2025 TITC Chassis Focus Index

21 editions of the TITC have been completed and thanks to the support of Hobbywing, Red RC was once again able to make the annual trip to the Infinity RC Addict Circuit in Bangkok to cover this truly unique event.  By far the greatest one yet in terms of all the pre-race hype, 2025 was the year the race got to play out moments that will forever be engrained in the sport’s history.  Bruno Coelho’s first ever race with Infinity, Michal Orlowski’s first ever TITC.  As the saying goes, ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’ and wow was an impression Orlowski made on the ‘world’s toughest race’ – complete domination.  We also have to mention A3 and the last lap between Marc Rheinard and Bruno Coelho, that pass was pure Rheinard gold and having been reporting on his racing at the top level for so many years it was brilliant to see he still has that magic.  It was interesting to chat with a number of drivers for whom this was their first time experiencing the TITC, they didn’t actually need to tell us they were loving it because it was already written all over their faces,  it was like they had rediscovered the joy of racing again.  We get to go to our fair share of races around the world and none come close in terms of everyone enjoying themselves.  The laughter in the pits and the enthusiasm of the crowd watching the racing is infectious, and we still get to see the best in the World race head to head for a title they all desire so much – it truly is the unofficial World Championships.

In terms of cars there was lots to see and not see.  Unfortunately Mugen Seiki is still not quite ready to show off its new MTC-3 just yet and Infinity understandably want to keep their brand new prototype under wraps for now.  Kyosho also had a new car but having given us access to a prototype last year it caused some issues and we had to remove it from the site.  For our chassis focus we did get access to the new Axon ‘Concept’ car, we like the choice of title, of Akio Sobue.  In total we managed to photograph 10 team cars from 7 different manufacturers for our Chassis Focus.  A little insight on our chassis focus that you might be interested to know, some drivers will only allow us access to the car on the final day of the event because in the past they discovered their rivals were analysing our photos and getting ideas for their own set-up!  Anyway it was great to see such variety of manufacturers in the A-Main with 7 different brands represented.  One very noticeable absence from the A-Main this year however was that of Xray but they did make up half of the Open Brushless A-Main grid.  It’s only over 3 days now but we are already looking to the 22nd edition of the TITC.  If you race Electric Touring Car put the TITC on your bucket list and that’s not just our advice its Michal Orlowski’s too.

Michal Orlowski (Top Qualifier/Champion) – Schumacher Mi9

Marc Rheinard (Q3/P3) – Awesomatix A800R

Akio Sobue (Q6/P4) – Axon TC10/4 Concept

Lucas Urbain (Q4/P5) – Awesomatix A800R

Goto Souta (Q8/P8) – Tamiya TRF 421

Yugo Nagashima (Q10/P10) – Xpress XQ 11R

Atsushi Hara – RC Maker SP1 ‘Hara Edition’

Antoine Brunet – RC Maker SP1

Alexander Hagberg – Xray X4’25

David Ronnefalk – Xray X4’25

Chassis Focus – Lucas Urbain (Awesomatix)

Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – Orca OE1 Mark II
Motor – Orca Modtreme 3 5.0T
Battery – Orca Infinite X 6090mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / MKS HBL575SL
Body – Xtreme Speciale

Image Gallery

The TITC inside line with Salton Dong – Day 3

They say data is king, but that is only true if you know what data you are looking at and what to do with it, and that is what today’s topic of conservation from the TITC is with Salton Dong from Hobbywing.  Attending major races as technical support for drivers using Hobbywing electronics, Salton often finds himself more involved with drivers and chassis manufacturers than just purely for electronics.  Data logs from the ESC show a lot of information and some of the details can be quite interesting if you know where to look and not just in terms of what the electronics are doing but also the inputs coming from the drivers stand!

While every user of a Hobbywing ESC can access the data log from a run, Salton admits the data is more for an expert user but he was keen to highlight a little how Hobbywing uses it in supporting its team drivers on the electronics side and beyond.  He said, ‘the data is not very easy to understand inside and what is what, but for us we can diagnose some complicated cases.  When we feel we don’t have a proper sense of what has caused a particular issue, then we can take the data log to further compare what might be going on.’  He also explained how in more straight forward cases they can also use the data logs to help analysis feedback from drivers or check if what a driver is feeling during a run is actually what they think it is.’  With data being his thing, Salton says it can be quite interesting to see in the data from the various drivers how they each control the throttle in different ways.

Working with drivers from all different chassis manufacturers, who are locked into intense battles with one another to win races like the TITC, he is privy to a lot of information on their car set-up etc.  While that information always remains confidential, on the side of the electronic data Salton says the sharing of this information is a key part of his support role.  Giving an example of this he explained,  ‘In Open Brushless because we have a lot of drivers in the A-Main, sometimes if one team is faster sometimes other team drivers will think ‘oh maybe Salton gave them some better motors or some secret settings and that is why I’m am slower’ than the other drivers but actually for me in my role with the top drivers I will share my knowledge on settings and the material we have prepared for an event.  If we see one of our drivers who should be faster we will go to them to check if anything is not so good.  Some drivers, sometimes, don’t believe I can use the data to show them what is the real reason they are slower, and not on the power side, so this makes me like a bridge sometimes between different chassis brands.  Of course I will respect any secrets in the chassis but on the power side I prefer to be open to all our drivers.  Sometimes with lower skilled drivers I will have some different suggestions because of the control skills but I will tell them why I do it like this and what the problem with the difference will be and most understand this.’

He continued, ‘When I collect data from different sources I can analysis it and maybe combine a better one.  Team A might have less in some setting and Team B might have a good element in their setting so I can try combine these and can also tell them each the good and the bad things of their current settings.  Of course the setting they choose is totally their decision, it might be down to their preference, but by giving them an insight it might give them more options to try.’

In modified he says things are different, ‘especially with the top guys, like Bruno, Orlowski, there is quite a lot of difference in their power settings.’  He continued, ‘An interesting thing is only when they have some problems, what ever it is, not power, but maybe chassis or other things, they will be anxious to know others ESC settings.  Because they can’t find a reason they are having problems they want to know everything about their opponent, and it is then if you tell them the difference they are more keen to try.  If drivers are running ok they will not easily change the power setting especially once the race has started.  In Modified power setting priority is quite low.  For example today before Q4 I was talking to Alex (Hagberg) and he asked me to please update the firmware for him.  He knows we have new firmware but in the practice days he didn’t ask to do it because he is working very hard on the chassis and didn’t what to try, although I told him there may be some benefit.  But today already he had nothing to lose so he wanted to try the new firmware so I upgraded it for him.  Sometimes lots of different things effect their decision, it quite difficult for them to have big changes when the competition is good.’

Asked from his experience why drivers were hesitant to make ESC changes he said, ‘the problem is it can be quite complex and they can get lost with things.  If it is not so good they will blindly follow some fast guys but usually first they follow their team-mate but if the whole team is not going well it is usually only at this point they come to ask if I can share some information.’