Easy A1 win for Orlowski as Coelho crashes out

Michal Orlowski has won the opening A-Main at the TITC, Schumacher’s defending Champion getting the win a lot easier than expected as main challenger Bruno Coelho crashed out on the first full lap.  Starting from second, Coelho piled the pressure on the Top Qualifier on the opening lap but on the first full speed entry into the sweeper at the end of straight, the cars having lined up for the start a lap earlier on the straight, he came in too tight launching his Infinity over the kerb and into the outside.  Breaking a corner off the car, his A1 challenge was done much to the disappointment of the crowd lined-up around the track.  While Orlowski gapped the field, the pressure now off the Polish driver, the attention was on the battle for second, Akio Sobue and Simon Lauter gapping 5th place starter Marc Rheinard.  While Lauter looked like he might have something to mount a serious challenge on Sobue’s Axon over the final laps of the race, a number of small mistakes mean’t the Awesomatix driver couldn’t get close enough to attempt a pass.  With Rheinard finishing 4th it was Viktor Wilck who was the top Infinity in P5 while Xray’s Jun Sawada rounded out the Top 6.  In Open Brushless it was also an easy win for Top Qualifier Lukas Ellerbrock, his effort made easier by early contact behind him between Oliver Bultynck and Natthawat Rungcharat.  With RC Maker’s Shimazaki Shinya taking up second he would later crash out allowing Rungcharat’s Xray through to second with Bultynck’s Awesomatix getting 3rd.

Reacting to straight forward win, Orlowski said, ‘I was confident about my pace but for sure after Bruno’s mistake that was one less car on the track but the car felt really good and I could just drive around, try stay off the curb, and don’t take any risks on the sweeper and stay in front.’  He added, ‘The felt maybe a little too conservative on the front sidewall glue, maybe I did that a little too much, so probably a little less for the second one, and apart from that we will try repeat the win again.’

Asked about his error, having yesterday made is intentions clear that he would be giving his all to try and find a way passed Orlowski, the World Champion, who was piling on the pressure on the leader, replied, ‘the car was very good at the beginning and on the warm-up lap, so for the half lap I did it felt pretty good and I tried to gain some advantage at the end of the straight.  I turned a little bit too hard there, touched the curb and went into the barrier.  I f##ked it up.’  Looking to A2 and asked if he felt he had the car to take the challenge to Orlowski he said, ‘I don’t know in 5-minute but at least in the beginning the car felt good so we will see what we can do.’

‘I got lucky because Bruno crashed.  I didn’t overtake but I am happy with 2nd’, was Sobue thoughts on A1.  He continued, ‘My car is super easy in these conditions and easy to keep in the racing line but Michal is a bit faster so I need more pace for the 5-minutes’.   Twice a winner of the TITC, on what he might change to find that speed he replied, ‘I am thinking what we can try because I don’t really know what the track condition will be like for A2’ – there being a 4-hour wait between A1 and A2.  Asked about the late challenge from Lauter, he said, ‘he did put me under a bit of pressure but I knew I was OK because he is a nice guy.’

A driver rising to the occasion this weekend and very pleased with his opening race, Lauter said, ‘That was a good one’.  The German continued, ‘I immediate felt my car was great in the opening lap and saw that I pulled a little gap on Marc which helps because you can get a little bit more confident and more attacking to the front.’  The 2024 TITC Open Brushless winner added, ‘At the end of the run my car is incredible compared to Akio because I had more pace.  But pushing more, I did more small mistakes and all that stuff but I’ll take this P3 for sure because I still think there will be another carnage in front so it is important to be there in the right position at the right final and right now I feel very confident.’

Orlowski to defend TITC title as Top Qualifier

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski will defend his TITC title in Bangkok tomorrow from pole position after taking a somewhat anti-climatic final qualifier at RC Addict this evening to become Top Qualifier once again at the iconic race.  His closest challenger, Bruno Coelho had injected a level of excitement into proceedings when he took the penultimate qualifier to set the stage for a showdown but the World Champion didn’t have the pace in the ‘Happy Hour’ evening conditions to prevent Orlowski taking his fourth TQ run of the event.  While Orlowski and Coelho have the edge on the rest of the field, Akio Sobue again put in another Top 3 run and that’s where the 2-time Champion will start from, many predicting the Axon driver might in fact have locked in the best grid position should, as we have seen in the past, fireworks go off at the front.  A great day from Simon Lauter sees the race’s 2024 Open Brushless class winner line up fourth on the grid ahead of team-mate Marc Rheinard, the chances of the 3-time World Champion winning again in Thailand two decades after his single TITC win looking a tall order.  While many full factory drivers had their struggles and failed to make the A-Main, Korean racer Ji-Heon Yoo made Awesomatix the best represented manufacturer on the grid securing P6 ahead of Infinity’s Viktor Wilck, Xray’s Jin Sawada, Axon’s Hayato Ishioka, and Tamiya’s Souta Goto who got the tie break on the Mugen Seiki of 2024 Top Qualifier Ronald Volker to complete the grid.  In Open Brushless having qualified & finished P2 last year, Lukas Ellerbrock is the Top Qualifier ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Oliver Bultynck who TQ’d the final qualifier.  Winner of Q4, Thailand’s Natthawat Rungcharat starts 3rd for Xray.

Summing up the final qualifier Orlowski said, ‘The last run my car felt a little bit better than the run before.  I was starting behind Bruno so I just wanted to close in a bit and just stay there but I could see I was catching and he was pushing real hard and making some mistakes so once I got in front I just could cruise around.’  On his second consecutive TQ honours he continued, ‘I am happy to be on pole again but tomorrow is a new day, different track conditions and we are all getting new tyres, so hopefully the car works well.  We will see if we are going to adjust it in anyway for the conditions but basically we need the car and tyres working well tomorrow and to deliver.’

Reacting to his Q5 performance, Coelho said, ‘We knew it would be hard to beat Michal on these conditions so we gave it our all and unfortunately it was not possible, but tomorrow is another day and I think that is the key words’.  A race where no one remembers second place, he added, ‘Anything can happen tomorrow, we will give our all.  If we crash we crash’, a full statement that he is all in to become the race’s most successful driver, an honour he currently shares with Atsushi Hara.  With his IF14 Speciale strong in the warmer conditions while Orlowski’s Schumacher prototype has a distinct advantage in the cooler conditions, asked about the finals, the first up just before 11:00 in the morning local time, Coelho whose last TITC win came from P2 on the grid replied, ‘Our car is working pretty good on hot conditions but I don’t know the weather for tomorrow yet, I didn’t check, but if it is hot we normally have a better car but we will still work to improve more on that with the car set-up.’

‘I’m happy with P3’, was Sobue’s response when asked about his starting position.  Winner here in 2018 and 2020, both times with Infinity, he continued, ‘In the last one the car was a bit difficult, still stable, but I needed to be careful of the white line and also I made many smaller mistakes that cost me time but I am happy with my position for tomorrow.’  Asked about the finals, the 2022 World Championship podium finisher said, ‘You know some times P3 is the best position, some times, but I will try to catch the front guys and if I have pace I will go in the fight, I will do my best.’  On his pace in comparison to the Top 2 he agreed he was a little bit behind but he said as a driver he has many many little mistakes so there is potential to improve stating ‘the car is really good’, his car running a number of prototype parts for an upcoming TC10 kit revision.

‘I am absolutely stunted about this’, was how Lauter reacted to claiming P4 on the grid, the German qualifying 9th on his Modified debut last year.  On his final qualifier he said, ‘basically it went like the others.  I had some driving mistakes still so I think the car is better than the driver at the moment, it also means if I keep it clean tomorrow in the finals there is a good chance to be in the mix for the podium at least.’  He continued his game plan is to ‘survive the first laps and then see if something happens in front or not.  I have Marc behind which is super hard because he is probably in race craft the best or one of the best out there but still I was faster today on 5-minutes, all the time I had a mistake I could recover something from him.  He is my team-mate so for sure he will be more cautious with me than other guys.’   Asked as a former Open Brushless winner, winners not allowed to defend that win, about how he is enjoying the step up to Modified at the TITC he replied, ‘I only participated once in Open Brushless class but while I enjoyed it Modified is a different level and I think that is clear to everyone.  Open Brushless is close and you need to drive good but Modified is even closer and if you don’t drive perfect you have no f##king chance.  Those guys in front are basically Aliens, I think everyone know this from ETS, Worlds or what ever but at the same time this means something can happen at the front and especially at this track so I think there is quite a chance for a podium.’

Calling his Q5 run ‘the same story’, Rheinard added, ‘it doesn’t feel like my car anymore since qualifying, I am completely lost.’  Putting it to him that race craft is his thing he replied, ‘but from 5 I don’t know. I know it is good that Bruno is behind Orlowski and in the day time the gap isn’t that big so for sure something can happen but my pace is just not there and there must be a lot happening in front to get a result.  He concluded, ‘I will be still there, I will still try my best but I am not so confident right now.’

Coelho grabs Q4 at TITC, all to play for in final qualifier

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.’

Perfect day sees Orlowski hold overnight TQ in Bangkok

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.’