Rheinard bumps Up, Baker drops Out

Marc Rheinard has just had his first onroad nitro final and the former Electric World Champion will get to go again after finishing second in the 1/16 Final B. The German who is driving a Novarossi powered Team Magic G4 WC set the fastest lap of the race and pulled out a great overtaking manouerve on Thomas Desmaries on the very last lap and hopes he can continue to bump up and make it through to tomorrow. Up front Helge Johannessen took the win and now progresses to the 1/8 Final B.

Unfortunately for Barry Baker his roll came to an end in the 1/32 Final A when he ran out of fuel. The American had to switch to 5 minute stops instead of four after an earlier incident as he tried to make back time but unfortuntely he couldn’t go the distance. Making is race debut for Team Magic here in Portugal, Baker said that he really enjoyed his hour and 20 minutes of driving today and if he had had the Max engine he was running today earlier in the event he wouldn’t have been racing today but tomorrow. Baker was really appreciative of the help he got today from fellow US racer Josh Cyrul who he said did a great job pitting for him. Victor Pelaez who started from pole took the win in the Final from Carlos Barros and Walti Beat.

In the 1/16 Final A, Pelaez again drove another great race to take the victory and keep himself in the competition. Israel Solis Gomez and Mario Spiniello completed the top 3 to progress to the 1/8 Final A. Two casualities from the final were top Austrian racer Daniel Tomaschko and leading British Championship contender Mark Gilliland who stripped a gear while holding third.

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Sirio Pipe Update

We have spoken to a number of key figures here in the pits regarding the pipe controversy that broke late last night. The problem surrounds Sirio’s latest version of the Sirio #2611 exhaust pipe and in partictular the position and design of the stinger.

We asked Sirio boss Andrea Rossi for his position on the situation and his reply was brief saying that there appears to have been a communication breakdown with IFMAR regarding the submitted drawings for the new pipe design. IFMAR claim to have not recieved any submission for the changes. Rossi says they will revert to the older spec design for the #2611 pipe. Sirio will use the same pipe as used in qualifying but with a new stinger fitted and this will now be tested in the lower finals in the car of Davide Gallesi to see how it performs.

Novarossi who unearthed the problems with the pipe spec are very disappointed with how the matter has been dealt with and say it sends out bad signals for the sport. Novarossi plan to issue a full statement regarding the matter after the event but say they have no more confidence in those running the sport. We will bring you that statement as soon as we get it.

One other manufacturer made the comment that the descision is bad for the sport and in particular the privateer drivers who may get disqualified for a very small techincal infringement like a body shell being 1mm too low yet leading professional drivers can run an exhaust that doesnt meet the rules and yet the result stands.

A leading driver who was at the IFMAR 1:10 section meeting last night says the exhaust controversy may be a blessing in disguise as it looks like it may lead to a big shake up in the sport and see big changes in the standardising of the rules and a more professional approach being taken in the running of rc racing.

We will bring you more news as it unfolds.

Barry Baker on a roll

He had a torrid time in qualifying eventually claiming a very lowly 103rd but Barry Baker is on a roll here in Lisbon bumping up two finals so far today. Starting on pole for the 1/256 Final A, the Team Magic driver took third in the race to secure the final spot on the grid for the 1/128 Final A which he went on to win from Takehiro Terauchi who kept the American on his toes. In both finals, the first of which was won by Rafael Angulo, the US Pro racer recorded the fastest laps.

Baker says he is being very careful and as he discovered in the 1/128 final you need to be as he got collected while trying to pass Winik Henrique but luckily no damage was done and he could continue but Henrique got a stop go penalty for the incident. Bakers current rise through the finals is an real American team effort, Josh Cyrul is acting as his pitman and Paul Lemeiux is on tyre truing duties athough Lemieux said, while handing over a set of fresh tyres, that just because he was helping out didn’t mean he wanted Barry to keeping bumping up!

In the 1/128 Final B Brandt Mickael took the win having bumped up from the 1/256 Final B which was won by Pedro Silva who also bumps up to the 1/64 Finals. One big casualty so far is that of World 1:8 Semi Finalist and local ace Bruno Coelho who will take no further part after finishing 8th in 1/128 Final B.

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Overnight exhaust controversy at Worlds

Following an official protest by the Italian team during the final round of qualifying yesterday, Sirio drivers, who make up 3 of the top 4 drivers will no longer be allowed to use the latest version of the Sirio #2611 exhaust pipe. The protest which was pushed by Novarossi was originally not accepted however at what we understand was a very heated 1:10 Section meeting last night at the official hotel for the event, IFMAR made the descision to issue the following statement late last night which means that the new version of the #2611 pipe, as used by Jilles Groskamp to TQ, may no longer be used. This statement was only received by team managers this morning at the track –

During the end of the last round of qualifying IFMAR received a protest against the Sirio 2611 muffler.

The Protest was not accepted due to the wording in the Protest.

However, based on a discussion at the 1/10th Section meeting, held on Thursday evening the IFMAR committee has decided that from Friday 15th, on the pipe 2611 in its new version/layout is not allowed.
There are 2 versions in the market from the 2611 pipe, but IFMAR has no information about a changed in the design of this muffler and will only accept the old version.

The results from qualifying will remain as it is.

The old version has a normal tailpipe of about 16mm with a striaght design.
The new muffler design has a shorter tailpipe of abut 12mm and a thicker wall with a conical design.

On behalf of IFMAR

Dallas Mathiessen, President

Sander de Graaf, IFMAR IC Section Chairman

We looked for a statement from Andrea Rossi but the Sirio boss asked us to come back later and he and his support team worked on a solution for their driver for the finals. Jilles Groskamp who is TQ for the event ahead of his Sirio team mate Chris Tosolini said he did not know enough about the situation to comment, but did say all he wants is to race a legal car and enjoy a fair race for the World title.

We will bring you further news and comments as thing unfold but right now things appear rather hectic in the manufacturers village.

Jilles Groskamp is Worlds TQ

Jilles Groskamp has secured the TQ for the 2008 IFMAR 1:10 200mm World Championship to claim his first ever placing in a nitro World Final in style. The last of the six heats here in Lisbon produced a thrilling climax to the three days of qualifying with most of the title hopefuls running a TQ pace. After 10-minutes however it was Chris Tosolini who stopped the clocks in the fastest time just 9/1000th off Groskamp’s TQ time which was set in the earlier of the day’s two heats.

Finishing second in the final heat by 3/100th of a second to his Sirio team-mate, Groskamp was delighted to make his first ever nitro Worlds Final. He said the track was faster than this morning and that it was a very close run thing between him and his team-mate. Having to drive around the outside of Peter Jovanovic on lap 28, Groskamp reckons this cost him a second with a very busy pitlane, which saw almost all of the 10 car field pit at the one time, also costing him a little time. With a day off tomorrow, Groskamp plans to chill out by the pool at his hotel before spending the evening building a new Kyosho chassis for the one hour warm-up which the Top 4 qualifiers will get on Saturday morning. As a mainly electric racer the Dutch ace says he will drive the entire one hour to prepare himself for the actual Main Final and to get a feel for how his Matrix tyres will work over the full race distance.

Fastest for the round, Chris Tosolini’s run was good enough to give Sirio’s new XXX engine a 1-2 in qualifying as he jumped from 8th after round 5 to P2. The American who TQ’d the last Worlds in Brisbane, said he was only driving at 90% as he knew he needed a mistake free run if he was to make a Top 4 position and a clean run was exactly what he got. As the rest of the field were like a high speed train the Kyosho team driver was out on his own and with a free track ahead of him was able to run super consistent quick lap times. A new car build is also planned for the 1 hour practice but Tosolini plans to sleep in tomorrow morning first.

Another driver making his first ever 1:10 Worlds Final is the very likeable Daniele Ielasi. The Italian was clearly delighted to secure a place in the Final where he will line up 3rd on the grid. The Picco backed driver said no matter what the outcome of the final he is so happy with his 2008 World’s campaign. Asked about his car for the big race, Ielasi said he felt his set-up for the long final is probably better than his rivals. Together with his girlfriend Sabrina Lechner he will spend tomorrow sightseeing in Lisbon as a reward for his performance today.

Bursting into the Top 4 and making it an all Kyosho affair was Franceso Tironi who put in a blistering last qualifier. Lying in 18th position before the final heat of the event the Italian, who is also an member of the very strong Sirio team, drove a superb run to bump both Dario Balestri and Takaaki Shimo out of the Top 4 and down into the Semi Finals. Tironi said the handling of his car in the warm-up was not very good causing him to crash but adjustments to the rear set-up by his pitman had it working perfectly for the timed run.

Balestri and Shimo improved their times in the final heat but with Tosolini and Tironi going faster again they didn’t gain anything from the extra pace. Instead both drivers will line up on pole for their respective Semi Finals. 2006 Vice-World Champion Shimo crashed early in his run as his car suffered bad understeer. The factory OS driver, who doesn’t like the Monsanto circuit, says he will do his best to try and ensure he is on the grid for the Main Final.

Heading the Serpent challenge, young Alessio Mazzeo was pleased with his car for Round 6 of qualifying which netted him 10th, however the Italian Max team driver was annoyed with Robert Pietsch, who also set his FTD in the run, and Hideo Kitazawa who both clashed with him in the run. The incidents cost the former European B Champion 2 seconds. Next best of the Serpent drivers is Japanese 1:8 National Champion Yuya Sahashi in 18th who takes the final direct Semi final qualification position.

Defending World Champion Keisuke Fukuda has set himself the almost impossible task of retaining the title he won in Australia. The Mugen/Ninja driver starts on pole for the 1/8 Final B however in racing anything can happen and the Japanese driver, if luck is very much on his side, still has an outside chance to make it onto the grid for the Main Final.

Official top 18 after qualifying
1. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – 32 Laps in 10:11.241 [Kyosho/Sirio]
2. Chris Tosolini (USA) – 32 Laps in 10:11.250 [Kyosho/Sirio]
3. Daniele Ielasi (IT) – 32 Laps in 10:11.904 [Kyosho/IDM]
4. Tironi Francesco (IT) – 32 Laps in 10:12.414 [Kyosho/Sirio]
—————-
5. Balestri Dario (IT) – 32 Laps in 10:12.818 [TM/NR]
6. Takaaki Shimo (JPN) – 32 Laps in 10:15.183 [Kyosho/OS]
7. D’Angelo Giuseppe (IT) – 32 Laps in 10:16.657 [Mugen/NR]
8. Martin Lissau (DNK) – 32 Laps in 10:16.700 [Xray/GRP]
9. Martin Christensen (DNK) – 32 Laps in 10:16.776 [Xray/Sirio]
10. Mazzeo Alessio (IT) – 32 Laps in 10:17.260 [Serpent/Max]
11. Robert Pietsch (DE) – 32 Laps in 10:17.449 [Xray/NR]
12. Paul Lemieux (USA) – 32 Laps in 10:18.025 [Xray/Max]
13. Peter Jovanovic (AUS) – 32 Laps in 10:18.893 [Xray/NR]
14. Martin Hudy (SK) – 32 Laps in 10:19.360 [Xray/Max]
15. Adrien Bertin (LUX) – 32 Laps in 10:19.465 [Kyosho/Orion]
16. Dirk Wischnewski (DE) – 32 Laps in 10:21.213 [Xray/NR]
17. Ralph Burch (USA) – 31 Laps in 09:59.355 [Xray/Max]
18. Yuya Sahashi (JPN) – 31 Laps in 10:00.303 [Serpent/Mega]

The complete final listings can be downloaded here.

The lower finals get underway at 08:00 tomorrow morning, and thanks to Kyosho, Xceed and Serpent, we will bring you highlights throughout the day.

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