March 2, 2018

Another easy TQ for Coelho in Q2

Bruno Coelho claimed another straight forward TQ run in the second round of qualifying at this year’s TITC.  Having opened his title defence with the fastest time in Q1, the Xray driver again had a similar time advantage only this time over Naoto Matsukura.  In terms of the Top 5 times, the result was almost identical to Q1 with only Matsukura and Infinity team-mate Akio Sobue switching positions with Alexander Hagberg and Marc Rheinard repeating their Q1 positions.  Naoki Akiyama would post the 6th fastest time to be the best Yokomo as Ronald Volker continues to struggle while Serpent’s Vitkor Wilck made up for a DNF in the first round to record a P7 ahead of Meen Vejrak and Volker.

‘It was a very good run as before, the track was much better’, was how Coelho summed up the second qualifier.  He continued, ‘I forced from the beginning to get a gap but again Naoto made a mistake so then I was just controlling the run’.  He concluded, ‘our car works very well here so I don’t know what else to say’.

Changing swaybar position and running the upper arms higher on his IF14, Matsukura said, ‘the feeling was better than before but again I made a mistake this time on the second lap’.  The 1:12 World Champion added, ‘ with the changes I now have understeer so for the next one I need to find more steering and make no mistakes’.  Almost matching Coelho’s fastest lap of Q2 with a 14.907 compared to the Portuguese driver’s 14.904, Matsukura concluded, ‘We are getting closer to being able to work on matching Bruno’s pace’.

Also making changes to his IF14, Sobue said they resulted in his car pushing even more than in Q1 but on a positive the car no longer felt loose.  Confident he knows what further changes are needed now to get steering back into the car, the Japanese also feels he didn’t drive well in Q2.  He said, ‘A few times I drive too much up on the curb which caused the car to slide so I need to stay off them in the next one’.

‘Another safe run’, was how Hagberg summed up his second qualifier.  The Swede added, ‘I’m driving too carefully and need to push more’.  Having suffered with his car being loose on the opening lap of Q1, when asked if he has solved that for Q2, the Xray driver said, ‘I was driving too cautious so I couldn’t tell’.

Rheinard said, ‘I was one time on two wheels coming onto the straight which cost me some time’.  Much closer to the three drivers ahead of him this time round, the Infinity driver said, ‘it got loose and started to push at the end of the run but Akio and Hagberg were still within reach and the car is not that bad’.  Changing his shock set-up for the round he said he ‘didn’t really notice any difference but I will change them again and maybe go stiffer in the rear’.

Describing both his qualifiers as ‘good clean runs’, having got a P7 in the first qualifying,  Akiyama said, ‘I am driving easy for the tyres to make sure I don’t overheat them’.  Yokomo team-mate Volker, who again was only 9th quickest said the track’s bumps are the main issue for him adding, ‘I’m struggling with the balance and I am surprised I have two Top 9 based on how the car feels out on the track’.

Commenting on his P7, Wilck said, ‘It’s ok for 5-minutes but I cant go fast in the beginning’.  The Swede continued, ‘the car is too stable and I need to find more steering.  I will change the flex but I think the problem is the chassis is too hard’.

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March 2, 2018

Coelho TQs opening qualifier at TITC

Chasing his third consecutive victory at Asia’s most famous event, Bruno Coelho has got TITC 2018 off to the best possible start backing up his huge practice pace advantage with a TQ this morning in the opening round of qualifying.  In Bangkok for the past week in preparations for the 16th running of the race, the Xray driver was quickest from Japanese Infinity pairing Akio Sobue and Naoto Matsukura, his advantage over Sobue just shy of 1.8-seconds.  Coelho’s team-mare Alexander Hagberg would opening the 5 rounds of qualifying with the fourth fastest time ahead of fellow European Marc Rheinard while local hero Meen Vejrak led the Yokomo challenge completing the Top 6.  Finding himself in the second fastest heat after seeding World Champion and former TITC winner Ronald Volker would get only a 9th for Q1.

‘It was a very good run for me’, was how Coelho summed up Q1.  He continued, ‘I think the track was a little dusty and it was windy so my car was doing some weird things, it wasn’t a problem with the car but just the conditions’.  Top Qualifier last year, he said, ‘Naoto made a mistake on the first lap which gave me space to breath and from then I just tried to control my pace and tried to not over heat my tyres.  It was very good’.

Closest to Coelho both on overall time and outright speed, his fastest lap just 1/10th off Coelho’s quickest, Sobue described his first qualifying attempt as ‘quite good’. The Infinity driver suffered ‘one spin’ saying his car ‘started out good’ but as the run went on his car began to ‘get loose and push’.  Overall pleased with the set-up on his IF14 he will make some ‘small changes’ for Q2 to try and increase the car’s steering.

Losing over 1.5-seconds to Coelho over the opening two laps, second seed Matsukura said, ‘the first two laps my car was a little loose and I spun out on the first lap’.  Running Infinity’s new alu chassis on his car, he said, ‘my car has good corner speed but after 2-minutes the track gets really loose so I need to change the set-up to make the car more stable and easier to drive.  From 3-minutes I have almost same lap times as Bruno.’

Summing up his run to the fourth fastest time, Hagberg said, ‘It was OK. I struggled the first lap, I was lacking traction.  After that it was good so maybe I needed to do more warm-up laps’.  The Swede continued, ‘I am pleased with my car but every time the track keeps changing so it is hard to predict how it will be but it is always like this at this race’.

Fifth fastest Rheinard said, ‘I have no feeling.  The car gets loose at one point and then its twitchy. It’s not easy to drive but I’m still happy to get a Top 5’.  Asked about a set-up change for Q2, the German replied, ‘I changed the set-up completely from yesterday but it still drives the same’.  For team-mate Jilles Groskamp, who TQ’d all three qualifiers on the opening day last year, a clash with race runner-up Nicolas Lee, left the former World Champion with an 11th for the round.

The final driver to complete 20-laps in Q1, Vejrak described his P6 as ‘a good first run’.  The Thai driver continued, ‘my plan was to drive safe and smooth.  The traction always changes between runs.  Last night was super high and and made a set-up change for that but it is now lower today and I could not push it or I would spin out but I’m happy to get some good points for the first one’.

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March 2, 2018

Track Focus – Infinity Addict Circuit

Track Name – Infinity Addict Circuit
Owner – Pumin Songpaiboon
Country – Thailand
Location – Bangkok
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt

Infinity Addict Circuit, better know simply as RC Addict, is one of a number of RC tracks the city of Bangkok boasts and for the 7th time it hosts Asia’s best known race – the TITC or Thailand International Touring Car Championship to give it its full title.  Now in its 16th year, the 2018 edition of the TITC has once again attracted the world’s best touring car drivers with reigning champion Bruno Coelho the man they are all out to beat.  Having undergone a complete resurfacing ahead of last year’s event, the main change this year is a revised layout within the 55m wide by 27m deep track space.  Another less obvious change until you drive the track is the fact a number of bumps have developed in the asphalt over the last 12-months.  One big visual difference on arriving at the track is that the street based containers which housed a number of air conditioned pit areas for drivers have been removed leaving the former 200mm World Championship circuit more open looking.

Having been in Thailand for almost a week in preparation to attempt a claim a third consecutive TITC title, Coelho described the revised layout as ‘a little more technical than last year’ saying ‘the layout is very good, I like it and there is a lot of traction which I like too’.  Comfortably quickest in the seeding practice, the Xray driver did however say that while there was ‘one main bump which you could avoid’ last year, ‘now there are bumps everywhere’.  Not causing him any major issue he said the bumps did mean they had to do a lot of work in early practice on finding a good suspension set-up.

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January 23, 2018

2018 Reedy Offroad ROC Winner – Dustin Evans

2wd Buggy

Team Associated B6 – Reedy Sonic 7.5T – Reedy Black Box 510R – Reedy Zappers 5800mAh – Sanwa Transmitter – Reedy Servo – Proline Elite body

4wd Buggy

Team Associated B64 – Reedy Sonic 5.5T – Reedy Black Box 510R – Reedy Zappers 5800mAh – Sanwa Transmitter – Reedy Servo – Proline Elite body

January 22, 2018

Evans claims 2nd Reedy Race of Champions

Seven years on from when he made a name for himself as one of Offroad’s top drivers by winning the 2011 Reedy Race of Champions, Dustin Evans has claimed victory at the unique event for a second time.  The Associated driver becomes only the 5th driver in the race’s 24 year history to have achieved multiple victories in one of the World’s most difficult races to win given its unique multiple heads up race format.  A contender throughout this year’s encounter, which was hosted again at the World famous OCRC Raceway in Huntington Beach, California, Evans went to the top of the points after a dramatic penultimate round of 2WD action and then sealed the deal with his 6th win of the event in the last round.  This left a stacked closing heat to determine who would stand each side of Evans on the podium, 5 drivers vying for the 2 places. An action packed affair Tessmann came out the winner to give him a perfect 2WD score which together with a less successful 4WD part of the event pulled the Xray driver up to 2nd overall.  Having looked like he was going to clean up a 5th Reedy Race title, Ryan Cavalieri would get third behind Joona Hataanen to secure the final podium placing getting the tie break from World Champion Ryan Maifield.  Going into the final round in 2nd position in the points, Maifield would break after 5 laps while leading.  Also having a tough final race, Spencer Rivkin, who shared the lead with Cavalieri over a number of rounds, would end the event with his worst race and while a throw-out it meant he had to count the 5 from the previous round leaving him 5th overall.

‘Pretty crazy, 7-years between wins’, was how Evans summed up his victory.  The Colorado driver added, ‘I was fast all week and I had a few things go my way but that’s the Reedy Race.  A Reedy sponsored driver this time round, he continued, ‘winning it under he Reedy name is pretty special’.  Asked about his final race, he said, ‘I didn’t know exactly what I had to do, I didn’t want to know’.  Starting from 9th on the grid, he said, ‘Any time I am super patient it works out for me so that’s how I took the start and then at the triple there was a big pile and it worked out good for me.  I didn’t want to get too conservative and crash like the last one but everything went right this weekend. I’m super happy’.

Reacting to his comeback podium finish, going one better than last year, Tessmann said, ‘It was looking bad after 4WD so to comeback so good I’m pretty happy.  It’s not the win but 2nd is the next best time’.  Taking 5 wins from the 6 rounds of 2WD action, the Canadian said, ‘My 2WD car was good and for the last two it worked really good. I’m really happy with that’.

‘That was the hardest my car was ever to drive, it was one of my worst races. I was lucky to get a podium out of it’, said Cavalieri after the final race.  The Associated driver continued, ‘I experienced everything this weekend. One round I’m in the lead, then I break and next I have my hardest race.  That’s the joy of this race’.

In the Open class, booking their places with the Worlds best drivers in next years Invitational class of the Reedy Race of Champions, Associated driver Brad Shearer won 2WD from Tommy Hinz while in 4WD Xray driver CJ Jelin took the win over Aydin Horne.

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