August 17, 2009

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.

View our event image gallery here.

August 17, 2009

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.

View our event image gallery here.

August 2, 2009

Groskamp finally Europe’s No.1

‘I have been second so many times, finally I am first’, was how your new European Electric Touring Car Champion Jilles Groskamp summed up his victory here in Luxembourg. Having been a Top Qualifier on two previous occasions at the EFRA Championships, the factory Tamiya/Speedpassion driver made it third time lucky, converting his pole position into victory with wins in Leg 2 & 3. Starting the third leg, with four drivers still in contention for the 2009 title, the Dutch ace lead from start to finish but said another bad set of tyres had made his car loose. Still managing to set the fastest lap of the race, Groskamp believes he would have had his work cut out if outgoing champion Marc Rheinard and 2007 Champion Ronald Volker had not controversially come together on lap 6.

One of the hardest working drivers in the sport, Groskamp’s win was a very popular one and just after the race he said it was going to be cool to be on the top step of the podium joined by both the World and Vice World Champions. Relocating to Asia next week the win was a nice way for Groskamp to end his time in Europe but he has vowed to return to defend his title in France next year.

Coming to Luxembourg with both the World and European titles to his credit Marc Rheinard was forced to settle for the runners-up spot, not something he is accustomed to. The factory Tamiya/Speedpassion driver won the opening leg of the final and had a very fast car again in the third but a clash with Volker while battling over second earned him a stop go penalty. Accused by some of team driving the German replied by saying, ‘there was no team plan for this race I had the same opportunity to win as the other three and I was out to win for myself.’ The German hit his fellow countryman exiting the Laguna Seca style corner that leads onto the back straight. Waiting for the Team Yokomo driver to regain position, Volker’s LRP powered BD5 ended up on the grass. Rheinard resumed as he was swallowed up by the pack, serving his Stop Go penalty next time round, eventually finishing fourth for the Leg.

One had to feel sorry for Volker, the former Champion was clearly gutted by the incident. Changes to his Yokomo chassis had provided him with the best set-up he had all week and the German felt confident he could make a clean battle to challenge for his second European title.  Recovering from the incident to finishing the Leg in second the third step of the podium offers some small consolation for this very unassuming factory driver.

Benefitting from all this was 15-year-old German Yannic Pruemper. Starting from eight on the grid the Tamiya Junior driver was elevated to second following the clash of the title protagonist. Eventually passed by Volker in the dying moments of the leg third place was enough to see Pruemper crowned the new Junior European Champion and finish sixth overall in his first European Championship final. Fourth for the leg was the other of the title contenders Hupo Honigl who ended his touring car career with fourth overall, equalling his previous best at these championships. The Austrian driver was pleased with his performance and is now looking forward to the 1:10 Off Road European Championship in two weeks time where he is confident of claiming a title for both Tamiya and LRP.

Taking fifth overall, the 2009 Championships will be one Viktor Wilck will want to forget.  The Swede was super fast, recording the fastest lap of the event, but with the exception of the fourth round of qualifying always ran out of luck. In the third Leg he was all over teammate Groskamp until his Tamiya veered off the track with radio interference.

So after years of coming so close Jilles Groskamp, one of the top electric touring car drivers in the World, returns to the Netherlands this evening with his biggest trophy yet. Heading home with the biggest smile and as the proudest father in Europe right now is his dad Frank who has supported his son since he started out in the sport 16 years ago.  A well run event we would like to thank everyone that made use feel so welcome here at the Mini-Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”. We hope you enjoyed our coverage this week, which was brought to you in association with Team Orion and LRP, and we hope you will join us for our next live event, the 1:8 Onroad World Championships which takes place in Switzerland in two weeks time.

Final Result
1. Groskamp Jilles – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 2 pts
2. Rheinard Marc – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 4
3. Völker Ronald – Yokomo/LRP – 4
4. Hönigl Hubert – Tamiya/LRP – 7
5. Wilck Viktor – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 8
6. Prümper Yannic – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 9
7. Graversen Steen – Kyosho/Team Orion – 12
8. Krapp Christopher – Kyosho/Team Orion – 13
9. Urbain Lucas – Losi/GM Racing – 13
10.Hagberg Alexander – Xray/LRP – 15

Full results from the event can be found here.

View our event image gallery here.

August 2, 2009

Groskamp is European Champion

It was third time lucky for Jilles Groskamp as he converted his third European TQ position into overall victory at the 2009 EFRA Electric Touring European Championships to claim his first ever European title with another dominant performance in the third leg of the A-Main here in Luxembourg.

Full report to follow.