Asian Nitro Party grids set in China – Semi Finals Update

The 1:8 A-Main grids for the inaugural Asian Nitro Party at Hongyu GDC in China are set with the completion of the Semi finals which saw Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura and Xray’s Filippo Domanin winning their respective 1:8 Onroad encounters.  Starting from 7th on the grid after a tough qualifying yesterday, Matsukura would win the 20-minute encounter ahead of the Mugen Seiki of second place qualifier & Semi pole sitter JJ Wang.  With the second of the Semis proving the faster, Matsukura lines up directly behind compatriot and Top Qualifier Sinnosuke Yokoyama for the 45-minute Main.  Experiencing a bad first fuel stop, his Serpent needing to be marshalled on the raised pit lane, Andrea Catanzani completed the Top 3 to secure 4th on the grid behind Wang.  The first of the Semis run with Hotrace’s Nicole Marrone leading them away, Domanin would find his way passed his compatriot and stay their to the end, his race time good enough for 5th on the grid in front of Marrone.  Completing the Top 3 with his Infinity, Li Cong booked 7th on the grid as the Top local Chinese racer.

In 1:8 GT it was Genius drivers Bernard-Alain Arnaldi and Raul Anton who took the two Semi Finals.  Again it was the second encounter that was the faster race with Arnaldi winning ahead of World Champion Alessio Mazzeo’s Raptor.  The French driver will line-up for the final right behind Top Qualifier Natanaele Senesi with Mazzeo in third.  Spanish Champion Anton is set to start fourth ahead of Italy’s Attilio D’Angelo, who finished third in the second Semi fresh after winning the 40+ GT Main.  Winner of the earlier 50+ GT Main, Hobbywing’s Salton Dong, who is making an impressive Nitro GT race debut here in Foshan, completes the Top 6 on the 10 car grid having finish second to Anton in his Semi.

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Yokoyama Top Qualifier at inaugural Asia Nitro Party

In a Mugen Seiki duel for the overall TQ honours in 1:8 Onroad at the inaugural Asia Nitro Party race, it was O.S. Speed’s Sinnosuke Yokoyama who delivered in Q4 to deny Q1 & Q2 winner JJ Wang from becoming Top Qualifier on home soil.  Taking place at the impressive Hongyu GDC track in China, fuel consumption caused issues in the first half of qualifying with Wang’s decision to stop for fuel playing in his favour as others came up short over the 4-minutes.  For the final two qualifiers however Yokoyama would get everything perfectly aligned.  Taking Q3 ahead of Nicole Marron’s Infinity and Wang similat O.S. powered MRX7, the Japanese driver repeated in the fourth & final round and with that time the fastest run of the day he secured the overall TQ at the new high profile international nitro onroad event.  With Wang putting in an all out effort to try and hold on to the top spot in Q4, he would hit the curbing and send his car airborne, ending what has been an impressive performance on his 1:8 Onroad return.  Behind, a consistent effort from Hotrace’s Nicole Marrone saw his Infinity end qualifying in third place.  Ending his day with his best run by 3-seconds, for another P3 run, Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani completed the Top 4.  The driver to set the pace in practice yesterday, Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura would finally get a decent run in Q4, but despite the P2 effort he ended qualifying down in P14 to make the back end of the Semi finals grid.

Asked about finding the run time for the last two rounds, Yokoyama gestured that it was through very small tuning adjustment to his O.S engine’s carburettor that he was able to execute his two TQ runs without encountering fuel issues.  On his game plan for the final, the 33-year-old said he won’t change the car set-up and he also feels his tyre wear is good enough to consider the option of running the full 45-minutes without a tyre stop.  With his own practice session in the timetable tomorrow as the only direct qualifier in to the Main, he said will finalise his strategy after seeing how the track evolves tomorrow with it set to be much warmer than today which was in turn much warmer than yesterday.

Reacting to his Q4 effort Wang said, ‘I was trying to lift the entire run and make run time as that was the only way to ensure I had the TQ because my team-mate can finish his runs.  Tried it and it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.’  Changing to going the full 4-minutes without a stop for Q3 he said that run ‘was just slow’ after some set-up changes that didn’t work out.  For the last qualifier, he said ‘I knew my team-mate could easily finish so I had to try something to secure it.  The car was better the last round so I am looking forward to tomorrow and we’ll go from there adding ‘but as everyone knows it is nitro racing and anything car happen.’

With the growth of his Hotrace tyres and Lens Bodies businesses limiting his ability to race himself these days, on his P3 showing Marrone said, ‘The other drivers had a problem with the fuel, I also had the same problem but I just managed it better.’  The Italian continued, ‘then in the last run I tried to go easy the first 2-minutes and push the last 2 but then I ran out of fuel so you just have to drive safety to not run out of fuel.’  With his last competitive 1:8 outing last year’s European Champion in Halifax in the UK and the previous race to that one & a half years ago, the Italian said, ‘I have a car that is not 100% mine.  I asked some friends for help so Lamberto (Collari) gave me some parts, then Antonio my friend prepared the car for me because I am not prepared for racing anymore but I enjoy as always & it is fun for me to go back racing.’  A man who knows his tyres, all the 1:8 Onroad racers using a handout tyre from Hotrace here in Foshan, Marrone said, ‘The tyre wear here is OK but I think everyone has to make one full tyre change in the final.’  He added, ‘on my side I want to try make a risk and make 4-minutes in the finals because compared to the young guys I am slower.  I’m missing 2/10th (of a second a lap) so I think I try to make four minutes tomorrow have two stops less and we see how it works out.’

‘The last round was good, the car is fast now but we lost always time because of the fuel stop’ was how Catanzani summed up Q4.  He added, ‘We already knew we can’t TQ but I am happy about the performance of the car so we will see what we can do tomorrow in the Semi Final.’  Asked about fuel stops in the finals, the World Championship Top Qualifier replied, ‘You just have to do what you can do’ hinting that he wasn’t going to try go long or risky with his strategy.  The 20-year-old also feels others won’t take the risk to go 4-minutes either.  Asked about the improvement to his car at the end of the day, he explained, ‘the car was always fast but difficult to drive so it was difficult to be consistent but now the car is maybe not fast like before but more consistent, and that was from a little change in out set-up.’

Suffering a middle shaft bearing failure in Q3 adding to his Q1 DNF after crashing into another car which traction rolled ahead of him, Matsukura said he needed a result from the final qualifier.  Opting to achieve that with a fuel stop, he said this mean’t he could push without having to worry about run time and he was able to push from the first lap through to the last lap but with the stop costing 6-seconds he said it was always going to be hard to get a very good time.  Rebuilding his car after the Q1 crash but struggling with how it felt in Q2, asked if he found something else damaged he confirmed the top deck was discovered to be broken.  Replacing this for Q3 he said immediately the car felt good in the warm-up but then the bearing failed.  While he still has to get through his Semi Final, on the Main final the 2018 Nitro Touring Car World Champion said, ’45-minutes is long and on this track there is much happening.’  He also added, ‘On big tyres not everyone’s car is good but I think my car is good with big or small.’

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Senesi takes Asia Nitro Party TQ honours

Natanaele Senesi has taken the TQ honours in 1:8 GT at the inaugural Asia Nitro Party race in China.  The Italian would go up against newly crowned World Champion Alessio Mazzeo and France’s Bernard-Alain Arnaldi as the fight to secure pole position & the only direct spot into the 45-minute Main went down to the fourth & final qualifier at the Hongyu GDC track.  With Mazzeo finding a new level of speed from his Raptor in Q4, he looked like getting the job done in style however with a minute & a half to run in the 6-minute heat his throttle servo would fail.  His second DNF, having had an engine issue in Q3, the Italian would end up qualifying 4th overall.  Despite running out off fuel three corners before the line, Senesi’s Raptor would take the round ahead of Arnaldi’s Genius who also was on the limit getting to the line and that is how they would complete the final ranking.  The biggest surprise of the day ‘s qualifying would be the performance of Hobbywing technical guru Salton Dong, the experienced electric racer steering Mazzeo’s spare World Championship car to P3 on his GT debut.

Summing up qualifying as ‘a super difficult day’, a timing issue in Q1 and a penalty in Q2 among his dramas, Senesi was happy to eventually secure the TQ honours, the race marking his switch from Xray to Raptor as the base car for his Senesi Motorsport conversation kits.  On his clash with fellow European Champion Arnaldi in Q2, which saw him get 5-seconds added to his time, he said, ‘For sure Arnaldi was a little bit faster so I let him go and then I go full throttle with no intentions of hitting him but we touched.  I waited 2-seconds but he was on his roof so I finished my lap and afterwards asked please give me a penalty because I know I was in the wrong.’  Suffering a problem with his fuel tank in Q3, which caused him to DNF, with a new tank and engine for the final showdown he said, ‘the last qualifier was good but Alessio was faster.  I didn’t want to push too much because I wanted to save the engine.  It was a little too rich, I didn’t want to lean it before the start.  In the end I made P1 because Arnaldi came short.’  Looking to the final, he said, ‘I think we will leave everything the same and just rebuild the car and make the engine a little bit more lean’.  With higher temperatures expected tomorrow, in the region of 23-degrees, he said he may have to try something different for this like higher diff oils in his practice session but added he found the track very strange today compared to yesterday when his car was super good.  Today however since the temperature changed a lot, it was super good in practice, then it started to lock in, then it was good again, then it was too much locked in so it was not very consistent.  We have many finals and cars on the track so we will have see how the track is.’

‘P2 is a good result considering I didn’t start the event good because the weather was too cold’, was how Arnaldi summed up his performance today.  The 2-time European GT Champion continued, ‘today was much better and the car is working good now.  Every run it was better & better although the last heat I did not have good steering so I didn’t have a good flow but we are looking good for tomorrow to have a big fight with Natan and Alessio.’  He added, ‘For me I prefer the longer run than the shorter run so I am looking forward to the finals.’

Looking very pleased with his P3 overall, asked how he out qualified his own team driver, who added to Hobbywing’s 2025 World Champion title haul, Dong said, ‘I finally learned to drive nitro.  I changed my driving style and the car feels really good.’  He continued ‘in the first two days I use my electric finger which can’t work because of the low temperature but I learned from Senesi.  He drove my car and I saw the car is good.  I also saw that his finger is more aggressive to keep the tyres warmer.’  Having never race GT before, asked if he was enjoying the experience he replied, ‘Yes, it very fun.  The guys can help me.  I can just drive and feel the fun.’  Asked how he will cope with racing a long final, he replied,’they have a 50+ (age group) final so I can practice in this and I hope I can fight for the podium.’  On strategy he said,’I need to ask what to do but basically my engine fuel consumption is lower because I drive more smooth.’

While finish 4th in the final ranking,  Mazzeo said, ‘I am happy because the last quali we found the speed.  We were super fast and I am happy about this because we found something for the car for the next races’.  Asked if speed had come from something small and a major change he replied, ‘It was a big set-up change, a big step forward.’  He continued, ‘we were in the lead immediately and I managed the gap because we were fighting for the overall TQ but we broke the servo, that’s the race.  Now we are the fastest car on the track so I am confident for tomorrow’s racing and for me what is important is to improve step by step the car.  For sure we are on a good way for the final.  The difference was 3/10ths a lap from before so we make a big step but we are also happy for Natanaele because it is his first race with our platform and he deserve the TQ for sure, his worked a lot for this.’  On the final, Mazzeo said, ‘it will be easy’ in terms of tyre wear and fuel consumption adding the decision on the winner with be made racing on the track and not in the pit strategy.

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