October 9, 2023

Hamon sets early pace at GT World Championship

Serpent’s Jeff Hamon is the early pace setter in practice at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney, Australia.  Winner of the Worlds Warm-up Race back in April when the final was rained off, the Australian set his fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber – Hamon’s best run coming in the cool conditions of the morning first practice while Gruber’s best came in the 31 degree heat of the fourth of the 6 rounds on today’s schedule.  IGT8 boss Paolo Morganti sits third fastest with European GT Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi making it four different manufacturer at the top of the timing sheets driving his Genius Racing chassis.  With visiting drivers trying to get their heads around the low grip levels at the John Grant International Raceway track, which hosted the 1:8 Onroad World Championship back in 2001, European GT Championship Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani sits fifth fastest ahead of the Sworkz of reigning World Champion Joern Neumann, who like fellow countryman Gruber found improvement in CP4.

Summing up his performance Hamon said, ‘everything is good, the car is good, the engine is good.  We are running through the program’.  That said he did admit there was a ‘but’.  Running Serpent’s narrower but thicker optional chassis on his car, he said while it is giving him more consistency and good speed it is also working the tyres more and concerned about tyre wear he will revert back to the standard chassis ahead of the chassis needing to be officially marked for tomorrow’s seeding rounds.  Asked about the grip levels, he replied, ‘it’s loose but for us that normal,  it was identical to this at the Warm-up Race’.

‘Pretty difficult’ was Gruber’s response when asked how things were going.  He continued, ‘I drive only one race this year with this car and the final was rained off.  We also didn’t have much testing due to my ENS campaign so we had less time to prepare than we normally do’.  Crowned the new ENS 1:8 Champion last weekend, on his GT car he said, ‘the base set-up is really good but it is trying to learn how the car works the tyres and the diffs.  That last run was really good so I think we are on a good way and we will continue to try something every run to try improve more’.

Asked about his opening practice runs, Morganti replied, ‘we’re making progress’.  Racing under the Costa Rica flag here in Australia, the former US international 1:8 Onroad front runner continued, ‘the grip is super weird.  It is like driving on oil.  You get somewhere decent with the set-up and then you make just a small change but it sends the car completely in the wrong way.  You need to look outside the box but it is the same for everyone.’

Arnaldi said he is struggling to find a good balance on his car.  The French driver commented, ‘the grip is not very good and the tyres are a little harder in front than what I would normally use.  We have to use the same front and rear tyre for this event’.  Having ‘changed a lot’ on his car, he said it is difficult to fully understand the changes you make as the conditions have changed each run, ‘it was cool in the morning and not it is 31 degrees.’

18-year-old Catanzani described his early pace as ‘not bad’.  The Italian Serpent driver said while he likes the track layout the lack of grip presents its challenges.  Coming here with the same set-up as he used at the European Championship in Croatia where he said the grip was also low, it didn’t work here and they have changed the car ‘a lot’ to get it to work.  Running the same set of tyres in the first four rounds, he is looking forward to a fresh set of tyres for the final two runs of the day to see if he can improve his time given the set-up changes they have made to the car.

Asked how his return to the GT class was going, his last race being the inaugural World Championship in 2019, Neumann said, ‘we found a good balance for the long run that last one’.  The German added, ‘the tyres don’t last long, they are too soft for this track so you have to get the right balance between speed and tyre wear.  It is hard to judge what speed everyone has because you don’t know how they are running the tyres but I think for now everything is quite OK for us’.

October 8, 2023

‘Of course goal is to keep the title’ but ‘the class has changed a lot’ – Neumann on 1:8 GT World title defence

Think Joern Neumann and you think World class offroad racer.  The German is a multiple offroad European Champion, a multiple offroad World Champion Finalist and the only European to ever to win the legendary Reedy Offroad Race of Champions.  Ironically his biggest win in the sport didn’t involve navigating any jump sections, and this coming week the factory Sworkz driver will defend that title despite not having raced in the category since adding the IFMAR World title to his CV.  It’s January 2020 and the World has no idea of two major things that are about to happy – Neumann is going to become an onroad World Champion and a thing called Covid is going to shut down the World just afterwards!

Homestead RC Raceway in Florida would host the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship and a category then based on modified 1:8 buggies, Sworkz decided it should be represented – cue Neumann.  ‘Sworkz wanted to send a driver and I was free’.  With ‘cars in the beginning more like offroad’, qualifying showed it was still very much onroad as nitro onroad regulars locked out the Top 3 in qualifying, 1:10 Worlds podium finisher Alessio Mazzeo the Top Qualifier from 1:10 Nitro World Champion Meen Vejrak and 1:8 Onroad Worlds finalist Jeff Hamon in P3.  Come the 1-hour final however and it was Neumann who took the win from another Offroader Martin Bayer with 1:10 Nitro World Finalist Charlie Phutiyotin completing the podium.

Roll on almost four years and Neumann himself admits the GT landscape is very different, ‘the class has changed a lot. The cars are now more specific for onroad.  Swork have had to develop two new cars for the class which are a big step forward from the car we used last time’.  With previous onroad outings limited to a few fun ETS outings, while Neumann says the transition from offroad to onroad is no problem, knowing what to do with the car set-up is his biggest challenge.  Very aware of his lack of knowledge, he is quick to point out that making the long trip to Sydney is only possible due to Sworkz securing the services of Herfried Pucher.  A long time Sworkz driver, he was a big part of Neumann’s 2020 title success and is himself a front running racer in the GT class, making the European Championship final this year in Croatia.  Having not raced onroad since Florida, straight after the recent 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Arizona, Nuemann travelled to Italy for a number of days testing and not just to reacquaint himself with racing on flat asphalt but more importantly to build a working relationship with Pucher who he hopes can give him a title defending car set-up.  He said ‘without (the Austrian’s) knowledge it would be too complicated’ to try and defend his World title.  ‘It is so much more difficult now compared with 2020.  Now it (set-up) starts already with where you cut the holes in the body, that’s not like offroad.  Herfried knows the car and engine set-up.  The clutch and two speed are very important so if we have a good set-up I can handle the rest’.

With 7-minute run time a key feature of the class and a ruling brought in to limit ‘crazy’ engine development, Neumann’s trip to the Leno track in Italy worked out well for tying in with his engine sponsor Nova before his departure Down Under.  ‘We tested at Leno because it was only three hours from Herfried but it is also only half an hour from Nova so that worked out good.’  On the 7-minute run time, a number of driver switching engine brands for the event because of the nature of the John Grant International Raceway track adding an extra challenge of making run time, Nuemann admits ‘it is going to be quite difficult to make 7-minutes for everyone. Really you need to make 7:30’.

Also set to race the non World Championship electric class that will run alongside nitro so as to boost his track time, asked who he expects to be his main rivals, Neumann said, ‘I expect Toni Gruber to be fast and the guys from Italy are always fast in GT.  Jeff Hamon should be up there too.  The others I don’t know because I don’t race them before’.  Despite not knowing his rivals, Neumann’s goal for Australia is very clear, ‘Of course the goal is to keep the title’.

RedRC will be on hand to keep you fully updated on Neumann and Sworkz’s efforts at the Worlds when we kick off our coverage on Monday October 9th and tell the story of the 2023 IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship as it unfolds over the 6 days.  Being Red RC’s first ever 1:8 GT event to cover, we are excited to witness first hand the stacked manufacturers battle between Sworkz, Serpent, Xray, Hong Nor, Genius Racing and Capricorn, each of whom are fielding drivers quite capable of becoming World Champion.