Volker takes A1 at FIRC

Ronald Volker has taken the opening A-Main at the inaugural Foshan Invitational RC Championship in China, the Mugen Seiki driver kept honest over the 5-minutes by the Awesomatix of Chinese driver Vening Zhuo as chaos broke out behind.  With race organiser Gavin Kwok’s goal of hosting the race at his GDC Indoor track to highlight the international level to local racers, Volker put on the perfect display as he lead the field away from the TQ.  Only Zhuo would be able to hang with the former World Champion as the pair quickly pulled away and gapped the other 8 starters.  Behind all the attention was on the battle for 3rd with the pack building up behind a struggling Marco Ma who had Xray team Jerry Dai all over his back bumper.  Six laps in as they came on to the straight Ma got out of shape setting a chain of crashes with Xpress’ Yugo Nagashima coming out the best of it in 3rd having found him push out of position and down to ninth on the opening lap.  With Volker and Zhuo quickly in traffic the both navigated it well to with Nagashima holding position to complete the Top 3 ahead of the recovering Dai.

Summing up the opening final, Volker start, ‘I made a good start and Vening was following me pretty.  He promised he would so it was good’.  The German continued, ‘I’m not sure what happened behind but there was a lot of action and after that I had a few rough laps in traffic and ended up with dirty tyres.  I’m sure it was the same for Vening but I’m glad to get the win.’  A much colder day today in Foshan City, on his car’s performance in A1 he said, ‘I’m happy with how the car performed today, it was as good as it was yesterday and the tyres have great grip now’ – drivers each using a single set of hand out Sweep tyres.

Pleased with opening race, Zhuo joked, ‘It was good but not good enough’.  He continued, ‘I got a good start and just tried to follow Ronald in the hope that would help me pull away from 3rd place and it worked out.  Ronald had good pace and I was able to follow him and still drive safe’.  Planning no changes to his A800R for A2, he said maybe he would try for something in the first three corners but after that his plan is follow Volker again and finish safely content that finishing 2nd behind the professional driver would be a result he would very content with.

Starting from fourth on the grid but completing first lap down in ninth after he got pushed out of the way at the start, Nagashima was not impressed by the driving standards describing the race as ‘very dirty’.  The Japanese driver explained, ‘there were many crash, they push car and don’t wait.’  Hoping for a better, cleaner, race in A2, on a positive note Nagashima said his car was ‘the best it has been’ since he topped seeding on Saturday morning.  Having struggled somewhat with his set-up throughout qualifying he said a change made for A1 was a big step in the right direction and a confidence boost for the remaining two finals.

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Chassis Focus – Jerry Dai (Xray)

Chassis – Xray X4’24
ESC – Hobbywing XR10 Pro
Motor – Hobbywing G3 5.0T
Battery – Sunpadow 4600 mAh
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M12S / Sanwa PGS-LH II
Body – Xtreme Twister Speciale

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A-Main grid complete for Foshan Invitational RC C/ship

The A-Main grid for the Foshan Invitational RC Championship is set with Vening Zhuo set the lead the pack that with chase Top Qualifier Ronald Volker for the win at the GDC Indoor Track tomorrow in China.  Having secured the overall TQ in the the penultimate round, Volker would complete a clean sweep with his Mugen Seiki as he again topped the fourth & final round.  Once again it was Zhuo and his Awesomatix which led the challenge to the German, both drivers putting in their fastest runs of the day in closing round with 3.1 seconds the separation at the end of the 5-minutes.   With contact in Q2 blotching an otherwise consistent day Marco Ma completed the day with another P3 run and that’s were the Xray driver will line up for the finals.  Starting out the day by being half a second faster than his nearest rival in seeding, Yugo Nagashima wouldn’t be able to carry that form into qualifying and counting a P3 from Q2 and one of his three P4 runs the Japanese visitor will start fourth on the grid.  With a best run of a P4 in Q2, Xray driver Jerry Dai completes the front half of the grid.

Making a bump steer adjustment on his A800R, Zhuo said his car was better something that was back up on the timing screens with him being the only other driver along with Volker to run a 12-second fastest lap time in the final qualifier.   Asked he if felt he could take the race to Volker he quickly responded ‘absolutely’.  Asked if the track layout presented any particular areas to execute a safe pass he replied, ‘Nearly zero opportunities to pass but I still need to try.’

Summing up his final qualifying effort, Ma said, ‘I tried my best but the car was a little hard drive at the end’.   Looking forward to tomorrow’s finals, the 18-year-old said he plans to checkover his car and see what, if any, changes he will make to his set-up for the finals.  With GDC his local track, Ma said with the weather to be colder tomorrow in Foshan and this could present different track conditions to those experienced today.  While feeling there are a few opportunities in the lap to pass it will be difficult but his goal for tomorrow is to try gain position in the races.

Having made a change to his XQ11 for the final qualifier, Nagashima said it was ‘not good or bad’ and it ‘almost had the same feeling’ as before.  Feeling his lack of knowledge with the race’s controlled additive, which is completely different to anything he use in Japan, may be effecting how the car reacts to certain set-up changes he will try another set-up change for A1.  Starting from fourth on the grid he said, ‘I hope with this I will be able to go up positions’.

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