New World Champion to be crowned in Japan

1:8 Onroad is set to crown a new World Champion this week with the news that reigning World Champion Robert Pietsch has not made the trip to Japan for the 18th running of IFMAR’s longest running World Championships.  The German has been forced to miss the chance to defend his title due to being struck down with pneumonia.  Having attended the Warm-up Race at the Keitune Racing Speedway back in May, the Mugen driver struggled while fellow Mugen driver & World title favourite Takaaki Shimo using O.S. dominated with many rumours circulating since then that Novarossi were struggling to get their engines to suit the specialised track.  Having received an e-mail along with a medical cert from Pietsch, his fuel sponsor Jarb Ratanarat of Maxima said its a real shame the strong advocate of onroad nitro racing can’t attend as he feels despite his showing at the Warm-up race  he believes he would have had a real chance at a second title.

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