January 25, 2019

Haatanen & Tessman set early Reedy Race practice pace

Joona Haatanen and Ty Tessman set the early pace at the 25th running of the Reedy Race of Champions. In 2WD, it was Haatanen who posted the fastest 3-consecutive laps with his Team Associated fastest from former team-mate Ryan Cavalieri and Tessmann. Tessmann’s Xray was quickest in 4WD from the Tekno of Joe Bornhorst with HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk completing the Top 3. For reigning champion Dustin Evans it was a rather slow start to his title defence as he managed only the 19th fastest time in 2WD and P10 in 4WD. The sixth year the legendary heads up race has been hosted by OCRC in Huntington Beach, it is this year’s track layout and its front jump that is the big talking point. With the section featuring a table top, it is the lip off this that is causing the drivers most trouble challenging the 2WD driving talents of all 30 racers in the Invitational class with the problem exaggerated by the current lower than normal levels of traction.

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January 14, 2019

Sobue & Ratheisky extend OneTen winning streaks

Akio Sobue has maintained his perfect record at the 2018/19 OneTen Series presented by Infinity having taken the win in the 8-minute A-main here in Guangzhou. Having already wrapped up the title with the win in round 5 yesterday, the Japanese driver led a mostly processional race as racers drove with battery conservation in mind. In the end, the top 4 finished in the positions they started with Sawada crossing the line in 2nd, while Nicholas Lee and Jan Ratheisky, who had a good battle early on, completed the top 4 with Haoran Ma in 5th. The talk before the race was trying to finish the 8 minutes on this high speed track and Sobue said he drove the race very smoothly, having pushed hard in the first few laps to build a gap. He was able to maintain his lead and in the end had a lot of power left in his 6300mAh cells. Despite having taken the title, the Infinity driver said he will for sure be in Hong Kong for the final two rounds saying he is aiming for a perfect score in the series.

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January 13, 2019

Sobue & Ratheisky to start Rd6 A-mains from pole

Akio Sobue has continued his dominance of the Sweep Modified class as the Japanese driver took the 3rd round of qualifying and wrapped up the top qualifying spot here early in Guangzhou for round 6 of the series with one qualifier still left to run. Jan Ratheisky did a similar feat in the Scorpion Stock class as the Xray racer once again was not headed by any of the local racers. In modified, the German bolted on a fresh set of Sweep handout tires and looked set to stop Sobue’s dominance, leading the heat for 3 minutes, but unfortunately fell back in the last minute which allowed Akio and Nicholas Lee passed. Sawada took 4th, while Lao Minhao completed the top 5. Sobue was once again on used tires, using a combination of 2 run old rear tires on the front and rear of his IF14, and said he felt the traction improve in the last 2 minutes of his run as the tires came in. For the final qualifier and the single 8-minute long A-main, Sobue still has two brand new sets of tires.

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January 13, 2019

OneTen Rd6 kicks off with familiar faces topping Q1

Round 6 of the OneTen Series presented by Infinity kicked off at Feiteng Raceway in Guangzhou with cooler conditions than on Saturday. The colder track conditions meant traction was a little lower than before but the order of the top 2 drivers remained the same. Akio Sobue, who claimed the season title in Modified yesterday, was again the pace setter from Jin Sawada, who seeded first in controlled practice earlier in the morning. 3rd spot for the opening round went to Jan Ratheisky, while Nicholas Lee and Gary Huang, the Xray driver running in the 2nd fastest heat, completed the top 5. Sobue who was on one run tires from the 2nd A-main yesterday felt that the traction was lower today but his car and the used tire were still ok.

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January 12, 2019

OneTen Series season titles go to Sobue & Ratheisky

As expected Akio Sobue has taken his 5th overall win of the OneTen Series presented by Infinity and in doing so has wrapped up the overall Sweep Modified title. Winning the 2nd leg of A-mains today in Guangzhou, and setting the fastest lap of the weekend with a 16.984, Akio was the only driver to break into the 16 second lap barrier all weekend to take the title in commanding fashion and allowing him to sit out the final leg.

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January 12, 2019

A1 wins for Akio & Jan at Feiteng Raceway

Infinity driver Akio Sobue has moved a step closer to securing the 2018/19 OneTen Series Modified title as he took an easy win in A1 this afternoon in Guangzhou. The Japanese driver was never challenged and could win by a substantial margin, which had increased to 9 seconds as team mate Sawada crashed on the last lap coming onto the back straight. Having managed to get pass the line before the buzzer Jin was luckily able to maintain his runner up position.

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January 12, 2019

Sobue & Ratheisky to start title deciding finals from pole

Akio Sobue will start Rd5 of the OneTen series presented by Infinity from pole position having wrapped up qualifying in the Sweep Modified class early by taking the opening 2 rounds. Team mate Jin Sawada would take the 3rd and final round to secure 2nd place overall with an improving Gary Huang to start from 3rd place. Local kid Haoran Ma will start an impressive 4th, while Nicholas Lee endured a difficult qualifying to end up 5th just had of Lao Minhao and Jan Ratheisky. Sobue, who can secure the title with a win in today’s 4-minute long triple A-mains, was again happy with his IF14, only adjusting his tire prep during the day and commented that he has saved 2 of his allotted sets of Sweep tires for the finals, the drop off in tire performance in qualifying minimal on the 2nd and 3rd runs.

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January 12, 2019

Guangzhou qualifying Rd1 goes to Sobue

The 3rd stop of the 2018/19 OneTen Series presented by Infinity kicked off with Rd5 getting underway in dry but cool conditions at Feiteng Raceway in Guangzhou, China. It was current championship leader Akio Sobue from Japan that topped the opening round of qualifying. The Infinity driver, as has been the norm this season, headed home his team mate Jin Sawada by 3 seconds. Next up was Chinese national champion and Guangzhou local Gary Huang in 3rd followed by 13 year old Haoran Ma just 2 seconds back, while Jan Ratheisky, who had an incident in traffic completing the top 5. Sobue had rebuilt his car overnight, not happy with the balance of his IF14 following Friday’s free practice. Reverting to a softer variation of his home track setup, which was being used by Sawada, he said the car was now better balanced, having been very loose on Friday.

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