Greiner and Groskamp take convincing Semi wins

Dominic Greiner and Jilles Groskamp took convincing Semi Final wins at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship as the final grid to decide the 9th running of the Championship is set in Thailand.  Up first Greiner drove a controlled race with it looking like it was going to be a Capricorn 1-2 as Alex Thurston put in a great drive. Holding second, his dream of a first World Final was suddenly dashed when the British driver ran out of fuel.  This promoted Brayden Stanley, who was shadowing Thurston for most of the race, to second with Andy Moore coming through to complete the Top 3 after his car had been on its roof on the opening lap.  Unfortunately having looked to be in contention to come from last in qualifying and through to the final, a mistake from Teemu Leino ended his run of bump-ups with the 30-minute encounter also being the end of the road for Meen Vejrak, champion here in 2012, current 1:8 World Champion Shoki Takahata and Takaaki Shimo.  The second encounter, the last chance to join Top Qualifier Naoto Matsukura and Super Pole winner Dario Balestri in the 1-hour title decider, Groskamp took the win. A slower race than the previous Semi he starts fourth behind Greiner, who will be the only non-Infinity driver on the grid.  Tadahiko Sahashi will again get a go at doing the Nitro Onroad double, the 2013 1:8 World Champion crossing the line second followed by Viktor Wilck, the Electric Touring Car ace securing his first nitro final appearance.  With the Top 3 directly progressing, the grid is completed by the next fastest two drivers in the Semi results, Chavit Sligupta and Jesse Davis getting that done in the second Semi with 4th and 5th.

While a dominant performance from Greiner, the German said his goal for the race was ‘only to survive and stay on four wheels’ adding, ‘If the car drives like this in the final it is impossible to win. We need to change something on the car but I don’t know what’.  With today notable warmer than previous days, he continued, ‘It is really hard out there.  It is super hot today.  Driving for half an hour was crazy I don’t know how we will drive for 1-hour’.  He concluded, ‘the first step is done and 1-hour is long enough that everything can happen’.

‘I’m super happy to make the the final again, the track conditions were super difficult and the car was on two wheels a few times’, was replied Groskamp when asked how his Semi was.  A driver admired for the hard work in puts and which has kept him at the top of the game 14-years on from him being Top Qualifier of these World Championship in Portugal 2008, he said, ‘I just tried to keep the car on track for the 30-minutes and follow the game plan’.  He continued, ‘when the tyres came in it was super difficult to drive.  Asked about tyre wear he said this is the first time we have a long run to see how it is and I still need to make my calculations for the final’.

Finding the tyre wear high, Sahashi said his car was good for the first half of the race but due to the wear things were tricky in the second 15-minutes. Opting for a safe drive he also rain one of his fuel stops longer than what he had been doing in order to check what options he has for the final but overall the Japanese driver is confident starting from fifth.

Delighted to be starting his first Nitro Worlds final, lining up 6th on the grid, Wilck said, ‘I had a really bad start and was almost last.  My car was always good and I had no problem with it trying to flip so I could work my way through.  I passed three guys on the track and the rest in the pits’.  The Swede, a multiple podium finisher at the Electric Touring Car Worlds concluded , ‘I am happy to be in the final again after my mistake in Gubbio,  the Italian track hosting the electric Worlds in September and Wilck missing the A-Main cut.

‘Awesome’ was Stanley’s reaction to his very impressive drive, the Australian adding ‘I don’t know how to do this’ in response to us asking him about his performance.  The 16-year-old explained, ‘my goal was to plod around and hope some guys had issues but from the start was car was really good and I stuck with Alex (Thurston).  I had a bit of luck I guess, I am really stuck for words. My goal was to finishing in the Top 20’.  His first international race and now a World Finalist, he exceeded that plenty lining up 7th on the grid.

‘I know this is my home track but am super happy to make the final again after so long’, was Moore’s reaction to progressing to the title deciding race for the first timer since the World was previously held at his home track back in 2012. The former Electric Touring Car World Champion said, ‘Francesco (Tironi) took me out at the start and I was well back from the pack at the beginning.  I knew the car was OK but I wasn’t sure about tyre wear so I just tried to make sure I had no mistake and no mistakes on my pit stops’.  Coming home 2-seconds behind  Stanley, the factory Infinity driver continued, ‘I could have pushed harder but it would have only put me ahead of Brayden which would make no difference in the final so it was better to keep it on 4-wheels’.  The British driver, who starts 8th ahead of Chavit and Davis, concluded, ‘I am just going to enjoy the final’.

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Leino comeback continues in 1/4 Final win

Teemu Leino’s comeback from qualifying last at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship continues full stream ahead with the multiple World Championship finalist winning the first of the 1/4 Finals which got the final day of action underway in Bangkok.  Falling ill on the first day of seeding practice (Tuesday), the Finn would miss the next three days of action on the track.  Feeling better yesterday, the Infinity driver took up his starting position at the back of the 1/16 final bumping up to the 1/8 which he duly won to put himself through to the big day.  Starting from 8th on the grid in his 1/4 Final,  he would get caught up in a first corner crash ahead of him which would leave him with a chunked right rear tyre.  While making the sweeper at the end of the straight even more challenging than it is already, he worked his way to the front to win the 20-minute encounter from Francesco Tironi, the Italian a podium finisher here at RC Addict at the 2012 WC.  The big battle of the race was for third, the final bump-up position, with impressive young female talent Supanun ‘Ferrari’ Khwanyuen going head to head with 9-time World Champion Lamberto Collari.  After a late pit stop Ferrari was closing down the Italian but ultimately run out of time allowing Collari through to book his place in the Semis.

In the second of the 1/4 Finals, Charlee Phutlyotin would take his Serpent to the win ahead of the Mugen of Shinnosuke Yokoyama who had started from pole.  Bumping up from yesterday’s 1/8 Final,  Finnish driver Sammy Pajalin gets to go again after coming through to take 3rd ahead of winner of that 1/8 Final Purisek Jeamjak.  Drivers now 30-minutes of action in the Semi.

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Chassis Focus – Naoto Matsukura

Chassis – Infinity IF15 prototype
Motor – OS T1204
Fuel (handout) – Maxima
Tires (handout) – HotRace
Radio/Servos – Futaba/Futuba
Body – Xtreme CZ1

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Video – Super Pole

Action from Super Pole at the 2022 IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship covering the attempts of Tadahiko Sahashi, Dominic Greiner, Jilles Groskamp and Dario Balestri to set the fastest lap and book a spot directly in the A-Main.  Commentary from the one and only Scotty Ernst.

Balestri wins thrilling Super Pole shootout

Having taken the final qualifier but missed out on the overall TQ to Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura,  Dario Balestri pulled off a blistering lap to win a thrilling Super Pole shootout to book his place in the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship on Bangkok.  Following a 5-minute group Warm-up for 2nd through 5th place qualifiers, each driver was given their own 3-minute warm-up that would lead them into 6 attempts to set a single lap time and try to secure their place on the grid with defending Champion Matsukura.  Qualifying 5th, Tadahiko Sahashi would be the first to go with the former 1:8 World Champion deliver an impressive 14.9 second lap,  a time only seen once in qualifying and also set by the Japanese driver.  Next up it was Dominic Greiner but it was clear the 2016 Champion was struggling as he rolled a number of times during his warm-up.  Things didn’t improve for the timed laps and flipping again he would abort early.  Taking the stage next, onlookers cheering each driver as they took up position, Jilles Groskamp would set a new benchmark beating Sahashi’s already impressive time with just one challenger remaining.  Step up Balestri, but his warm-up suggested he wasn’t going to do it.  A flip would leave the rear wing hanging off his car forcing him to pit and loose valuable warm-up time.  Initially his timed laps posed no threat to Groskamp but then out of nowhere the Italian launched his car at the finish line riding the curbs to produce a 14.8 second lap that sent both him and the crowd crazy.  Top Qualifier of the previous running of these Championships,  he had booked his place in the final while the others will have to race through from the Semi Finals.

‘You know, this week I lost 10-years of my life’, was how Balestri reacted to his Super Pole win.  He continued, ‘In the 5-minute practice I flipped and broke the body and the tyre. We changed the body and then I flip again in the 3-minute warm-up and broke the wing. I don’t know how I find this lap.’  He added, ‘The set-up was not for these condition and I had to take away all the steering on the radio going down the straight’.  To win the Super Pole is a ‘huge relief’.

Groskamp said, ‘It was great to beat the time of Tadahiko and to lead until Dario turned up. He nailed it, so he deserves it’.  Top Qualifier of this Championship 14 years ago in Portugal and still a contender for the top spot,  he continued, ‘I’m happy at least I can fight for the Super Pole. I didn’t expect Dario to take the curb. I don’t know why I didn’t think to try this myself. It was an incredible time’.  Groskamp will now start his quest for a first nitro World title from pole in the Semi Finals.

‘Very exciting & very close’, was Sahashi’s reaction to Super Pole.  Top Qualifier in 2013 when he won his 1:8 World title then said, ‘I made a target time and when I got the 14.9 I though I had done enough to win Super Pole. It was super close’.

Having damaged his car in the final qualifier, Greiner said after fixing it for Super Pole it was ‘super good’ and ‘on rails’ in the 5-minute group warm-up.  The factory Capricorn driver continued, ‘the track changed for sure for my timed laps. I don’t know if the others changed their cars to suit the conditions after seeing my car’.

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