable to the changing track conditions.   For team-mate Chavit Saliguppa who was fourth fastest in Q1, a series of driver errors meant he would only post the 13th fastest time.

Kanai

Having switched from soft to medium compound AKA Impacts for Q2, Kyosho’s Yuichi Kanai said the hard tyre made his MP9 a little nervous at the start of the heat.  Setting the fourth fastest time, the famed 1:8 Offroad driver will make a call on his choice of compound nearer to the time of this evening’s final heat but in terms of his MP9 set-up will leave it as is.

Sheng Chie Huang

Sheng Chie Huang took his Alpha powered D812 to the fifth fastest time, a result the Taiwanese driver was very pleased about.  Running soft compound HB Grid Lock tyres, he plans to switch to AKA Impact for Q3 along with changing from a 2.5mm to 3.0mm rear toe block.

Dai Hiroki

Third fastest in Q1, Kyosho driver Dai Hiroki completed the Top 6 after a number of mistakes over the second of his 10-minute runs but says he is still happy with his MP9 and its just the driver that needs to be better.

Charlee Phutiyotin

Having suffered a flame out in his first qualifier leaving him only 17th, Charlee Phutiyotin posted the 7th fastest time in Q2.  Describing track condition as ‘super low grip’ compared to that of yesterday’s practice the fast Thai driver ran soft Procircuit Hot Dice but plans to switch to super soft for his next run.  Having just made the Top 10 in Q1, Sweep’s Ryan Lee improved his time by 5-seconds to set the 8th fastest time with Thai pairing Witsarut Rumlarp and Akarachai Boontham completing the Top 10.

Round 2 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:07.698
2. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:13.295
3. Meen Veijrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:18.697
4. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:27.752
5. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 19/10.31.452
6. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 18/10:00.961
7. Charlee Phutiyotin (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:03.972
8. Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:15.367
9. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 18/10:17.296
10.Akarachai Boontham (TH) – Mugen/Alpha – 18/10:18.491

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August 21, 2013

Hara tops opening FEMCA Qualifier

Hara

Atsushi Hara, who only last Friday made the shock announcement that he was leaving HB, has taken the opening round of qualifying at the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in China.  Racing a Mugen, which the former World Champion went out and bought himself in a hobby shop in Thailand, the Japanese ace set the pace in the first of six 10-minute runs by just over 5-seconds from Korea’s Dani Choi and with Japanese Kyosho driver Dani Hiroki completing the Top 3 at Beijing Model Sports Association’s freshly built FT Offroad track.  With a difficult Visa procedure keeping defending Champion Kyle McBride away from contesting this year’s FEMCA Championship, the Far East’s equivalent of the EFRA European Championships, and thereby denying the Australian the opportunity to go for a third consecutive title, Hara’s TQ run endorses his status as pre-event favourite to take back the title he previously held.

Hara

His first time running the Mugen, Hara said the buggy is working really well but in the run he himself made a couple of ‘stupid mistakes’ which he feels amounted up to about 10-seconds in lost time.  Borrowing top US onroad racer JJ Wang’s pitman AI for this event, Hara has been using the Mugen website to get a set-up for the race which he said is now a combination of the standard MBX7 set-up and the one used by Robert Battle to win last December’s World Championship in Argentina.  Describing the track as a little different to yesterday’s practice, he said it was a little tricky at the start of the run as overnight repairs had changed the angles of many of the jumps, some having less of an angle while others were now launching the buggy much higher than before. Running AKA Grid Iron in Q1, Hara said they made his OS powered buggy easy to drive but they where a little too loose on a track which he described as having lower levels of traction compared to yesterday.  For Q2 he will switch to an Impact tyre.

Choi

‘Awesome’ was how Choi described his opening run despite the fact he got a Stop & Go penalty for having been deemed by race officials to have impeded Meen Vejrak when he was released from his fuel stop by mechanic and Sweep frontman Ryan Lee. An employee for Sweep where he was responsible for designing the ‘Birdy’ bodyshell he is running on his Kyosho, Choi was very happy with the performance of his Alpha engined MP9. Planning to just check over the buggy ahead of Q2 rather than make any set-up changes he will also stick with the same soft compound of Sweep’s Exagon tyre.  Lee, who is also competing in the event, took his TLR to the 10th fastest time.  Running Sweep’s Cubix tyre, he said the pin on the new set of tyre was too big and for Q2 he will follow his team-mate and switch to the Exagon.

Hiroki

23-year-old Kyosho Masters Champion Hiroki was very happy with his run to third saying that he really likes the track layout.  Happy with how his Reds Racing powered MP9 is working he plans to run everything as is for Q2 including staying on AKA’s soft Impact tyre.

Chavit

The best represented country in the event after China, 10 of the 14 FEMCA countries being represented here in China, Thailand’s Chavit Saliguppa took his OS powered Mugen to the 5th fastest time separating the Kyoshos of Hiroki and former World Champion & MP9 designer Yuichi Kanai.  The 18-year-old, who had some mistakes over the run, ran on AKA City Block for his opening qualifier but predicting higher traction for Q2 will switch Prolines Revolver tyres while leaving his set-up as is.

Kanai

Topping the time in yesterday’s practice Kanai is loving the track describing the layout as ‘super fun’.  Very happy with his pace, the Kyosho legend suffered ‘one big mistake’ but hopes  a clean second qualifier will net a better placing.  Running AKA Impact tyres for the round, he plans to leave everything as is for Q2.

Meen

Completing the Top 6 was reigning Nitro Touring Car World Champion Meen Veijrak.  The Thai driver said he drive to aggressive and this resulted in two costly mistake one of which say him get tangled with Kanai.  Also choosing the wrong tyre for the conditions of the opening heat having run Procircuit’s Roadrunner Meen will switch to the Hot Dice for Q2 which he said together with smoother driving should allow him to improve as his OS Speed powered MBX7 set-up feels good.

Round 1 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:07.526
2. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:12.696
3. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 19/10:22.367
4. Chavit Saliguppa (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:23.916
5. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:25.016
6. Meen Veijrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:27.571
7. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 18/10:00.082
8. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 18/10.15.799
9. Aeknurin Kanket (TH) – Xray/FX – 18/10:18.563
10.Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:20.257

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August 21, 2013

Track Focus – Fengtai Raceway

Tues-Track-3

Track Name – Fengtai Raceway
Host – Beijing Model Sport Association
Country – China
Location – Fengtai, Beijing (20 km west-south of central Beijing)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Clay

The FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships takes place for the first time in China this week at an all new track in the Fengtai district of Beijing.  Located next to one of the stadiums built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games, the track is part of the development of an r/c car complex by the Beijing Model Sports Association which also looks after rc planes and boats and already has a building for that located just across the street.  A month ago nothing resembling an r/c track existed on the site until Charlie Siribodhi, organiser of the 2010 1:8 Offroad World Championships, arrived from Thailand last week with 6 of his Pattaya track crew to build the track for the event. As competitors from 10 of the 14 countries that make up FEMCA region started arriving on Monday the main building which house the drivers stand, pits, race control and media centre was only just a frame but some impressive construction work saw the building literally grow infront of their eyes in readiness for yesterday’s opening ceremony.

The layout was designed by Lung Chuan Lee from Tawian.  Lee, who as a day job works on designing and painting bodyshells, was invited to design the track for the FEMCA event by the Beijing Model Sports Association due to his experience in designing a number of tracks within China.  With the track producing around a 30-second lap time, pre-event favourite Atsushi Hara described the layout as ‘easy and friendly’.   The former World Champion said the high levels of the traction in some sections compared with the height of the drivers stand make it a little tricky to judge when driving.  While some sections of the track are a little on the narrow side, he said the positioning of the rostrum can make much of the track look narrower than it actually is and so you tend not to use all the available track.  For the Japanese ace the trickiest section is the opposing speed bump located after the big step-up.  In terms of traction on the freshly laid track, which has been sugar coated, Hara described it as ‘OK’.

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July 13, 2013

Ronnefalk gets his revenge

Ronnefalk

Having come so close to winning his first European title last year in Austria, today in France Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk got his revenge, the Swede winning a thrilling final at the Reims track ahead of Xray’s Renaud Savoya despite the former 3-time champion being willed on by the huge home crowd who brought great atmosphere to the 33rd running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships.  The podium at the Reims track was completed by Savoya’s team-mate Martin Bayer, the Czech ace clearly delighted with the result.

Ronnefalk Pitlane

Before the race even started there was drama in the warm-up as the No.2 Joern Neumann called for a 10-minute delay after a problem with his receiver battery lead. This would put the factory Durango to the back of the 12 car grid for the start but worse was to come for the German as he worked his way up through the field with engine problems ending his 2013 Euros at the 12-minute mark. Last year’s champion Darren Bloomfield would also retire, his race coming to an end at 18-minutes.  The TLR driver said his 8ight 3.0 started to lose drive around 8-minutes into the final and got gradually worse with his engine eventually stopping on track due to the problem, ending his title defense as he retired the buggy.

Bloomfield Ronnefalk

Having declared at the start of the week here in France that he was out for revenge after the 2012 Championship, a slightly speechless Ronnefalk summed up the win as ‘good revenge’.  The 17-year-old, who burst onto the scene in 2009 when he made his debut at these Championships as the European B Champion, said it ‘doesn’t get much closer than this’ adding that he really enjoyed his battle with Savoya.  Happy with his start from pole position he said everything was going perfectly until the out-lap of his first pit stop when he make three mistakes which dropped him back to 5th.  A driver who has matured greatly since last year, he said following the bad lap he told himself it was a long race and if he stayed calm and just did what he had done all week everything would be fine.

Ronnefalk

This approach paid dividends as he worked his way to the front eventually moving back into the lead at the mid point as he jumped over Savoya’s No.7 Xray.  2-minutes later however another mistake allowed Savoya back to the front but Ronnefalk never lost his nerve staying calm throughout to go back to the front.  A roll on the penultimate lap fired back up the lively & vocal crowd as their man Savoya closed right in but having come so close last year a determined Ronnefalk put in the lap of his career.  Commenting afterwards on the heart stopping moment for his pitcrew Pierre Ronnefalk and Adrien Bertin, he said he didn’t know what he did to put the MP9 on its roof but after some rapid marshaling to put it back on it wheels he said he knew if he could just keep it on its wheel for one more lap he had the pace to keep Savoya at bay.  A long time Kyosho/Orion/AKA driver Ronnefalk paid tribute to all his sponsors for the support adding that today was a big day for his family who have also been great support including his mother & sister who were following the race back home in Sweden.  Asked how he planned to celebrate he said that will have to wait as tomorrow he flies directly from Paris to Madrid for the electric Offroad European Championship adding that he hopes he can keep the momentum going next week.

Savoya

Savoya was ‘pretty happy’ with his race adding that when he compares his package to that of Ronnefalk who has had equipment continuity for the past number of seasons it was a very encouraging result for him and the Xray team.  Having changed tyre brand last season to Sweep, then engine this season to Orion and to come to the event with a new chassis he said it shows the future potential is huge.  Complimenting Ronnefalk’s performance throughout the week saying the win was well deserved, he said while they improved the car a lot from the semi Final by running a longer wheel base and stiffer rear shocks, his prototype XB9 was still squatting a little too much in the final.  Asked about the crowd he said while some might have found them a distraction he was spurred on by their cheering and he relished the ‘great atmosphere’ adding that the host club did a great job.

Bayer

‘Amazing result’ was how Bayer summed up his race.  The former Large Scale European Touring Car Champion was delighted at being so competitive against all the potential winners throughout the race.  Ruing a few mistakes early in the race he said his LRP powered prototype XB9, the main feature of which is a new front end and rear geometry, was ‘brilliant’ and really consistent to drive allowing him to catch back up to Savoya until a mistake 4-minutes from the finish.  One of the many drivers who have just one day to turn everything around for the electric offroad Euros, just how much the result meant to Bayer, who has previously finished on the podium with TLR, was still very clear as he departed the track still smiling from ear to ear.

Sartel

Missing out on the podium by just under 10-seconds, Agama’s Jerome Sartel had mixed feelings about the race.  After a flame out on the grid which left him a distant last at the end of the opening lap, the Frenchman said he was happy to prove how competitive the buggy is but at the same time he was disappointed to miss out on making the podium something he said would definitely been possible had he not had his problems at the start.

Robert Batlle

Having taken over the race lead at the 7:30 mark when Ronnefalk had his bad out-lap, Robert Batlle would fall down the order to finish fifth just ahead of his Mugen team-mate Lee Martin, the pair separated by just 3/10th of a second.  His first European Championships since becoming World Champion, the Spaniard said that he was never a serious contender in the final as they struggled for grip due to a combination of tyre choice and chassis set-up.  While he was able to post fast lap times he said the consistency wasn’t there for a 45-minute race and it was a disappointing performance.

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July 13, 2013

Ronnefalk is Champion

Ronnefalk is Champion

Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk is the new 1:8 Offroad European Champion after winning a thrilling 45-minute final in Reims, the Swede taking the title by just 7/10th of a second from Xray’s Renaud Savoya after a nail bitting finish to the race in front of a very enthusiastic and vocal French crowd. The podium was completed by Xray’s Martin Bayer.

Final Result
1.(1) David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion/AKA – 66/45:35.79
2.(7) Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion/Sweep – 66/45:36.42
3.(4) Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP/AKA – 65/45:04.71
4.(11)Jerome Sartel – Agama/Bullitt/Beta – 65/45:14.45
5.(5) Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi/ProCircuit – 65/45:19.89
6.(6) Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat/Pro-Line – 65/45:20.19
7.(10)Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi/Pro-Line – 64/45:06.36
8.(8) Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi/AKA – 64/45:07.62
9.(12)Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS/AKA – 64/45:26.36
10.(9)Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision/ProCircuit – 63/45:25.40
11.(3)Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Novarossi/AKA – 26/18:04.90
12.(2)Joern Neumann – Durango/Picco/JConcepts – 16/11:58.80