JQ at the TITC – Day 2

Day 2 of the TITC is in the books and Invisible Speed’s Joseph Quagraine is back with more of his thoughts on touring car racing and his experience of driving all the top cars, well sort of.  Take it away JQ…….

3 rounds of qualifying are now done.  I have been learning a lot, and successfully applied some ideas for myself, Pekko, and a few of the top fast guys.  Today I want to highlight something often overlooked, and actually the most important thing: Driving.  I have driven most top driver’s cars.  I go on the right side balcony with my radio, and pretend do drive their cars.  The people who have seen laughed at me, but that’s normal. I’m used to being laughed at, as well as occasionally doing things better than others, and some things for the first time before anyone else. Those things often go hand in hand.

Driving their cars, I can really ”feel” the difference in driving style, and see how their cars are handling. Here are a few highlights:

Akio Sobue – Axon: He is the smoothest of the top guys. He had one of the lower top speeds around the track, but also one of the highest minimum speeds.  Driving his car felt very doable which is an interesting experience if you ever try it.  He maintains a steady speed without braking or accelerating throughout the center double apex right and left onto front straight, while many other drivers clearly accelerate and brake there.  His driving is all about maintaining momentum, even continuing the right hander further on the left side of the track, opening up the following left hander so he can carry more speed through it. Driving style + line choice + car setup = success. Right now 5-5 in qualifying, but he has more to give based on his practice runs.

Hayato Ishioka – Axon: I was not able to drive his car.  This guy is so aggressive with everything, steering inputs, braking and accelerating.  I was not able to do anything.  Yet 3-6 and solid A Final.  Opposite of his team mate.

Bruno Coelho – Infinity: Bruno was close to Sobue, but not as smooth, harder acceleration and braking, and more open lines.  I don’t know why, but it’s as if he is avoiding the curbs and white line.  I don’t know if it is because his car doesn’t allow him to do that so he is playing it safe, or some other reason. If your setup is a bit off, driving over the curbs can result in a spin.  Bruno also had some quite early braking points, which is only a point to make because it is a mistake many drivers including me make, braking too late. 2-2 for 2nd at the moment.

Michal Orlowski – Schumacher: Michal’s driving was not doable for me.  It wasn’t as crazy as Hayato’s, but it very clearly required extreme levels of precision.  Michal drove very fast in very straight lines, and braking points were vital, using curbs a lot, turning quite sharply, and making the track quite pointy.  He would even drift slightly at times.  Distinctly different from Sobue and Coelho, a mix of smoothness and aggression, requiring a high level of skill as well as a personal setup. (More about that after the race).  1-1 for TQ, managing to TQ even when setup was a bit off, and having the mental presence to know when the last lap was in Q3 to launch over the line.  Maybe that was the difference…

Video – Qualifying Round 3

Action from Round 3 of Modified Touring Car qualifying at the 2025 TITC at RC Addict, Bangkok.

View full results here.

Orlowski claims TQ honours on TITC debut

Michal Orlowski has claimed the overall TQ honours at the TITC in Bangkok, the Schumacher driver securing pole position for his debut at the legendary touring car race when for the third time in a row he topped qualifying.  While it might be the Polish driver’s first time at the race that has earned itself the title of the unofficial World Championship of Touring Car, the race is proofing to be very much a repeat of last November’s official IFMAR World Championship where Orlowski and Bruno Coelho were the class of the field with their rivals fighting over 3rd position.  The third & penultimate afternoon time qualifier would prove slower than Q2 but in terms of order the Top 6 were identical.  While it was Coelho who had the outright fastest car on track this time round he once again could not better Orlowski, the gap the closest yet though at 0.058 of a second.  Getting his tyre gluing correct this time round, Marc Rheinard got the closest he has been yet to the Top 2 as the Awesomatix driver got a P3, 2.9-seconds off Orlowski’s TQ time.  Summing up the round’s finishing order as ‘boring’, Lucas Urbain added another P4 to his tally with Akio Sobue and Hayato Ishioka completing the Top 6 for Axon.

Joking with Orlowski that he just made what is billed as the most difficult touring car race in the world look easy by wrapping up the Top Qualifier honours with a round to spare the high profile TITC Rookie replied, ‘It’s been really good.  I think our car is very good with the ever changing conditions, it works well, we have a set-up that works in high grip, low grip.  That really helps at this race.’  Making a change to his set-up for Q3 he explained, ‘we are making such small changes but the track is changing and the car was really hard to drive now, from being very easy to very hard I lost the rear end a few times at the beginning and it allowed Bruno to catch me.  Then I felt the car was a little better once the beginning aggressiveness went away.  I saw Bruno was pushing and this allowed me to close back up and take the TQ by a very small margin.’  While pleased at executing the first part of the event so well, the 1:12 World Champion knows there is still a lot to do saying, ‘I am happy to TQ but I have been watching this race for many years and I know that anything can happen in the finals.  I am just happy I have the pace to fight at the top but the starting position here I don’t think it’s so important.’

Appearing very relaxed as Day 2 of the event is in the books for the Modified drivers, Coelho summed up Q3 as ‘another very close run’.  He continued, ‘I again had a clean run and the car is working well, I mean we are fighting for very close tenths like at the Worlds so I am really happy.  It’s the first time we are here with the new team, such a hard race, the car is performing very well for such an early phase.  Michal has already TQ’d, that is done, which gives us some room now to test different things on the car and try to make it different for the finals.  Asked about track conditions compared to Q2, he said, ‘it was very similar but the sun was out so I could feel a little bit more drop over the run’.

Asked if he was finally happy with how he glued the side walls of his tyres this time round having got it wrong in Q1 & 2, Rheinard replied, ‘Yeah it was better’.  On the qualifying run itself the German explained, ‘The beginning was pretty OK and then I had one scary lap were I went on two wheels so I had to settle down and two times onto the straight I hit the curbs too much and it got loose so I took it easy after that, I think I lost a second from this and a little bit by my driving, it wasn’t good in the last run.  The gap is smaller for sure and I am going to try something different for tomorrow’.  With just one more qualifier scheduled for tomorrow, the winner of the TITC 19-years ago said, ‘I hope to stay in P3 because this might be a good spot, with these two we know what can happened.  I will try to be right there if there’s a chance.’

While Modified qualifier proved somewhat repetitive the same can’t be said for Open Brushless.  Round 3 would see a third different driver score maximum points this time in the form of top seed Soren Sparbier.  The Mugen Seiki driver would take Q3 from the Xray of Bowie Ginting, the Indonesian running in the second fastest seeded heat, with one incident hampering the run of Q2 winner Olivier Bultynck and ending the run of Q1 winner Lukas Ellerbrock.  Ellerbrock’s Awesomatix took heavy damage after a crash with the Xpress of Thai driver Game Mongkolphan which was completely destroyed while Bultynck lost almost 5-seconds as his Awesomatix got stuck on debris from the collision.  Overnight it is Sparbier who hold the TQ with a TQ and P2, followed by Bultynck with a TQ and P3, with Ellerbrock holding third with a TQ and P4, meaning its going to an exciting TQ showdown in tomorrow’s fourth and final qualifier.

View our event image gallery here.

Video – Qualifying Round 2

Action from the second round of Modified Touring Car qualifying at the 2025 TITC at RC Addict, Bangkok.

View full results here.