Meen V TQs 3rd FEMCA qualifier

Reigning Nitro Touring Car World Champion Meen Veijrak ended Day 1 of qualifying for the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championship with a TQ run making him the third driver to top the times at the Chinese event.  The Thai driver took his Mugen to the fastest time of the day outpacing Q2 pace setter Dani Choi, who having finished all the qualifiers in the Top 2 holds the provisional overnight TQ honours, with Kyosho’s Yuichi Kanai completing the Top 3 with his fastest run of the day.  For Q1 pace setter Atsushi Hara Q3 would prove difficult with a series of crashes leaving the pre-event favourite only 14th fastest.

Having extended the wheelbase of his OS Speed powered MBX-7, 28-year-old Vejrak said the change gave him better traction and made the buggy more stable than it had been in the opening two qualifiers.  With the track getting more and more bumpy each round and with the Chinese Offroad National Champions for both nitro & electric set to run on the track tomorrow, he expects a much rougher track tomorrow even after overnight repair work is carried out.  As a result he said he plans to run a softer set-up for the first of tomorrow’s remaining 3 qualifiers which are set to get underway just before lunch local time.

Choi was very happy with how is day went but said brain failure in Q3 lead to a mistake and after that he found it hard to get back into his rhythm.  Switching from a 3 to a 4 shoe clutch in his Alpha engine he said it made the bottom end a little too aggressive and for tomorrow he will switch to softer springs to cure this.  Again running Sweep’s Exagon tyre which has performed extremely well throughout the day he will change to his employer’s Square Armor tyre tomorrow after Ryan Lee successfully tested it in his 3rd qualifier in which he posted the 6th fastest time.  Choi said the tyres will lose him a little corner speed but should make the buggy more consistent.

Moving his rear upper camber link to the outside position on the shock tower, Kanai said this gave his MP9 much better rear grip.  Having run medium compound AKA Impact tyres in Q2 he reverted back to the soft he ran in Q1 which he also found worked better allowing him to knock almost 4 seconds off his previous best time.  Overall the former World Champion said he was very happy to end the day with a Top 3 run adding he is really looking forward to Day 2 of qualifying.  Fellow countryman and Kyosho driver Dai Hiroki followed Kanai’s set up change and he too liked the result as he set the fourth fastest time.  Suffering just one mistake after a series of errors in Q2, the Kyosho Masters Champion said the plan for tomorrow is to leave his Reds Racing powered example of the MP9 as is and just drive a little harder.

Thai Agama driver Witsarut Rumlarp was a lot happier with his buggy in Q3 after he changed to harder shock oil and a softer compound Beta Vmax tyre.  Setting the fifth fastest time, the 27-year-old plans to try a softer insert for Q4 which he hopes will further improve the feeling of his Bullitt powered A8.

Describing himself as the tyre tester for Choi, Ryan Lee was very happy with his Q3 run and in particularly his lap times as he set the fastest lap of the race, himself and Hara the only two drivers to do a lap in 29-seconds.   Testing Sweep’s Square Armor he said the car felt good although he has recommended that Choi run one compound softer in Q4.  For himself Lee will use his fourth heat to test the Cubix tyre in the harder red compound with a view to building up tyre data for the Semi Finals for Choi.

Hara said his buggy actually felt good but changing to lighter swaybars on the front and rear of his Mugen had resulted in too much traction.  This combined with him slightly over-driving after some early crashes left him finishing well off the pace.  Planning to revert to the harder swaybars he ran earlier in the day so he can post a third Top 10 run and book himself a spot in the Semis, he said once he can get that done he will use the final two qualifiers to test adding that he is lacking track time with the new buggy.  Asking him how the Mugen compared to the HB D812 he said the difference between the too chassis is quite big with the MBX7 a lot more aggressive than he expected.  In terms of set-up he added that the Mugen is also a lot more sensitive to small changes.

HB driver Sheng Chie Huang set the 7th fastest time ahead of Charlee Phutiyotin with the Top 8 being completed by British driver Tommy Chung. Despite his Asian sounding name, this is Chung’s first time to China and after two less then perfect opening qualifiers he was much happier with his driving in Q3.  For tomorrow the Kyosho driver plans to copy the change made by Kanai and hopefully build on his Q3 time.

Round 3 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Meen Vejrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:04.065
2. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:10.363
3. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:21.375
4. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 19/10:25.192
5. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 19/10:27.112
6. Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:04.098
7. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 18/10.05.985
8. Charlee Phutiyotin (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:06.451
9. Tommy Chung (UK) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 18/10:06.847
10.Trin T (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:18.491

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Choi takes Q2 in China

Korea’s Dani Choi took the second round of qualifying at the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in China heading Q1 pace setter Atsushi Hara by 5.5 seconds with versatile Thai ace Meen Veijrak completing the Top 3. Choi said despite the track being a lot dustier than in Q1 his Sweep Exagon equipped Kyosho had better traction allowing him to improve his opening time by 5 seconds.  Describing the track as having got more bumpy in Q2, something he said he was able to drive around on this occasion, he said he will monitor the surface before Q3 to decide what changes he might need adding that he is pretty sure he will run a different spring on the MP9.  Running for the first time Alpha’s new Ryan Lutz exhaust to match up with the same named engine, he said it worked really well giving the engine a lot more bottom end power.

‘Car good, lap times good, just too many mistakes’ was how Hara summed up his second qualifier.  The 2006 World Champion said the spell of sunny conditions had made the track become very dusty.  Running AKA Impacts he said his tyres worked ‘OK’ considering the change and for Q3 he will hold off on making a decision on which compound of the Impact to run in the closing run of the day here at the Beijing Model Sports Association’s new track.  In terms of set-up, Hara said with three from the 6 qualifiers counting he wants to play it safe today and not change too much on the buggy which is overall working ‘well’ for him.  Planning a small change for Q3 in going for a lighter sway bars, he hopes this will get him his third good run so that he can use tomorrow’s three remaining qualifiers to test a few set-up ideas he has.

Despite describing traction in Q2 as being lower than the morning’s opening round, Veijrak said his decision to change from Procircuit’s Roadrunner to Hot Dice tyre worked well.  Still however the Nitro Touring Car World Champion was not happy with his driving as he again made a mistake that cost him a potential second for the round.  In terms of his Mugen set-up he plans to extend his wheelbase for Q3 in the hope it will make the car more suitable to the changing track conditions.   For team-mate Chavit Saliguppa who was fourth fastest in Q1, a series of driver errors meant he would only post the 13th fastest time.

Having switched from soft to medium compound AKA Impacts for Q2, Kyosho’s Yuichi Kanai said the hard tyre made his MP9 a little nervous at the start of the heat.  Setting the fourth fastest time, the famed 1:8 Offroad driver will make a call on his choice of compound nearer to the time of this evening’s final heat but in terms of his MP9 set-up will leave it as is.

Sheng Chie Huang took his Alpha powered D812 to the fifth fastest time, a result the Taiwanese driver was very pleased about.  Running soft compound HB Grid Lock tyres, he plans to switch to AKA Impact for Q3 along with changing from a 2.5mm to 3.0mm rear toe block.

Third fastest in Q1, Kyosho driver Dai Hiroki completed the Top 6 after a number of mistakes over the second of his 10-minute runs but says he is still happy with his MP9 and its just the driver that needs to be better.

Having suffered a flame out in his first qualifier leaving him only 17th, Charlee Phutiyotin posted the 7th fastest time in Q2.  Describing track condition as ‘super low grip’ compared to that of yesterday’s practice the fast Thai driver ran soft Procircuit Hot Dice but plans to switch to super soft for his next run.  Having just made the Top 10 in Q1, Sweep’s Ryan Lee improved his time by 5-seconds to set the 8th fastest time with Thai pairing Witsarut Rumlarp and Akarachai Boontham completing the Top 10.

Round 2 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:07.698
2. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:13.295
3. Meen Veijrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:18.697
4. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:27.752
5. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 19/10.31.452
6. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 18/10:00.961
7. Charlee Phutiyotin (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:03.972
8. Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:15.367
9. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 18/10:17.296
10.Akarachai Boontham (TH) – Mugen/Alpha – 18/10:18.491

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Hara tops opening FEMCA Qualifier

Atsushi Hara, who only last Friday made the shock announcement that he was leaving HB, has taken the opening round of qualifying at the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in China.  Racing a Mugen, which the former World Champion went out and bought himself in a hobby shop in Thailand, the Japanese ace set the pace in the first of six 10-minute runs by just over 5-seconds from Korea’s Dani Choi and with Japanese Kyosho driver Dani Hiroki completing the Top 3 at Beijing Model Sports Association’s freshly built FT Offroad track.  With a difficult Visa procedure keeping defending Champion Kyle McBride away from contesting this year’s FEMCA Championship, the Far East’s equivalent of the EFRA European Championships, and thereby denying the Australian the opportunity to go for a third consecutive title, Hara’s TQ run endorses his status as pre-event favourite to take back the title he previously held.

His first time running the Mugen, Hara said the buggy is working really well but in the run he himself made a couple of ‘stupid mistakes’ which he feels amounted up to about 10-seconds in lost time.  Borrowing top US onroad racer JJ Wang’s pitman AI for this event, Hara has been using the Mugen website to get a set-up for the race which he said is now a combination of the standard MBX7 set-up and the one used by Robert Battle to win last December’s World Championship in Argentina.  Describing the track as a little different to yesterday’s practice, he said it was a little tricky at the start of the run as overnight repairs had changed the angles of many of the jumps, some having less of an angle while others were now launching the buggy much higher than before. Running AKA Grid Iron in Q1, Hara said they made his OS powered buggy easy to drive but they where a little too loose on a track which he described as having lower levels of traction compared to yesterday.  For Q2 he will switch to an Impact tyre.

‘Awesome’ was how Choi described his opening run despite the fact he got a Stop & Go penalty for having been deemed by race officials to have impeded Meen Vejrak when he was released from his fuel stop by mechanic and Sweep frontman Ryan Lee. An employee for Sweep where he was responsible for designing the ‘Birdy’ bodyshell he is running on his Kyosho, Choi was very happy with the performance of his Alpha engined MP9. Planning to just check over the buggy ahead of Q2 rather than make any set-up changes he will also stick with the same soft compound of Sweep’s Exagon tyre.  Lee, who is also competing in the event, took his TLR to the 10th fastest time.  Running Sweep’s Cubix tyre, he said the pin on the new set of tyre was too big and for Q2 he will follow his team-mate and switch to the Exagon.

23-year-old Kyosho Masters Champion Hiroki was very happy with his run to third saying that he really likes the track layout.  Happy with how his Reds Racing powered MP9 is working he plans to run everything as is for Q2 including staying on AKA’s soft Impact tyre.

The best represented country in the event after China, 10 of the 14 FEMCA countries being represented here in China, Thailand’s Chavit Saliguppa took his OS powered Mugen to the 5th fastest time separating the Kyoshos of Hiroki and former World Champion & MP9 designer Yuichi Kanai.  The 18-year-old, who had some mistakes over the run, ran on AKA City Block for his opening qualifier but predicting higher traction for Q2 will switch Prolines Revolver tyres while leaving his set-up as is.

Topping the time in yesterday’s practice Kanai is loving the track describing the layout as ‘super fun’.  Very happy with his pace, the Kyosho legend suffered ‘one big mistake’ but hopes  a clean second qualifier will net a better placing.  Running AKA Impact tyres for the round, he plans to leave everything as is for Q2.

Completing the Top 6 was reigning Nitro Touring Car World Champion Meen Veijrak.  The Thai driver said he drive to aggressive and this resulted in two costly mistake one of which say him get tangled with Kanai.  Also choosing the wrong tyre for the conditions of the opening heat having run Procircuit’s Roadrunner Meen will switch to the Hot Dice for Q2 which he said together with smoother driving should allow him to improve as his OS Speed powered MBX7 set-up feels good.

Round 1 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:07.526
2. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:12.696
3. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 19/10:22.367
4. Chavit Saliguppa (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:23.916
5. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:25.016
6. Meen Veijrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:27.571
7. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 18/10:00.082
8. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 18/10.15.799
9. Aeknurin Kanket (TH) – Xray/FX – 18/10:18.563
10.Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:20.257

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Track Focus – Fengtai Raceway

Track Name – Fengtai Raceway
Host – Beijing Model Sport Association
Country – China
Location – Fengtai, Beijing (20 km west-south of central Beijing)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Clay

The FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships takes place for the first time in China this week at an all new track in the Fengtai district of Beijing.  Located next to one of the stadiums built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games, the track is part of the development of an r/c car complex by the Beijing Model Sports Association which also looks after rc planes and boats and already has a building for that located just across the street.  A month ago nothing resembling an r/c track existed on the site until Charlie Siribodhi, organiser of the 2010 1:8 Offroad World Championships, arrived from Thailand last week with 6 of his Pattaya track crew to build the track for the event. As competitors from 10 of the 14 countries that make up FEMCA region started arriving on Monday the main building which house the drivers stand, pits, race control and media centre was only just a frame but some impressive construction work saw the building literally grow infront of their eyes in readiness for yesterday’s opening ceremony.

The layout was designed by Lung Chuan Lee from Tawian.  Lee, who as a day job works on designing and painting bodyshells, was invited to design the track for the FEMCA event by the Beijing Model Sports Association due to his experience in designing a number of tracks within China.  With the track producing around a 30-second lap time, pre-event favourite Atsushi Hara described the layout as ‘easy and friendly’.   The former World Champion said the high levels of the traction in some sections compared with the height of the drivers stand make it a little tricky to judge when driving.  While some sections of the track are a little on the narrow side, he said the positioning of the rostrum can make much of the track look narrower than it actually is and so you tend not to use all the available track.  For the Japanese ace the trickiest section is the opposing speed bump located after the big step-up.  In terms of traction on the freshly laid track, which has been sugar coated, Hara described it as ‘OK’.

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