Balestri TQ’s opening qualifier in Japan

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan.  Top Qualifier at the last Worlds in 2019, the Italian took the round ahead of Capricorn’s Dominic Greiner as Simon Kurzbuch ran out of fuel on his last lap.  The Top Seed after timed practice Kurzbuch looked to be carrying that form into Day 1 of qualifying but having admitted yesterday that the 4-minute run time would be close, this morning it was to cost him the TQ run.  Having hinted at his pace in the final practice when he was fourth fastest, Infinity’s Jessie Davis would complete the Top 3 for the first of the 6 rounds of qualifying 0.579 ahead of Toni Gruber.  One of the four drivers to top timed practice yesterday, Naoto Matsukura didn’t have a good start to qualifying as he needed to pit after the first 1-minute to have his engine tuned.

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‘Without knowledge you can drive but you can’t win’ – Jilles Groskamp

It’s easy to think that the top drivers in the World have a special ability to just show up at an event and put their car on the track and be quick straight off the bat.  While there are one or two exceptions who do possess this super power, for the most part the success comes from combining that natural talent with a lot of hard work, that mostly goes unnoticed, between races.  Racing at the top level is relentless because when you are not putting in the work your rivals are, and they are making marginal gains that combined can be the difference between them winning or you not.  One driver who has always stood out as one of the hardest working drivers in our sport is Jilles Groskamp.  Even back in the dominant years of the Tamiya TRF team in electric touring car it was Jilles who was doing most of the ground work for the entire team.  That effort was justly rewarded when he became the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion at his home track of Heemstede.  Now at the age of 43, Jilles admitting himself ‘I’m not the youngest guy anymore’, putting in the work is even more vital than before and through that comes knowledge which he points out ‘without knowledge you can drive but you can’t win’.

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1:8 Onroad Worlds coverage presented by Infinity

After our trip Down Under to cover our first ever 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney last week, Red RC is excited to announced that the next stop on our World Championship tour, 1:8 Onroad in Japan, will be presented by Infinity.  In less than 2-weeks time the sport’s original World Championship category will descend on the Infinity International RC Speedway where the 23rd IFMAR World Champion will be decided.  A category through which our own interest in RC racing came about, the first World Championship we covered here on Red RC was the 2007 1:8 Onroad Worlds in Argentina so it’s a category which has a very special place in our hearts.  Nine years ago, the last time Japan hosted the event, we where on hand to tell the story of Tadahiko Sahashi home victory and last year when Infinity also made our coverage possible we where able to see Tadahiko add the 1:10 Onroad title.  Our coverage from Japan will begin on Monday, October 30th, starting with news from control practice and how the story unfolds over the next 5 days.

Apolaro wins Great Lakes Challenge

One of the United States most iconic Onroad nitro races,  the Great Lakes Challenge saw DJ Apolaro take the 1:10 Sedan win at the 2023 running of the event held at the TSRCAR track in Lebanon Ohio over the weekend.  The Wallace Motorsports driver Apolaro would secure the TQ from Jamie Corrado after setting the fastest time in the 3rd of the 5 rounds of qualifying.  In the 40-minute A-Main,  Apolaro would have a flame out in the first couple of minutes of the race and had to fight his way back from 6th place.  With just two minutes remaining he would find a way by Diatta Collymore for the win.  Collymore led for most of the race being able to capitalise on DJ’s flame out, but finished in 2nd place.   Jerry Guerra Having qualified 5th Jerry Guerra was able to come from as far back as 9th position to take 3rd place to make it an all Infinity IF15 podium.  In the 1:8 Open class  Michael Palazzola took the win from Top Qualifier John Dickson with Mike McBride rounding out the Top 3 after 45-minutes of racing.