Chassis Focus – Jeff Hamon (Serpent)

Chassis: Serpent 990
Engine: Max Power RP9
Exhaust: Max Power – EFRA 2164
Radio: Sanwa M17
Servos (Steering/Throttle): Sanwa XR2 / XR2
Body: Blitz Speed
Tires (handout): Matrix
Fuel (handout): Maxima

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Matsukura & Balestri top seeding rounds 2 & 3

With three rounds of seeding complete at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, three different drivers have topped the times with Infinity’s Dario Balestri the latest driver to top the times in Japan.  Toni Gruber kicked off the first day that counts for anything when he took the opening timed practice but an hour & a half later Naoto Matsukura took the round with an even faster 3-consecutive laps.  With ranking points from the drivers best two of four rounds determining the heat groups for qualifying tomorrow, Balestri threw his hat in the ring for the Top Seed honours when he went fastest in the third round, track conditions slowing due to the hotter midday temperatures.  The latest round would also see reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata have his run so far as he posted a P3 run behind Mugen Seiki team-mate Simon Kurzbuch who was very lucky to survive a driver error during the 7-minute practice.

Having felt his engine being too rich had cost him a better time in the first run of the day, Matsukura put that right in the second round using the same engine to run a time of 40.912 bettering Gruber’s time by 0.007 of a second!  A multiple World Champion of the sport, the Infinity driver would swap out that engine after the run saying, ‘we will keep this one for qualifying’.  With a different engine in his IF18 III he would end up only 8th fastest in third round saying, ‘the bottom end was not good’.  With another engine for the final seeding round, he said the car is ‘very good’ and its just about getting engines sorted for qualifying, drivers getting 6 rounds over 2-days.

‘I’m following the conditions, they change a lot’, was Balestri’s reaction to his third round fastest run.  Explaining that with the temperature rising the track naturally loses grip, the Italian continued, ‘the set-up has changed almost completely.  Before we need steering and now we need traction.  It is really, really, changing a lot’.  The lower grip is reflected in his 41.108 time for the round.

Third fastest for the opening round but only 7th in the next one, Kurzbuch said the run was not so good due to a bad engine setting.  With the engine ‘really good’ for Round 3 and the car also really good he said ‘more was possible’ if it wasn’t for his ‘driver error’.  Crashing at the end of the straight with his car ending upside down in the racing line and somehow everyone avoid him, the Swiss driver explained, ‘I went to far on the inside and then the car took off.  I was very lucky no one hit me on the track’.  Despite his scare, Race Director Scotty Ernst warning drivers over the PA and complimenting Dominic Greiner for good marshalling and recovering the car, the former World Champion is confident for Day 1 of qualifying say, ‘everything is set for tomorrow’.

Pleased with his first two runs, Gruber explained that for his latest practice he ‘tried something for qualifying and it was not so good’.  Also trying a different engine it was not as good as the previous one.  Asked in what way it was not as good, the German said, ‘It was just a little down on pace, not as strong as the other one, and when everyone is this close on pace it’s the little things that are important.’  In a common theme among most of the top drivers, he will try yet another engine in the fourth & final timed practice.

Making a good first attempt at trying to talk to us in English for the first time without having one of the O.S engines representatives translate for him, Takahata said he is still working on engines and optimising the power available to him.  Happy with his Mugen’s chassis set up, the Japanese driver has been improve this each round highlighted by his improvement in results of the day.

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Gruber tops first time practice in Japan

Toni Gruber has topped the opening round of timed practice at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan.  The Capricorn driver’s fastest 3-consecutive laps around the Infinity International RC Speedway gave him a 3/10th of a second advantage over his closest rival, the same margin of time then covering the next 7-drivers.  Better known for his electric onroad exploits, it was Hayato Ishioka who was second fastest driving a Mugen with factory Mugen driver Simon Kurzbuch completing the Top 3.  The best represented brand at this year’s World Championship with over half the field running the Japanese manufacturer’s car, it was Naoto Matsukura who lead their charge with P4 for the first of today’s scheduled four seeding rounds.  Just 1/100th off, Serpent young gun Andrea Catanzani, who was up in the second last year to go on track, kick his day off with a P5 ahead of Dario Balestri and reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata.

While happy to top the times, Gruber was less happy with his car set-up.  The German explained, ‘we made a little set-up change after the last practice yesterday and it was not helpful.  Overall the car is now faster but it’s difficult to drive’.  He continued, ‘it’s not bad compared to the other guys but if we can find a fix for the rear being loose we can be even faster but it’s a balancing act as we don’t want end up with a car that is too easy drive but is slow’.

A World Championship finalist in both 1:12 and Electric Touring Car, this is Ishioka 1:8 Onroad Worlds debut.  Only in his fourth season of nitro racing, the 28-year-old was pleased with his 3-laps but admitted the 7-minute run did contain a number of driver errors.  A Rush team driver, about his car he said while the overall feeling was good he did have to deal with a ‘little understeer’ and based on that will make a small change for his next run.

‘It was quite a good round’, was how Kurzbuch summed up his first effort.  Like Ishioka, the former World Champion reported having suffered from ‘a bit of understeer’ adding that considering this it was ‘a really good time’.  Also pleased with how his Mugen feels from the start on opening tyres he said in terms of the car they will just make small adjustments for the conditions at the time of the next run.  Having already built up data on all his engines during the previous four days pf practice, he said they are going to use the seeding rounds to cycle back through the engines and run qualifying simulations on each of them in preparation for tomorrow.

Naoto described the first timed practice as ‘so, so’.  The 2018 1:10 Nitro Car World Champion, said his engine tuning was off with the car putting out ‘too much smoke’.  Starting on the new tyres he said they didn’t get the tuning right for when they tyres got smaller and that was the reason for the engine being too rich.  Report a little understeer, the Japanese driver is pleased with the overall feeling of his car and is confident that with the engine set better he can be quicker.

Fresh from his podium finish at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney, Catanzani is really enjoying the track here in Japan saying it is ‘so good’ to drive.  On his car’s performance, the 18-year-old said, ‘All is ok.  The car is good now so if we make any changes they will be little to adjust for the track conditions.  We will run the same engine again in the next one and then after that change to a different one’.

‘The track today seems different, it’s more loose’, was Balestri’s response when asked about his run to the 6th fastest time.  He continued, ‘It was not a clear run for me.  My set-up was not for the conditions so I need to renew it for the next one.  It’s just small changes I need to make’.

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4 busy days of practice conclude at 1:8 Onroad Worlds

After four busy days of practice for drivers at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan, things are finally set to get official tomorrow with four planned rounds of seeding practice to determine the heat order for qualifying.  Summing up how practice had gone, many of the international drivers getting their first taste of the Infinity International RC Speedway on Friday, it was mixed reports from some of the leading title contenders.  The driver they all will be trying to beat over the next  5-days, reigning Champion Shoki Takahata was looking content and relaxed and reported being pleased with how he was working through his program.  With no official timing being published, icon of the sport Atsushi Hara highlighted the Mugen driver as a driver looking strong over the four days.  A 1:8 Onroad Worlds podium finisher himself, Hara felt Takahata’s new for 2023 team-mate Simon Kurzbuch was also looking strong.  From his own team, Infinity, he thought Dario Balestri was leading their charge with the 2017 World Champion in confident mood when we caught up with him at the completion of the final practice.

While not officially his home track, living four hours away from Mie, Takahata does know the IFS track well.  Asked about track conditions, he said the shear high number of cars running on it over the day was causing it be different every time he went out.  Asked about the traction of the high speed circuit,  he described the grip as ‘not so bad’ but having a unique feeling.  Very happy with his final run of today, calling his car ‘really’ good’, he plans to start with that set-up tomorrow and see how it matches up with track conditions.  While temperatures are hitting the low 20-degree celsius range during the day, the conditions are a lot cooler in the morning and again in the evening.  Yesterday’s first day of Controlled Practice was effected by strong winds which all drivers report as making things challenging.

‘Well prepared’ was how Kurzbuch summed his current state of play.  Ready to get down to the more serious business of racing, the 2015 World Champion said, ‘we’ve tried almost everything by now and know what is working for us.  We have good engines already put aside and a good set-up on the car’.  Asked about the track, the Swiss driver replied, ‘It’s a really fun track.  It’s a great facility.’

Wrapping himself up in extra layers as the sunset on the final day of controlled practice causing the temperatures to drop pretty rapidly, Balestri was another driver ready to get into the more official side of the event.  Top Qualifier at the last two World Championships, the Italian said, ‘everything was on point from the first day so we used the 2nd & 3rd days to break in engines’.  He added, ‘I am super happy with the IF18 III, it’s faster and it’s easier to drive.  The new Max ‘Japan World Championship Edition’ engines is also running really well’.  With the top drivers expected to be all closely matched on laps times, the reigning European Champion believes the biggest difference will be down to whether you are running new or used tyres.  Describing the car as ‘more difficult’ on new tyres, he said the main point to see will be who can run fast on news tyres with everyone having to do so twice based on the allocations of the controlled tyre.

With the IFS track originally built by his father, this is very much a home race for Tadahiko Sahashi but the reigning 1:10 Nitro World Champion declared himself as only being at 60% of his potential.  Struggling with understeer, the 2013 World Champion plans to discuss potential fixes for the issue with his mechanic and 2006 1:10 Nitro World Champion Keisuke Fukuda.

Fresh from his 1:8 GT World Championship win in Sydney recently, Toni Gruber said it had taken him up until the final practice today to get his program back on track after a huge crash on Saturday.  Describing the impact as ‘really extreme for the car’, the Capricorn driver bent his chassis.  Replacing it with a new one, over the next few runs it was discovered the impact had done more damage to the car than originally thought.  With new parts, the German said the car still didn’t feel as good as before the crash with set-up changes not helping.  Missing balance front and rear, he said it was really bad today until he put 99% of the set-up he had started out on the car.  Describing his car after the final practice as ‘really good now’ he things the chassis plate may have needed a few runs to break in and match the one he started out with.

Team-mate Dominic Greiner described his time in Japan so far as ‘up & down’.  The German said the hardness of the hand out tyres is not the same as this is causing issues.  He said on the tyres he ran in early practice his car was very good but then when he switched to a new set he was running more towards the back in terms of his pace. Declaring himself not happy in the last round he concluded, ‘we will see what we get tomorrow, it timed practice so lets hope things are better with the tyres’.

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