Chassis – Axon TC10/4 Concept
ESC – Orca OE1 Mark II
Motor – Orca Modtreme 3 5.0T
Battery – Orca 6090mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Sanwa SXR PGS-LH II
Body – Xtreme Twister
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Anyone who follows electric racing, either onroad or offroad, will know Salton Dong or if they haven’t yet met him in person they’ll recognise him from pit photos from the biggest races around the world. Involved with Hobbywing from its very early days, he is the face of motor and ESC manufacturer. As supporters of our TITC coverage for the last two years, we thought for this year we’d do a daily catch-up with Salton to see what kind of things he deals with in supporting team drivers and Hobbywing customers at races. A huge fan of the TITC, one of the reason for that is Open Brushless which Salton’s says challenges his skill set in getting the best performance from the electronics, unlike modified which he says is far more straight forward in terms of set-up. That said this year it was Modified that presented a very interesting issue that needed his input to solve – we’ll come back to that shortly! On the challenge of Open Brushless, a class Hobbywing are the defending champions of, he explains that the power setting needs to be very accurate and coming to this year’s TITC with their new Bandit G4R motor they had to find new settings. With help from team drivers, it took only 1-day to get the best setting that they could then share to customers, and they have a lot of those here with Salton pointing out that more than 70% are using their products. As they say the proof is in the pudding and improvements mean the cars are even faster than last with Salton highlighting that they have recorded a top speed of 104kph here this year.
While everyone likes variety and a change now & then, the new track layout for the 21st edition of the TITC appears to have presented an extra element of strain that has become the straw that broke the camel’s back. This year’s anti-clockwise track layout means the cars reach maximum speed on the main straight undergoing very heavy braking for what Salton described as performing a U-turn to continue the lap and this has been causing Mod driver spur gear failures. He said the problem actually came to light with their star team driver Bruno Coelho who did seven runs and broke seven spur gears after only 1 or 2 laps each time. At first they thought there was a problem with the spur gear material but on further investigation and walking around the track he realised that the defending TITC was not the only one having the issue, but a driver who likes everything on the limit it was effecting Bruno more than most. Xray’s Alexander Hagberg also found himself having a similar issue.
Salton, who enjoys a very good working relationship with the long time Hobbywing team driver, said the main solution they came up with was switching Bruno’s prototype Infinity from 64 to 48 pitch gearing, adding that Michal Orlowski is also running that here. Putting the failures down to high traction, high speed, plus heavy braking, and very quickly at that, Salton said this has never been seen before at TITC, the other direction on the track having always featured a sweeper meaning more gradual slowing of the cars. While they don’t know the exact reason for the failures, he said it’s most likely a combination of elements but in response they had a temporary firmware update created remotely and within an hour ready to run on the car. Reducing the initial brake response to try and reduce the speed more gradually, unfortunately rain yesterday (Wednesday) meant they couldn’t test the combined solutions ahead of today’s official Day 1 pf action so they arranged to travel across the city of Bangkok to the Huge RC indoor asphalt track that hosted last year’s Nitro Touring Car World Championship. There they tested the new firmware together with the 48 pitch gearing and small strengthening that Bruno’s mechanic Francesco Martini added to the chassis. On the high traction straight at Huge the test proved successful and as a result Bruno went the full distance in both of todays controlled practices and open qualifier. We suspect Salton will be hoping for a less challenging day at the office tomorrow but we’ll checking in with him to find out.
During our coverage of the SIGP Offroad race in China last December while chatting with Joseph Quagraine, aka JQ, he announced he was going to race at the TITC to which our first reaction was ‘but that’s a touring car race’ – actually it’s not any touring car race, it is as 3-in-row Touring car World Champion Bruno Coelho put it ‘the biggest and hardest race in the world for touring car.’ An offroad racer who has been there, done that, and not only bought the t-shirt but actually been a buggy manufacturer, his reason for what most offroad racers might refer to as going to the dark side is because of his passion project Invisible Speed – the platform he created in 2020 to share over two decades of car set-up knowledge through books and online courses. On arriving at the RC Addict track this morning for the first official day of the TITC action, a chat with JQ unveiled that he is absolutely relishing the touring car experience and with one thing leading to another we have agreed to allow him to share that experience and his learnings from the trip with our readers. We will let him explain thinks himself, take it away JQ……
I decided to attend the TITC 2025 because I am going to write my book for onroad. Learning about setup is in some ways easier in offroad, as you can visually see the jacking (see my invisiblespeed youtube video), and suspension changes are very apparent as an example. However applying what you have learned is more difficult. In offroad we have jumps, and driver input is far more critical. There are more variables, and every lap is different. In onroad, it is more straight forward. After learning to speak ”race car”, I always believed that I would have more to give to onroad racers, and after 4 days at TITC I am 100% sure. I think this race will become an annual event for me, with additional practice days before, as it has been so much fun.
I will add some technical comments each day, and for day 1 I will just say this: I am impressed by the level of attention to detail, extremely detailed levels of experience and knowledge to do with bodies, tyre prep, and chassis flex, but very surprised to see an extreme lack of knowledge and understanding when it comes to the basics, roll centers and wheel alignments. How can car brands who spend so much money on racing not even know or understand where their roll centers are, or fully comprehend how powerful camber and bump steer are? It makes no sense, and Invisible Speed will prove it to you in the future. On road RC today, is like shooting arrows blindfolded at a moving target. Sometimes you get lucky, but at the end of the day, you won’t be making consistent and sustainable progress. I look forward to helping to remove the blindfold for people, as well as learning from decades of experience and on track knowledge the on road racers have. Let’s put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Action from the opening round of Modified Touring Car qualifying at the 2025 TITC at RC Addict, Bangkok.
View full results here.
He might be the big name rookie at this year’s TITC but Michal Orlowski has acquitted himself brilliantly on the first official day of racing at the world’s toughest touring car race by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying. Seeded No.2 behind Marc Rheinard, the Schumacher driver took Q1 ahead of Bruno Coelho as the defending champion suffered a spin and an overshoot. The lost time meant the Polish driver would top the times by 1.2-seconds over the World Champion who in turn had 1.6-seconds on Axon’s Hayato Ishioka. Having led away the first of the four qualifiers, Rheinard would start to struggle with his car having to revert to completing the run rather than aiming for a TQ run. Behind him, team-mate Lucas Urbain, who had to open twice for Coelho over the 5-minutes posted the 5th fastest time as last year’s Top Qualifier Ronald Volker completed the Top 6 in Bangkok with his Mugen Seiki.
Reacting to his TQ run, Orlowski said, ‘We made, or I made a decision, Mattia wasn’t to sure about it, to change the car a little bit because the grip was lower today than testing but it came up way more than I thought for Q1 so the car was really difficult to drive at the beginning.’ He continued, ‘Once I got used to it and also the grip from the tyre went away and it was OK but yeah lucky Bruno had that mistake. I’m happy to get Q1 done and nice points from it.’ Looking to tomorrow’s action he added, ‘We understand the car quite well for the changing conditions and we have a few options to change depending on the conditions. We know in each condition we can be quick, we just now need to make the right decisions for each run.’
Setting the fastest lap of the day in opening Q1, Coelho explained his spin in the qualifier. ‘I over shot the corner and then when I came back I collected all the dirt and spun out in front Lucas and then I tried to recover and I was doing good and in a good place but when you are giving your all the mistakes come and I made one on the last lap. I don’t know if I would have beaten Michal or not without that but still the car was pretty impressive, it was in me this time.’ Asked his game plan for tomorrow, he replied, ‘I think without the mistake it will be the same as the other runs before, the 5-minutes pace is pretty good so it’s just keep focus and try to make it tomorrow’. Asked if the racing line traction is was very fine, Coelho said, ‘it’s a bit fine yes and also today it’s a little bit more windy. I was not super wide but it was enough to bring the dirt and I completely spun out on a point you barely use the throttle.’
Pleased with his opening P3 effort, unlike team Akio Sobie who rolled early in the qualifier, Ishioka described Q1 as a ‘problem free, clean run’. The Japanese driver added that while the balance of the prototype car was good, he feels he needs to find a little more pace from it and he will take overnight to think of what changes to make for Q2.
Taking full responsibility his P4 run after topping seeding, Rheinard said, ‘I think I made a big mistake with my tyre prep. I know in happy hour it is more grip so normally I make way higher with the gluing of the side wall but I kept it super small. In the beginning it was super good when I could still use a little bit of the glue but during the run it just got too much grip in the front and the car became too twitchy to drive so I just slowed down to try and keep it on the track.’ The reigning European Champion added, ‘It’s an Ok start but it should have been third but once you open up and go on the dust one time you loose a lot of time. I was leading the beginning but it just got too difficult to drive.’
‘Pretty much as expected’, was the reaction of Lucas Urbain to his P5 in Q1. The French driver continued, ‘Bruno caught me and I had to let him by but then he made a mistake in front of me so I had to take avoiding action and then he caught me again. I had the intention to let him by two corners later and had a bobble myself and instead of a crazy rejoin I let him go so I lost a few tenths there, probably 1.5-seconds total in all three actions, without that maybe it could have been a P3. It’s still a better start than last year, I think I had a DNF in Q1 so P5 is a lot better so I bit more relaxed approach for tomorrow.’ On his car he said, ‘I think I made my car OK, it’s not fantastic but for the conditions I was surprised at how much better it was compared to other days so we are moving in the right direction.’
Getting a summary on how his event has been going so far Volker, ‘we were struggling a bit over the days with pace but now we got the car comfortable and good to drive but I was a bit too slow. I will take P6 considering I had quite a gap to the front but we will try some more set-up changes for tomorrow to try and get faster and move up from P6.’ Asked if all the speed he needed was going to come from the car or also in combination with his driving he replied, ‘now that the balance was better, but missing some pace, I felt more comfortable compared to the practice days with the handling of the car so I think tomorrow will be more positive.’
In Open Brushless, the class attracting 118 entries, it was also another TITC Rookie who took the opening qualifier as Lukas Ellerbrock steering his Awesomatix to a TQ run. Behind the German, top seed Soren Sparbier was second fastest 0.176 of a second back with Olivier Bultynck completing the Top 3. Finishing on the podium last year, having qualified P2 behind Top Qualifier and winner Simon Lauter, Xray’s Adam Izsay got his 2025 campaign underway with P4 in the opening qualifier.
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Marc Rheinard is the top seed at the TITC, the Awesomatix driver improving from P2 in the first controlled practice to jointly top CP2 with the Schumacher of Michal Orlowski. After tyre gluing issue on his first timed attempt, on tie break Orlowski will be seeded No.2 for this evening’s opening qualifier. With the first official day of the event normally dedicated to practice, unusual weather has forced the organisers to bring forward the timetable to ensure they get at least one qualifier in the timing system should the rain they have suffered over the last few days return. After topping the first seeding round, Lucas Urbain would improve on that time but so did everyone else and he ended up third fastest ahead of Bruno Coelho, this the order they will line up for Q1. Overall it was again Coelho who had the best 5-minute pace with only Rheinard, Orlowski and Aki Sobue able to join him on 21-lap runs. While 3rd fastest over 5-minutes, Sobue’s Axon was again 4th fastest over the counting 3-consecutive laps ahead of his team-mate Hayato Ishioka meaning the Japanese duo will carry the No.4 and 5 race numbers in qualifying.
Reacting to topping seeding, Rheinard said, ‘The 3-laps were ok but over the 5-minute run I was not so happy, Bruno really caught me in the last 2-minutes. My car is fading off at the end. I changed something for this run but I think I will go back to what I had before but anyway the track is going to be so different in 3 hours so we have no idea.’ Asked what he changed, he replied a ‘different top deck’. On his equal time with his good friend Orlowski, the German said, ‘I think for me it would have been better to be behind him because now I know he gets faster and faster especially when the track comes up so maybe I need to open. Let’s see.’
Orlowski summed up his effort with, ‘It was quite funny to get identical times to the thousands of the second. I was quite nervous about being in the C heat but I was able to get the 3-laps, the 5-minute was always good during the week of testing.’ The Pole continued, ‘As I was in a different group I wasn’t not sure of my pace against the top guys, I was a tiny bit behind on 5-minutes but I guess we’ll see in Q1 where I really am compared to everyone else but I am feeling good because during testing I was always very strong on 5-minutes. I think my car drops off not so much. I am looking forward to Q1.’ Asked if he is doing much to his Mi9 in terms of set-up changes he said, ‘No we are just doing a little refresh. I think the track is a little bit different and has a little less grip. They didn’t sugar the track and didn’t make the maintenance the same as before so a tiny change for the cooler temperature, less traction, and that’s it.’
Asked if the track was quicker second time round, Urbain replied, ‘A bit quicker, not much, but a bit quicker but I am not too happy with my run. I think the conditions suit my car a bit less and I also drove a bit worse. It’s a bit more difficult to drive in this conditions and a bit edgy in some places, so I need to fix that, so it meant I had to open twice on track so the 5-minutes is more like P5, P6 this time. Even though being seeded P3 is good, I am happy with that, but I have Bruno behind me who probably one of the quickest on 5-minutes so if I don’t find something I am going to have to open which is not ideal.’ Asked what he needs to find in his car, he explained, ‘it’s actually hard to tell, that’s why I have been stuck the whole week, my car does that when the traction comes up and I am yet to really figure out what to do in the conditions. I have a few ideas.’ As the traction up he said ‘the rear gets snappy for some really which is totally the opposite to what happens in Europe when the more grip the more locked in the rear feels.’
A little miffed about how his run started, Coelho explained, ‘The first 3 laps were pretty tricky, I don’t know why but the car was a bit loose in the rear. It felt like the tyres weren’t ready but then after 3-laps the car was back again and I started to recover, recover, recover and again the pace in 5-minutes was very good. Just at the beginning something was wrong. Before I was really careful and the car was good but this time I just had something wrong on the tyres I believe.’ Reacting to his all his rivals highlighting how good his 5-minute pace is, Coelho said, ‘yeah 5-minutes is pretty solid, it’s easy to drive but we still need to work on it to get a little more pace and especially from the beginning.’
‘My fastest lap was not so fast but it felt super consistent on the 5-minutes’ was Sobue’s reaction to his second seeding run. The former TITC winner added, ‘Bruno is more consistent over the 5-minutes and the last minute is more difficult for me as the car gets loose and I see other cars are loose too but Bruno seems to be able to take more care of his tyres.’ Asked if his own tyre management was something he could work on, Sobue replied, ‘Yes. The first qualifier the temperature is maybe lower but I think I need to fix my driving to not over work the tyres. The balance of the car is good so I don’t touch that.’
In Open Brushless, Soren Sparbier will be the top seed thanks to his CP1 time. With drivers limited to four sets of tyres for the entire event, the class is very much a tyre game with drivers completing minimal required laps including both Sparbier and second fastest from CP1 Olivier Bultynck opting to not run CP2. Running just 2-minutes on track Natthawat Rungcharat had the fastest 3-laps to put himself second in the seeding in between Sparbier and Bultynck.
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