November 2, 2019

Stunning drive puts Kurzbuch in final after start-line flameout

A stunning drive has put former Champion Simon Kurzbuch in the 1:8 Onroad World Championship Final in California.  Suffering an engine flame out on the grid, the pole sitter for the second of the Semi Finals missed the start and had to be returned to the pits to be restarted as the rest of the field got underway and the general feeling of the stunned onlookers was the Swiss ace’s event was done.  Kurzbuch however defied the odds, driving at 110% he started to put himself back in contention for a bump up spot as the crowd watch on in awe.  Setting the fastest lap of the race he crossed the line in 3rd position to ensure he gets another chance to do battle with his great rival and reigning champion Dario Balestri.  Up front in the Semi Odd, Jesse Davis made the race his own, leading home fellow Australian Jeff Hamon to secure both drivers their first 1:8 Worlds Final start.  In the first of the Semi Finals, Dominic Greiner led from start to finish despite struggling with his engine with Shoki Takahata a close second and Toni Gruber third.  Unfortunately for Lamberto Collari he fell just three minutes short of making the Main Final on the 10th Anniversary of his last World title after he suffered an engine flame out. With the second Semi the faster the finals, the two drivers to book their place in the main event at the 22nd running of IFMAR Worlds would be Takaaki Shimo and Carmine Raiola.

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November 1, 2019

Balestri to defend World title as Top Qualifier

Dario Balestri will defend his 1:8 Onroad World Championship title as the Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s final at Steel City RC Speedway in California.  The Infinity driver secured his fourth consecutive World Championship TQ when he topped the sixth & final round of qualifying ahead of Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner.  With the first five qualifiers seeing 4 different drivers post TQ run, the final qualifying was a four way shoot out. Running in the second fastest heat Greiner did all he could to set the provisional TQ time while the other three contenders, Balestri, Naoto Matsukura and Kurzbuch set off in reverse order in the top heat.  The first to post a second TQ run when he topped the morning’s Q5, Matsukura would unfortunately crash out at two and half minutes, leaving the battle between Balestri and Kurzbuch, their predicted pace up on the time set by Greiner.  In the end Balestri had it under control finishing with 4/10ths on Kurzbuch. Overall Matsukura qualified 2nd followed by Kurzbuch, Greiner and Jesse Davis.

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October 28, 2019

Davis set early pace at Worlds as drivers battle high traction

Australia’s Jesse Davis is the early pace setter at the IFMAR 1:8 World Championships in California, the Infinity driver fastest in the opening day of official practice and again after 2 of the 5 scheduled rounds of today’s action. Behind, Dominic Greiner is second fastest today after topping the Round 7 of practice from reigning World Champion Dario Balestri and reigning 1:10 World Champion Naoto Matsukura. Next up it is ARC’s Silvio Hachler with the Mugen of 2018 World podium finisher Shoki Takahata completing the Top 6 times for this morning’s opening two runs. Super high winds overnight and this morning meant a delayed start to today’s schedule with the traction sprayed Steel City RC Speedway surface acting like a magnet to the dust blown in by the winds, winds that are forecast to return again on Wednesday when qualifying is to begin. As a result of the delay, drivers now have shorter run but already the traction is back up to the ‘super high’ levels drivers are finding difficult.

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October 21, 2019

Sawada & Kiyoyi complete OneTen double

Jin Sawada survived a big scare in the early stages of the 8-minute main final when the Japanese driver rolled his IF14, to come back and win the 2nd round of the OneTen series hosted by RCI V2 in Shanghai. Losing almost half a lap on the small technical track, the incident dropped the pole man down to 4th and left Rocket Zhang in the lead. Fighting his way back to the front, Jin managed to get back into the lead with two and a half minutes to go and would go on to extend his lead to over 5 seconds by the end of the race. Rocket would hold on for 2nd with Motor King completing the top 3. Discussing the incident, Sawada put it down to running with more power, thanks to the increased voltage, and lower than normal traction. Losing the back of the car slightly it clipped the small yellow curbs, sending his car into the wall and needing to be marshalled. Following the crash, he said his car was feeling really good and he could go about his recovery drive, which he admitted added some excitement to what was a rather processional race.

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October 20, 2019

Pole position in Shanghai for Sawada at OneTen Rd2

Having taken Q2 and again Q3, Jin Sawada has confirmed his second TQ starting spot in 2 days. Running faster in each consecutive run, behind, it was a battle between Rocket Zhang and Motor King, the latter managing to pull together 2 fast runs in Q2 and 3, even taking 2nd in the 2nd qualifier. Both drivers breaking into 24 lap runs in Q3 and with both scoring a 2nd and a 3rd, the fight for who will start directly behind Jin in the 8-minute main is between these two drivers. Gary Huang continues to not be content with his car, feeling he should be faster both he and pitman Gavin are starting to run out options to try. With no changes planned to his Infinity IF14, Sawada will only change the charge of his battery from the usual 8.2 volts to 8.4, to account for the longer race.

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October 20, 2019

OneTen Rd2 first qualifier goes to Sawada

Round 2 of the OneTen Series presented by Infinity kicked off this morning with a single controlled practice followed by the first round of qualifying. In a continuation of form from yesterday, the top 3 in Modified remained the same as in the opening round of the series yesterday with Jin Sawada fastest in the 4 minute qualifier. With 4 rounds of qualifying in total to set the grid for the single 8 minute main later in the afternoon, it was Rocket Zhang who was 2nd fastest, followed by Gary Huang in 3rd. Jimmy Qian and Masaaki Kiyoyi completed the top 5. Asked about his first run, Infinity driver Sawada said that he ran a new tire today, which with 2 runs from this morning’s practice was smoother to drive despite the track being slightly looser than yesterday.

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October 19, 2019

Opening round of OneTen Series goes to Sawada

Having dominated every session since arriving in Shanghai, Jin Sawada wrapped up the overall win in Modified at Rd1 of the 2019/20 series with victory in A2. This time not having the same problem off the start line, the Infinity driver took the final by nearly 6 seconds in front of a much improved Rocket Zhang, the Serpent driver going on to win A3 from a fast closing Sawada, who started A3 almost half a lap behind the Chinese driver having been put to the back of the grid by race director Rick Wang to give the others a fighting chance. Gary Huang was consistently 3rd in all mains and secured the final step of podium.

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October 19, 2019

A1 win for Sawada in Shanghai

Unsurprisingly the opening Modified A-main has gone to Jin Sawada, the Japanese Infinity driver recovering from a difficult getaway to put his head down and win the 4-minute encounter by 5 seconds from Rocket Zhang in 2nd and Gary Huang a further 5 seconds back in 3rd, having lost a lot of time a crash at the end of the race. Asked about his difficult start, Sawada noted that the area on which he was gridded was dirty which made his car difficult to get off the line and meant his tires were dirty for the first couple of laps. Admitting that it was tricky to negotiate the lapped traffic he had no problems while doing so and will hope for the same result again in A2.

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