March 4, 2023

Coelho leads way in Offroad at MIBO International

Bruno Coelho leads the way at the MIBO International Race, the Xray driver the top seed for both 2WD & 4WD Buggy in Hrotovice.   The World Champion’s first race on indoor carpet in more than 3-years, he has quickly found his rhythm on the 30 metre wide and 19 metre deep track topping 2WD from Martin Bayer and 4WD from young Polish talent Bartosz Zalewski.  Commenting on his morning’s work he said, ‘We have been making a lot of changes, testing & testing to make it faster and faster. Everything works good both in 2WD and 4WD’.  Asked if they had made any significant key changes he explained all the changes have been big to see if this is the right direction to go and if it is then the rest of the rest test it adding ‘this is a god race for this (approach)’.

Second fastest in 4WD and P4 in 2WD, Zalewski said his XB4 is ‘really smooth to drive and fast’.  The 16-year-old from Warsaw said he is pleased with the car set-up and has been more focused on his driving.  Describing his 2WD, in which his was 4th fastest, as a little unstable he said this feeling is probably more about how he is driving it then a set-up issue and so he will ‘work more on the driving’ for the opening qualifier.

Third fastest in 2WD, Max Gotzl summed up practice with ‘so far it’s good’.  The Czech driver continued, ‘both cars are good and most of my work has been on my hands (driving)’.  For 2WD he said the focus has been on a consistent 5-minutes while 4WD started off not so well a change to the car has since put in ‘back in the game’ with him seeding 4th behind his Xray/Elceram team-mate Martin Bayer.  Using the new Nitride speedo from Czech company Elceram, he said they have been doing some work on this also and he believes they have a good base set-up now for qualifying.  Overall Gotzl believes tyre management is going to be the biggest factor  to the outcome of qualifying.

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March 4, 2023

Volker tops seeding at MIBO International

Ronald Volker has topped seeding at the inaugural MIBO International, the factory Mugen driver quickest from Antoine Brunet and Christopher Krapp on a track all drivers are finding challenging.  Opening the second day of action in Hrotovice with two rounds of controlled practice, Volker put together the fastest three consecutive laps in both with his second attempt quicker by over 2/10ths.  Running a test version of Mugen’s next kit release, the German said they are ‘doing well’ and ‘testing every run new things with the flex’ of the car.  Looking to qualifying he added ‘a clean 5-minutes will not be that easy’.  He continued the end of the straight is only boards which is not forgiving, so a mistake here can cost you the whole run’.

Brunet summed up his morning as getting ‘better & better’.  The 25-year-old from France said the most significant change he has made so far is to switch from Xtreme’s Twister Speciale body to the original Twister resulting in more grip and in turn him having more confidence on the track.  On his chassis, the Xray driver said he has only made small adjustments and if he could now get a little more rotation mid corner the car would be perfect’.

Asked about his timed practice Krapp replied, ‘I’m still adapting to the track and conditions. We have lots of new parts on the car here so we are trying many things to get new data’.  Running a a new top deck and mid motor mount set-up on the car,  the Factory Yokomo driver said the key area needing work at the moment was a ‘lack of overall steering in the 180 corners’ adding the car is ‘lazy’ and resulting him lacking the pace to the two ahead of him.  The German added he also made a mistake by running his new tyres too late.  While they are getting better by the end of the final practice, he feels he should have run them earlier.

Seeding P4 for Qualifying, four of the five rounds on today’s schedule, Eric Dankel said his Mugen was ‘easy to drive, which is important for 5-minutes’.  Like Volker, he said track layout is challenging.  He said, ‘some spot are very dangerous if you want to go fast.  When you see the top guys like Ronald and Krapp making mistakes you know it is a challenging track’.  In saying that the German said his plan for Q1 is to change nothing on the car and just try to put together a clean run.  He said if the car proves difficult to drive them he will put glue on the tyre wall.

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March 3, 2023

Inaugural MIBO International is GO!

1 Race, 2 Tracks, almost 250 entries, and tons of action – the inaugural MIBO International Race is GO with drivers easing themselves into the busy weekend schedule with an evening of free practice in Hrotovice, Czech Republic.  The central double sided drivers stand has had a constant flow of both onroad and offroad drivers since the 17:00 start, all eager to dial in their cars ahead of the five rounds of qualifying, four of which make up Saturday’s schedule.  In touring car a lap is running at 13-seconds while over on the the buggy track quick laps are running in the late 17-seconds for 4WD and mid 18-seconds for 2WD.

Fresh from last week’s TITC in Thailand, Mugen’s Ronald Volker described the track as ‘different to normal’ adding ‘it’s not an easy track’.  A regular of the pre Covid MIBO Cup Series, the German said it was great to back in an ‘old familiar facility’.  Adding to the nostalgia of the weekend, Volker has made the trip from Germany with accomplished former Stock Touring Car and 1:10 Nitro Onroad star Eric Dankel who has returned for a weekend of racing fun at the Sport V Hotel.  Volker added the track layout features ‘a lot of hairpins’ creating a ‘different flow to usual’ which most tracks have evolved to lately.  Christopher Krapp, who is here with Dominic Vogl, summed up the track as ‘tight and technical’.  Like Volker, he said, ‘it’s very different to recent tracks’ describing driving it as ‘shooting from corner to corner’.  The Yokomo driver said his focus so far has been to get the right steering for the 180 corners.

For Coelho this weekend is all about being back with his Xray Offroad team-mates after a long break.  Seated between Martin Bayer and Hupo Honigl in the pits here at the Sports V Hotel, Coelho said, ‘It’s great to be back with the team again and at fun race like MIBO’.  Explaining it is more than 3 years since he last raced on carpet and while he did the Euros last year on Astro the two surfaces are very different.  Travelling to the Hudy Arena after returning from his TITC victory last weekend so as to get used his buggies on carpet again, he said having so much traction felt so different for the first few runs but it’s all come back to him now.  Asked his thoughts on the track he said, ‘It’s super fun’ adding ‘it’s not so difficult but it’s technical’.  Making the trip from Sweden where she is involved in running his local indoor carpet offroad track and the Euro Buggy Masters,  Jessica Pålsson said the track presented by the Mibosport team this weekend is a lot bigger and wider than her home track.  The Schumacher driver said the key to the track is the mid section jump describing it as a spot where it is ‘easy to win or loose’.  Asked if the track suited 2WD or 4WD better she said for her it felt better to drive with a 2WD buggy but added her preferred class has alway been 2WD.

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November 18, 2022

Video – Main Final

Watch how the 2022 IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship unfolded over 60-minutes of intense racing at the RC Addict track in Bangkok, Thailand, where a number of drivers take turns at the front. Commentary from the one and only Scotty Ernst.

November 12, 2022

Sahashi gains elusive ‘Double Champion’ status with victory in Thailand

Tadahiko Sahashi has gained elusive ‘Double Champion’ status with victory at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship in Thailand.  Starting 5th on the grid, the Infinity driver becomes only the second ever driver to win both the IFMAR 1:8 and 1:10 Nitro Onroad, Adrien Bertin’s feat finally being matched 18-years after the Frenchman became the first to achieved it in 2004.  A final that would see a number of drivers take turns at the front, when it counted most it was 2013 1:8 Champion Sahashi that lead them home.  Behind, there was an intense  battle for second as Dominic Greiner came under pressure from long time leader Jilles Groskamp but the only non-Infinity driver in the final was able to stave off the challenge.  Making his first Nitro World final, Electric Touring Car ace Viktor Wilck had an impressive race to fourth, his trademark colour scheme having been out front during the race.  Another finalist chasing ‘Double Champion’ status at RC Addict this week, Dario Balestri had the title in his grasps until he suffered a flame out as he left the pits following his tyres stop.  In the end the Italian would finish 5th.  Outgoing champion and Top Qualifier here in Bangkok, Naoto Matsukura was pulling clear early on. The tricky conditions however caught him out a number of times. The flip coming onto the main straight that sent his car into the bushes lining the outside of the track ultimately ending his chances of becoming the first driver to defend the title with 8th his final position at the end of the 1-hour encounter.

With the normal reserved Japanese driver’s winning reaction on the driver stand summing up exactly what the result meant, after Tadahiko said he was ‘super happy’, the double having been a ‘long time goal’ for the onroad nitro specialist.  While conditions where difficult leading him, like most of the grid, to flip during the race he said he ‘never gave up’ even while it looked like the race was going the way of others.   Going with a strategy to change only the outside tyres on his IF15 Prototype, he managed the tyre wear perfectly even managing to set the fastest lap of the entire event well into the closing stages of the final. Eventually crossing the line finish with a 3.5-second advantage over Greiner, asked about his nerves over the final few laps the 33-year-old said his ‘1:8 experience’ of winning the World Championship helped his ‘stay calm’ and bring it home.

‘Close’, was how Greiner summed up the final.  Suffering a number of costly flips early in the race, the Capricorn driver explained, ‘we changed the car a lot in the practice before the race but I still flipped four times and lost a lot of time.  The car felt good but it was on the edge.  I traction rolled two more times and maybe with two less flips we would have made it’.   The only driver to put it up to the Infinity team, the 2016 World Champion said, ‘We did our best but Tadahiko was better today.’   Asked about his tyre strategy which saw him change all four tyres at 28 minutes, race announcer Scotty Ernst even making comments on how perfectly it was executed, he said, ‘my tyres were done at the end so I don’t know if I would have made it just changing the outside.  I was also afraid of the gap difference with only doing 2 but Tadahiko showed it was possible’.

Having once again put his hat in the ring from the very start of the action at this World Championship, Groskamp said, ‘I am super happy to be competitive and on the podium at the World Championship.  On the other hand I missed the big chance to win’.  Talking through his race he said, ‘I only changed one side on my tyre stop and one time flipped.  Tadahiko was the man to beat, he had the fastest laps of the event.  He drove good man so to be 5-seconds off after a one hour race I’m happy.  I am also happy for Infinity’.  Changing his flight home to the Netherlands to tonight as his third child is due to arrive in the coming days and the rain day was not needed, he added, ‘On a personal level I am happy with the work I did to prepare for the race as well as preparing for our new addition to the family.  I’m happy I got the result because I think I deserve it’.

Wilck was very happy with the race he ran in the final.  The Swede said, ‘It was nice to be in mix but you never know what happens’.  He explained, ‘the first half of the race before my tyre change the car was very good and so was my engine and clutch.  I was on one pit stop less but then because we changed both sides in the tyre stop I lost a lap’.  Saying the 4-minute 30-second stops were ‘safe for us’, he said his clutch ‘went soft’ towards the end of the race leaving his engine ‘too slow’ to challenge for the podium, something he said was down to his lack of expertise with the engine and clutch.  He vowed to improve that knowledge for the future.

Winner of the Super Pole, that success that clearly was a massive relief for the Italian who openly admitted to finding the unique track conditions of these World very challenging & draining, Balestri said, ‘we had a strategy to run two less stops and I was managing the pace and it was all good’.  Changing all four tyres, it was during this stop that he was denied a shot at the title double, the 2017 1:8 World Champion explaining, ‘after the tyre stop I flamed out.  The race was finished then’.

Matsukura said it just took ‘a little mistake’ to derail his title defence.  He said, ‘on small tyres my car was difficult to drive and I just made a little mistake and flip’.  Surviving his first flip while in the lead with second place also flipping at the second time allowing him to maintain position, he said his chances of a result ended when he flipped coming onto the main straight sending his yellow IF15 into the local vegetation and needing to be marshalled.

View our event image gallery here.