Catanzani takes close opening qualifier as Kurzbuch finds form in Chile

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani has taken the opening qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Chile, this morning’s first of the six schedule rounds a close encounter as Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch found his form after a below par seeding yesterday.  With a first lap error from Catanzani, it was 2019 World Champion Shoki Takahata who set the early pace but soon it was Top Seed Catanzani who was back at the top of the timing screens but all the while Kurzbuch was executing a strong run getting to within 0.156 of a second of the Italian, the two drivers the only ones to run 23-laps of the CACH track over the 7-minutes.  The star of yesterday’s seeding, Xray’s Maxime Ripoll would complete the Top 3 despite the French driver having a poor pit exit after his fuel stop, his car bouncing off the steel barrier.  Capricorn’s Toni Gruber would open with a P4 run after a driver error dropped Takahata back to P5 with the Capricorn of Thilo Diekman completing the Top 6.

‘7-minutes is very long with 1:8 but yes that was a good run’, that was Catazani’s reaction after topping Q1.  The 20-year-old continued, ‘I made one mistake on the first lap so I half a second.  In the sweeper I hit the insider (track marker) and then the lap later I was a little bit nervous but then I settled in to my pace and it was really good.  We tried something new (set-up) this morning and it was really good but now we need to practice a little bit on the refuelling because we lost time there, but we are fast so I am happy.’

With a spring back in his step following his P2 run, Kurzbuch said, ‘It was a good first run, pity we couldn’t get it as it was quite close.’  Having struggled yesterday and opted to full rebuilt his MRX7 for Q1, he said, ‘the car is working better, still a bit understeering so we can improve that a little bit, but yes I think we are in the game now.’  Asked if they found any issues during the car rebuilt that would have cause his lack of pace yesterday, the Swiss driver replied, ‘No we found nothing wrong but we built up the car from scratch, everything new, everything fresh, so maybe just sometimes all this helps.’  On the track conditions and whether the morning or afternoon is better for him, the 2015 World Champion said, ‘ Normally the morning is better for me’.

Disappointed with his own driving performance in Q1, Ripoll explained, ‘ I lost a bit of time getting on to the pace but its OK, P3 it is one good qualification already.’  The teenager continued, ‘We also lost a bit of time on the refuelling, my pit exit was horrible.  I lost 1-second on Simon.  My pace was not super good but I know when the track will be hotter my car will be more stable so.  For me now (morning) is the worst condition but I know it will get better but for the next one I also need to drive better.’

Describing his P4 as an ‘OK start’, Gruber explained, ‘The car felt really good in the afternoon yesterday after some changes but with the two sides to this track, the morning and the afternoon, the now now feels a little bit slower than the afternoon yesterday.  I think we have the set-up for the afternoon and not the morning but it’s nearly both.  Mostly in work in the afternoon but also in the morning it is not bad but not the best performance. But you know the final is in the afternoon so it better it work then than the morning.’  The German added that his tyre he choose got too small and that lost him performance over the final 2-minutes of the qualifier but summing up he is confident for Q2.

Catanzani Top Seed in Chile, as Ripoll impresses with P2

Andrea Catanzani is the Top Seed for the 24th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship but it is the pace of French driver Maxime Ripoll which is the big surprise in Chile.  The Top Qualifier at the 1:8 GT Worlds back in September, Catanzani’s Serpent would top the times in opening and closing runs of the day, the schedule made up of fourth seeding rounds.  In the second round it was Rapoll’s Xray that raised a few eyebrows as he set the fastest time ahead of 2019 World Champion Shoki Takahata.  Round 3 would see Takahata go fastest and the factory Mugen Seiki driver seeds 3rd for qualifying tomorrow when we will have the first 3 of the 6 rounds of 7-minute qualifiers.  After a bad start to seeding, Toni Gruber would make it four different manufacturers at the top as the Capricorn driver solved his engine/glowplug issues and managed a 4th and a 3rd to end the day 4th.  One of the favourites coming into this World Championship, Japan 2023 Top Qualifier Simon Kurzbuch, didn’t have the day he was looking for finding himself in P5 and with work to do for tomorrow.  Celebrating his birthday today, drivers from the 16 nations racing at these Worlds singing Happy Birthday to him at the end of the opening ceremony, British driver Alex Thurston made it three Mugen MRX7s in the Top 6.

Summing up his day, the first stage in his quest to become a World Champion perfectly executed, Catanzani explained, ‘We work really well on the car, changing little things that make the car different and we choose the right set-up for the last seeding practice.  We need to test something more tomorrow morning to get it perfect but of course the quali will be close with all these guys.  Also because it is 7-minutes you have to be consistent.’  Asked if it is a difficult track to be consistent, the 20-year-old replied, ‘Yes, because I think when your mechanic tells you your lap time you want to push more but if you do you end up hitting something, so you have to be calm and smooth.’  Happy the race, drivers having been on track since Friday, is going to plan asked about the wind, which was particular bad this evening, the Italian said, ‘It was bad but we work all the days for this because all the evening are like this so we work to have a fast car in the morning and a fast car in the afternoon.’  On a positive about the wind, he said, ‘it is always in one direction so when you arrive in that corner with the wind behind you have to stay a little bit safer than in the morning.’

Pleased with P2 modestly describing it as ‘pretty good’, Rapoll said he lacked a little speed in the final seeding round because they changed to his spare engine, but given the conditions of the wind and the hot track he said his RX8 was still good.  On the wind and the challenges for driver he explained, ‘It makes it pretty difficult because it is unpredictable and you can’t do anything on the car for it so it is a bit of luck driving when it catches you.  You just have to deal with it and cross the fingers that you are a bit lucky.’  With his 3-lap pace looking very strong, his best time only 5/100ths of a second off Catanzani, asked how he felt he his long run pace is, the 19-year-old replied, ‘For me it is more easy to drive a longer run.  The car is pretty good and easy to drive so I am looking forward to the qualifying and running for 7-minutes.’

Takahata summed up his P3 with ‘so, so’ explaining that he had a mistake on the third lap of each of his counting runs.  The newly crowned Japanese National Champion said his car, engine, and overall package is good but he will make a change for tomorrow to try and get a little more steering.  Flying the flag for reigning World Champion engine tuner Max Power, the 31-year-old will also ‘turn up the power’ on his engine for qualifying.

With his crew’s thoughts that a bad batch of glow plugs was the reason for his engine issues in the first two seeding rounds proving correct, with a plug from a different batch getting his Ielasi Tuned engine back to speed again, Gruber was relieved to solve that issue but with the wind picking up for the afternoon the German driver said ‘Round 3 the driving was difficult because of the wind.’  While getting himself into the top heat of qualifying, the final round his best ranking of the day, the reigning ENS Champion added, ‘we still need to improve the balance of the car to have a better feeling and to overall to have better corner speed.  We tried something for the last round and luckily it paid off for us and the car was much easier to drive.  So we hope to build on that positive for tomorrow.’

Reflecting on the first day that thing actually counted for anything, Kurzbuch said, ‘The day was not our best day.  The morning round was good, we had 2nd place but we were still not happy with the setting of the engine and from this point on somehow something went wrong and we have to do a complete rebuild of the car and check everything.  Somehow we couldn’t get an speed anymore.  The engines were good in practice and also the car so somehow there has to be a mistake somewhere.’  Asked if he was going to be in for a late & busy night, the 33-year-old replied, ‘No. We will know finish the day, and early tomorrow start off with a fresh brain and put everything together for tomorrow.’  On whether 7-minutes will suit him better or if the problem is bigger than just outright pace, he said, ‘for me I think I am faster over 7-minutes than 3-laps but of course today I was also not fast and the pace was not there yet.  We hope for a better day tomorrow.’

Catanzani from Ripoll in early 1:8 Worlds seeding

Having taken the overall TQ at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Chile back in September, it is Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani who leads the way in early seeding at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship from Maxime Ripoll, the French Xray driver impressing onlookers with his speed here at the large Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track in Santiago.  With Catanzani the benchmark in free practice, the Italian carried that momentum into the first of the four seeding rounds with a best time of 55.443 over 3-laps with Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch his closest rival with a 55.459 as team-mate Shoki Takahata complete the Top 3 ahead of Ripoll.  With changing track conditions the biggest challenge for drivers, as things hotted up after the first seeding on a cool track, it was Ripoll who had everything perfect to go fastest with a 55.499 just ahead of Takahata.  Making a changed that didn’t do what he expected, Catanzani was 3rd fastest ahead of the Mugen Seiki of top British racer Alex Thurston.  One of the pre-race favourites coming into the 44th running of these championships off the back of a championship winning ENS season, it has been a tough morning for Capricorn’s Toni Gruber,  the German experiencing engine issues in both runs.  While the car runs fine in the warm-up out on track it loses power and when they pit they find the plug is bad leading them to believe, having had the same problem twice, that a bad batch of glow plugs is the issue.  The 2023 1:8 GT World Champion will be hoping plugs from another batch will give him a change to seed strongly over the final two practices round for tomorrow’s start of qualifying, each driver’s best two points finishes from the four rounds determining the order for the heats.

Summing up his morning Catanzani said, ‘The first one was good.  The second one we tried something different because we know the track is always changing condition but it didn’t work like we expected so we just finish the practice and got third.’  He continued, ‘We know what we have to do for the next one.’  On his pace since practice started for the event on Friday, he replied, ‘the car is really good, especially in the morning, there is no wind and the track is still cold but then in the afternoon the wind starts so the car is a little bit sliding in the rear and also because the track gets more hot.  We are still finding the good set-up for this.’  The only leading contender to have previously raced here, asked if his GT experience was an advantage, he replied, ‘Only maybe for the first day because when the fastest guys arrive on track they need less than 1-day to learn the track.’  Ask about the technicality of the track for 1:8 Onroad, the 1:8 GT drivers loving the layout and size, Catalan said, ‘It’s not simple because there is also bumps you beed to avoid so it’s technical and fast.  If you stay near the white markings you are fast but if you go too much and hit them you loose time, it is a fine line.’

Racing 1:8 Onroad competitively since 2017, Chile is Ripoll’s 3rd World Championships.  With Fontana in 2019 very much a learning process, 2-years ago in Japan he looked on target to bump up to the Semi Finals until a tyre problem put him out of contention.  With a European Championship podium finish to his credit, the 19-year-old is now making a strong impression in Santiago.  A 2-time French National Champion, he said his car has been working well and unlike his rivals doesn’t seem to be as affected as much by the day’s changing track conditions.  He explained, ‘we came here with a base set up and just made some little adjustments like the shock oils and springs, the flex on the radio plate, and the roll centre, but really small changes.  For me the car is good all the time.  We change nothing compared to this morning.’  The Max Power driver added, ‘We won’t change the car for the next one but we might change engine just to test and to preserve the best one.  I already have two good engines ready to go.’  Asked about the track, Ripoll said, ‘It is super big, super fast, and while I like it I prefer a little track and a more technical track. For me this one is easy, maybe too easy for a World Championship.’

Giving a run down in the first half of seeding, Kurzbuch said, ‘It could be better.  In the morning run we had a bit of understeer in the car but the rest was good.  For Round 2 we changed to another engine just to try everything but the setting was too rich and I could only do my fast laps at the end with the engine still too rich so we could not be competitive that one’.  Overall the 2015 World Champion said their program is going good and they have learned a lot and ‘what we have seen so far is like in almost every heat someone else is the fastest, someone gets everything right for the conditions and set-up.  I think that is the difficult part for qualifying to try to get every run everything perfect.’  On the changing conditions, the Swiss driver explained, ‘First of all the first run is cold and no wind, the second run is no wind and hot, and then we start with a little wind and hot, and then we have hot and a lot of wind, that’s the daily programme.’  On the layout he described it as ‘fun to drive, it’s perfect, it’s a good track.’

Team-mate Takahata felt the balance of his MRX7 was better in the second round due the track conditions having not made any set-up changes.  Happy with how his car has been running since arriving here for practice, the 2019 World Champion is however not a huge fan of the track finding it completely alien in terms of size compared to the much smaller tracks he races on in Japan.  Taking his World title win in the US, he said the CACH track is bigger than the now no longer existing Steel City RC Speedway in Fontana.  On car set-up he said he doesn’t plan to change anything highlight that with the track so different each run it is hard to know if the change worked or it was the track.  Overall the 31-year-old is  happy with his pace describing the new car, with which he just recently won the Japanese National title, as ‘very good’.  Making the switch from long time engine sponsors O.S to reigning World Champions Max Power this season, he said the Italian engines are ‘super strong’ here.