February 20, 2020

Sobue tops seeding at TITC

Akio Sobue has topped seeding at the TITC, with the Infinity driver quickest from Yokomo’s Souta Goto over 3-consecutive laps of this year’s high speed layout at the Infinity Addict Circuit.  In the first of the two controlled practice runs, the 2018 Champion was fastest from team-mate Naoto Matsukura but rocket round conditions for the second round produced a big improvement in times as Sobue went almost half a second clear, this time ahead of Goto who was placed in the slowest of the much depleted Modified field.  Jilles Groskamp completed the Top 3 ahead of Viktor Wilck, while Matsukura, unable to better his opening time, dropped to fifth with Atsushi Hara completing the Top 6.  Unfortunately the coronavirus has impacted hugely on the international entry at the 18th running of Asia’s most famous RC. Concerns over the health of their drivers in travelling to Asia means multiple champions Xray are not in attendance meaning we wont get the opportunity to watch Alexander Hagberg attempt to defend the title he won here last year.  Also missing from the entry are TITC regulars and World Champions Bruno Coelho, Ronald Volker and Marc Rheinard.

The first big race for the IF14-II, Sobue was quick to compliment the Japanese manufacturer’s progress with the new car saying, ‘the new car is very good, the first lap is good and 5-minutes is good, the balance of the car is really good.  I was happy with the car in practice all week so today I just made small changes which improved the balance even more’.  Asked about this year’s track layout, he replied, ‘It’s not a difficult layout.  It is super high speed so tyre management is important. It is always difficult here but now it’s even more challenging to make sure the tyres don’t get too hot’.  With 4 rounds of qualifying on the schedule over the next two days, looking to tomorrow’s opening qualifier, Sobue is confident he is ‘ready to go’.

Making his TITC debut, Goto is pleased with his pace over 3-laps but feels there is improvement to come from his driving.  Heading the early Yokomo challenge, with team-mate Meen Vejrak their next best placed driver in 7th after seeding, the 19-year-old said, ‘I’m happy with the car set-up. I am running the car very much like how I run it in Japan just with a few tweaks for the layout.  The layout is high speed which is what I like’.  Vejrak who will be joined in the top heat of qualifying by team-mate Nicholas Lee who was 10th fastest, has ended the day running a car borrowed from the 2017 Vice Champion.  A speedo shut down saw the Thai driver hit the barrier in the middle of the track launching it rocket style to a spectacular vertical height, the impact destroying his race car.

Summing up his P3 in seeding, Groskamp said, ‘The rocket round was not as fast as I expected and I was on used tyres. I tried them in free practice yesterday and they felt better but today they were not better and I pulled in after 2-minutes’.  The Dutch driver who once used to call Bangkok is home continued, ‘with the rocket round its always scary that some guys might get 3-laps and push you out of the top heat but the gap with our new car over the other teams is quite big which is nice’. Happy with his car, he said the biggest challenge for qualifying is going to be the track, ‘conditions are different every time so you don’t always know how it is going to work’.

Commenting on his practice pace, Wilck said, ‘It’s OK. It is not super fast over 3-laps but 5-minutes is pretty good’.  The Swede added, ‘I tried a set-up change in the last round which caused the car to spin out sometimes so I will go back for Q1.  On the track he echoed the general feeling about the layout, saying, ‘the layout is a little more easy this year but it’s fun to drive.  You use a lot more power.  It’s fast’.

Last year’s runner-up, Matsukura said his second seeding run was hampered by a lack of traction in the first laps with him explaining, ‘I had no traction the first minute.  I don’t know why.  I did make a set-up change but this should not have caused this. After the the first minutes it was good’.  Describing the chassis on his car as ‘old’, he said, ‘I think this might be causing it to flex too much so I will fit a new chassis for tomorrow’.

Asked about his P6 in seeding, Hara said, ‘this is my first time racing the HB Racing Project and Zero Tribe is helping me with the development. So 50% of the car is from him’.  Having taken up a sales role with HB Racing, and therefore racing less, the RC Racing legend said, ‘before the race I tested the car but couldn’t get a set-up.  I need to figure out the current situation for touring car.  It’s been a long time that I don’t race touring car’.  With the car, internal code named the Pro XX, now fitted with a Zero Tribe mid motor conversation, Hara said he has already designed the next stage in the car’s development but didn’t have the time to get it ready for the race’.  On his own performance, given his lack of competitive action, ‘I have Top 10 pace so I am happy, I just need to figure out small details now’.

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November 24, 2019

Chassis Focus – Gary Huang

Chassis – Xray RX8 2019
Engine – Max Power RP9
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Matrix
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Power HD
Body – Xtreme Super Diablo

Remarks – Winner of this year’s SIGP Gary Huang and mechanic Gavin Kwok were using the 2019 spec Xray RX8. Featuring the optional alu servo saver, alu front anti roll bar mounts, optional centre pullies and a 100gram brass battery mount, the Chinese team had to contend with setting up their car for the higher grip found this year compared to previous years. 

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November 24, 2019

Gary Huang takes popular SIGP Nitro class win

Gary Huang has taken an emotional win tonight in Xiamen, China in the 1/8th Main final. The Xray driver overcame a flameout to take a very popular win in front of a partisan crowd at the SIGP. Behind it was Merlin Depta who finished in 2nd place, one and a half laps back, the German driver leading following the Chinese driver’s flameout. Completing the podium here at the ARC International Raceway was veteran Italian racer Marco Vanni. Pole sitter Jeff Hamon had a troubled race as he lost touch with Gary Huang early on before hitting major engine troubles, the result of the Australian having set his engine too lean prior to the final. Feeling the win was retribution for not being able to travel to the Worlds last month in California due to visa problems, long time mechanic Gavin Kwok was overcome with emotion as his driver took the checkered flag. Explaining his flameout, he said he was on his in-lap when the Max engine rolled to a stop near the end of the lap. The Xray driver was running 2 laps more than everyone else but he believes it was the smaller tires that had increased consumption and caught them out. Restarted and back on track he battled his way back from 4th, pushing like crazy to take over the lead again with 15 minutes left and hold on for the rest of the race and take his first SIGP nitro win.

Merlin Depta said he had ‘no pace and no tires’, the Serpent driver changing tires 3 times in the final. Explaining that when he ran yesterday evening the track was super sticky and so to be safe focused on making his car easy to drive but with the traction lower than expected the car ended up pushing too much. Leading for a time after Huang flamed out, he just didn’t have the pace to match the Xray driver and so dropped back to 2nd and battling with Ray Poon. Very pleased with his pit crew, the first time in the pitlane at a race for his girlfriend, Merlin was none the less pleased with 2nd place saying ‘I’ll take it’.

Taking the final podium spot, Marco Vanni joked that he was an ‘old man’ who just kept going, ‘just kept driving’. The Shepherd driver was also in 3rd place 2 years ago when he was last in Xiamen, saying he likes this area of China and especially the track will hope to be back again next year. Starting from 8th place, the Italian worked his way slowly and methodically through the field, taking the 3rd spot off Hong Kong driver Ray Poon 10 laps from the end of the race, the Infinity driver having led as the tire stops shuffled through having to settled for 4th. Hay Lai would finish in 5th place, just in front of Charlee P in 6th, who was another driver to lead until he lost a front tire exiting the pits after his tire stop.

In the GT class it was an epic battle all race long between Serpent driver and top qualifier Felix Law and 2nd place starter Charlee P driving for the Maxima team. The pair fought it out for the entire 45 minutes, never more than a few car lengths apart the whole time. Paphon took the lead about a quarter of the way through the race and held it for about 20 minutes before Felix took back with 12 minutes to go. From there they would push themselves even harder, with Paphon getting back in front and staying there for good with 10 laps to go. In the end only 2 seconds separated them. Afterwards Felix felt that his motor started to go rich which prevented him from being able to pressure Paphon even more at the end. Behind the lead pair young Guangzhou native Ma Haoran rounded out the podium, a finalist in the EP class yesterday, he put in a mature race to finish just 4 laps behind the much more experienced pair ahead. Behind the Xray driver Simon Kau was 4th, while Korea’s Choi Nak Sung completed the top 5.

View the complete event results here.

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November 24, 2019

SIGP 1/8th Nitro Main final line-up complete

The first semi final (even) for the 1/8th scale class produced quite some drama as we lost two of our race favourites as an early crash and some later problems for Kim Ki Heung saw him finish down in 7th, while Meen Vejrak went out of the early lead having lost the back pressure tubing after his first stop, only rejoining later with a new one fitted having lost nearly 4 minutes. That semi final was won by Xray driver Gary Huang, who had been pressuring the Thai driver hard until their first stop. Infinity driver Ray Poon would finish in 2nd some 2 laps down on the leader, with Rocket Zhang piloting a Serpent a lap further down in 3rd. Chui Kai Leung was the last of the automatic bump ups in 4th.

In the second semi final it was a lot more straight forward with Serpent driver Merlin Depta taking victory by 6 seconds over Motor King who was just less than a second ahead of pole man Charlee P at the end of the 30 minute main. Italian driver Marco Vanni was the last automatic qualifier from this semi final but as it was a faster semi than the first, 5th place Hay Lai will take the last bump up spot to complete the 9 drivers that will join top qualifier Jeff Hamon in the 45 minute A-main final.

View the complete event results here.

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November 24, 2019

Chassis Focus – Kim Ki Heung

Chassis – Shepherd Velox V8.2
Engine – OS R21 Euro
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Matrix
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/SRT
Body – Xtreme Diablo

Remarks – Korean Shepherd driver Kim Ki Heung has been impressing many this weekend, battling it out at the front of the field with his Velox V8.2. Running it in fairly standard spec, he has decided to use the harder suspension parts and new front shock tower. In terms of setup, using his base setting from Korea where he says the traction is  higher than in Xiamen, he has made the front track width wider while the rear track was made narrower.

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