Chassis – Awesomatix A12
Motor – ORCA Modtreme 3.5T
ESC – ORCA Mark II 1S
Battery – Team EAM 8500mAh (Marc’s battery sponsor ORCA do not yet have IFMAR approved batteries)
Tires (handout) – JACO
Radio/Servo – FlySky Noble Pro / Power HD Prototype
Body – MonTech M20
Image Gallery
Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 1:12 World Championships in Florida. Top Qualifier at the last running of the Worlds in 2020, he would TQ the first of the 6 rounds at Beachline Raceway by 0.25 of a second from Top Seed & defending Champion Marc Rheinard. A very closely contested 8-minute qualifier, Rheinard’s Awesomatix team-mate Kemp Anderson was right in the mix. Posting the fastest lap of the round, the American was laying down the TQ pace before dropping off the top spot with a bad lap and eventually completing the Top 3. Running in the second fastest heat having nor featured in seeding yesterday, Xray’s Alexander Hagberg took a confidence boosting P4 for the round ahead of the Awesomatix of Sam Isaacs and Snowbirds podium finisher Donny Lia.
Asked about his opening effort Orlowski replied, ‘I had a terrible start’. The Polish racer explained, ‘we tried something in the car after practice because we had understeer at the end of the run. The change made the car more aggressive so it was sketchy at the beginning. I could live with it but just needed time to get used to it’. He continued, ‘mid race I started to go very good and caught Marc. We were both pushing a lot and we both had bobbles. There is room for improvement in the car but it’s good to get a TQ from Q1’.
‘A solid start’ was how Rheinard summed the first qualifier. Switching back from his trademark colour scheme painted bodyshell he ran in final controlled practice yesterday, to a pink one-colour body, he said that was down to his discovering a 6.5gram weight difference between the two. While the same model of body, he said different batches seem to have different weights, adding ‘6.5grams on a body that weighs just 22 grams is a lot’. Suffering a ‘shitty jump at the chicane’ that cost him a few tenths, he said his car ‘missed a bot of steering’ something he put down to the gluing of his front tyres explaining, ‘I used more glue so I will try using a little less the next one’.
With Kemp’s sheer pace impressing many onlookers, the American summed up the qualifier as ‘pretty good’. He said, ‘the car was hard to drive in practice this morning so we had to calm down the front end for Q1 but it was a little too much’. The 21-year-old continued, ‘It started to push at the end so we need to find the good medium for the next one’.
‘Not bad. It was another run I was more comfortable with the car’, was the response of a more upbeat Hagberg when asked about Q1. The 2018 World Champion continued, ‘every run I am getting more comfortable and changes we made after yesterday have helped to close the gap. It is still not enough for Top 3 but the car is getting there and is feeling a lot better today. It’s a very positive start and now we will try to do more changes in the same direction.’
Isaacs was pleased with his opening P5 effort saying, ‘the car was a lot more drivable that one so I could run a clean 8-minutes but once you get out of your rhythm it’s hard to get back into it. It was a decent run but I need a little more speed’. Asked what he planned to change for this, he replied , ‘I will try heavier dampening and take out camber. I just needs a few small changes’.
In the opening Spec Class qualifier, it was Awesomatix’s Max Machler who took the TQ for the round. Despite a crash during the heat, the Awesomatix driver had an 8/10ths advantage over Joe Trandell with Dave Vera third, both drivers running in the second fastest of the 6 heat groups.
View our event image gallery here.
Chassis – Xray X12 ’24
Motor – Hobbywing 3.5T
ESC – Hobbywing XR10
Battery – Nosram 8100mAh
Tires (handout) – JACO
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Sanwa PGS HR
Body – Lens Bodies Ponente
Image Gallery
Chassis – Awesomatix A12
Motor – Hobbywing 3.5T
ESC – Hobbywing XR10 1S HD
Battery – Team EAM 8500mAh
Tires (handout) – JACO
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Sanwa PGS HR
Body – MonTech M20
Image Gallery
Current 1:12 World Champion Marc Rheinard is the top seed at the 21st running of IFMAR’s original electric category. The Awesomatix driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the 3 seeding rounds today at Beachline Raceway in Florida. Having won the first of his two Worlds titles in Florida nine years ago, the multiple Electric Touring Car Champion will lead away tomorrow’s opening qualifier ahead of Schumacher pairing Ollie Payne and Michal Orlowski. Payne was just 0.053 off the pace of Rheinard, the British driver’s best time also coming in the second controlled practice. With Rheinard fastest in the opening two rounds, Orlowski would top the third & final practice breaking into the 32-seconds for the first time, with the Top 3 separated by just 8/100ths of a second. Leading the home challenge Sam Isaacs made a significant improvement in CP3 to end to up 4th ahead of fellow American and Awesomatix team-mate Kemp Anderson. Completing the Top 6, Germany’s Jan Ratheisky was the highest placed Xray.
Not reading too much into his top seed status going into qualifying tomorrow, Rheinard was more concerned about his tyres prep saying, ‘I need to figure out the gluing of my front tyres’. Showing an example of his own tyre gluing and a set done for him by team-mate Anderson the German needs to master his gluing skills so as to just have the glue on the tyres very narrow side wall. On his final seeding run, he said, ‘It was slower and I didn’t have good steering at the end’. Asked about tomorrow opening day of qualifying, 3 of the 6 rounds making up the schedule, Rheinard believes, ‘the Schumacher guys are a bit ahead of me’. He added, ‘8-minutes is long but I think myself and Orlowski are able to keep it clean while the others seem to crash more’.
Despite a rear tyre issue in CP3 when ‘the whole outside peeled off’, Payne was bullish about his car’s performance going into qualifying saying ‘it should be really good’ over the 8-minutes. Winner of both the recent 1:12 International Grand Prix in Italy and Masters of Foam in Belgium, he said while his car is maybe not the fastest it is really strong for 8-minutes. ‘I think me, Marc and Michal are all going to be very close and Kemp is fast too if he can stop doing kamikaze at the chicane’.
Pleased to top the final practice, Orlowski said, ‘that was a nice confidence boost to end practice with. We tried some stuff and the car is perfect now. The balance is good for the first time’. Describing CP3 as a nice 8-minute run, he was over 3-seconds quicker than Rheinard, the pair were the only drivers to run 43-laps. Orlowski did air slight caution about his car saying they might need to chance the chassis after it took a number of big impacts earlier in the day and should a change be required it is not always a given the car will performance the same.
‘That last run was definitely better’ was how Isaacs summed up the final seeding round. Fresh from retaining his U.S. Indoor Champs title, he said he tried to ‘smooth the car out’ but ending up with a car that was ‘pushing instead’. Confident the changes he made were still a step in the right direction but hoping for better tomorrow, he admitted ‘the cars are hard to drive and hard to go 8-minutes without crashing’. He concluded, ‘there is plenty ways to go still’.
After a good start to controlled practice, setting the 3rd fastest time, the rest of the day was to be challenging for Anderson. Unable to beat his opening time, his second run ended with a big off at the chicane that meant a new bodyshell for CP3. Having checked over his Awesomatix he said he must have missed something as the car felt tweaked and he would now fit new parts for tomorrow. Son of new IFMAR president and accomplished racer Eric Anderson, asked how he felt his car was running before the crash, he said, ‘at the beginning of the run it was good and I was happy with the car so we have good set-up to work off tomorrow’.
In addition to the established Modified World title, 1:12 will crown its second ever Spec Class Champion here in Cocoa, Florida. After controlled practice it is British racer Morgan Williams with his Schumacher Eclipse 5 who is the top seed. Running a best time of 37.185 in the third round compared to the top Modified pace of 32.916, Williams was fastest from the Xray of America’s Robbie Dodge with Awesomatix’s Max Machler from Germany completing the Top 3.
View our event image gallery here.
Reigning 1:12 World Champion Marc Rheinard got his title defence off to a positive start with the Awesomatix driver topping the opening round of controlled practice at Beachline Raceway in Florida. Setting a time of 32.983 for his fastest 3-consecutive laps, the German also had the fastest lap for the round with only team-mate Kemp Anderson, 3rd quickest for the round, also able to run a 10-second lap of the track which is proving popular with drivers. Overall it was the Schumacher of Ollie Payne who posted the second fastest time with team-mate Michal Orlowski fourth quickest. Japan’s Hayato Ishioka’s Roche was fifth for the round, with recent U.S. Indoor Champs winner Sam Isaacs completing the Top 6. Keven Hebert was the top Xray in P7 over a second down on Rheinard’s time.
Pleased to top the first of the three seeding rounds Rheinard said, ‘It’s getting better but my driving is still not good’. Chasing his third World title in the category this week, he said the small curbs are proving challenging as they make the car jump and off the line where there is no grip. Happy they improved the car for CP1, he said getting tyre treatment right is something they are still working on but overall he feels ‘driving here is the big thing’. Asked about the track, he replied, ‘It is one of the best for 1:12, it’s not a typical US style and it also looks good. It’s a really good set-up here’.
Describing the track as ‘very tough’ due to the curbs and grip levels, Payne summed up his first seeding effort as ‘a good first controlled practice’. The British driver added, ‘It was a bit pushy so we’ll try to get more steering for the next one without making it too hard to drive. It is difficult to keep the balance when making set-up changes’. With both himself and Orlowski running cars with a number of special race specific front end parts that Schumacher have created to work with the black carpet being used here, the 24-year-old is confident that with some more fine tuning they have a good car.
Asked about his performance so far, Anderson said, ‘we have been changing a lot on the car and we have got it going around the track pretty good so now we can start working on the minor stuff.’ The 21-year-old American is relishing the track Beachline Raceway have created for the Worlds saying, ‘it is a lot of fun running on a bigger track than normal. Also the layout is really good and the curbs are in good spots that make it hard to break the car’.
Content with his early pace, Orlowski who comes into the event after back to back Offroad Events including the JConcepts Florida Carpet Championship held here at the sane venue two weeks ago before returning to Europe for the EOS, said his big focus is learning to drive 1:12 again. The Polish driver said, ‘I’m trying to learn to drive this class again as it so different to everything else but CP1 was pretty good and we are close to the top’. He added, ‘we made a small adjustment for that run and it was positive. We were surprised by our pace because the balance is not great.’ Asked about changes for the second round, he replied, ‘we have loads of ideas and will use the two remaining runs before qualifying to try some stuff’. Another fan of the track, the 2022 European Champion said, ‘the layout is awesome and it a proper size track. It feels a little inconsistent at the moment but the grip is still developing every run’.
Ishioka said his car ‘seems OK’ but added it was suffering from a little bit of understeer which he hopes to dial out for CP2. Asked how the track is compared to what he is used to racing on in Japan, the former Snowbirds Winner said, ‘It’s very different to Japan, there is a lot more grip. I like it’.
View our event image gallery here.