Monday Practice – Update

A quick update to let everyone know that its 15.15 local time and practice has just resumed. Currently the track is still slightly damp (see above), but the conditions are good enough for heat 5 to take to the track. Currently there are 12 heats and we will get you a list of those after the re-seeding takes place and the end of the day. We also hope to bring you the timing results after each round.

UPDATE: 16:19 – It has been announced that the drivers will only get one round of practice heats today. Currently they are about to begin heat 9.

Rain has arrived in Cordoba

The final day of practice for this years World Championship has been hit by rain, the downpour which has stopped running after only a few rounds of practice, looks to be pretty steady but hopefully will clear later in the day, however there is currently no sun and little or no wind there is little indication on when it will. Our first day here and we have already taken a number of photographs which are currently in the Image Gallery and we have spotted a lot of new things in the pit area, with more still to see.

On the bench of top Mugen racer Rick V is the new MRX-4X which among other things features rear CVD’s, adjustable front and rear axle height, new battery holder and different rear uprights. Also on the same bench, and seen in the car of Keisuke Fukuda, is the new 2nd generation lightweight magnesium team cooling head which has better heat dissipation and thanks to its material, and extra holes in the cooling head, means it’s extremely light.

Over at the Kyosho team benches is the new Evolva M3 which is looking good on the track as well as the bench. We will do a more in-depth interview with the cars designer later on as well as supply you with lots of photos.

View our event image gallery here.

The Opening Ceremony

We are finally in Cordoba, after 20 hours of airtime in the last 2 days, 3 separate plane journeys and far too much waiting around for connections I got to the hotel at 7.15pm on Sunday. Managing to miss the opening ceremony I was kindly given photos of it by Franky Noens, who is staying in the same hotel, The ceremony was your usual presentation of drivers, speeches from people in suits and drivers wishing they could be using this track time to find a better set up for their cars. One rather cool part of the ceremony however was 4 parachutists who dropped down on to the track with flags and although one of them missed the track and crashed into the fence, the other 3 managed to pull it off perfectly.

Tomorrow sees the drivers last chance to get their setups sorted and engines tweaked, with each driver only getting 2 sessions of 10 minutes, they dont have much time left. We will be at the track first thing tomorrow to begin our coverage.

View our event image gallery here.

Thanks to our Sponsors

Red RC would like to announce that our live trackside coverage from the 2007 IFMAR 1/8th scale World Championships, in Argentina, has been kindly supported by Kyosho, Xceed RC Products, Serpent / Mega and R/C Car Magazine. We would ask that you support these companies because without them it would not have been possible to cover this event.

Event coverage begins on Monday October 8th.

2007 IFMAR 1/8th scale Worlds – Preview

Argentina is the host country for the 2007 IFMAR 1/8th scale World Championships and as the elite of the RC World descend on the country’s 2nd city, Cordoba, we bring you our event preview.

This year’s event takes place on a recently completed track at the Complejo Ferial Cordoba, the same venue as used by the Argentinean round of the World Rally Championships. Favourite for this years event has to be the 7-time World Champion Lamberto Collari of Italy, the Kyosho driver will be trying to further cement his legendary RC status with an 8th IFMAR World title. Lamberto was present at the warm-up race in March but despite a good qualifying he had radio problems in the final, which meant he retired after only 50 laps, a problem I’m sure that will be sorted in time for this year’s main event.

The winner of that warm-up race was Mark Green, the English Serpent driver has been tearing up the tracks in the UK all year and with experience in World and European Championship Finals, Mark can surely be a strong contender for the crown.

Another racer on the podium at that warm-up race was the charismatic Italian driver Dario Balestri, who as our coverage of this years European 1/10th scale Championships showed you can never discount him to make a come back. Supported by the Novarossi factory means that power will certainly not be a problem and as we know, his driving is up to scratch, with the only uncertainty being the performance of the so far largely unproven Motonica chassis on the International stage.

Japan has produced some World Champions in the last few years of gas on road racing and as always they are strong contenders. Current 1/10th scale World Champion Keisuke Fukuda could be in with a strong chance for Mugen, the 2001 Vice Champion, has the experience of the big occasion and knows what it takes to win. Also from Japan with high hopes is former Japanese Champion and 2003 & 05 podium finisher, Takaaki Shimo, the Kyosho racer is always in or close the finals at the big races. The Sahashi brothers will also be there for Serpent, with Yuya having just won the Japanese Nationals, and Tadahiko placing 3rd, meaning that they are definitely not going there to be spectators. Another racer from Japan looking to get his hands on the silverware is Motonica racer Masao Tanaka, the Novarossi backed driver finished 3rd in 2001 and was in the final in 2005, so expect another strong performance this time around.

Another number of drivers from Europe that could take the win would be Italy’s Danielle Ielasi for Kyosho, 2007 Italian Champion Alberto Picco also racing for Kyosho (UPDATE: Alberto will not be travelling to the event due to work commitments), another multiple finalist Walter Salemi for Mugen and Serpent driver Andrea Cristiani, expect all the Italian racers in the top 30 at this event. From Germany is multiple European Champion, Michael Salven for Serpent as well as previous Worlds finalist and current German National Champion Robert Pietsch, racing the Shepherd Velox. Finally from France, racing for Luxembourg, is multiple World Champion Adrien Bertin, the Kyosho racer will perhaps be debuting the CRF .21 motor at this event which is meant to have really good fuel consumption, important for 10 minute qualifiers.

Finally from the USA there will be title contenders in the form of Kyosho drivers Chris Tosolini and Josh Cyrul, the latter recently switching to Novarossi engines, Mugen racer Mike Swauger and for Serpent, Paolo Morganti. All 4 drivers have been in winning form this year with Morganti going to the event with prior experience at this track, having taken part in a test session during the summer.

Red RC will be live at the track from Monday the 8th and will carry on right up until Saturdays finals day with Red RC bringing you reports, insights and of course lots of photos directly from the track throughout the week.

Image: WC Argentina [argentina2007wc.com.ar]