February 22, 2025

JQ at the TITC – Day 3

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.


February 22, 2025

Chassis Focus – Goto Souta (Tamiya TRF)

Chassis – Tamiya TRF 421
ESC – Hobbywing G3
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3 4.5T
Battery – Nosram 6500mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Sanwa PGS-LH II Prototype Type R
Body – Xtreme Twister

Image Gallery



February 22, 2025

Video – A-Main Leg 1

Action from the opening A-Main of Modified Touring Car at the 2025 TITC at RC Addict, Bangkok.

View full results here.


February 22, 2025

Orlowski cruises to easy A1 win at TITC

While Michal Orlowski starting on the TQ directly in front of Bruno Coelho has produced fireworks in the past, the opening A-Main at the TITC in Bangkok proved a total procession as the Schumacher driver took an easy & dominant win over his rival.  Sending a clear message to his rivals on his TITC debut by topping all four rounds of qualifying at RC Addict, Orlowski looked even stronger in A1 quickly pulling clear of the field to win a massive 3.3-second margin.  While Coelho’s Infinity would record the fastest lap of the race, the defending Champion was never a threat to the rookie.  Instead a small mistake left Coelho having to fend off a challenge from Marc Rheinard but that battle faded away with the Awesomatix driver, who before a driver error looked to have found something in the final qualifier, crossing the line almost a 1-second back in P3.

Putting it to Orlowski after the race that his win was pretty straight forward and uneventful, the Pole replied, ‘Yeah, I’ve been sick off not being able to have a clean run in the finals so before A1 I thought I’m just going to try and pull away and my car was absolutely perfect in this one’.  He continued, ‘I did all I could to drive away and thanks to the help of Mattia (Collina), the guys from Elceram, Pekko, JQ, yeah the the car was perfect.  Now I just need one more.’  With the night to sleep on his A1 win asked about A2 he said, ‘we will see what time the race is at, we’ll see the temperatures, but I think we will leave the car the same.’

Reacting to his first actual race as an Infinity driver, Coelho said, ‘We made some radical changes on the set-up and it didn’t really go the direction we want but we are still learning the car.  The performance is there and I think considering we only got the car in our hands for the first time 3-weeks ago and we are flighting for the TITC, so the result is impressive.  The competition is at 110% because they have the same car and they have everything the same as they had at the World Championship.  We still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on the car so I am really happy with the result and just enjoying the moment.  Asked about his moment during the final, he explained, ‘I was trying to follow Michal who is super strong this weekend and I touched the curb and was on two wheels’.  Surviving the moment that allowed Rheinard to hassle him for a few laps, he added, ‘as I said before the race we need to be realistic for this race, we are not 100% ready, we are getting there, so second place and fighting for the TITC is already good.’

A dejected Rheinard, clearly at a loss to his disappointing A1 performance having had high expectation after his initial Q4 effort one & a half hours earlier, said. ‘I don’t know the traction is so much so I just kept the car the same as Q4 where I was leading until I made a mistake but now it was again really difficult to drive.  I have no idea, changing track conditions are a bit weird for us, it doesn’t work out.’   The reigning European Touring Car Champion added, ‘Also Bruno was struggling there, it just felt super weird and hard to drive.  It might have been a boring race to watch but to drive it was super difficult.  Let’s see what happens tomorrow.’

In the opening encounter of Open Brushless it was also a tone to tone win for the Top Qualifier as Mugen Seiki’s Soren Sparbier converted to take the win with his MTC-3.  After an early incident allowed the Top 2 to break clear of the field,  the No.2 starting Awesomatix of Lukas Ellerbrock kept Sparbier honest for race as he posted a slightly faster fastest lap of the race than his fellow countryman.  Starting P3 that is where Olivier Bultynck would finish but loosing time in the Lap 3 incident the Q2 winner was almost half a lap back on the Top 2.

View our event image gallery here.


February 22, 2025

Chassis Focus – Alexander Hagberg (Xray)

Chassis – Xray x4’25
ESC – Hobbywing G3
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3 4.5T
Battery – Team EAM 6000mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Sanwa PGS-LH II
Body – Xtreme Twister

Image Gallery


February 22, 2025

Video – Qualifying Round 4

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

View full results here.