Coelho adds FEMCA title to CV

Bruno Coelho has added a FEMCA title to his racing CV, the multiple World and European Champion now official the Champion of Asia in Electric Touring Car.  Securing the overall TQ at the event hosted at the GDC track in Foshan, China, the Xray driver continued his dominant form into the finals.  Cruising to the win in A1 ahead of former World Champion Naoto Matsukura, he sealed the deal in A2 with another text book race this time ahead of team-mate Shin Sawada.  A3 would then decide which side Matsukura and Sawada would stand next to Coelho on the events impressive podium presentation, the entire race weekend taking RC events to a very high level in terms of presentation.   Leading away the field in the closing race, Matsukura would see off a determined challenge from his fellow Japanese driver even surviving heavy contact with the boards to win A3 and claim the runner-up spot, the same result he achieved on his only other previous FEMCA ISTC Championship appearance.  With racing on carpet somewhat an alien experience for Sawada, he completed the podium.  Qualifying fourth, Japanese Offroad Champion Kouki Kato would finish in that position ahead of the Awesomatix of Maxim Laverychev who went one better this year than he achieved on his first visit to the GDC track last year.

Reacting to his FEMCA title win Coelho said, ‘It was a very good race and it was very nice to be here. I have never been to a FEMCA Championship before so it is very nice to attend. This kind of race in Asia is very important for me as I have many sponsors here so it is always nice to come here to say thank you to them and also show my image here and not only on the other side of the world.   It was a very nice race and it gave us the chance to test many things together with our sponsor who where here like Hobbywing.  The have a new speedo and it was nice to work with them trying to find out new things on the speedo.  The race ran really well for us even when the traction went down a little bit we were able to change the set-up and get the car working well.  Today the grip came back up again and I was able to do the same lap times as I was doing in practice 2-days ago when the track was really really good which means the car was on point.’  While the touring car race is done, today’s win doesn’t mark the end of Coelho’s stay in China.  Next weekend he will make the switch to offroad for the SIGP in Xiamen.  First however he will do a little more sightseeing tomorrow with race organiser Gavin Kwok for he is very grateful for his and the Hongyu Group’s hospitality throughout the race.  Asked if he was looking forward to SIGP, Coelho said, ‘Yes but for sure it will be tough cause Ongaro is coming, the World Champion is coming, which will make things for sure super tough but I will have the help of my team-mate David Ronnefalk and we will try to get Ongaro for sure.’

Another driver very grateful to Kwok for the hospitality, both he and Coelho enjoying doing a photo & video shoot at a local tourist site ahead of the Championship, Matsukura said while second overall was ‘OK’, given his last Electric Touring Car race was the TITC back in March, he always wants better.  Summing up his weekend, the 2014 ISTC World Champion said, ‘with the tyre here every time in practice it was getting better traction but then when the race started sometimes the track had low traction and that was challenging.  Sometimes you needed more traction like this morning but then after in the final too much traction, so this result is not bad after a long break from touring car.’

Like Matsukura, Sawada wasn’t content with his result.  Asked if was happy with his podium finish the 20-year-old said, ‘I wanted more’.  The Japanese did however enjoy his battles in the finals with Matsukura despite being unable to get by, his 2nd place in A2 coming when his rival touched the curbing and traction roll.  With little or no carpet tracks in Japan Sawada unable to test said these FEMCA Championships where challenging due to surface with the changing tractions level further compounding that challenge.  Winner of the Hobbywing Cup here in China earlier this year on asphalt, struggling to know which direction to go with his set-up, he did try the same set-up as team-mate Coelho but with a different driving style he would still have to learn to adjust that to his liking.

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Coelho cruises to A1 win as Matsukura fends off Sawada

Bruno Coelho has cruised to the win in the opening A-Main at the FEMCA ISTC Championship in China with all the attention on the battle for second between Naoto Matsukura and Shin Sawada.  Starting from the TQ, Coelho’s Xray quickly gapped the field with a few interesting spectators, namely Marc Rheinard, Jilles Groskamp & Atsushi Hara, looking on.  With the track maintaining the higher traction driver’s enjoyed for the final qualifier, them all having had to deal with very low traction for the first run of today, second place qualifier Matsukura found his Infinity coming under the increasing attention of the Xray of Sawada.  Seeing off the first challenge, Sawada dropping back after a few laps of running on his rear bumper, the ISTC Spec Class World Finalist came back for another go at the former World Champion but couldn’t find anywhere around the GDC track to make a move.  Finishing 3-seconds back on the winner, Matsukura would have just 2/10ths on Sawada.  Having a lonely race Kouki Kato would cross the finish a further 1.8-seconds back.

Reacting to his text book race, Coelho said, ‘It was a pretty solid final, the car is working good and we are trying now some set-up things on the electronics’.  Asked if he trying to achieve something specific with his Hobbywing ESC or just testing different things, he replied, ‘we are trying to generate more traction with the electronics which is always nice to play with.’   The track evolving traction levels, the 3 time back to back World Champion said, ‘The traction increased a lot, I don’t know why, but it went up a lot which is good for everyone.  I didn’t change the set-up much to what I had before because everything I changed I went back on again as it didn’t really feel better so I already came to the conclusion that the problem was between the tyres and the carpet.  Now the track and the car is coming back to what it was.’

Asked if he was under pressure from Sawada, Matsukura responded with, ‘No pressure.  Today after Q4, the first minute feels like traction roll so for A1 I didn’t want to roll in the first lap.  So I make a save lap but then I see he (Coelho) is already gone.  I have nothing to do.’   He continued, ‘He (Sawada) was a little faster but almost same lap times so I was not nervous, I was just scared of mistake.  On the curb just a little touch and then you traction roll.  So I just drive safe and if I drive normal line I know he cannot pass.’  Having struggled with a lack of rear traction for most of qualifying asked if he had found something in his set-up he explained, ‘No. Now it is more hot’.  With the traction rolled he added, ‘I think the tyre is too hard in the beginning and now that it is completely broke in when the temperature (of the tyre) comes up there is a risk of traction roll.’  As a result he has added extra glue to the tyres.

Reacting to his race, Sawada said, ‘The car is very good but it is difficult to overtake.’  Enjoying the higher traction, which when asked he replied was ‘no problem’, unlike Matsukura he hasn’t felt the need to glue the side walls of his tyres.  He was in no doubt what he needs to do in A2 if he is to pass Matsukura saying, ‘I need to push harder to get passed Naoto.  I will make no changes to the set-up and instead just try to drive harder in the next one, more push, more push.’

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Grid finalised at FEMCA ISTC Championship

With the TQ decided in favour of Bruno Coelho went he went 3 from 3 in the first of this morning’s qualifiers, the remaining 2 rounds would determined the rest of the A-Main grid for the 2024 FEMCA ISTC Championship.  With traction levels improving for Q4, it was the World Champion who continued to reign in Foshan taking the round from Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura.  The 2014 World Champion would ‘dump’ in the final qualifier as Coelho’s Xray completed the clean sweep but the Japanese driver will start second for the triple finals despite his DNF.  Making it an Xray 1-2 in the final qualifier, P2 his best run, Shin Sawada will line-up 3rd on the grid ahead of the Infinity of Kouki Kato.  Top Indonesian driver Bowie Ginting completes the top half of the grid with his Xray with the Awesomatix of Rocket Zhang heading the local honours in P6.  Russian driver Maxim Laverychev also driving an Awesomatix will carry the number 7 with the star of last year’s inaugural Foshan Invitation RC Championship Vening Zhuo, who finished second to race winner Ronald Volker, ending qualifying in P8.  The grid is completed current Chinese National Champion Jerry Dai and fellow Chinese racer Lo Lo and his Serpent.  In 17.5 Blinky the Axon of Kenrick Fong secured the TQ from Simon Wang.

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