Meen V World Champion

KM Racing’s Meen V is the 2012 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion, the Thai driver winning a rain shortened race from HB’s Atsushi Hara and Capricorn’s Francesco Tironi.  Having built a huge early lead over the pack and looked like he was going to dominate the race, Top Qualifier Teemu Leino was to hit problems eventually retiring his HB.

Final Result
1.(4) Meen Vejrak – KM Racing/Novarossi – 208/56:35.312
2.(3) Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed – 207/56:30.902
3.(8) Francesco Tironi – Capricorn/Capricorn – 204/56:33.302
4.(10)Andy Moore – HB/Maxima – 203/56:26.846
5.(7) Chavit Sirigupta – Mugen/Maxima – 202/56:26.715
6.(6) Keisuke Fukuda – Mugen/Picco – 202/56:32.394
7.(5) Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Orcan – 202/56:33.002
8.(2) Jilles Groskamp – Capricorn/Maxima – 201/56:30.134
9.(9) Cheung Hang Hung – KM Racing/Murnan – 196/56:17.902
10.(1)Teemu Leino – HB/LRP – 181/49:57.460

Full report to follow shortly.

2012 World final grid complete

The grid for the 1-hour Main that will decide who will be crowned the 5th 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion in Bangkok, Thailand later this evening has been finalised with two drivers progressing from the first of the Semi’s and the other 4 who join the Top 4 direct qualifiers coming from the second Semi.  Following a lengthy protest over the results of the 1/4 B final officials made the unusual decision to allow Francesco Tironi, who protested that the timing had missed his second lap, start as an additional 11th car on the grid for the 30-minute encounter.

Starting on pole position factory Xray driver Alexander Hagberg drove a faultless race to book his place in the main event ahead of Tironi with Paul Lemieux 3rd but unfortunately for the American the second Semi would, despite a rain shower that delayed the start, be the quicker race.  The top 2 in each Semi progress while the final two places on the grid are awarded to the two drivers with the next fastest race times.  There was cruel luck for KM Racing’s Dario Balestri, the Italian’s first set back came when he spun exiting the pits after his final stop after Peter Jovanovic’s Capricorn poured fuel all over the exit area due to a broken spring on the lid of his fuel tank.  Then in the final minute of the race while running third just ahead of Lemieux he went to pass a back marker who hit the rear of his H-K1 spinning it out and as the Italian tried to spin the car back in the right direction he hit a track barrier knocking off a front wheel.  Another to go out of the race in dramatic circumstances was Marc Rheinard who got fuel in his receiver on his last stop which sent the Capricorn crashing on full throttle into the fencing at the end of the pitlane.

In the second Semi 2006 World Champion Keisuke Fukuda took an easy win ahead of fellow Mugen driver & local hero Chavit Sirigupta with third going to Cheung Hang Hung, who started the day out in the 1/4 Final.  Finishing fourth with his HB, nitro touring car novice Andy Moore secured the final spot on the grid making it a great Worlds debut for the new R10 which has the biggest share of the grid with three cars.

Grid for Main Final
1. Teemu Leino – HB/LRP
2. Jilles Groskamp – Capricorn/Maxima
3. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed
4. Meen Vejrak – KM Racing/Novarossi
5. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Orcan
6. Keisuke Fukuda – Mugen/Picco
7. Chavit Sirigupta – Mugen/Maxima
8. Francesco Tironi – Capricorn/Capricorn
9. Cheung Hang Hung – KM Racing/Murnan
10.Andy Moore – HB/Maxima

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Lemieux, Pietsch & Shimo progress to Semis

US National Champion Paul Lemieux and 2010 World finalists Robert Pietsch & Takaaki Shimo are through to the Semi finals after finishing in the Top 3 of their respective 1/4 Finals.  In the first of the 20-minute encounters Lemieux’s No.2 Xray took the win ahead of Shimo’s Kyosho who started on pole position.  The big battle of the race was for third between the No.4 Kyosho of Sinnosuke Yokoyama and the Xray of Guiseppe D’Angelo who looked on target for his third bump of the event having started out in the 1/16 final yesterday.  With 2-laps to go however the young Japanese talent got passed into third bringing the Italian’s impressive run to an end. The race brought an end to the World Championship campaign of a number of top European drivers.  Despite contesting that the timing computer had missed one of his laps, an issue that has resulted in manual corrections for almost all the finals run so far, Capricorn driver Francesco Tironi was classified 5th.  European Championship runner up Mario Spinello could only managed 8th just ahead of former European Champion Dirk Wischnewski and Serpent designer Michael Salven, who while not having a good race following an early incident with Tironi, retired 1 minute from he end with a broken rear belt on his 747.

In the 1/4 A final Hong Kong KM Racing driver Cheung Hang Hung, who graduated from the 1/8 A final which he won, put in a very impressive performance to beat Mugen designer & 1:8 World Champion Pietsch.  There was heartbreak for his Mugen team-mate JJ Wang who while holding a comfortable third, the final bump up position to the Semis, crashed coming onto the straight in the final two minutes of the race.  Damaging his car being damaged he made his way back to the pits where his mechanic AI fixed it but there was not enough time to recover allowing Kyosho driver Shoki Takahata to progress.  Casualties of the race included Xray designer & 2008 podium finisher Martin Hudy who had the rear belt come off the pulleys, something he said he has never seen happen before, 2010 finalist Takumi Matsuda and 2010 runner-up Takehiro Terauchi.

Grid for Semi Final B
1. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Orcan
2. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi
3. Dario Balestri – KM Racing/Novarossi
4. Peter Jovanovic – Capricorn/Capricorn
5. Daan Jacobs – Serpent/Max
6. Mongkolplan Lomrose – Mugen/Maxima
7. Marc Rheinard – Capricorn/Capricorn
8. Paul Lemieux – Xray/Max
9. Takaaki Shimo – Kyosho/OS Speed
10.Shinnosuke Yokoyama – Kyosho/OS Speed

Grid for Semi Final A
1. Keisuke Fukuda – Mugen/Picco
2. Chavit Sirigupta – Mugen/Maxima
3. Biagio Spataro – Xray/G-Mar
4. Andy Moore – HB/Maxima
5. Kyle Branson – Mugen/Sirio
6. Surikarn C – Xray/Max
7. Paphon Chanyasak – Xray/Maxima
8. Cheung Hang Hung – KM Racing/Murnan
8. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Novarossi
10.Shoki Takahata – Kyosho/OS Speed

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

1/8 Finals Update

The eighth & final day of the 2012 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championships has been reached in Bangkok, Thailand, with the 1/8 Finals getting the big day’s action underway.  Overnight rain meant, despite great efforts of the RC Addict staff in drying the track, conditions for the first 5 minutes of the 20-minute encounter were very tricky with most of the cars struggling for traction.  Having bumped up from yesterday’s 1/16 B final it was the No.8 starting Xray of Giuseppe D’Angelo who would go on to take the win ahead of fellow Italian & 2008 World Championship Top 4 direct qualifier Francesco Tironi.  The winner of the Pre Worlds Warm-up race, Tironi started from pole but struggled with his Capricorn early in the race before progressing back towards the front.  Benefiting from the misfortune of Tanit K and European Electric Touring Car Champion Ronald Volker who both suffered flame outs while in contention to bump it, Serpent driver Yuya Sahashi took third to bump up to the 1/4 Finals.

In the 1/8 A Final, Hong Kong driver Cheung Hang Hung took the win from pole position ahead of 2010 Finalist Takumi Matsuda from Japan and yesterday’s 1/16 B final winner Rico Krober.  The same race saw the demise of 2008 World Champion Daniele Ielasi who started & finished 6th after the tyres on his Shepherd got chuncked in an incident with another car.  With Ielasi out this means just one former champion of the class remains in the event with Keisuke Fukuda due up later on today in the second of the Semi finals.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Lower finals complete, 52 drivers remain

The lower finals of the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championships are completed and the six drivers who will progress to the big day here in Bangkok, Thailand, has been decided.  Running up to and including the 1/16th finals, Day 7 of the event has seen the entry whittled down from 122 drivers to 52.  First of the drivers to book his place through to the final day and technically still have a chance at becoming the fifth World Champion of the class was top Italian driver Giuseppe D’Angelo who from pole position won the 20-minute 1/16 B final comfortably from Malaysian driver Shah Mohd and 1:8 World Championship podium finisher Masao Tanaka.  The same race resulted in the demise of two well known drivers with factory Serpent driver Paolo Morganti, who suffered a flame out, and top Brazilian racer Eduardo Dulac who finished 6th & 7th respectively.

In the 1/16 A final, the last race of the day, 2012 European finalist Rico Kober took the win from fifth on the grid well clear of Brazil’s Hennique Winik and driver of the day Ludovic Leflon.  Frenchman Leflon, who is based at the RC Addict track where he works for r/c company Ride, qualified 7th in the 1/32 A final from where he went on to finish 2nd behind German Patrick Nahr to bump up to the 1/16th.

Despite a bad start to his second race of the day, Leflon who had Atsushi Hara and Hot Bodies R10 designer Miyashita as his pit crew, with Hara shouting plenty of encouragement at him, the rest of the race was less eventful and he worked his way up to third to claim a very popular final bump up position to the big day tomorrow and onto the back of the 1/8 A final grid.  Unfortunately for Shepherd team driver Nahr there was hard luck on the second time of asking as another strong performance came undone when he lost second gear.  Continuing with just one gear, he would miss the cut by 3 seconds despite his best efforts.  What has been a tough event for Team Shepherd, who made the podium with Marc Rheinard two years ago, company boss Patrick Schafer’s bad luck continued with an incident on the opening lap of the 1/32 B final that put him out on the spot with a broken car.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.