Hara tops ‘extra’ practice

1:8 Onroad debutant Atsushi Hara has topped the extra practice session that replaced the opening two rounds of qualifying following this morning’s tyre additive scandal. The Japanese ace, whose confidence is growing with every outing, was fastest from Italian’s Dario Balestri and Michele Romangnoli.

Third fastest overall in yesterday’s controlled practice, Hara said track conditions were not as good as yesterday but he was happy with his pace in comparison to the lap times set by his rivals.  Running a different OS engine in his Mugen, the former 1:8 Offroad World Champion said with the engine set a little leaner a 37 lap would have been possible and he is looking forward to qualifying which is now set to get underway tomorrow.

Fastest in controlled practice, Robert Pietsch said he suffered ‘brain interference’ resulting in an off that took the front left corner off his Mugen.  The European Champion and designer of the MRX-5 also found that the track was not as good as yesterday and said today’s windy conditions made driving more difficult as it caught the rear of bodyshell causing the car to get loose.

The only other driver to do a 37 lap run yesterday, Team Serpent factory driver Paolo Morganti tried a different Novarossi engine in his 966 but it wasn’t as good and he struggled for pace compounded by the rear sway bar coming off his car.  The American will now revert back to the same package he ran in CP2 for the morning’s opening qualifier.

Backing up his surprise CP1 topping pace 25-year-old Brazilian Flavio Elias posted another strong run with the fourth fastest time ahead of former 200mm World Champion Keisuke Fukuda and Serpent 966 designer Michael Salven.  19-year-old Takehiro Terauchi set the fastest lap of the ‘extra’ practice taking his Mugen around in a 16.058 on his way to the 8th fastest time behind fellow ZAC Project supported driver Sinya Shimazaki.

After a day that made headlines for all the wrong reasons hopefully tomorrow we can get on with the process of crowning the 18th 1:8 Onroad World Champion and get qualifying underway.  Our coverage, which has been made possible thanks to Shepherd, Matrix, Blitz and Serpent, continues in the morning when we will have a full round up of the opening qualifier.   Groups 7-13 run their two heats in the morning with the Groups 6-1 running in the afternoon.

‘Extra’ Practice Top 10
1. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 36L/10:02.245
2. Dario Balestri (ITA) – Capricorn/Novarossi – 36L/10:02.812
3. Michele Romagnoli – Shepherd/Novarossi – 36/10:05.688
4. Flavio Elias (BRA) – Mugen/Max – 36L/10:07.527
5. Keisuke Fukuda (JPN) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:08.448
6. Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Xceed – 36L/10:08.567
7. Sinya Shimazaki (JPN) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:08.813
8. Takehiro Terauchi (JPN) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:10.105
9. Nicola Marrone (ITA) – Serpent/Max – 36L/10:11.817
10.Meen Verjak (THA) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:16.924

View our event image gallery here.

IFMAR International Jury Decision

Following on from the controversy surrounding the use of tyre additive at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, which has resulted in the cancellation of the first two rounds of practice, IFMAR have issued the following statement –

‘Homestead, USA, 12th of April 2011

Earlier this year a message was send to the blocs regarding tire treatment in 1/8th Scale IC Track. Tire treatment must not be allowed. Like in the IFMAR rules for 1/10th and 1/5th.. This was also discussed in Pattaya last year, but forgotten to be implemented in the rules..

Yesterday April 11th this was discussed once more between the blocs during a meeting. Everybody is still in agreement that tire treatment is a bad development for the sport and must not be allowed. Unfortunately there are a few additives on the market, almost impossible to detect with equipment on the track. The only way to get confirmation about treatment with those additives is by sending them to a lab.

Yesterday we received a protest from one USA driver against the spraying of the tires, which was not accepted.

Today we received another protest from Italy showing that a few brands of tires is suffering of glue getting affected, causing the rings of the tire to split. The Italian protest was also offering help in setting up a controlled tire area. Because of the possible implications of this protest the race was stopped. After discussions within the IFMAR International Jury and with the drivers the following has been agreed with a majority vote.
• Tire treatment is forbidden.
• Today Tuesday 12th, we will not run qualifying rounds. Tuesday afternoon we will run 1-6 and 13 till 7 starting from 14.45 hours as practice
• A controlled tire area will be set up for Qualifying starting at Wednesday. A total of 4 rounds of Qualifying will be run on the remaining Wednesday/Thursday if weather permits.
• The controlled tire Area will be located near the Technical inspection Area.
• Drivers are advised to bring their tires at least 1 hour before their heat to the officials. Tires must be “new”, out of the box, not trued. Minimum diameter 66mm front and 74mm rear. This will be checked and noted.
• They can be trued in the controlled Area to the right size and have to given back to the officials who will check them again and put them in a plastic back with their registration number and heat number.
• They will be stored in boxes with the heat number.
• You can put a maximum of 10 tires in a bag.
• Tires not used stay in the bag and will be available for the next round.
• This box will be available in the controlled pit area when the heat is due to run.
• The checking and controlling in the controlled tire area will be done by IFMAR officials, or appointed IFMAR officials.

Note,
It is very sad to see that tire treatment is available, even here on the track by drivers who know on forehand that it could not be used. They have gambled and hoped that it would be allowed due to the none availability of detecting equipment. It is even sadder that this small group of drivers is responsible for the delays that now have occurred.

In the past a small group of drivers was also the reason we had to make a decision on the use of controlled fuel, because drivers were cheating.
Now this group might be responsible for the introduction of a controlled tire in the future.

An IFMAR World Championship has 150 till 180 drivers. The majority of them being an amateur, who has to pay 4000 till 5000 USD to run in such an event. Without them there is no World Championship. This small group of so called professional drivers should realize this.

Sander de Graaf
IFMAR IC Section Chairman.’

Day 1 of qualification cancelled

The opening day of qualifying has been cancelled at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship with drivers now set to get an extra practice run this evening as a new procedure is adapted for the morning when the first of the reduced 4 rounds of qualifying will finally get underway.  With the paddock having been turned into a series of meeting areas this morning following protests over the handling of the tyre additive issue that is overshadowing the 18th running of the World Championship, IFMAR has made the decision that a controlled tyre prep area will be introduced for the remainder of the event.

Under the new ruling all drivers will have to true a fresh set of tyres under supervision of officials who will then hold the tyres in a numbered bag.  Ahead of each drivers heat the driver must then present their car with no tyres and no fuel to the warm-up area where their tyres will be returned to them for that round of qualifying.

The decision has received a very mixed reaction with the European drivers represented by EFRA welcoming it with a round of applause but in the American pit area the debate continues between drivers and ROAR Officials.  A full statement on how the new procedure will be implemented is to be issued by IFMAR.

This evenings extra practice round start with the running of Group 1 to 6 and then 13 back to 7.

Protest over tyre additive cause cancellation of opening qualifier

The opening round of qualifying for the 2011 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships has been cancelled as the issue of tyre additive flared up this morning in Miami.  The use of tyre additive at the 18th running of the championships has been the main talking point in the build up to the event here at Homestead RC Raceway and this morning two protests have brought the championships to a halt.

In yesterday’s controlled practice IFMAR officials started to spray tyres with denatured alcohol in an attempt to cancel the effort of the additive but this led to problems such a reaction with the gluing on some tyres and a huge increase in tyre wear.  Some drivers reported tyre wear increasing from 2.5mm over the 10-minute run to 5.5mm after tyres were sprayed by IFMAR officials.

IFMAR would not comment on the matter other than saying they will issue a full statement shortly but speaking with some of the team managers the matter seems far from over with both German and Italian teams set to withdraw from the event if IFMAR do not come up with a better solution to the problem.  It has been proposed to IFMAR that drivers true brand new tyres in a controlled area but this idea has been rejected as the event is already understaffed.

As it stands currently drivers will be able to use tyre additive as there is no way of policing what many drivers say was in the first place a stupid rule. We have been told that there is an offer on the table from American driver Josh Cyrul to ship in enough tyre additive to make it available to all of the 127 competitors.

We will bring you an update once things become more clear but as it stands now drivers will get one round of qualifying this afternoon running from Group 1 through to 13.