Bruno Coelho – ‘Completely different race to any other. It’s one of the best in the World’

Red RC attended its first TITC in 2017.  It was always a bucket list event but it was the meaning of the win on the Sunday that really endorsed for us that this is one of the greatest touring car races. The emotion of the win was powerful and that winner was Bruno Coelho who gave us the headline for our final report that read, ‘Coelho takes TITC with ‘hardest win’ of career’.  Seven years on and catching up with Bruno before he took his flight to the Thai capital to defend his title, the World Champion still rates the race as ‘one of the best in the World’ adding it is ‘a completely different race to any other’.  Chasing a record equaling fourth win that would put him on par with TITC Master Atsushi Hara, a driver widely acknowledged for putting the race on the world stage, as we will find out Bruno isn’t driven by records but very much being the best on the day.  He knows this is one race where ever detail is critical be successful at ‘one of the most challenging races’ in the world while on the flip side offers ‘one of the best race atmosphere’ you can experience.

Bruno’s first TITC was in 2015 when the race returned to the RC Addict track and it has called it permanent home ever since. He qualified second behind Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg who would go on to win while rough finals left the Portuguese driver 5th.  It was a learning experience but a year later he returned to take the first of his victories.  Defending his title in 2017, he failed to convert the TQ in 2018 and in 2019 he qualified & finished 4th as Hagberg became a multiple Champion of the legendary Asian race.  Not attending the event in 2020, Bruno returned after the event’s Covid hiatus with a dominant 2023 performance but in a race where the finer details are critical Bruno takes on the challenge without one key element in his all conquering touring car campaigns – mechanic Francesco Martini.  ‘I have no Franci this time as he has business commitments.  We had the flights booked already but it was something very important and he can’t come.  I will have Martin (Hudy) as my mechanic so it’s not a huge problem.  Obviously Martin is super good, he designed the car, but myself and Franci collected all the data together in the past.  I don’t want it to sound bad against Martin but myself & Fanci have a special working relationship and at a race as tough as TITC it’s these little details of knowing what to do and when can make a difference.  So not having him at the race is a negative for me.’

Asked why the race is held in such high regard by drivers and one that they so badly want to win, Bruno explained, ‘How the track changes each run because of the hot temperatures makes it so challenging.  In the morning it might be 28 degrees in the shade but in the sun the track temperature could be 50-60 degrees.  You need to drive different to not overheat the tyres.  You need to have two good set-ups for different times of the day.  Every small detail is important even the electronics because they also have to deal with the high temperatures’. A race where all the team drivers come almost a week before the race to test on the track he said, ‘Everyone has plenty of time to test so we have no excuses for the race.  It’s one of the most challenging races, we give all we can give.  People can’t say you are here for 2-weeks and they were only able to do 2-days testing like they said in Gubbio (2020 ISTC World Championship).  Everyone gets loads of practice so that’s one less excuse we all have’.  He continued, ‘From practice you decide your plan for different times of the day.  In the morning there is a lot of traction, mid day low traction and evening is rocket round.  You think you are ready for the race and then someone finds something good for their car and you are stressed.  At the end if I finish 5th I have no excuses, I was not good enough.’

On the chance of becoming one of the races most successful drivers and whether it is motivation for a fourth win, Coelho response was quite typical of a sports person at the peak their career, ‘I get asked a lot about races I have won and how many times I have won certain races but I really don’t count wins, I go to win every race.  I don’t think about the past, I prefer to move forward and try to be better for the next race.  If you live off your past success you don’t strive to be better for the future.’

With tyres always a topic that comes into play not just at the TITC but most touring car races these days it seems, Bruno questions the limit of 5 sets of Sweep tyres this year.  I think for the importance of the race they should not limit tyres as it could be a negative thing.  You will have maybe five drivers in a heat because others are saving tyres.  I think for (race) series limited tyres is good but for a single race like TITC it’s one race and everyone should give their all and not be forced to pick and choose when to or not to run because of saving tyres.  I think like the Worlds it causes more confusion than benefits.  He also feels this years new layout will be hard on tyres, ‘the most critical part of the track is the end of the straight when you are on full brake.  In the hot conditions this is going to burn the tyres’.

While his Hobbywing powered Xray package is much the same as previous years, one significant change from 12-months ago is the radio Bruno will use.  ‘I used to use Sanwa but since September I have been racing with Futaba.  I like the physical feel of the brake.  It has more range and I can get the feeling of a normal brake.  The Sanwa brake is mechanical short so you have to adjust on the radio settings.  With the Futaba you can manage more with the finger and I like this.’

2024 TITC coverage presented by Hobbywing

Hobbywing is China’s earliest national-level high-tech enterprise engaged in R&D, production and sales of brushless power systems for UAV and RC models.  Committed to provide high power density brushless power systems for global customers, Hobbywing and the TITC have a deep-rooted history.  As early as 2009, Hobbywing’s ESC made its first appearance at TITC with this year marking a 15 years history of collaboration.  Except for the three years during the COVID-19 period, Hobbywing has consistently offered on-site technical guidance to its users at TITC, ensuring the optimal performance of their power systems and providing steadfast support for drivers, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the competition.

Lucas Urbain – ‘Hiring Marc pi$$€d me off’

While racers are not known for always agreeing, one thing all the professional team drivers do agree on is that the TITC is the most difficult race in the world!  After the World Championships, this annual Bangkok based race has become the most significant electric touring car title drivers can secure.  Racing at the TITC you are putting yourself on a World class stage with the best in the business with the additional unique element of every driver having had the opportunity to complete days of pre race practice, something that eats into your excuses when the race doesn’t go your way.  So for these reasons it might not be the first race of choice at which to make your international race debut as the newest member of the full time professional driver ranks but that is exactly what Lucas Urbain will do later this week.  At the age of 34, Urbain will tell you himself that the opportunity to become a full time professional racer ‘came out of the blue’ adding ‘the idea was never a topic we talked about’.  An announcement on February 2nd however from Awesomatix changed all that and now this popular French racer switches from a decade of working in signalling with the French railway network to living every young RC racers dream of travelling the world racing and getting paid for the privilege.  Lucas’ journey to becoming a ‘Pro’ is an interesting one that started in 2000 when a certain Adrien Bertin came to his home town of Longwy and gave a demo with a 1:8 Nitro Onroad car.  That was the moment Lucas was ‘blown away’ by radio controlled cars and with his parents getting him his first RC car from a local hobby shop for Christmas that year, the seed was sown for his 24-year long road to obtaining the job description of Pro RC Racer.

Roll on a few years and the next significant moment occurred with Marc Rheinard’s first of two key parts in this story.  Seeing Rheinard race for the first time at the International Orion Carpet Race in Switzerland, Lucas was immediately impressed by the German’s driving ability.  ‘It was like he had a magnetic force pulling him to the apex.  It looked like magic how precise he was.  I was hooked by that.  Marc was the main guy and in his prime at that time.’  Red RC’s first dealings with Lucas would come in 2009 in Luxembourg when, driving a Losi JRSX-R, he TQ’d the final round of qualifying at the European Championship.  It was a result that helped Jilles Groskamp take the overall TQ from where he would become the Champion.  With this performance getting him a stint with Yokomo, he said nothing good came from that partnership except the start of a great friendship with the Japanese company’s then star driver Ronald Volker.  From Yokomo he moved to VBC Racing and from there onto Awesomatix in 2018 where Rheinard would play his second part in the story.  ‘When I joined Awesomatix they had just got rid of Viljami (Kutvonen) as their full time driver.  It had been a bad experience for them so they were in no rush to recruit a replacement.  I was just making it into A-Mains at the time.  I was definitely not Pro level and no one cared about my results.  After some time with the team I started to improve.  There were a combination of factors.  I was getting better with age and I put in the work to get the goals and when I saw the work pay off I wanted to do more.  Working better, eating better, sleeping better plus the support from Oleg (Babich) and Max (Mächler) were a huge part of my improvements as a driver.  Simple things like Max organising where to have dinner let me focus on racing.’

Announced at the 2017 TITC that Rheinard had joined Infinity after 22-years racing Tamiyas, after 2-seasons the new partnership with Infinity came to an end.  With the multiple World Champion on the market, Awesomatix seized the opportunity and acquired his services but Lucas wasn’t impressed.  ‘Hiring Marc pissed me off.  It was like a stone in my shoe but it made me more motivated to work harder to challenge him.  It was big motivation for me to get better.’  Asked about their relationship in the team, Lucas replied, ‘we have very different personalities.’  This new found motivation netted Lucas his first ETS wins on both carpet and asphalt making him now a prominent force in the team.  After his real job prevented Lucas from attending ETS Aigen and the European Championship ‘Max was pissed’.  ‘I had a contract with my job that for safety reasons they don’t allow me to have a side job but once work stopped me from racing Max said, ‘What about if we made you professional.’  For me it was no risk at all to go Pro.  A sabbatical is pretty easy with a state company so it was no risk at all to give it a go, although maybe it might be a different situation in 2-3 years time.’

Asked his feelings about making his International Pro debut at TITC, Lucas was very open and honest in his reply, ‘I am blown away by the reaction to me going Pro.  It’s a big deal.  I’m a very anxious person and I worry a lot.  Will I be able to do the job.  It is shiny and pretty at the beginning.  For now it is all good.’  He continued, ‘I did TITC once before and had a shot at the A-Main but ended up in B.  I know the vibe there.  This year the objective is to make A-Main but so much can happen with track conditions and I will be in lower practice group because I have no recent results from the race.  Many guys have experience from 10 years of TITC so they have good management when it comes to the changing conditions.  We aim to be very methodical.  The right method and people can give me an edge.  Max is going but not racing, so this is a big plus.  He can watch what others are doing.  We will have quite a few pair of eyes to help us.’

2024 TITC coverage presented by Hobbywing

Hobbywing is China’s earliest national-level high-tech enterprise engaged in R&D, production and sales of brushless power systems for UAV and RC models.  Committed to provide high power density brushless power systems for global customers, Hobbywing and the TITC have a deep-rooted history.  As early as 2009, Hobbywing’s ESC made its first appearance at TITC with this year marking a 15 years history of collaboration.  Except for the three years during the COVID-19 period, Hobbywing has consistently offered on-site technical guidance to its users at TITC, ensuring the optimal performance of their power systems and providing steadfast support for drivers, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the competition.

Ryan Maker – ‘Using this World stage as a test ground is both the most exciting and nervous thing I have done.’

Growing up I was a huge fan of Formula 1 and always tended to supported the underdogs.  Pre-qualifying was my favourite part of the Grand Prix weekend and my favourite team was Zakspeed.  That interest in the German team stemmed from an article in an F1 Magazine that compared the Zakspeed team and its budget to that of the all conquering McLaren team.  In the article it covered how the high cost of wind tunnel testing meant Zakspeed’s small budget forced them to come up with an alternative and that was the use of a water tunnel that was used by boat manufacturers to test hull designs.  Racing 1:8 Onroad nitro at the time, in the form of the very basic Team Associated RC250, I was inspired by the Zakspeed story I wanted to build my own R/C car and become a ‘Constructor’.

Unfortunately the furthest I got with my dream was building my own, roughly 1:10, electric R/C car as part of my final engineering exam in school that ran using the very basic electrics from a Mini Mardave.  Using a non CNC milling machine to individually make all the parts from nylon and a lathe to make the wheels from aluminium, my teacher was impressed and engineering ended up being my highest grade in my school exams.  Unfortunately that was the end of my dream of becoming a ‘Constructor’ (although I am currently researching building a Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) for a 24-hour bike race I organise).  While I no longer harbour ambitions to make my own car, I still get excited when I hear of someone’s passion product.  Like Andreas Myberg and Iris Racing.  For years myself and Andreas talked about him wanting to create his own touring car, a dream he realised in 2022.  A few months back during a conversation with all round good guy Ryan Maker he revealed to me he was working on plans for his own touring car but things were at a very early stage and it was too early for any announcements.  Now however he is about to mark a hugely significant occasion in RC Maker’s company history by giving their first ever car its international race debut at the TITC, a race which Ryan himself describes as ‘a bloody tough race’.

While family and business commitments mean Ryan travels less frequently to international races we have previously enjoyed the Aussie’s company at World Championships, ETS races and the Reedy Race of Champions.  Over his time as one of Australia’s top onroad racers, Ryan has built-up his very successful optional parts and accessory brand.  While part of the success of the brand is the high quality products he produces, it is also a lot to do with Ryan’s personable approach to racing.  Originally from Melbourne but now living on the Gold Coast, Ryan’s RC journey actually started with flying planes at the age of 8 with his dad who manufactured balsa wood kits.  Turns out young Ryan wasn’t into planes and wanted to race and by the age of 11 he was racing with a pull start nitro car.  It’s also his Dad’s plane making business that has fuelled and allowed the dream of Ryan making his own car, the SP1.  Starting RC Maker in 2018, he said his dad played a key roll and now an international brand he also acknowledges the roll played by Toni Rheinard saying he was ‘a big help in getting customers as he had such a big reach in Europe’.

After finding the right cutter for carbon, his dad’s machines all made for wood cutting, he said they also had a CNC machine of their own design made but they lacked the engineering knowledge and the pipe dream of one day making a car was far away.  Doing his initial RC Maker option parts design work in 2D for 2 years, watching Youtube videos on 3D drawing and learning how to do them himself was a key moment in moving another step towards making his first car.  ‘With 2D it is hard to see how all the parts fit together.  Doing them in 3D made the car possible.  From there I could break everything down into small achievable steps, the concept, then a bit more, before I knew it it was coming together.’  Still, having the design is one thing but producing all the parts is another.  Carbon parts was not a problem, that was after all his main business, but machined alu parts was an issue.  That was until the owner of factory in China offered to help with production.  ‘Of course I would love to make it completely in Australia but the costs would have made the car too expensive so this opportunity made everything a reality.’

Around May last year Ryan made his first prototype, ‘we made it happen with the machines we had.’  Taking 100s of hours to create, he said it was ‘still very far from something you could consider a raceable car’.  Testing this hand built car that featured lots of 3D printed parts at his local track England Park Raceway he said he knew comparing it to the AOC race that had been held there previously he knew he was onto something straight away with his design.  Not wanting to give away too much about the car’s design during our call, he did divulge that it has ‘a different suspension style and lower centre of gravity to other cars out there’.  After initial testing he ‘went into the nitty gritty to see how (he) could make it possible (as a production car).’  Now he has two production samples that he will race on the biggest touring car stage after the World Championships, the TITC.

Making his TITC debut in 2008, asked what makes this race so special, he said, ‘I prefer it to the Worlds atmosphere.  For so many drivers it is their favourite race.  There is not as much pressure as the Worlds but there is still a crazy level of competition.  It’s more competitive than the Worlds as you get lots of quick locals and drivers from Japan, then at the end of each day all the top drivers are having beer.’  He added, ‘It is mentally taxing.  It’s a race that sorts the men from the boys.  A good run is very rewarding and when they win you see the emotion as so much work goes into it because of the changing conditions.’

On his own expectations for the 20th running of the Bangkok race, Ryan said, ‘I’m not a world class driver so I don’t expect to beat Bruno (Coelho) but I know my level and can gauge off that if we have work to do with the car.’  He continued, ‘TITC is a bloody tough race and it’s the first race everyone knows I am running a new car and it’s an international stage.  Using this World stage as a test ground is both the most exciting and nervous thing I have done’.  Ryan is aware of the risks but said, ‘Stuff it, I have everything to lose but when the opportunity was presented to me I couldn’t not do it.  I’m not starting from nothing like Andreas with the Iris which was a completely new brand.  I already have the brand established and it is known for quality so this is a big risk’.  On his own performance he said, ‘I am at a Y in the road.  Racing results don’t motivate me anymore, performance improvements do.  I want to be back at the track helping others, not focused on results of your heats.’

Armed with just two cars for the race, Ryan plans to go two different directions with how they are set-up.  ‘Everyone else has previous TITC race set-ups.  I am starting from scratch.  Working on set-up is going to be new as the springs are unique to the car and a bit different, unconventional.  I hopefully have enough spare parts.  It’s definitely scary as I can’t ask anyone if they have spare parts I can use.’

2024 TITC coverage presented by Hobbywing

Hobbywing is China’s earliest national-level high-tech enterprise engaged in R&D, production and sales of brushless power systems for UAV and RC models.  Committed to provide high power density brushless power systems for global customers, Hobbywing and the TITC have a deep-rooted history.  As early as 2009, Hobbywing’s ESC made its first appearance at TITC with this year marking a 15 years history of collaboration.  Except for the three years during the COVID-19 period, Hobbywing has consistently offered on-site technical guidance to its users at TITC, ensuring the optimal performance of their power systems and providing steadfast support for drivers, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the competition.