5 Days of Practice complete in Switzerland, Pietsch on top

So five days of practice have been completed here in Switzerland at the 17th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships and its Robert Pietsch who sits at the top of the time sheets despite failing to improve his time in the final practice. The factory Mugen driver completed 29 laps in 10:07.493 in the morning practice and after making a mistake early in the evening session decided to use the run to practice his pit stops.

Coming closest to the German was fellow countryman Oliver Mack. Having had a bad clutch in the first practice, Mack found a better setting for the second to produce the second fastest run of day with 29 laps in 10:11.620. The Team Shepherd driver, who recorded the best lap time of the day with a 19.877 in P1, said his Velox is very good so much so that he has been running the same set-up for the last three days. Tyre wear is proving high for most drivers but Mack said his aggressive driving style is adding to the problem.

Making it three different brands of car at the head of the time sheets, Mark Green described his Serpent 966 as ‘great’. The Englishman said he is 98% there and that the missing 2% was down to his driving but he hopes to rectify that tomorrow. The 2007 World’s finalist who switched to Novarossi this year said the engines are a little sensitive to tuning but once set were really strong around the fast Lostallo circuit.  Swiss driver Marco Muller enjoyed a strong evening practice to post the fourth fastest time, a run he is delighted with. The Shepherd driver has set himself a target of qualifying in the top 18 but leaves the track here tonight a very happy man.

Second fastest earlier today, Italy’s Andrea Pirani failed to improve on his time and dropped to fifth. Switching to softer compound tyres from new Italian company J-Tech,  the Mugen driver found the car quicker but less consistent. Overall he thinks he could have maintained a top 2 placing but a late call for his second fuel stop saw his Novarossi run dry. Vice World Champion Andrea Cristiani completed the Top 6 with his Max powered Serpent 966. The star of Argentina, the young Italian feels he will have his work cut out to close the gap but having qualified only 24th in 2007 admitted anything is possible.

Just behind Cristiani is fellow Team Serpent/Max driver Tadahiko Sahashi. The Japanese ace who referred to the track as ‘excellent’ described his car as ‘so, so’ with a lack of traction hampering his pace in the second practice. Unsure how to cure the problem he said he will think about it overnight and make changes in the morning.

One of the few drivers running a one stop stategy, Italy’s Walter Salemi said his focus today has been solely on engines. Completing the Top 8 the Mugen driver, who was a finalist in Argentina, is running a brand new engine design from Schepis Models/Reds Racing and despite having to be careful at the end of the run is happy to have achieved their target of running five minutes on a tank.

Elsewhere 2007 podium finisher Chris Tosolini had a rear axle break on his Sirio powered Kyosho in the second run adding to a troubled first practice in which he only completed 15 laps. The American said they could have done with the track time but is confident that all will be OK for tomorrow. 15 laps was one more than defending Champion Lamberto Collari managed as he too endured a difficult day in the very humid conditions.

So tomorrow we get down to the serious business of qualifying when times start counting for grid position and we can expect the cream to rise to the top. In the morning drivers in Groups 1 to 7 will have their two qualifiers with the faster Groups 8 to 15 taking to the track for second part of the day.

Practice times (Top 10)
1. Pietsch Robert (D) – Mugen/NR – 29/10:07.493
2. Mack Oliver (D) – Shepherd/NR – 29/10:11.620
3. Green Mark (GB) – Serpent/NR – 29/10:12.341
4. Müller Marco (CH) – Shepherd/NR – 29/10:13.435
5. Pirani Andrea (I) – Mugen/NR – 29/10:13.745
6. Cristiani Andrea (I) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:14.384
7. Sahashi Tadahiko (JP) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:15.212
8. Salemi Walter (I) – Mugen/SM-Reds – 29/10:15.514
9. Van Gastel Ilia (HU) – Kyosho/Orion – 29/10:16.313
10.Patrick Schäfer (D) – Shepherd/NR – 29/10:17.101

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Pietsch controlling the pace

The final controlled practice is underway here in Lostallo and with plenty of time to kill between runs we caught up with one of the pre-event favourites Robert Pietsch.  Setting the pace in the first of today’s 10 minute runs from fellow Mugen driver Andrea Pirani, the German ace is very happy with the performance of his Novarossi powered MRX-4X. Featuring new harder plastics and a new shock mounting position on the rear wishbones for this event, the Warm Up race Top Qualifier says overall the car is working really well with only very slight oversteer keeping him away from a perfect set-up.

The Bumod Grand Prix winner is, like most drivers, running a two stop strategy over the 10 minutes. Managing to get five minutes from his Novarossi engine in an earlier practice he said there was no advantage to be gained as the cautious driving style to make the time meant a 1/2 second drop off in his lap times. Commenting on tyres Piestch said the wear is pretty high but that is not a problem for him as his set-up works best on larger tyres.

Asked who he felt has stood out during practice the Mugen designer said there are a lot of drivers with the potential to be strong here and until qualifying gets underway we will not get a true picture. He did single out a couple of drivers including defending Champion Lamberto Collari but added that the 8 time World Champion appears to be inconsistent being very fast one run and then off the pace in the next. Others to impress him include Serpent pairing Michael Salven & Tadahiko Sahashi and Shepherd factory driver Oliver Mack.

Interestingly Pietsch said prior to the Worlds he played a lot of sports to try and build up his fitness for this long event.  Drivers have already had five days of running with another five still remaining and that is sure to take its toll. The long periods between each driver’s run, over 5 hours today, is also a mental challenge for the drivers and good fitness level is sure to help.

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Collari chases ninth World title in Switzerland

In 1989 a young Italian took his first 1:8 Onroad World title and now 20 years on that very same driver is chasing a unprecedented ninth World Championship crown. Lamberto Collari is a true legend of r/c racing and his achievements put him up there with seven time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher and eight times MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi. There are very few sports men that have been at the top of their game for such a long period and that has led to many rumours recently that the shy Italian will retire from the sport he has dominated, but when we put the question to him he was quick to respond saying he has no plans to stop racing as he still has the same passion and determination to win as he did when he took his first World title. Chasing his fourth consecutive World title here this week in Lostallo, Switzerland, Collari said he feels comfortable and well prepared for the event. The last time Collari was not the World Champion was back in 2001 when Japanese driver Kenji Osaka took the win for Mugen. Osaka is not present this time round making 1999 World Champion Adrien Bertin the only other World title holder competing in the 17th Edition of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship. Things have come along way since Butch Kroells won the first Worlds driving a two wheel drive Team Associated back in 1977, the track restaurant having a great display of cars from the past mounted on the walls.  To date three manufacturers share the honours of most World victories with Kyosho, Serpent and the no longer in existence BMT all having 3 wins a piece.

Practice has been running since Thursday with the 149 drivers having already had sixteen 10 minute runs to prepare with one last practice left this afternoon in which to fine tune their cars ahead of the first two rounds of qualification tomorrow. So far the pace is being set by Mugen factory driver Robert Pietsch. The German is one of the favourites here in Lostallo having taken TQ honours here in June at the Warm Up race.  Hitting engine trouble in the final Pietsch managed only seventh with Alberto Picco taking the win also at the controls of a Mugen which appears to be the car to beat here. All ten finalists in Argentina are present here to battle it out again with only a few changes to the artillery they will use. In terms of chassis the only change is that of current 1:10 World Champion Daniele Ielasi who is now heading the efforts of Shepherd while on the engine front Serpent’s Mark Green has joined Novarossi and Mugen’s Walter Salemi is using the new Reds Racing engines from Mario Rossi.

Our coverage, which is supported by Serpent and Mugen, will get into full swing later today when we have had an opportunity to sit down with the leading teams and their drivers to find out who is doing what and who is feeling most confident about getting down to the serious business of qualifying tomorrow.

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