Chassis – Tamiya TRF421X
ESC – Elceram Nitride
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3 4.5T
Battery – Cayote 6300 mAh
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17S / PGS-LH2
Body – Xtreme Speciale
Notes:
With the TRF421X just released, Souta’s car is built as it comes in the kit expect for the WEiRC 1.2mm Steel Chassis they opted to run to suit the RC Addict track conditions.
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Bruno Coelho has grabbed a TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying at the TITC, the Infinity driver ending the dominance of defending Champion Michal Orlowski at the Bangkok classic. With the heats reseeded for Day 2 of qualifying, it was Orlowski who took all three of yesterday’s qualifiers who led away followed by Coelho and new to the top heat Akio Sobue. With it looking like it was going to be more of the same from Orlowski once things settled down, a super strong finish from Coelho would see the World Champion grab the TQ by 16/100ths of a second from his biggest touring car rival – the large crowd showing their appreciation for the run in anticipation of the showdown his performance has created for the ‘Happy Hour’ final qualifier. Putting together some impressive runs from the second fastest heat yesterday, joining the top heat Sobue would improve his counting runs by setting the third fastest time ahead of Awesomatix pairing Marc Rheinard and Simon Lauter. In Open Brushless we would see the potential for a qualifying clean sweep also disappear. Having made a slow start to the heat, overnight TQ holder Lukas Ellerbrock would get caught up in another drivers incident and end up with an 18.4-second lap, his fastest of the run being a 14.862. Up front it was Thai Xray driver Natthawat Rungcharat who took the round TQ ahead of the Awesomatix’s Olivier Bultynck and Xpress’ Mongkolphan Lomrose.
Reacting to his run, that has injected a bit of excitement into the 22nd running of the TITC, Coelho said, ‘It was pretty intense, it was a good qualifier.’ He explained, ‘I had very small bobbles on the run but like very little which was good I got more confidence during the run and through the mid to the end of the run I was able to force a little but more and capitalise from that.’ Looking to the fifth & final qualifier, the TQ honours a straight up fight between himself and Orlowski, the 4-time TITC Champion said, ‘Everything is open. We are going to make some small changes to try to improve the car for the cooler conditions and we will see.’
‘It was OK. A late start to the day so it was very interesting to see what the track was like’, was how Orlowski summed up his time first not being at the top of the timings.’ On his car the Schumacher driver said, ‘The car felt OK but I had loads of understeer compared to before but still I had quite nice grip so I also had good pace but just a few small bobble at the end because I lost a lot of steering and Bruno could get it.’ He continued, ‘The most important thing is to have the best car tomorrow which is super difficult to predict because the car changes a lot run to run, so it is either the tyre or the track conditions but you can see guys are running half second a lap slower from run to run so it’s very inconsistent. For the last one I think the car will be good, I am just not sure if we need to make a change to get more steering or whether the track will have steering itself.’
Summing up his second Top 3 run of qualifying, 2-time Champion Sobue said, ‘The car pace and performance are very good and it was also super easy to drive.’ Moved up to the top heat for the final two rounds, the Axon driver added, ‘I tried catching the front guys, Bruno and Michal, but I used the tyres too much in the beginning. The first 2-minutes I used them too much and then for the last 2-minutes it was a bit difficult as it was a little bit loose and pushing so I had a gap of about 2-seconds on the front guys but I am happy to get P3 in these conditions.’ The Japanese driver concluded, ‘Q5 for sure will be high bite but I will try my best.’
Asked to sum up his Q4 performance, Rheinard replied, ‘I don’t know, its still bad. P4 doesn’t help so I am still 5th overall.’ He continued, ‘the car is always doing different things. Now it was understeering and all over the place. It was good for one lap and then it just started to push especially at the end of the straight, I had to go full lock almost. I really don’t know whether the track changed too much and it doesn’t suit my car, it’s just really, really hard but let’s see Happy Hour, it would be nice to get 1-2 spots up with a good run in the last one. But I think I need to TQ to beat Akio but at least I try to beat Simon but so far no confidence.’
Asked about reseeding to the top heat, Lauter said it was a big advantage explaining, ‘you know what is going on. For example I knew that I had to push to stay ahead of Marc or get back ahead of him which ultimately led me to making a mistake but at least I knew what was going on.’ In terms of his car, the Spec Touring Car World Champion said, ‘I kept my set-up from yesterday. I did not do many laps yesterday because I had a big mistake but the car felt very good. We anticipated less grip conditions because of the big photo and everything going on on track and this is what happened.’ The German concluded, ‘I am unsure what to do for the last one because I think traction rolling with be a big big thing and with the big showdown going on in front it is quite important to stay on track and get good points.’
Delivering a perfect day of 3 TQ runs from the 3 rounds of qualifying, it is defending TITC Champion Michal Orlowski who holds the overnight TQ in Bangkok. The Schumacher driver, who is running a new platform from the British manufacturer, completed Day 1 of qualifying with another TQ run ahead of main rival Bruno Coelho with Xray’s Jin Sawada delivering an impressive P3 for the round. Axon’s Akio Sobue got a P4 from the second fastest heat which together with his P2 in Round 2 sees the 2-time Champion complete the Top 3 in the overnight qualification rankings. Suffering a DNF in Q3, Simon Lauter is the top Awesomatix contender overnight in fourth ahead of team-mate Marc Rheinard, the German finishing out the day with another disappointing P5 to hold that position going into tomorrow’s final two qualifiers. With the final 2 rounds of qualifying scheduled for the afternoon, today’s action happening in the first half of the day, there will be plenty of team drivers hoping the later conditions will allow them to turn around their TITC and secure a spot in Sunday’s main show. In Open Brushless, it was also a perfect day for Lukas Ellerbrock as he brought home 3 TQ runs for Awesomatix and going into Day 2’s qualifying it is team-mate Olivier Bultynck who holds second with the Xpress of Top Seed Mongkolphan Lomrose sitting P3.
Summing up today’s qualifying Orlowski said, ‘It’s been weird having these conditions and people are struggling with them but my car has been pretty good. We tried something very very small in that last one and I had two very big moments on the sweeper at the beginning which cost me a lot of time. Pace wise the car was fine but I will already go back to my set-up we run last night which should be good for tomorrow’s qualifiers in the afternoon. The finals are all different times of the day but we’ve been fast with the same car in these weird conditions all the time so for sure it’s a good place to be. Only the Polish driver’s second TITC appearance he said, ‘I think last year the conditions were surprising consistent for everyone. Before my first TITC everyone told me it changes so much here but I feel like it is just like it is at any other asphalt track with changing temperatures outside. I mean this year maybe it is a little more inconsistent but I am not feeling it too much.’ On his moments in Q3 he explained, ‘it was just a slide, I turned in on the sweeper and my car just went sideways and I had to counter steer and catch it I think on the 3rd and 4th laps. After that I used the minimum amount of steering to prevent that and it didn’t do it again. I haven’t had this issue before so maybe this small change made this happen.’
Giving his reaction to the third round, Coelho said, ‘It was another solid run in terms of the result, in terms of how it went I had like 3 or 4 bobbles through the run. I also needed to get used to the car because we changed it a little bit and I also had a new body, a brand new body which changed a little the feeling of the car driving wise.’ Asked about the body, the Infinity driver explained, ‘In Q2 I broke my body so I need to make a new one because yesterday night I broke another one. I already had one ready and I was like OK I don’t intend to crash again and then today I broke another one so I had to make this one in a rush for Q3 and the position was a little different’. On the set-up change, having crashed out in Q2, he said they ‘tried to make the car a little bit easier’ adding ‘the car was definitely faster now but was still a little bit difficult and tricky in the rear, which made me have some bobbles. The middle of the run was very good for me and I was able to show the pace and be fast but we need to work more on making it comfortable to drive.’ Asked about the final two rounds, the World Champion who is chasing a record 5th title win this weekend, said, ‘Everything is still open. The signs we have until now is the end of the day (conditions) is not really amazing for us, it’s more during the day and hot temperatures so lower traction is better for us. But set-up can surprise us and maybe the car will be good for that run.’
Feeling better today having suffered from heat stroke yesterday, Sawada was very pleased with his P3 run. Suffering an ESC issue in Q1, intermittent boost making it challenging to drive, he fitted a new one for Q2 with same settings but said it had too much power which made his car difficult to drive. For Q3 with the power adjusted to his liking, he said the car was good but he did have a driving error on his second lap without which he felt his result could have been even better. Overall he said after the difficult start to qualifying he was happy to finish strong. Looking to tomorrow, the 25-year-old, who needs another strong run to repeat his 2024 A-Main appearance, said, ‘I like the night time conditions so I think on that side it will be OK.’
Asked how his final qualifier of the day went, Sobue said, ‘I think good. It was good for the first day of qualifying. My car was more difficult in these conditions so I need to be more smooth and careful with my driving, and not overheat my tyres. I drive safe mainly for the tyre as I know I need to do the 5-minutes and not overheat them for a few fast laps.’ Feeling a little unwell going into Q3, the 2020 & 2018 Champion said this led him to make a ‘many small’ mistakes costing him ‘a few seconds’ so to get P4 he was ‘still happy’.
‘Again not a result I wanted’, was how Rheinard described Q3. The 3-time Touring Car World Champion continued, ‘The car didn’t feel right, it was not balanced left & right. I was getting loose to the right and pushing to the left. I checked the car and everything was good so I hope tomorrow is going to be better and I hope my other sets (of tyres) I have are better.’ He concluded, ‘It’s a bit disappointing because the pace was there to do better but now I am really kind of fighting for an OK spot in the main.’
Michal Orlowski has made it two from two in qualifying at the TITC however with his main rivals in the Top heat having issues it was Axon’s Akio Sobue and Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter from the second fastest heat that completed the Top 3, Sobue being a lot closer than Orlowksi had anticipated. Having opened with a P2 in Q1, Bruno Coelho would crash out as he tried to push the limits trying to go one better the second time of asking. After a great start to qualifying, setting the 3rd fastest time, unfortunately Naoto Matsukura would DNF with an ESC issue. Marc Rheinard would post only the 5th fastest time behind Korean racer Ji-Heon Yoo, who is seeded in the third fastest heat, with the multiple World Champion lost to explain his sudden loss of pace. In Open Brushless it was also a repeat TQ, with Lukas Ellerbrock fastest from Xpress’ Mongkolphan Lomrose, the Top Seed recovering from a poor Q1.
Asked about his run Orlowski said, ‘I didn’t change anything on the car and It was kind of similar to before just a little too easy to drive but this time I started better so I was able to stay in front. I had no clue that our heat was very slow compared the B & C heats, so after Bruno’s crash I kind of took it careful and I was lucky to still TQ because only after the race I realised that Akio was less than a second behind me. It’s very bizarre, because Marc got fifth, Lucas (Urbain) got 8th being third in our heat and I am really curious why. I am happy to get another TQ and now just deciding whether we should try and improve the car for these conditions or just drive it.’
Commenting on his strong run Akio said, ‘The car was more stable. The conditions changed because it is more hot and the sun is higher.’ Marshalling the top heat he continued, ‘I could see in the last heat it was more loose and not so easy and more drop but my car was very very stable, I just needed to be careful not to touch the white line. I think 5-minutes my car is very good because everyone from Q1 to Q2 lost time but my car stay the same. On his plans for Q3, which brings Day 2 of the 22nd edition of TITC to a close, he said, ‘I am waiting to see what the sun does. If same and hot I keep the same set-up but if more cloudy and changes conditions I will try something different with the set-up.’
Reacting his P3, 2024 TITC Open Brushless Champion Lauter said, ‘I am very happy. Yesterday was not a good day to be honest because I somehow lost all the lets call it hot lap pace I had which is important for seeding but today 5-minutes it seems to be very good. I am still not super happy with the first laps, I seem to lose .4 on Akio. We changed the car completely from Q1 to Q2. Now we change completely again and then we have three valid options to decide which one to stick on but for sure there is no point in making the car easier to drive now because I have good points and just going through the runs I will not better my points I think so we need to go a little bit more risky and see what happens.’
Despite by his own admission getting off to a nervous start, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has taken the opening round of qualifying at the TITC, the first of five rounds seeing a number of drivers taking turns at the top of the timing screens. In the end, having topped yesterday’s seeding, it was the defending Champion Orlowski who continues to lead the way at RC Addict securing the TQ run ahead of Bruno Coelho with Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura completing the Top 3. On the TQ pace for a time, Awesomatix’s Marc Rheinard opened his account with a 4th ahead of Akio Sobue, the Axon driver having a good run in the second fastest heat along with former TITC Open Brushless Champion Simon Lauter who would complete the Top 6 with his Awesomatix. In the Open Brushless Class it was the Awesomatix of Lukas Ellerbrock who topped the first round ahead of team-mate Olivier Bultynck with the Xpress of Top Seed Mongkolphan Lomrose managed only P6.
Summing up his TQ run, Orlowski said, ‘I was very nervous and didn’t have the best start but I could pull away in the middle and then just drive quite safe towards the end. The gap was close but the time doesn’t really matter because it will not be the fastest time overall so. The car was very easy to drive – maybe too easy to drive’. He continued, ‘I am way more settled now with a good score in Q1 and we’ll think if we want to change something on the car to get it a little better for the (Q2) conditions or just leave it and driver it.’
A solid run was how Coelho summed up his opening effort after he suffered a small bobble on the opening lap which he felt may have cost him the TQ. The 4-time TITC Champion, continued, ‘(after the bobble) I had to adjust a little my driving because the car was losing a little the rear over the run so I need to be careful to not throw it away but removing that I think the car was pretty fast’. With a hotter track to contend with for Q2, the World Champion said, ‘its getting hotter & hotter so less traction which normally our car works good on high temperatures so we will see.’
Another whose name appeared at the top of the time screen in Q1, Matsukura said, ‘I am so happy to be driving again with the top drivers’. He added, ‘my car was very good, in the beginning, and for the 5-minutes. I had no mistakes but I was a little bit nervous. In the beginning the feeling was very good but the traction felt a little low although the lap time was still OK.’ Expecting lower traction for Q2, the former World Champion said he still needs to consider what he might change for the run or whether to risk continuing with what he has. With drivers allowed 5-sets of tyres for qualifying, unlike Open Brushless which get four sets, tyre strategy doesn’t play into the outcome of qualifying.
‘It was a close one, everyone was leading at one point’, was how Rheinard summed up Q1. He continued, ‘I dropped a bit towards the end and I didn’t drive too good for the conditions towards the end. I could at least keep Bruno behind me on track so I didn’t have to open. I mean it is just a second between the Top 4 and I had one or two rough laps which was at least 6 or 7/10ths.’ On his car he said, ‘The car understeers too much so I just need to find more steering but the traction is going to change again so it is really difficult now to find the right set-up change. Overall the car is pretty OK.’ He concluded, ‘Position wise it was not a great start, 3rd would be better at least, but I mean its definitely a good start and it is good to see Naoto also doing good again, nice to see him back up at the top.’
Finding himself in the second fastest heat, 2 time TITC Champion Sobue explained, ‘I had some problems in seeding 2, seeding 1 the car was really good nit so much fastest in the beginning but the 5-minutes was very stable and car was consistent & easy to drive so I knew we could go well in qualifying.’ On his run to the 5th fastest time he said, ‘I tried the same set-up as Seeding 1 and the car very nice and easy but in the middle of the run I was passing Viktor (Wilck) and had a scare and started to drive too safe so I lost my lap time but again the pace came back. So Q2 I think I can driver better. I am happy with our start to the day.’
Michal Orlowski is the Top Seed at the TITC, the Schumacher driver clearly having the edge on his rivals in Bangkok. Topping the first of the two seeding rounds in the middle of the day, the driver who stole the show on his debut at the iconic race last year, would prove he had an even greater advantage as the day concluded in the cooler ‘Happy Hour’ evening conditions. Having been Orlowski’s closest challenger in the first round, that high traction in Round 2 would catch out Bruno Coelho, the Infinity driver traction rolling to outside the track fencing, as Marc Rheinard claimed the No.2 seeding for tomorrow’s qualifying with his time. Rheinard’s fastest 3-consecutive laps would be over 3/10ths of a second off his good friend Orlowski and 17/100ths better than Coelho’s effort, the World Champion’s roll happening 2-minutes into the 5-minute run by which time most drivers had already got the best from their tyres. With seeding seeing the Top 7 times come from Round 2, Xray’s Jin Sawada claiming P8 as he failed to better his CP1, it was Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura who set the 4th fastest time having struggled with too much steering in the first one. Another big improvement and relieved to put himself in the top heat for qualifying as the No.5 car was Lucas Urbain, the Awesomatix driver having had a good showing last year to qualify 4th. Carrying the hopes of loyal Tamiya fans around the world, after a strong CP1, Souta Goto kept his TRF421X inside the Top 6 with an improved CP2 ahead of the Mugen Seiki of Ronald Volker. In Open Brushless, the grid attracting a strong European contingent, after a delay in publishing the ranking after a timing glitch in the second round it was local racer Mongkolphan Lomrose who is the top seed for RC Xpress ahead of Awesomatix’s Olivier Bultynck and Xray’s Adam Izsay who has podiumed the last two years. It is a rule that once a drivers wins Open Brushless they can’t return to the class. 2024 Champion and reigning Pro Stock World Champion Simon Lauter acquitted himself well last year making the Modified A-Main and back this year the German will go into qualifying as the 14th seed just ahead of former 1:8 Buggy World Champion David Ronnefalk.
Pleased with his efforts on the first official day of these the 22nd running of the Thailand International Touring Car Championship, Orlowski summed up his top seed run with, ‘It was good.’ He explained, ‘We put together everything that was good earlier in the week. We have been very close on set-up for multiple days and were just trying to find something better and we put it all together now and it felt nice for the beginning, the pace, so we are just going to keep it the same. My base is strong both in the morning and the afternoon so hopefully it will be good tomorrow. That was probably the most enjoyable run I have had all week so far.’
Reacting to the run that seeds him No.2 for qualifying, Rheinard said, ‘P2 is good but it is hard to drive in the Happy Hour. The German continued, ‘Michal was already yesterday super fast in the evening and now he just repeated the same thing. We don’t drive that late tomorrow so lets hope but it is difficult, really difficult. Michal just gets faster and faster but lets see how it is tomorrow, he wasn’t that quick in the day time but I guess they tried something and know that when they come back to their normal set-up it will be fast. Asked about changes to his own Cayote powered A800RR he said, ‘I didn’t have enough super glue (on his tyre wall) so I need to put more on for the Happy Hour but there is not much else we can try at this stage.
Asked about his DNF, Coelho said, ‘I tractioned roll at the beginning of the straight, it was Happy Hour now, and the car was gripping a lot and I probably forced a little bit too much for the conditions, and yeh, I crashed.’ Asked if he got any meaningful data from the 2-minutes he did run, he replied, ‘we always suffer a little bit in these conditions on super high traction. It is our lets say negative at the moment which we have to work on. During the day was super hot and our pace was pretty good but when the grip goes up a lot we suffer a little bit more and we need to work in that direction.
Happy with how his day ended thanks to pulling off a significant improvement on his earlier run, Matsukura said he made a change to the front end of his Speciale after he struggled with too much steering in the first round which meant he ‘couldn’t drive full punch.’ Going with a more understeer in the front approach for the second seeding he the multiple World Champion said, ‘in the beginning it was very nice but in the second lap I made a mistake, so after the lost time I still get a 4 and I am so happy for this but in the end after three minutes the car is a little difficult to drive. So tomorrow I don’t know how traction is going to be but I need to change the car a little for the 5-minutes. Tomorrow’s (Friday) schedule will see 3 of the 5 qualifiers run.
A driver who made is international debut as a full time Pro racer at the TITC in 2024, and still with Awesomaric, reacting to his run, Urbain, said, ‘It was more than welcome and great to get the laps together to be in the big show tomorrow. I copied Lukas (Ellerbrock) in all his set-up so props to them for all the good work which is mostly coming from Max’s (Machler) work all week. I was kind of desperate to find some pace and copied their cars and while it is still far from perfect it improved a lot the entry to mid corner but the corner exit I am still struggling. I can’t accelerate as hard as I want, the car is bouncing like hell so either I have too much power or something needs to be done with the suspension, shocks, geometry, some along these lines.’ Looking to qualifying the French driver said, ‘I know in the morning when there is a bit less grip my car is a bit better on throttle and I can put the power the way I want to so I am a bit more confident for tomorrow that I have the 5-minutes but in the evening it starts OK and then it gets worse, every lap it bounces more and more. I have not yet been able to solve that so that is the homework for tonight I guess to figure it out. Thankfully it is 2 out of 5, so many attempts, many jokers, I don’t actually like it cause on a tie break anybody can score a good one and pass you. I would much rather 2 out of 4 or 3 out of 5 but this is what we are given so I am going to try take advantage of it and send it.’