November 22, 2019

Chassis Focus – Bruno Coelho

Chassis – Xray T4 2020
Motor – Hobbywing G3 4.5T
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro
Battery – Sunpadow 5200mAh Slim
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Bruno T4WC
Body – Xtreme Twister Lightweight

Remarks – World Champion Bruno Coelho is making his asphalt debut with the all new T4 2020 platform here in China. Home of the Sunpadow brand, he is running the all new slim pack from the Xiamen based brand. 10mm narrower than a regular pack and only 245 grams, the smaller width allows it to be placed closer to the centre of the car. Produced by Sunpadow following requests by the team, it will be part of the new top of the line Platin range, with Stock packs coming in the future. Submitted for homologation, it has been tested both indoor and outdoor and those team drivers have been very satisfied with the result. In regards the car, the WC has had to put a brass plate under the battery to bring it up to minimum weight and is using a 35 gram brass weight under the receiver to aid with the balance. Other options include steel spool outdrives, aluminium axle eccenters, a rear T-bar plate for additional stiffness and a set of Hiro Seiko Bruno aluminium screws.

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November 22, 2019

Bruno Coelho is 2019 SIGP Top Qualifier

Taking his 3rd round of qualifying, despite a mid run mistake, Bruno Coelho has locked down the top qualifying spot here in Xiamen at the 2019 SIGP. The Xray factory driver briefly lost the lead when he rolled his car, allowing Dominic Quek to the front but once back on his wheels he set about regaining the lead to take the win and with it pole position for tomorrow’s A-main finals. Quek was just half a second back in 2nd, also running the new Xray, while an improved Meen Vejrak completed Q3 in 3rd. Akio Sobue was 4th for Infinity while Nicholas Lee was fifth. Bruno said that they made a small suspension change which worked well despite the World Champion being on 3rd run tires. Asked abut his high speed crash he said that he only just gently clipped the curb which sent his car into what seemed like a slow motion roll before stopping against the back side of a curb. He was able to continue and regain the lead and with the TQ his he will use the final qualifier to test.

Dominic Quek has emerged as the most consistent of the chasing pack as he took his second 2nd place in qualifying and now looks set to start from that position, just behind his Xray team mate. Comparing his car to how it was this morning Quek felt his T4 2020 had improved a lot and has only made small changes to adapt to the changing traction conditions. ‘When Bruno crashed I was hoping he would lose 1 more second’, joked the Singapore driver, the pair separated by only 0.5 at the end. Asked if he would be happy with 2nd, he replied ‘2nd to Bruno is like 1st to me’.

Yokomo driver Meen Vejrak had a pretty terrible start to the day with a non finish in Q1 but his luck has steadily improved with a P4 in Q2 and finally a P3 in Q3. Not happy yet with the handling of his BD9, the Thai racer said that he thought his car would be better on new tires, but he now believes the opposite is true, saying that he thinks his car is better suited to used tires. Running new in the last run of the day he said that he made too many mistakes and lost time to Dominic as he struggled once again with not having enough bite in the corners.

Completing the top 4, Sobue said the changes he had made to his prototype Infinity for Q3 were good however as the temperature came up he feels that new tires are now better again. Looking to the final qualifier tomorrow morning, where he can snatch the 2nd starting grid spot from Quek, the Japanese driver said he will bolt on some new tires and aim for a good points haul.

In the Hobbywing stock class Dominic Quek went 2 for 3, having taking Q2 earlier before going on to take Q3, both times from German Stock master Max Machler who has moved up to 3rd in the overall standings, behind Stick King who took the win in Q1.

View the complete event results here.

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November 22, 2019

Q2 Update

It was more of the same in Q2 as Bruno Coelho once again took the round, this time in a slightly faster time, however the gap back to 2nd place was a significant 7 seconds. This was partly down to both 2nd placed Dominic Quek and 3rd place Nicholas Lee misunderstanding the announcer and thinking they were finished when they were not. This cost Quek 3 seconds and Lee a huge 14 seconds but as only the top 3 made 22 laps runs they didn’t actually lose position for the round. Coelho had changed some small things for Q2, such as weight positioning but said it felt very similar to before. Continuing to change set-up each run as they try to learn their new car, for Q3 they will once again make some small tweaks as they aim to lock up the TQ early.

View the complete event results here.

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November 22, 2019

Q1 in Xiamen goes to WC Bruno Coelho

The first round of qualifying for touring car is complete and it was top seed Bruno Coelho who emerged on top. With the World Champion in a league of his own, 4 seconds behind it was Akio Sobue followed by the Singaporean pairing of Nicholas Lee and Dominic Quek with Viktor Wilck completing the top 5. Commenting on his TQ run, each driver getting 3 rounds today, the Xray driver said ‘it was very good’. Changing back to the base setup they used in CP1 yesterday, and making some further changes including the use of a lightweight body, he said that his T4 2020 was much faster this morning and had more steering. Feeling the track was slightly faster, the sun not showing up so far, Bruno said he will discuss with his mechanic Francesco Martini to discuss what to change ahead of Q2.

Infinity driver Akio Sobue ended the run in 2nd declaring that the car is ‘now good, better than yesterday’. Using a prototype of the company’s new mid motor touring car, the Japanese driver felt that the conditions had changed and are now better today. Having tried some small changes for Q1, he will now make more set-up changes as he looks for more steering and better cornering speed.

3rd for Yokomo, Nicholas Lee had to jostle for track position at the start of the run having felt that the drivers were not spaced enough off the starting grid. Catching Dominic Quek and Gary Huang early on, this delayed him and later had to let Quek back passed on track which he felt disrupted his rhythm. On his car he commented that he was the only one of the front runners on really old tires, with some others using new and so he was pleased with his pace considering this. Looking for more steering he will make some changes to his BD9, and for Q2 he will bolt on a fresh set of Sweep handout tires.

Taking 4th in round 1 of qualifying Xray driver Dominic Quek felt that the traction was actually lower than yesterday and that his car only came good in the last 90 seconds. Saying he had to make way for Nico at the start, because of this he would take back track position near the end of the run from his fellow Singapore driver. Regarding his car he said that he had changed to a production ARS system, having used a pre production version previously, the better geometry making the car more stable. Feeling the car is ok, he will only make small changes for Q2.

In the Stock class it was Hong Kong driver Stick King who topped the opening qualifier, the Serpent driver heading a very closely matched top 3. In 2nd, just 0.7 behind was Dominic Quek for Xray with German driver Max Machler, driving his Awesomatix in 3rd a further 0.4 behind.

View the complete event results here.

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November 21, 2019

Chassis Focus – Merlin Depta

Chassis – Serpent 989
Engine – OS Speed R2103 Euro Klaus Lechner
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Matrix
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Savox
Body – Xtreme Super Diablo

Remarks – Merlin Depta is having his first outing with the new Serpent 989 and he has equipped it with a number of interesting option parts. First up is the thicker 2.5mm radio plate for more consistent handling, then there is the prototype hard coated 2-speed gearbox carrier, while up front there is prototype steering arm levers for improved steering. From his McFly brand there is a side mounted carbon plate with tungsten weight to better balance the car as he uses low profile servos and he is also using a carbon throttle lever that he produced. In terms of setup he said the basis is ok andhe is playing around with springs and trying different things alongside team mate Jeff Hamon to more quickly find out the best direction for setup.

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November 21, 2019

Kim Ki Heung heads the Nitro class at SIGP

Korean driver Kim Ki Heung has completed practice for the 1/8th scale Nitro class in Xiamen as the top seed going into qualifying. The Shepherd driver came through from the 2nd fastest heat, beating out a whole host of international names in both rounds of controlled practice to make his intentions known going into qualifying. Behind it was World Championship finalist Jeff Hamon in 2nd, some 6 tenths back with his Serpent, while Maxima team mates Meen Vejrak and Charlee P were 3rd and 4th. Having spent 2 days here in China to test ahead of today’s official action, Kim declared himself happy with his OS powered Velox and said that he is a fan of the track layout that the organisers have used for the event.

Serpent driver Jeff Hamon ended the seeding practice in 2nd overall, the faster 2nd round taking place in cooler conditions which he said while faster the run was still a bit messy. Having only had 2 runs today he said the rear of his 989 was a little too ‘taily’ during the 4 minute session which he thinks can be fixed by running more gurney. Needing still to improve the car to close the gap to Kim, the Australian said ‘I feel like I know what to change’, Jeff running a different shock setup for CP2 which was not better and so he will revert to his original shock package and instead look for an alternate way to find the grip he is looking for.

In 3rd place was Meen Vejrak, the Maxima driver saying he used his 2nd run today to test 2nd run tires because at the majority of events you must always use new tires each run, which isn’t the case here at the SIGP. While he was able to put in a faster 3-lap run, over the entire run he felt he couldn’t go any faster and so it was no real improvement over a new set of handout Matrix tires. Another to say he is looking for more forward traction the former World Champion believed that it was maybe too cold now and that is why the grip was hard to come by. For Q1 tomorrow, Meen will continue to make some small changes as he looks to find those extra tenths to close the gap.

Charlee P ended the day 4th, the Maxima powered driver using both runs to work on his engine choice, with CP1 not netting the desired result but the Thai driver declaring himself happy with the engine his team selected for CP2. Now with the engine choice clear Charlee will work on the setup of his IF8, the Maxima team using Infinity chassis’ this weekend, and he too will look for more traction as he has found the car too loose for his liking.

In the GT class, it was another Maxima driver Paphon Chanyasak driving a Serpent chassis who set the pace under the floor lights ahead of Felix Law, also running the Cobra GT in 2nd. Ali Lee was 3rd with Fai Ho in 4th and Ma Haoran completing the top 5 heading into qualifying.

View the complete event results here.

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