Chassis – Schumacher Mi9
ESC – Elceram Nitride
Motor – Hobbywing G3 4.5
Battery – Cayote 6300mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Power HD S15-S
Body – Xtreme Speciale
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Action from the second & deciding A-Main of Modified Touring Car at the 21st edition of the TITC at RC Addict in Bangkok, Thailand.
View full results here.
It won’t be remembered for the intense racing action like we witnessed last year, but the 21st edition of the TITC will go down in the history records as the year the Rookie Michal Orlowski turned up and absolutely nailed the win at the legendary race. Completing a clean sweep of all four qualifiers, starting the finals from the TQ, Orlowski armed with his Schumacher was the class act gapping the second place qualifier & defending Champion Bruno Coelho almost immediately in both A-Mains. Having taken the opening encounter on Saturday, in A2 the Polish ace looked even stronger with Coelho finding himself having to deal with Marc Rheinard on his rear bumper for the entire race. With almost 3-seconds on his rivals, he cruised to the win and with it the title to become its 11th different champion of the Bangkok race. A race that is often referred to by drivers as ‘the toughest touring car race in the world’, Orlowski’s performance this weekend was something special and for the World Championship Top Qualifier a major psychological boost.
Putting it to him if today was sweet revenge, Orlowski replied, ‘I would say so, I have had loads of TQ’s recently and I didn’t convert them into wins. I could see on social media all the comments that I slow down in the finals and stuff like that, so I really wanted to prove everyone wrong here and prove to myself as well because I started doubt myself on being able to start first. In qualifying we were super close with Bruno so Marc was trying to play mind games with me and saying Bruno will take me out, everyone was telling me he will take me out so I tried to block all this out and do my thing. The car was amazing in the finals and this allowed me to pull away. I never looked back and I am really proud of how I was able to drive. In the finals from the first lap I had a comfortable gap, Bruno was never even close and I just kept pulling away from the whole field. I am really proud of that especially being here for the first time and how difficult this race is with the changing conditions but we were always strong.’
Asked if he surprised himself at how dominant he was, he replied, ‘For sure I am extremely surprised, I wasn’t expecting at all to be this fast, I was hoping to make the main and just be competitive so that I have some sort of pace to fight for the podium or the usual guys I fight with. I absolutely did not expect to have so much speed over everyone else so I’m really proud of the work I did with Mattia (Collina), the guys from Elceram over the week of testing. I think this is very unique because it so rewarding all this practice because we put in so many hours here at the track in this heat, we work so hard and then at the end, this time we won, maybe next we might not, but all this work meant something.’
The 1:12 World Champion acknowledged the support of his team-mate Pekko Iivonen and a certain Joseph Quagraine, ‘I am happy to work with Pekko as well, it was nice to have him here and JQ. I must say many people can say something bad about him and sometimes maybe he speaks too much on social media but I think he’s actually really smart. In Q4 gave me a set of shock to put on my car, we had secured the TQ in Q3, and we wanted to try something for the finals to improve the base to increase the gap to make it more comfortable for me, the car was always quite on edge in qualifying so JQ gave me a set of shocks, I don’t know what was inside, but it was actually quite ok, maybe not perfect, but I told him there was something good in it. And then we made half a millimeter change of bumpsteer, his favourite thing, for A1 and my car was amazing so he as well played a big part and made my speed visible with his Invisible Speed so it’s been an awesome week. I am really happy for Elceram, they helped us a lot with the settings and made sure everything was running well no issues as almost all the other brands had some sort of problems at some point this week and we had absolutely zero problems so I really happy with everything.’
Chassis – Xpress XQ 11R
ESC – Hobbywing G3
Motor – Zombie Evo 2
Battery – Fido 6800mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Power HD GTS-2
Body – Xtreme Speciale
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They say data is king, but that is only true if you know what data you are looking at and what to do with it, and that is what today’s topic of conservation from the TITC is with Salton Dong from Hobbywing. Attending major races as technical support for drivers using Hobbywing electronics, Salton often finds himself more involved with drivers and chassis manufacturers than just purely for electronics. Data logs from the ESC show a lot of information and some of the details can be quite interesting if you know where to look and not just in terms of what the electronics are doing but also the inputs coming from the drivers stand!
While every user of a Hobbywing ESC can access the data log from a run, Salton admits the data is more for an expert user but he was keen to highlight a little how Hobbywing uses it in supporting its team drivers on the electronics side and beyond. He said, ‘the data is not very easy to understand inside and what is what, but for us we can diagnose some complicated cases. When we feel we don’t have a proper sense of what has caused a particular issue, then we can take the data log to further compare what might be going on.’ He also explained how in more straight forward cases they can also use the data logs to help analysis feedback from drivers or check if what a driver is feeling during a run is actually what they think it is.’ With data being his thing, Salton says it can be quite interesting to see in the data from the various drivers how they each control the throttle in different ways.
Working with drivers from all different chassis manufacturers, who are locked into intense battles with one another to win races like the TITC, he is privy to a lot of information on their car set-up etc. While that information always remains confidential, on the side of the electronic data Salton says the sharing of this information is a key part of his support role. Giving an example of this he explained, ‘In Open Brushless because we have a lot of drivers in the A-Main, sometimes if one team is faster sometimes other team drivers will think ‘oh maybe Salton gave them some better motors or some secret settings and that is why I’m am slower’ than the other drivers but actually for me in my role with the top drivers I will share my knowledge on settings and the material we have prepared for an event. If we see one of our drivers who should be faster we will go to them to check if anything is not so good. Some drivers, sometimes, don’t believe I can use the data to show them what is the real reason they are slower, and not on the power side, so this makes me like a bridge sometimes between different chassis brands. Of course I will respect any secrets in the chassis but on the power side I prefer to be open to all our drivers. Sometimes with lower skilled drivers I will have some different suggestions because of the control skills but I will tell them why I do it like this and what the problem with the difference will be and most understand this.’
He continued, ‘When I collect data from different sources I can analysis it and maybe combine a better one. Team A might have less in some setting and Team B might have a good element in their setting so I can try combine these and can also tell them each the good and the bad things of their current settings. Of course the setting they choose is totally their decision, it might be down to their preference, but by giving them an insight it might give them more options to try.’
In modified he says things are different, ‘especially with the top guys, like Bruno, Orlowski, there is quite a lot of difference in their power settings.’ He continued, ‘An interesting thing is only when they have some problems, what ever it is, not power, but maybe chassis or other things, they will be anxious to know others ESC settings. Because they can’t find a reason they are having problems they want to know everything about their opponent, and it is then if you tell them the difference they are more keen to try. If drivers are running ok they will not easily change the power setting especially once the race has started. In Modified power setting priority is quite low. For example today before Q4 I was talking to Alex (Hagberg) and he asked me to please update the firmware for him. He knows we have new firmware but in the practice days he didn’t ask to do it because he is working very hard on the chassis and didn’t what to try, although I told him there may be some benefit. But today already he had nothing to lose so he wanted to try the new firmware so I upgraded it for him. Sometimes lots of different things effect their decision, it quite difficult for them to have big changes when the competition is good.’
Asked from his experience why drivers were hesitant to make ESC changes he said, ‘the problem is it can be quite complex and they can get lost with things. If it is not so good they will blindly follow some fast guys but usually first they follow their team-mate but if the whole team is not going well it is usually only at this point they come to ask if I can share some information.’
Another day complete at the TITC and Invisible Speed’s Joseph Quagraine has been focusing on the finer details and convincing a few people to get on board with the idea. We’ll hand you over to JQ to explain…….
Qualifying and one main is done here at TITC, and I have learned something more. This one is a mistake I see even the very best drivers make, and in some ways it is illogical, based on how attention to detail oriented and precise the on road nerds…I mean racers are. While they weigh and measure everything to the tenth of a gram, degree or mm, the surprising thing is their approach to setup. When it comes to changes the changes are not a 10th of a gram, degree or mm, they are far bigger. And this is not the best way in my opinion.
Let me explain like this: The way I have seen drivers approach setup at TITC, is as if you go to a steak house, order a medium steak, receive it slightly too rare, then instead of asking for it to be cooked slightly more, you leave the restaurant, set it on fire, fly to a different country, and order lobster. While the lobster might be amazing, a better approach would be to cook the steak a bit more.
Earlier in the race the Xray boys were struggling, and having worked with Hagberg on Invisible Speed and Ronnefalk at Mayako I am friends with them, so for Q2 on, I gave them a suggestion of a base to go with, and have mainly since then tried to stop them making changes, and instead suggested minor tweaks. They did improve but too late, and unfortunate DNFs also ruined better placings for the finals.
I am here with Pekko Iivonen, who runs Schumacher, so I have got to know his team mate Michal Orlowski better at this race. Maybe a few helpful tips, along with Pekko being very fast in practice made him trust me a bit, so he has asked me for my opinion a few times. Without exception I have recommended less, and smaller changes, with one particular time being my favourite change, bumpsteer. 0.5mm in shims, and Michal doubted just that would be enough, and I said I believe it would, and thankfully it was.
The lessons so far, are to create a base setup using knowledge, not experience, then make smaller changes than currently, based on knowledge mixed with experience. This on road thing really is rewarding from an engineering minds point of view.
