November 1, 2019

Chassis Focus – Thomas Desmaries

Chassis – WRC GTX .5
Engine – Kabuto R21
Fuel (handout) – VP Racing
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servos – Sanwa M12/Savox
Body – Xtreme Diablo

Remarks – Driving for Italian manufacturer WRC, Thomas’ GTX.5 is mostly standard except for the harder off colour front and rear arms specially produced to deal with high traction conditions. Otherwise the only other key items on the car are the optional aluminium servo saver and the brass battery plate.  To dial the car into the Steel City RC Speedway track, Thomas has mounted weights to the front bumper.

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November 1, 2019

World Champion Balestri finally gets TQ run in Q4

Defending 1:8 Onroad World Champion Dario Balestri finally produced a TQ run setting the fastest run in the final qualifier of the day at Steel City RC Speedway.  Having topped seeding, the Infinity driver became the fourth different driver to top qualifying today seeing off Q2 pace setter Simon Kurzbuch by just 5/100ths of a second.  Continuing his improving results, JJ Wang claimed the third quickest time to finish just ahead of a much improved performance from his Mugen team-mate Shoki Takahata.  Also finishing out today’s action with his best run, two more qualifiers to run tomorrow following yesterday’s wind cancellation, Francesco Tironi set the 5th fastest time ahead of Infinity team-mate Jeffrey Rietveld.  After posting a TQ run in Q3, Dominic Greiner’s follow up attempt was full of driver errors leaving the Serpent driver 10th fastest.  Having opened qualifying with a TQ run, Naoto Matsukura had a disappointing finish to the day as a crash in Q4 put him out.

‘Finally a nice run’, said a pleased looking Balestri.  Having had engine issues in the previous three qualifiers but still managing the second fastest time on each occasion, the Italian explained, ‘the conditions of the track change a lot today.  We had worked to get our car and engine ready for the super high traction but after the wind and day off yesterday the grip was down.  The set-up is so critical that this was enough to cause the tyres to slip a little bit more and make the engine work harder and this is what was causing our problems.  For the last one the grip was higher, still nothing like the days before, but everything was better for the conditions and we could get the TQ.  Also the car was super easy to drive and did not want to flip so the higher the grip the better for us’.

Reacting to his battle with Balestri, Kurzbuch said, ‘It was super tight.  I should be happy with the result because we are now really close to them but when you lose out on the fastest run by half a tenth its a disappointment’.  The Swiss driver took the blame for losing out on what is expected to be the all important fastest time of qualifying saying, ‘It was down to errors on my side.  I had one small contact with the barrier in the first part of the Omega and that put me off the line for the second part of the Omega.  I lost 2 or 3 tenths’.  Asked about his car, the Shepherd driver said, ‘the car was really good.  I had a lot of steering and power.  I flipped in the warm-up which warned me about which corner to be careful’.  Looking to the final two rounds of qualifying in the morning, the former Champion said, ‘Super Pole should already be fixed but we will try of course for the TQ’.

Summing up his fourth attempt Wang said, ‘the result was not bad but I had to come in a few times in the warm to tune the engine and this cost me precious time for bedding in the tyres’.  The American added, ‘my car was getting better and better towards the end of the run.  Anyway, overall it was a pretty good day’.  Asked if he planned to try anything in the remaining two qualifiers, he said, ‘I’m going to try and go faster and push for Super Pole’.

Having had a previous best of the 14th fastest time, both in Q1 & 3, Takahata put his improved performance to switching to his preferred set-up from practice.  The factory Mugen driver opted to go with a set-up that gave him an easy & safe car for the longer qualifiers but unable to mix it at the front.  Finding this set-up was causing his car to stop on turning into the corner, he reverted to his best practice set-up which immediately gave him a car that flowed better on track and with three rounds to count the Japanese driver plans to leave the car as is and try to drop his two currently counting P14 results.

Featuring in the Top 8 in each of his qualifiers, Tironi said, ‘All day the car is good and I have a good feeling on the track.  I didn’t change the car just little adjustments to the front spring’.  He explained, ‘Always the first run I take care to finish.  The second was also good.  The third round was faster but I had a mistake on the first lap.  This time I finish with a 5th.  I am easy in the Semi Final so now I will try to make Super Pole.  I know it is not easy but I try’.

View the complete event results here.

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November 1, 2019

Chassis Focus – Jonathan Gandin

Chassis – ARC Prototype
Engine – Novarossi Mephisto
Fuel (handout) – VP Racing
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servos – Sanwa Exzes/Savox
Body – Xtreme Super Diablo

Remarks – Running a prototype from ARC, this young Italian is showing great speed with it.  The car Jonathan is using features a number of changes with biggest of which is the short wheelbase with the front end 6mm further back and the rear reduced by 2mm.  The car also has a narrower chassis, a low mounting radio plate, new rear drive shafts, new smaller pitch gearing and a modified rear hinge pin bracket.

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November 1, 2019

Greiner hits the top at World Championships

We might have had to wait an extra day for the qualifying action to start at the 1:8 World Championship but the first three rounds have certainly delivered variety with Dominic Greiner the latest driver to put in a TQ run.  Having not even featured in Q1 with the 22nd fastest time, in Q2 the Serpent driver made a huge leap forward with a P2 thanks to the set-up of team-mate Jeff Hamon and now the former 1:10 World Champion has become the third different driver to TQ.  While he topped the fastest group, top seed Dario Balestri again had to settle for second with team-mate Jesse Davis completing the Top 3.  JJ Wang improved on a strong showing in the morning to set the fourth fastest time, his best so far, followed by Hamon and Dutch driver Rick Vrielijnck. Having TQ’d the previous qualifier, Simon Kurzbuch return to form was short lived as he would suffer a stripped belt after just two laps.  Impressing in seeding putting himself in the fastest heat, young Italian Jonathan Gandin looked set for a Top 3 run as he swapped times with Balestri until he ran out of fuel on his final lap.

‘It’s getting better but I’m still not super happy with the set-up’, was Greiner’s reaction to his TQ run.  Having switched to Hamon’s set-up for Q2 and continued with it for Q3, the German continued, ‘I still have to learn how the car is, it’s just my driving.  We will check the camber in the tyres but I am scared to touch it (the set-up). 1mm somewhere and it could be worse.  It could also be better but I think now it is best to focus on my driving to suit the car I have’.

A somewhat bemused Balestri said, ‘now it was lean.  I don’t know what is happening today, the engines stopped working’.  Missing out on potential TQ runs due to his engine being too rich in the opening two qualifier, the Infinity driver now plans to use a different engine for the days final qualifying run.

Notching up three good point hauls over the first half of qualifying, on his third for Round 3 Davis said, ‘I had luck in that one.  Again we were a little off in the set-up, the car was safe and easy but a few top guys were not so fast and I was lucky to get third.  The engine was rich too, so down on power’.  Making Super Pole at the previous World Championship in France, the Australian said, ‘we will make changes again to try make the car more aggressive so it’s a little faster on the lap times, without flipping of course’.

The host Nations top contender at this year’s Worlds, a content Wang said, ‘It going pretty good.  I’m pretty consistent today.  The track is changing each run but my car is working good.  We are making minor tweaks here and there for that’.  The Mugen driver, who has an 8th, 6th and 4th, continued, ‘we have three good ones in so I think I’m going to push it on a little more in the next one’.

Summing up his latest effort, Hamon said, ‘the car is working excellent but the traffic is horrid.  One dude got called twice but still didn’t move’.  Leaving his car unchanged from the previous round when he was also 5th fastest, the Australian plans to make some changes for the last run of today saying, ‘Now that I have three results in I can try a few things out’.

View the complete event results here.

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October 31, 2019

Chassis Focus – Jeff Hamon

Chassis – Serpent 989
Engine – Max RP9.5 WC
Fuel (handout) – VP Racing
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servos – Sanwa M17/Sanwa
Body – Protoform X15

Remarks – Jeff is running Serpent’s new 989 which he describes as ‘pretty standard’ but like all drivers he is doing what he can to stiffen up the car for Steel City RC Speedway’s ultra high traction.  With the grip something he has ‘never experienced before’ and having ‘never flipped an 8th scale before’ due to having too much grip, to the adapt the car for the conditions he is running optional carbon inserts in the rear arms and the optional front top deck brace.  While the 989 comes with an aero front bumper, he has reverts to an ‘old school’ version saying it helps to make the car less aggressive.

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October 31, 2019

Kurzbuch finds his groove to take Q2 at Steel City

Simon Kurzbuch appears to have finally found his groove after taking the second round of qualifying at 1:8 World Championships in California.  Only 5th in the opening round, the Shepherd driver would pass Q1 winner Naoto Matsukura on track to top the times by 8/10th over his long time Worlds rival Dario Balestri who again had issues with engine tuning.  The second of today’s 4 round of qualifying would also see a marked improvement from Dominic Greiner who from the second fastest heat set the third quickest time ahead of Matsukura. Backing up their impressive Q1 performances Jeff Hamon and Jesse Davis ran the 5th and 6th fastest times respectively.

A clearly relieved Kurzbuch said, ‘That was a really good run. The car was a bit better than this morning.  I had more steering and it still didn’t want to flip so I had a good feeling and was able to drive it better’.  The Swiss driver explained, ‘we didn’t change the set-up just a new body which had a different mounting position.  I think with this set-up we were just right for the track at the time of the run.  We will see how the track is the next one or if it will be different but we have two good results from the first two so I think we can fight for the TQ’.

‘Once again the engine was rich, this time in the middle’, explained Balestri after Q2.  The defending Champion added, ‘Massimo needs to check it (the engine) for sure’.  Suffering a mistake over the 4-minutes, the Italian said, ’cause the engine was rich it was not changing to second gear when you expect and this caught me out.  The car is good we just need to adjust the engine correctly’.

Summing up his improvement, Greiner said, ‘I was completely lost in the morning.  We tried a crazy set-up and it was completely off.  Jeff had a good Q1 so we copied his set-up except for the body and it was good’.  Serpent’s lead driver continued, ‘I have to learn more how the car is driving now and how I can push it to the limit.  We were just ready in time for Q2 and in the rush to change the set-up the camber was not correct but we will fix this for the next one’.

Having called his TQ run in Q1 ‘lucky’, Matsukura said his P4 was also helped by luck as he ‘made many mistakes this time’.  The Infinity driver explained, ‘we expected the track to have more grip so we lowered the camber and the car super push.  The grip was now lower than before’.  With temperatures rising quite a bit from Q1, he said he also had engines issues with his engine getting hot during the run and with this in mind he plans to fit a larger cooler head for Q3.

Pleased to back up his opening performance and to assist team-mate Greiner with finding his normal form, Hamon said, ‘I had a little traffic but other than that it was another good run.  I left the car the same. I was very comfortable with the car and my pace is consistent’.  Looking to the third qualifier, the Australian said, ‘I might change the camber after talking to Dominic but maybe I will leave it for the next one as it’s 3 to count and I already have two good runs’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.