Coelho opens World title defence with Q1 TQ

Reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho has opened his Electric Touring Car World Championship title defence with a TQ run in the opening round of qualifying at Finishline RC Raceway in California.  Having set the pace in yesterday’s free practice, the Xray driver carried that form into the opening two seeding rounds but in SP3 a traction roll would mean he would be the fifth car to leave the line in Q1 as arch rival Michal Orlowski got to go first.  With the sun setting in Bakersfield, and temperatures dropping as the top heats went out on track, Q1 conditions would challenge all the drivers but chasing a third consecutive title it was Coelho who came out on top.  Ahead of him on the track but behind him on the time sheets Orlowski’s Schumacher would stop the clock 1.3-seconds off Coelho.  A further 1.7-seconds back Akio Sobue completed the the Top 3 for the first of the six rounds followed by Ronald Volker, Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg.

Using one word to sum up Q1, Coelho described the run as ‘Difficult’.  He continued, ‘the conditions out there were crazy.  I think it was about adapting the car as fast as possible, I saw many people struggling and I think I immediately pass two people in front of me not because I was much faster than them but because they were struggling with the traction.  I was kind of lucky at the beginning to understand immediately the car and get fast.  The car was super fast but also very difficult to drive.’  The Portuguese driver who first made his name on the electric touring car scene at decade ago at the ISTC Worlds in Florida, continued, ‘The temperature we had now gave so much traction to the cars that set-up is completely different to what we run during the day and the problem is I don’t believe many people want to risk to change much the set-up for these conditions and instead opted to try control the car but it was very very hard out there.’  Looking to Day 3 of the event he said, ‘Tomorrow the track is supposed to be like all morning, less traction, so the car will be more round so even if you change the set-up now it will not work tomorrow morning we think.  Sometimes it is a little bit of lottery and you need to be a little bit lucky but it was it is.’

Giving his reaction after Q1, Orlowski said, ‘That was the worst my car has been today and unfortunately for the most important run of the day.  We made some changes and I think there are a few things I need to go back on from the previous rounds.  I said to my team all day that Bruno keeps crashing in practice but come qualifying he will have a perfect run.  He had a small mistake at the end but I lost a lot of time due to traffic in the middle so it would have been close but my car can be a lot better, I know what to do for tomorrow.’  Asked about the track conditions for Q1 he replied, ‘the track changes every round but they were tough conditions out there that time but I am happy to be fighting with Bruno for first because there is quite a gap behind us.’

‘I’m happy with third place and I get solid points’, was Sobue’s reaction to his opening qualifier.  Running a prototype of Axon’s next touring car kit release, he continued, ‘The track now was super difficult to drive.  At the beginning I was driving aggressive but after a few minutes I switch to more smooth driving but it was still difficult.’  Happy with his car in the hotter part of the day, the Warm-Up Race winner said he will leave his car unchanged for now and see what conditions the second Day of qualifying brings, 4 rounds on the schedule.

Asked how he felt Q1 went, Volker responded with, ‘Actually I was very unhappy with everything.’  The German explained, ‘I couldn’t get the potential out of the car so I was surprised I could somehow finish 4th because I struggled a lot with the conditions, they were tricky for everyone.  I’m super excited to see our car is amazing when you look how Jacob (Cruz) performs in running an A heat.  No one expected it, that’s one of the really positive things from the day.’  Asked more about his own Q1 performance, the 2016 World Champion said, ‘we didn’t get the package nailed for Q1 so therefore I can be happy to finish 4th because it didn’t feel like a P4.  There was a lot struggle for a lot of guys but I’ll take P4 and I think there is room to close up to the front.  I’m not sure how close we can get or if we can be right in the mix but we will see.’

With it 20-years since he won the first of his three ISTC World titles, that race also in the US, asked about his Q1 performance, Rheinard replied, ‘Horrible’.  The Awesomatix driver, who turned 38 today, explained, ‘the track changed so much and I think with our car the window is for just three runs a day maximum when the heat is a little bit up but when it is getting cold the car pushes and it just squared up in the middle of the corner, I don’t know what it is.  I think our car doesn’t really work in this conditions.’  Looking to tomorrow the reigning European Champion said, ‘It is the same as today, three runs probably in normal conditions and let’s call it the happy hour is going to be the same as today.  It was really hard because it was just a flight to keep it on the track, the worst it has been for the weekend.’

In the Spec class Awesomatix’s top seed Simon Lauter carried his form into qualifying.  The German would TQ the round by 3/10ths of a second over the Xray of Jan Ratheisky with 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Machler a distance third.  Summing up the second day of action at what is only the second Worlds for the Spec class, Lauer said, ‘It was a perfect day basically.  The morning practice was very low grip and we did not expect that but apart from this we topped every practice and the first qualifier.  The car was very good so all in all a super good day’.  On his Q1 performance he said, ‘I think it was not perfect from my side, the car was good but there is alway room for improvement.  On this track I think the secret is to find the correct mix between a fast car and an easy to drive car ’cause it will never be both.  You can see this watching the Modified guys as well because it is always snappy and very close to traction rolling and the main goal is to not make the car too easy to drive because then it will just be super slow.’  Asked more what he meant about the run not being perfect from his side, the back to back reigning European Champion and 2024 TITC winner explained, ‘I think it was a rather clean run, no big wobbles but sometimes with back markers you need to lift a little bit.  It’s very hard actually the time you pass someone to pull away from him even though he should be slower because that’s why you pass him it is still quite a challenge but I think it was a good qualifying, not perfect but I’m happy.’

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Orlowski to lead out Q1 at Worlds

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski will lead out the opening round of qualifying at the Electric Touring Car World Championships, the Polish driver setting the fastest 5-minute run time in CP3 as official Top Seed Bruno Coelho traction rolled meaning the Xray driver will roll out 5th in Q1.  Having set the pace based on 3-consecutive laps in the day’s opening seeding round, Coelho repeated the feat in CP2 to secure the No.1 race number for his car for qualifying ahead of Orlowski, Alexander Hagberg and Marc Rheinard.  While Coelho again proved he had the fastest outright pace in CP3, it was now the full 5-minutes that determined the starting order for the first of the six qualifying rounds. Orlowski would end up setting that pace 3.5-seconds up on Rheinard with an impressive performance from Orlowski’s Italian team-mate Mattia Collina securing him third ahead of the Mugen Seiki of former World Champion Ronald Volker.

Summing up his CP3 topping effort, Orlowski said, ‘It was a good practice and I am feeling good for qualifying as I always had clean runs but on pace it is very close with Bruno as always.  I am sure they are changing their car for Q1 but we tried a few different approaches in the practice today and we just need to make the decision to pick the best one for Q1.  It’s feeling good because we are always fast and 5-minute pace is good and Mattia now is super strong.’  Asked about traffic in qualifying given the short lap, the reigning 1:12 World Champion said, ‘we saw now that it’s actually not such a big problem, I caught 2 or 3 cars starting from second.  For sure there will be traffic but its the same for everyone and that other drivers will open when caught.’  While the finals will feature 10-cars, the qualifiers have been capped at 9 cars.

Asked about starting second for the first qualifier, Rheinard said, ‘Because Bruno is on P5 and fastest I hope he will not catch up to me quickly.  I made some changes (for CP3) and it didn’t work so I will go back to what I had before and just try to get around but I am struggling in the right turns, the car gets loose and not good feeling.  The rest of the track is fine its is just those two corners I struggling.’

‘Now the car is amazing’ was Collina’s reaction after CP3.  He continued, ‘We change always little things for try to open the window relating to the temperature and for the moment we are on the correct way’.  Asked if he and Orlowski run the same set-ups he said, ‘we are very similar, my car is more safe to drive but quite the same’.  Very happy to be starting out from 3rd position asked how he felt he replied, ‘In my opinion we have a very good car for the 5-minutes.’

‘It was again the same, I traction rolled so we need to fix this problem if we want to fight for the win.’ was Coelho’s response when asked about the final seeding round.  The reigning World Champion continued, ‘For the moment I think I am the fastest out there for a single lap but not really for the 5-minutes so we need to fix that.  We still have too much traction especially middle end, too much traction on the car which makes it very easy to flip then.  We need to find something that makes it easy for me to touch the curbs without the problem of flipping.’

In seeding for the Spec class, the day belonged to European Champion Simon Lauter.  The German secured the No.1 sticker for qualifying for his Awesomatix and in CP3 topped the 5-minutes by 1.8-second from US racer and IFMAR President Eric Anderson who was seeded P6.   Former European Champion and Awesomatix team-manager Max Machler made it a trio of the manufacturers A800R that will roll out Q1.  Official P2 in seeding, Xray’s Shin Sawada managed only 2-laps in CP3 and will line-up 9th and last for Q1.

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Coelho tops opening seeding round in Bakersfield

As things start to get official here at the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Bakersfield, California, it was Bruno Coelho who set the pace in the first of the 3 seeding rounds, the reigning World Champion’s closest challenger continuing to be Michal Orlowski.  With yesterday’s wind having died down and the morning sun bringing some extra temperature, drivers posted their fastest laps of the event so far around the Finishline RC Raceway with Coelho’s advantage over 3-consecutive laps 1/10th of a second on Orlowski.  Behind them it was Warm-up Race winner Akio Sobue who was 3rd fastest ahead of Marc Rheinard with Infinity’s Jin Sawada and Schumacher’s Mattia Collina completing the Top 6.

A run that contained a number of mistakes, Coelho summed SP1 with, ‘It was OK, I was fast but not really consistent.’  The Xray driver explained, ‘I traction rolled two times, the traction is pretty high now so we need to find something on the car to avoid the flip.’  Asked about the evolving track conditions, he said, ‘It is not windy so the track is more clean so I would say now it is 100% what we were at at the Warm-up’.

Reacting to his run Orlowski said, ‘It was good, the 5-minute pace is good, the car is nice, not perfect, but the conditions keep changing but now it’s more to what we know.’  The Schumacher driver added, ‘We have two more chances to make some adjustments.  I am confident with the 3-laps I have done so we can experiment a bit.  Mattia (Collina) went really fast now so we have two good working cars and we can test a few things on both cars.  He ran something I didn’t have on my car which I might try for the next one.’  On his rival, the Polish driver said, ‘Bruno is quick on 3-laps, he has good pace but keeps making mistakes but I am sure they are going to get the car easy to drive.  We just need to take advantage of the last two practices and find the best 5-minute pace possible.’

Axon’s Sobue was pleased with how the track is today but openly admitted there is a gap to the two ahead of him.  The Japanese drivers said, ‘Finally we are back to the conditions we know but Michal and Bruno after a few minutes have a very strong pace.  I think for 5-minutes I need better management of my tyres and to improve my driving to be with them.’

Reacting to his P4 pace, Rheinard described his opening seeding effort as, ‘Not that good’, adding, ‘I think my tyre prep was wrong.’  He explained, ‘Saucing the tyres twice I think makes it too stuck so the car wasn’t free anymore.  We will change this and maybe one or two car changes and see how it goes.  Right now the pace is not where I want to be.’  Asked about track conditions the 3-time ISTC World Champion said, ‘Luckily, the sun helped a lot.’

In the Spec Class, it was 2024 TITC Open Brushless Champion Simon Lauter who set the pace ahead of Xray pairing Jan Ratheisky and Stefan Schulz.  With a new Champion of the class set to be crowned this week with inaugural champion Alexandre Duchet not travelling to the US, asked about his practice so far Awesomatix’s Lauter said, ‘Overall I am super happy with everything, we expected difficult conditions like or not used to compared to the warm-up and the testing we did and for sure that’s what happened.  I think grip was even lower than ever when we were practicing here but now today it’s quite high guessing the right amount of traction that the track will get is most important for now because set-up choices can depend on how much grip has to have so as not to flip or snap oversteer, but for now we are quite happy & quite confident.’  On his rivals he said, ‘Jan is super strong and I expect some other guys to come up even more who you don’t see on the timing right now for example Ollie Payne and Shin Sawada as they were super strong at the Warm-up.’  Planning to test only little stuff for his next run, the German driver explained, ‘I just want to drive clean and not smash the car, one big thing is the rule of only one marked chassis, because it you smash it or bend it you are kind of f**ked to be honest.  I think I am very close the where I need to be, Jan and myself didn’t do 5-minute runs because we saved some tyres but I think it should be good on 5-minutes based on yesterday.’

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