A-Main grid complete for Foshan Invitational RC C/ship

The A-Main grid for the Foshan Invitational RC Championship is set with Vening Zhuo set the lead the pack that with chase Top Qualifier Ronald Volker for the win at the GDC Indoor Track tomorrow in China.  Having secured the overall TQ in the the penultimate round, Volker would complete a clean sweep with his Mugen Seiki as he again topped the fourth & final round.  Once again it was Zhuo and his Awesomatix which led the challenge to the German, both drivers putting in their fastest runs of the day in closing round with 3.1 seconds the separation at the end of the 5-minutes.   With contact in Q2 blotching an otherwise consistent day Marco Ma completed the day with another P3 run and that’s were the Xray driver will line up for the finals.  Starting out the day by being half a second faster than his nearest rival in seeding, Yugo Nagashima wouldn’t be able to carry that form into qualifying and counting a P3 from Q2 and one of his three P4 runs the Japanese visitor will start fourth on the grid.  With a best run of a P4 in Q2, Xray driver Jerry Dai completes the front half of the grid.

Making a bump steer adjustment on his A800R, Zhuo said his car was better something that was back up on the timing screens with him being the only other driver along with Volker to run a 12-second fastest lap time in the final qualifier.   Asked he if felt he could take the race to Volker he quickly responded ‘absolutely’.  Asked if the track layout presented any particular areas to execute a safe pass he replied, ‘Nearly zero opportunities to pass but I still need to try.’

Summing up his final qualifying effort, Ma said, ‘I tried my best but the car was a little hard drive at the end’.   Looking forward to tomorrow’s finals, the 18-year-old said he plans to checkover his car and see what, if any, changes he will make to his set-up for the finals.  With GDC his local track, Ma said with the weather to be colder tomorrow in Foshan and this could present different track conditions to those experienced today.  While feeling there are a few opportunities in the lap to pass it will be difficult but his goal for tomorrow is to try gain position in the races.

Having made a change to his XQ11 for the final qualifier, Nagashima said it was ‘not good or bad’ and it ‘almost had the same feeling’ as before.  Feeling his lack of knowledge with the race’s controlled additive, which is completely different to anything he use in Japan, may be effecting how the car reacts to certain set-up changes he will try another set-up change for A1.  Starting from fourth on the grid he said, ‘I hope with this I will be able to go up positions’.

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Chassis Focus – Vening Zhuo (Awesomatix)

Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – Hobbywing XR10 Pro
Motor – Hobbywing G3 5.0T
Battery – GensAce Redline 4200mAh
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Savox
Body – Xtreme Twister Speciale

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Volker Top Qualifier at inaugural FIRC

Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker is the Top Qualifier at the inaugural Foshan Invitation RC Championship.  Heading up the international entry at the new Chinese race that the organisers are aiming to establish as a major annual event,  the former World Champion secured pole position for tomorrow’s triple finals when he made it three from three in the penultimate round of qualifying at the recently opened GDC Indoor Track.  Once again it was Chinese driver Vening Zhuo who would be Volker’s closest challenger but the German edged back out his advantage over the Awesomatix driver in the third round.   Competing the Top 3 for the round would be Marco Ma, the Xray driver managing his first 23-lap run of the day ahead of the Xpress of Yugo Nagashima, the Top Seed also putting together a 23-lap run.

Having started the day with a frustratingly difficult seeding round that left him only able for the 13th fastest time and which put him in the second fastest heat for qualifying, Volker said, ‘I happy to TQ overall after my very bad seeding and end the day in a good way’.  On the run that sealed him the overall TQ, drivers counting 2 of the 4 rounds, he said, ‘I had a perfect start but then had some light traffic.  The car has improved as the tyres aged but you can see everyone else improved too.’  Improving on his best time by over 3-seconds, he is keen to have a bigger advantage over his rival and will use the fourth & final qualifier to run his MTC2R with a little less toe in as well as a different front shock set-up to try and getting better steering and a better overall balance for the finals.

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