The Worlds according to Ruona – The hand shaking phase is over

Well, we made it through the hand shaking phase of the worlds. You know, where everyone across teams, countries and pit areas pretend to like each other for a little while. It’s always fake, it’s always awkward and personally, I look forward to when we all go back to normal. Sure, we all respect the competition, but in all reality, let’s race already.

We’ve been here since Thursday evening and today finally got our first laps starting around 2pm on Saturday. We did have the qualifying “race in” event but let’s face it, that wasn’t really needed. For the crew that makes the tour, we all know who should and shouldn’t be in the race. I would have preferred to give the qualified drivers more practice than to a gimmick race. Oh well, let’s move on.

In the era of social media, I don’t know what people are more proud of. Actually racing the worlds or just taking a photo showing they were at the worlds. I don’t know why we aren’t trending yet, everyone says that we should be on ESPN like those cool drones. I just want to trend. Screw ESPN, I want to be trending news on social media someday. Keep pumping those hashtags, track photos and pit shots. We will be there soon.

As heavily posted already, (trending) the track and facility are top notch and well prepared. Chris Tocco has answered the call and I finally signed off on the deal when he showed me the backup water supply unit today. I try to think of everything but man, he thought of the backup water supply unit? Next level! The layout itself is nicely built and I repeat, in a smooth condition a great track for me or my driving style. I told Paul Wynn, this looks like a track we would design for our Clash event which has to work for both 1/10th and 1/8th scale vehicles. Ironically, the 1/8th guys at the Clash would normally complain it’s built for 1/10th scale. Well, this one is built for the 1/8th worlds….so there.

In my opinion, the track lacks that signature section. That wow factor that makes someone’s driving stand out over another. I’ve been here multiple times and it’s probably my least favorite layout. Knowing that Chris has thought this out quite a bit, I think he believes the conditions and bumps will be more the character we are looking for. Didn’t JQ post this already? I’m agreeing with JQ? I’m outta here…

The drama today which was once again made worse on FB was the issue with the wings. Apparently a few years ago the rules were changed and the side-dams need be a certain size for number decals. You know, those things you can’t see on the track that indicate a car number which doesn’t matter because your transponder has a number which relates to your name. If there was only a way to differentiate cars from one another on the track. In a perfect world, the cars would have different paint schemes and color combinations so an experienced race announcer could look at the vehicles and be able to separate them based on appearance…..I know, I know…race cars have numbers and it does help..I get it.

Going back to the wing, I never really considered looking at minimum size areas or rule changes. I just figured maximum size was all that mattered and for the simple fact, if we used a certain wing at the last several worlds that it would be legal for the next worlds. As Donald Trump says, WRONG! I think I was less worked up about it than anyone…I was like, just put the Kyosho wing on and be done with it. They have 400 in the hobby shop for $30 each. Some got creative and bolted a section to their standard wing. I like it! Let’s make some stuff again, too much is available perfectly out of the package. Let’s see your skills with scissors, dremel and some hardware. I guess the irritating part of the whole thing was the letter IFMAR wrote to the racers and manufactures telling everyone how stupid they are and were. Jeez, talk about a total bitch slap to the face. I can’t wait to write that press release in a few months.. ….Specifically designed with IFMAR rules in mind, the JConcepts Hybrid “IFMAR spec” wing has been carefully crafted of durable polycarbonate and pre-trimmed for that perfect fit and finish.

Overall, today was a good day for practice. There were some surprises and you could already see the affect of the track watering schedule and how it progressed into the day. It’s going to be a challenge to keep it completely consistent and also have water on it. I wouldn’t completely bet high on guys that win practice because there are going to be highs and lows depending on the water and time of day. The race will be won and lost in dryer conditions because the semi-final and mains are obviously longer. Let’s take a look at the top 15, make sure our guys are somewhere to be seen and keep motoring along. Keep an eye out for the guys that will go 10 minutes in qualifying or also in the mains….that will certainly be a factor before it’s all said and done.

Tebo fastest in opening practice

On what can best be described as a very leisurely opening day to the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Las Vegas it was Jared Tebo who set the pace as drivers ran just a single 10-minute practice run each around the RC Tracks of Las Vegas track.   Posting a best three consecutive lap time of 1:42.818, Tebo led a Kyosho 1-2 from Elliott Boots with the separation less than 1/10th of a second.  Behind, Mugen’s Cole Ogden would post the third fastest time while on a complete 10-minute race time it was his team-mate Adam Drake who would top the time sheets. With the focus of the first practice being to learn the track, something most drivers reported as not taking long, reigning champion Ty Tessmann would post the 15th fastest time summing up the track as ‘not challenging yet’.

Running in Heat 13 of 16, the track conditions later in the round appearing to be more favourable for a quicker time, Tebo was pleased with his opening run saying, ‘I couldn’t be happier with my first run out there’.  Opting to run Proline Holeshot M3 tyres on his MX powered MP9 he said ‘it felt awesome’ and for the second practice in the morning he ‘will not change anything’.  A good friend of track owner Chris Tocco, the former Worlds Top Qualifier said, ‘I thought it was a great layout.  It flowed really well. Its fun and the best since the track opened’.  Describing the conditions of the first practice as ‘loose & smooth’, the American expects the track to get better as it roughs up adding as a positive that ‘when it breaks up its not going to get crazy’.  Asked if any sections could effect a lap time he felt getting the corner before the brick section right would give a better run through the bricks and also on the following section leading on to the main straight.

Boots was pleased with his first run saying ‘I went out to learn the track and felt in the groove pretty much straight away’.  He added, ‘Its a flowing fast track, I like it but we’ve only had 10-minutes on it so will change’.  The reigning back to back European Champion said with the ‘cars pushing a little’ in the loose conditions he just tried to focus on keeping tighter in the corners.  Running Proline M3 Electroshot tyres on his Reds Racing powered example of the MP9, the British driver plans to change a few things for the morning saying ‘its practice so we need to use the track time to try things’.

Tessmann described his first run as ‘OK’ saying it was ‘just about getting first laps in’.  The Canadian said while the shocks on his HB Racing D815V2 were ‘a little heavy’, he focused on getting a feel for the tracks option line adding he doesn’t yet know which is better ‘but going around the hump is easier’.  Running Proline’s Electroshot tyre he will switch to a Holeshot for FP2 to ‘see if its any better’.  While he said the track is ‘not challenging yet’, he predicts ‘its going to get more difficult’ but sharing Tebo’s views concluded ‘but its not got to get impossible’.

HB Racing team-mate David Ronnefalk was pleased with his opening run, the Swede slightly faster than Tessmann with the 13th fastest time.  Running on AKA Grid Iron super softs, the former European Champion summed up the opening run with ‘it took a couple of laps to get used to the track but the balance (of his D815V2) was nice and it was super easy to drive and we know this set-up is pretty good when it gets bumpy’.  His only negative was that the car  ‘was pushing too much for my liking’ and for tomorrow they will try to get ‘more natural steering’.  Describing the track as ‘super nice’ and having a ‘good mix of easy (sections) and places to lose or gain time’ he said he prefers a rough track adding ‘it will get there’.  Running a 7-port Orion engine in the first practice, Ronnefalk plans to test his preferred choice of a 3-port tomorrow.  While the 7-port has more speed he said the 3-port has a really good feeling on the bottom end adding he likes his engine to be ‘snappy’.

Leading the TLR challenge, Ryan Maifield would end the opening practice just ahead of Ronnefalk on 3-consecutive lap pace.  Having led the final at the 2014 Worlds before suffering a steering servo failure, he summed up his first run on the track by saying, ‘everyone is doing the same times and when the track gets more character it will be better.  Right now it is simple to drive’.  Running JConcepts’ new Teaser tyre on his 8ight 4.0, he said ‘the track is going to dramatically change and its going to get a lot harder to go fast.  There are holes in the track already after one run’.

Setting the 6th fastest time behind Drake and Tekno’s Ryan Lutz, Lutz setting the fastest lap of the practice with a 33.3, Team Associated’s Kyle McBride was happy with his RC8B3 describing it as ‘easy to drive’. Running a new prototype Pro-Line body for the run, the Aussie added that they need to work on getting more corner speed for tomorrow.  Describing the track as ‘pretty simple’, he said ‘the layout is fun’ but expecting it to get rougher he expects it will also get harder.  Asked if any elements of the track presented an opportunity to make up time he said ‘sticking to tight lines was important as it was easy to get pushed wide’.  Team-mate Ryan Cavalieri, runner up at the 2014 Worlds, would manage only the 25th fastest time saying they need to run less front end camber to make his RC8 more responsive mid corner.  Describing the track as having a ‘really good flow’ with the ‘jumps spaced pretty nice’, the multiple electric offroad World Champion said the track needs to groove up more to start getting a good racing line to follow.

View our event image gallery here.

Wing rule causes some issue on Day 1 of WC

A wing rule that was introduced in April 2014, caused drivers some issue on the opening day of the 1:8 Offroad World Championship as IFMAR started to enforce the ruling that came about as a result of the race numbers used at the 2010 World in Thailand.  The ruling, which states the rear wing side plates must have a space 50mm x 40mm in which to place the car’s race number, was not enforced at the previous Worlds in Italy 2-year-ago because no manufacturer had created a wing that met the newly drawn up specification.  In November 2015, EFRA, the European governing body, voted to remove the ruling from its handbook as it had not been followed by the industry.  Shortly after however, Kyosho would design & release a wing based on the ruling and as a result IFMAR had to enforce the ruling leaving drivers to either purchase a Kyosho wing, many drivers very sceptical over the real reason for the ruling due to the fact Kyosho had 100’s of wings in stock at the track, or extend the wing side plates of the brand of wing they use.

Commenting on the ruling IFMAR Secretary Carlos Gomez said, ‘the ruling has been there for 2-years but in Italy we were able to skip it because no manufacturer offered such a wing.  Now one manufacturer has a wing to the ruling so we must enforce it to protect all drivers to make sure no one can get taken out by official or the legal system’.  Compounding the problem is that the race organisers mistakenly had race numbers printed on a 50mm circle background with the sticker sheet labelling this number for the side window which is not the case with them having to be run on each side of the rear wing.  According to Gomez, who is also on the EFRA committee, EFRA had proposed a postal vote to have the rule dropped but with the ‘Race In’ event also up for a postal vote the window vote never got presented as the one of ‘Race In’ format was of much higher importance.

Speaking to JConcepts’ Jason Ruona, he said they overlooked the ruling having been more focused on the maximum wing width and depth rather than the side plates but added they will now work on releasing a wing that allows for the 50x40mm race number.  In terms of his two key drivers he said while they could have modified their existing wing,  2WD Offroad World Champion Spencer Rivkin has opted to go with a Kyosho wing on his Associated while Ryan Maifield has added extension to the side plates of his TLR wing.  Mugen’s Adam Drake and Mike Truhe both felt the introduction of the ruling was not very well handled.  Not implemented during the ‘Race In’ yesterday, they highlighting the fact that when they asked officials how they would check a wing was within the ruling the reply they got was that they didn’t have anything to check it with.  With a lot of confusion over the interpretation of the ruling, Gord Tessmann having long discussions with officials, a quickly mustered lexan template was to later appear.