IPD Day 1 in the books – ISTC Worlds Chit Chat in Bangkok
The first of 2 days of IPD (International Practice Day) was completed at Huge RC in Bangkok today ahead of the IFMAR ISTC World Championships which officially gets underway on Wednesday, but taking today as a day to chat & catch up with what is a full house of drivers it seems there is a bit of a mixed view to the introduction of IPD to the category. Around for a number of years now in nitro onroad, it has merit to give drivers not in the position to attend the track for pre-event testing an opportunity to get extra track time as part of a single trip to the host track. In the case of nitro however the tracks are usual permanent. Think Gubbio, the Nitro Touring Car Worlds was held on the same layout this year as was used to decide the World Champion back in 2016 – both great events but neither won by Italians who had raced there many times more than their rivals over the decade in between! With a number of Pro drivers having done up to 10-days of practice leading up to IPD, one driver rumoured to have run 150 batteries in that time (that’s a lot of tyres), sure it is great for the rest of the drivers to get the two days to try catch up with set-up but the main talking point seems to be that all the testing is on a layout that won’t even be used for the event! On Tuesday’s registration day, 2002 ISTC World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya, owner of Huge RC, and his crew will change track layout and the changes are pretty significant with a number of leading drivers saying the new layout will make for a much slower lap time and require a set-up change to get more steering as the track tightens up. Sure these guys are the best in the world and they will probably figure it out by Wednesday lunch time but many, both who came for a week or more of pre-event running or just the IPD, feel that had the race layout been done for IPD it might have encouraged teams to just come for the IPD. One driver pointed out also that had the race been held in Europe or the US, teams might have viewed the costs of an extra week of testing differently so for sure its sometime that maybe needs to be reviewed going forward. While World Championships are extra special events and teams go above & beyond for this once every two years opportunity to take the greatest prize, it is interesting to note that event duration was a point that was raised at a Section Meeting held during the recent IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy Worlds in Texas. The majority feeling that event is too long as the ISTC Worlds just got three days longer. That said racers and manufacturers have for years complained and looked to have the Nitro Onroad Worlds made shorter yet the 2027 calendar lists the event as 10-days!
Apart from the discussion on IPD, it was good as always to catch up with the categories first World Champion Atsushi Hara. Running both an Awesomatix and a Tamiya over the last week of open testing, he says he is likely to race the Tamiya as one of his sponsors Zero Tribe has been developing a range of option parts for the 421X so this choice of car makes more sense to run. Hara is also pitting next to the Tamiya Racing Factory team so any help is at arms reach. While chatting to Hara, TFR designer Kiyo Suzuki confirmed to us they have brought a number of new parts here which we hope we might get permission to include in a chassis focus. In terms of cars, being a World Championships new & prototype parts and even all new car are of course expected but as reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho called it, this Unicorn track is so different to anything else they race on it is actually hard to gauge the performance of new parts. He highlighted how car brands that have been the best at all other races this year are struggling here and then cars that have not been good come here and are straight away on the pace. One of the drivers who has been here almost 2 weeks already, on his own program he told us Infinity have a number of new parts some of which have helped improve his car for the unique conditions of the indoor asphalt track.
Having unveiled the car with which they would return to Touring Car competition at the last Worlds in Bakersfield 2-years ago, Team Associated have come to Thailand with a completely new car with all American line-up Ryan Cavalieri and Bryce Butterfield charged with driving them. They are supported by 1Up Racing’s Randy Caster who is officially here as mechanic for Cavalieri. Sharing the same air conditioned pit room with Team Associated is Jacob Cruz. With his Mugen Seiki team making a strong showing with their then pre-production MTC3 at the 2024 WC, this year its just rising star of those Worlds who flies the flag for the Japanese manufacturer. With the departure this year of Volker as a driver to RC Maker and Robert Pietsch as designer to Infinity, the talented US teenager is another working with their standard car, with just his mechanic dad for technical support.
Serpent, who enjoyed a very strong 2024 Worlds with Dominic Greiner making the final, are here but also a much downsized team with just the German as their solo entry and running a standard version of their latest car. Without a mechanic or any engineering support trackside, Greiner has had to revert to running just one car in IPD – most drivers using two cars over each round of practice. It’s good to see Yokomo here with key support from Japan (we’ll have separate article on this), and led by 2022 podium finisher Christopher Krapp they have new parts they are evaluating in IPD. A manufacturer who has become a genuine contender with the release of its SP2 and signing of Ronald Volker over the Summer, RC Maker owner Ryan Maker told us their new car is pretty much standard for the race given how new to market it is. The Australian’s level of excitement around these World Championships came across so positively when chatting with him today.
n the Xray camp, Martin Hudy confirmed they are running what will be the 2027 model release of their X4. Chatting to their long time factory driver Alexander Hagberg today, Huge RC a very special place for the Swede who won his first World title here in 2014 in Nitro Touring Car, it seems he might have a future in the fashion industry! He said the recent release of AH t-shirts proved much more popular than he expected with RC fans from around the world ordering them. Not surprising to us really as he has put in some good work into building himself into a brand with his tech insight videos and race insights. His name even came up in conversation at the Buggy Worlds in Texas as a driver who brings great value to his sponsors. With the indoor season kicking off we might expect to see a hoodie added as part of the AH Winter collection!!
Reminiscing with Hara about Red RC’s first electric World Championships attendance being Thailand in 2008 when 1:12 and Touring Car ran as a back to back event, and then also sharing the same asphalt track, we got confirmation from IFMAR that they will announce the host venue for rescheduled 1:12 Worlds this coming week. Expected we understand to be scheduled for the back end of 2027, IFMAR said they have a meeting planned here in Bangkok to finalise the details after which the host will be revealed. With 2026 due to see the two categories brought back together, the cancellation of China left them without a host as Huge RC stepped in to run the ISTC Worlds but unable to provide a carpet track.
Red RC’s coverage of the 2026 IFMAR ISTC World Championships will officially begin on Wednesday.
