August 20, 2009

Who is using what at the 2009 Worlds

Trawling through the details given by competitors for the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships it is current TQ holders Mugen and Novarossi that are the No.1 equipment of choice here in Switzerland. A total of 47 drivers have listed Mugen, who were last Champions back in 2001, as their chassis with Serpent’s 966 being the second most popular with 39 users. Sharing third are Shepherd and defending Champions Kyosho with 23 drivers each. The only other manufacturer present Motonica are represented by 16 drivers.

Powering the cars around the large Lostallo track, Novarossi is being used by over a third of the drivers making them by far the most popular engines with 52 racers. Max Power are closest on volume with 19 competitors choosing the Novarossi based unit. Sharing third with 18 drivers each are Picco and Sirio.

Keeping the cars on the track, it is ATS that is most popular with 32 racers using the Italian tyres. Enneti and Matrix have 22 drivers listing them as their tyre of choice with Xceed the other big player with 17 running their foam.  In total 19 different tyre brands are listed by the 148 competitors running at the 16th World Championships.

View our event image gallery here.


August 19, 2009

Balestri gets penalty but still in the event

Factory Motonica driver Dario Balestri, who was found to have an unmarked Novarossi engine fitted in his P81, will continue to take part in the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships but the 2007 World Finalist loses the times from the opening four qualifiers along with receiving an official warning for the incident. Under World Championship rules each driver can nominate up to three engines for the event which are in turn marked by IFMAR but in Q4, in which he only ran for 3 minutes, technical inspection found the unmarked unit causing the Race Director Franky Noens to call for an international Jury meeting.

After the meeting the International Federation of Model Auto Racing issued the following decision –

In Round 4 the car from Dario Balestri (Italy), “driver 6” was found to have a non-marked engine in the car.

The Race Director asked for an international Jury meeting to decide for this unforeseen situation for the penalty is not clearly described in the IFMAR rules.

The international Jury felt that an appropriate penalty was in place and nade the following decision.

– All the results from Round 1 till Round 4 will be lost
– The un-marked engine will be marked as engine number 3 (only 2 engines were marked up till now).
– One official warning

On behalf of IFMAR,

Sander de Graaf
IFMAR IC Section Chairman

Having been struggling here at Lostallo, Balestri appeared to have found his way today setting the seventh fastest time in Q3 but with his heats cancelled the Italian will have to pull out all the stops in tomorrow’s final two qualifiers.

Top 18 Qualification Ranking (after Round 4 of 6)
1. Pietsch Robert (DE) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/09:59.566
2. Picco Alberto (IT) – Mugen/Picco – 29/10:03.465
3. Collari Lamberto (IT) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 29/10:06.099
4. D’hondt Robin (BE) – Motonica/Novarossi – 29/10:06.209
———————————————
5. Tanaka Masao (JP) – Kyosho/Max – 29/10:07.045
6. Cyrul Josh (US) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:07.222
7. Green Mark (GB) – Serpent/Novarossi – 29/10:08.355
8. Shimo Takaaki (JP) – Kyosho/OS – 29/10:08.588
9. Solaroli Stefano (IT) – Motonica/Sirio – 29/10:08.991
10.Müller Marco (CH) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:09.049
11.Patrick Schäfer (DE) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:09.109
12.Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Mega – 29/10:09.374
13.Morganti Paolo (US) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:09.409
14.Cristiani Andrea (IT) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:10.935
15.Swauger Mike (US) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:11.529
16.Mack Oliver (DE) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:11.551
17.Vrielijnck Rick (HO) – Mugen/Reds Racing – 29/10:11.889
18.Pirani Andrea (IT) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:12.984


August 19, 2009

New in the pits – Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday’s ‘New in the pits’ comes some more new items including this 966 floating rear end from Serpent. Similar to a system used by Mugen’s Robert Pietsch, but implemented differently, it detaches the rear of the radio plate from the radio plate mounting block. No longer using the top 2 screws to mount the two together, it allows the rear of the car to flex along the width of the chassis but thanks to some cleverly mounted track rods under the radio plate, that are connected to the centre block, it cant flex along the length of the chassis. This is said to improve the steering of the car on corner entry, while at the same time making it more stable under acceleration. In addition most of the Serpent drivers are running the front upper wishbone bracket at an angle which further improves the stability out of the corner by giving the car less caster on power. There are no firm plans to release this update, with testing still going on to decide the feasibility and implementation.

We first covered the new line of engines from Reds Racing back in July when we attended the European Championships for 1/10th scale in Gubbio, Italy. At that time there was only a .12 engine available but here in Lostallo, the Mario Rossi brand are debuting their prototype .21 engine. Using a Boss engine for the purpose of testing the internal developments, the final motor will have a silver coated crankcase for the standard version and a black casing for the modified version, with the modified version also featuring ceramic bearings and some other additions. Currently running the prototype engine, Rick V and Walter Salemi are now sitting in 17th and 28th respectively.

View more photos of the new products in our event image gallery here.


August 19, 2009

Collari fastest in Q4, Pietsch still TQ

Lamberto Collari was fastest in the fourth round of qualifying here at the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship but the time was only good enough to lift the defending World Champion up to third overall with Robert Pietsch still holding the TQ spot. Collari, whose off in Q3 was found to have been caused by a bad battery lead in his Kyosho, said the run was good but that track conditions were not as good as this morning. Second fastest for the round was Alberto Picco followed by Motonica’s Stefano Solaroli but both failed to improve on their Q3 times. Other than Collari the only other top driver to improve was Serpent team driver Andrea Cristiani but 15th is not a true indication of the Italian’s talents. Retiring from this morning’s qualifier with a faulty receiver, the Vice World Champion said his 966, which has been fitted with a new Max engine, is working much better today but feels he lost time trying to pass current European Champion Jernej Vuga during the second run.

Due to the higher track conditions current TQ holder Robert Pietsch decided to use the round to test his second factory Novarossi engine. The German said the engine, which has less running on it was a little rich but ran for over four minutes. Pulling up just after half way through the run the Mugen driver said he will revert back to his first engine for the penultimate qualifier which is scheduled for 10:30 in the morning and has the potential to see some very fast times set.

‘Its nice to be competitive again’ was how Team Shepherd driver Josh Cyrul summed up his second round despite stripping a gear six minutes in. Having switched to harder springs all round on his Velox he said the car had great pace despite the hotter conditions which don’t appear to be effecting him much as his rivals. Setting the fastest lap of Q4 with a 20.037, the American drops one place to sixth due to Collari’s improvement but plans no set-up changes for the morning when he is confident of moving back up the
order.

Having had a great Q3 Team Motonica may be without one of their star drivers for the rest of the event. Dario Balestri was found to have run an unmarked engine in Q4 and faces exclusion from the entire event. Race officials are deliberating over the matter with an announcement expected later this evening.

Elsewhere things appear to be getting worse for current 1:10 World Champion Daniele Ielasi.  The Italian is struggling to find a set-up that works on his Shepherd with his best run set in the last qualifier only good enough for 37th spot, one place ahead of European Champion Jernej Vuga.  Mugen driver Vuga said he can’t a good set-up for the current conditions and even tried that of Andrea Pirani but didn’t like the feeling it gave.  The big problem for the Slovenian driver is a lack of steering.

View our event image gallery here.


August 19, 2009

Incomplete run nets Pietsch new TQ!

Despite failing to complete the full 10-minutes in the third round of qualifying Robert Pietsch has bettered his overnight TQ time. This morning’s cooler track conditions lived up to expectations with the majority of the front runners setting down quicker times. Starting the heat in last position Pietsch’s Mugen was on for a 30 lap run but on his last lap he thought the computer announced the race over and the German came into the pits but that was not the case for the No.3 car. Afterwards he said the computer announcements are not very clear in the rostrum but wasn’t too upset about missing out on the 30 lapper saying his 29/9:59.566 was just as good. Alberto Picco recorded the second fastest time but had a scare when he was told he was disqualified for his pitman leaving the pitlane without handing in his controlled Orion fuel. It soon turned out that officials had mistaken Picco’s pitman for that of Andrea Pirani who during his first pitstop took a front wheel off his Mugen having hit the pitwall.

Heading an overnight transformation at Team Motonica, 20-year-old Belgian star Robin D’hondt put in a stunning run to jump into third position. The current German National Champion, who found his P81 was tweaked at the end of yesterday’s qualifying,  was surprised himself at how much dialling this out had transformed the Novarossi powered car and was delighted with his performance. D’hondt plans to adjust the rear downstops to try get a little more steering but feels it will be hard to better his time.

Setting the 4th fastest time, Japanese driver Masao Tanaka said he is finding the Lostallo track very difficult but was happier with the grip levels this morning. Still not 100% happy with the set-up on his Max powered Kyosho he will make further changes for Q4.

Team Shepherd driver Josh Cyrul found new speed this morning jumping into the Top 5 for the first time. The American said his car set-up has been good all week but getting a good tuning balance on his Novarossi between the bottom & high end was difficult with it running super rich low down. Fitting an exhaust gas cooler this morning he said this had cured the problem and made the Velox V8 much nicer to drive due to the smoother power band.

Lamberto Collari, who held second overnight, failed to capitalised on the faster track conditions with a mistake costing him any chance of improving on his time from yesterday.  As a result the the Kyosho drops to sixth.

Working on his Motonica late into the night seems to have paid dividends for Dario Balestri.  The 2007 Worlds Finalist posted the seventh fastest time as Motonica start to come into contention here in Lostallo but says his P81 is still not at its full potential. The Italian is looking for a better balance between steering and rear end grip.

Serpents Mark Green improved his time but the Serpent 966 drivers drops three places to eight.  Having had a difficult day yesterday Japan’s Takaaki Shimo was pleased to go the full 10 minutes posting the 9th fastest time but the OS team driver said he is capable of more.  Motonica designer Stefano Solaroli completed the Top 10.

View our event image gallery here.