December 8, 2024

Chassis Focus – Jerry Dai (Xray)

Chassis – Xray X4’24
ESC – Hobbywing XR10 PRO G3
Motor – Hobbywing G3 5.0T
Battery – GensAce 5000mAh
Tires – Rush (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17
Body – Xtreme Twister

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December 8, 2024

Chassis Focus – Kouki Kato (Infinity)

Chassis – Infinity IF14-MID
ESC – ORCA OE1 MKII
Motor – ORCA M3 5.0T
Battery – ORCA 4290mAh
Tires – Rush (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17S / PGS LH2
Body – Xtreme Twister Speciale

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December 7, 2024

Coelho holds overnight FEMCA TQ in China

Bruno Coelho holds the overnight TQ at the FEMCA ISTC Championship in China, the Xray driver topping the opening two rounds of qualifying today at the GDC Indoor track in Foshan.  Having topped seeding, the World Champion would take the first of the 5 scheduled qualifiers ahead of Naoto Matsukura and it looked it was going to be a similar result in Q2 until the Japanese driver’s Infinity got stopped suddenly in its tracks by the foot of a marshal.  While Matsukura would eventually continued to claim a P4 run, it was his team-mate Koki Kato and Xray’s Shin Sawada who would benefit to end the round with the 2nd & 3rd fastest times respectively.  Overall however Matsukura still holds P2 going into tomorrow morning’s final 3-rounds of qualifying despite ending the day on 6-points together with Kato & Sawada.

‘It was a good day’ was how Coelho summed up holding the overnight TQ.  He continued, ‘for the last one we tried some things on the car to make it a little easier but I think it was a little bit slower now, but it was safe to drive.’  Having found the car a little difficult in Q1 he explained, ‘It was super fast but I felt it was sometime a little bit difficult because I can feel during the run there are some moments where the tyre or something starts to be a bit weird and I need to adapt to it so I just wanted to make sure I can make 5-minutes and the car is consistent so in the final I have no problem.  The car now was more on that way but a little slower in pace’.  Looking to the remaining qualifiers in the morning, the World Champion said, ‘We will for sure try something in between (the two set-ups) for tomorrow morning.’

Returning to the pits worried about the impact to his car, Matsukura said for Q1, ‘the traction was lower so my car was a little loose but I still got second by driving around. Bruno and me are almost 4-seconds apart so I need my speed.’  On the second qualifier he explained that following Kato making the change for Q1 with good results, ‘I added more rear toe in and the grip was OK but still I need more, anyway I got unlucky.’   Hitting a marshalling foot as they crossed the track to attend to another driver’s body tuck, it was a big impact.  Continuing the run, asked if his car was OK, the 2014 ISTC World Champion replied, ‘I don’t think so but I will check it now.’

Giving his reaction at the conclusion of Day 1 of qualifying Kato said, ‘For me it was OK but my first 2-laps I am very slow.  This is a problem all the time, I can’t push at the start, I don’t have the rear traction.’  Having felt at the end of practice his consistency over 5-minutes was going to cause him issues in qualifying, asked if he had improved on this aspect of the run he replied, ‘my consistent was just ok because I just make a safe drive.  I need push more tomorrow.’

On summing up his qualifying efforts, Sawada, stated, ‘It was no good.’  He explained, ‘I had understeer in the first one and in the second one the rear was too loose.’   Removing his side body stiffeners for Q1 to try and get more steering he said it didn’t work adding he found the traction in Q1 to be low.   Adding new carbon stiffener, having ran lexan versions earlier, he also added PSS for the second qualifier.  Giving him more steering he said the rear became loose.  Running P2 after Matsukura’s incident, that lack of rear traction was something that would lead to a mistake at he end of the run that dropped him to P3.

View our event image gallery here.


December 7, 2024

Chassis Focus – Shin Sawada (Xray)

Chassis – Xray X4’25
ESC – Hobbywing G3X
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3R 5.oT
Battery – Sunpadow 4600mAh
Tires – Rush (handout)
Radio/Servo – KO Propo EX-Next / KO Propo Grasper 2
Body – Xtreme Twister

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December 7, 2024

Coelho tops seeding in Foshan

Bruno Coelho is the top seed at the FEMCA Championship for Electric Touring Car in Foshan City, China, the Xray driver laying down his fastest time in the third & final round of practice at GDC.  With the indoor carpet track getting faster and faster each round as the hard compound controlled Rush tyres come in,  Coelho’s time was 7/10ths of a second quicker than his near rival Naoto Matsukura over his 3-consecutive with Infinity team-mate & fellow countryman Koki Kato completing the Top 3 a further 3/10ths down.   A Spec class finalist at the recent IFMAR ISTC World Championships in California, the Xray of Shin Sawada would post the fourth fastest time ahead of the similar car of Chinese National Champion Jerry Dai who claimed 5th at last year’s FIRC.

With Portuguese 1:8 Offroad racer Ricardo Monteiro here in China with him as his mechanic, on the completion of seeding Coelho said, ‘We are still trying small things on the car, the car is working pretty good so we don’t want to destroy the good work that was done until now so just making small differences but its looking good for qualifying.’  The World Champion added, ‘The tyres are getting better and better, they are still very fresh, I think the start to work around the 6th battery when the are on their peak but its the same for all.  We are improving all the time so it is not really fair test at the moment to test anything because it doesn’t matter what you do you go faster because the tyre has more grip but it is nice to understand the car like it behaviour compared to before.’

‘It is not the same like yesterday, we are lacking traction today compared to yesterday’, that was how Matsukura described his seeding performance.  He added, ‘It is colder today so maybe this is why but we need to find traction both in the front and the rear’.  Aware the tyres should improve the multiple discipline World Champion continued, ‘I want to wait for the tyres but I think we have to try things on the car.  We need to think what to do for qualifying because the car is too difficult right now.’

Asked about his car Kato said a change of wheel nut improved his car.  Having run large diameter wheels nuts from T-Works he has gone back to the standard kit nuts which has resulted in better traction together with the tyres getting better with mileage.  Switching to his painted body he said now it feels and looks good but admitted the change was minimal and it was more the look that he was benefiting from!  Planning no car changes for Q1, asked if he had good consistency over 5-minutes, the Japanese National Offroad Champion said ‘consistency, this is the problem for me. I can’t make 5-minutes consistent, the problem is me. 3-laps no problem but 5-minute is hard so I need to work on this.’

Asked how he felt seeding had gone, Sawada said he was struggling a bit with understeer.  The 20-year-old plans to remove his side body stiffeners in the hope it will allow the car flex more and improve the steering.  His first time to GDC on the track he said, ‘I like it, it is bigger than what we are used to racing on in Japan’.  Another difference he is having to deal with here is the tyre compound.  Used to running softer compounds at home, he is having to learn how to adapt to the harder tyre and also the fact that it gets better rather than worse with mileage.

View our event image gallery here.


December 7, 2024

Chassis Focus – Maxim Laverychev (Awesomatix)

Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – ORCA OE1 MKII
Motor – ORCA 5.0T
Battery – Gaoneng 4600
Tires – Rush (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Awesomatix AS701
Body – Xtreme Twister

Note – A friend of Awesomatix founder Oleg Babich, Maxim is testing a number of prototype parts here at GDC with his A800R fitted with a 1.2mm steel chassis, matching new bulkhead, and new bumper.

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