Day 1 of qualifying is over and it is American ace Chris Tosolini who holds the current TQ honours for the 2008 IFMAR 200mm World Championships here is Lisbon. The Sirio team driver was one of only three drivers to record 32 laps today with a run of 10:18.325 which was half a second clear of the ever impressive Peter Jovanovic with former World Champion Adrien Bertin third a further 7/10th behind.
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Jilles Groskamp is the pace setter after the first round of qualifying here in Portugal but the Dutch driver was not the fastest in the run, that honour going to Daniele Ielasi but in post race scrutiny the Italian’s fuel tank was deemed to be to big. It was very close at the top with Ielasi posting a run of 31 laps in 10:02.628 with Groskamp just 8/100th behind.
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Overnight rain here in Lisbon caused a delay to the start of proceedings as race organisers decided to wait an hour to allow the track to dry before starting the first qualifier of the 2008 IFMAR World Championships. Drivers from Groups 1-7 have just finished their two qualifiers for today, and are free to hit the beach, while Groups 8-15 are getting ready to kick start their battle for the Day 1 TQ honours. Peter Jovanovic, who was one of the stars at the last World Championships for 1:10 200mm in Brisbane where he claimed a podium finish, is loving the track here in Lisbon. The talented young Aussie says his car is working perfectly and he would rate the track as one of the best he has ever driven. Jovanovic says the circuit is a lot more flowing than he is used to back home and learning it has been his biggest obstacle so far. Now that he is mastering the bumps he’s really happy with his progress.
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He was the talk of the paddock when we arrived and he has made it official that he is the pace setter by putting his name at the top of the time sheets as 5 days of practice comes to an end and qualifying for the 2008 1:10 200mm World Championships beckons. Jilles Groskamp produced the fastest run over 10 minutes in the second of today’s two controlled practice notching up 32 laps in 10:12.223 with his Sirio powered Kyosho. Running a larger head shim for the practice, as Team Sirio played with run time, the Dutch star said the car was not as quick but they had plenty of fuel left after the run and the test would now help them to work out a better compromise between power and consumption.
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We received a brief report from the 4th round of the 1/8th scale Belgian off road national Championships that was run last weekend at the TT-Fays track. Ishima Racing team driver Robert Raphael took Pole position, as well as recording the fastest lap, on his way to the win. Robert was using the new Ishima Rave, together with Picco motors and Medial Pro tyres, and won from Mugen racer Cédric Nickel in 2nd and Jeremy Hanotiaux, racing an RC8, in 3rd.
Thunder Alley R/C was the host to round 5 of the JBRL Nitro Series this past weekend. The event was very busy with many of the top US drivers in attendance trying to prepare for the IFMAR Worlds. The current IFMAR 1/8th World Champion Mark Pavidis was in attendance along with many other top drivers and when the dust settled from qualifying, it was the Losi 8ight racer Adam Drake that took the TQ by more thqn 3 seconds over HoBao’s Jeremy Kortz. The final was an exciting race with Losi’s Adam Drake and Kyosho’s Cody King, but just like round 4 of the JBRL it was Adam Drake that came out on top, with Cody King 2nd and Ryan Lutz 3rd.
We have finally arrived in Portugal where conditions are overcast making for welcomed cooler conditions. After a quick walk around the pits to say hello to drivers the main talk is that of the blistering pace of the Sirio team drivers and in particular electric touring car ace Jilles Groskamp. The Dutch driver is fast and more importantly very consistent although a 2 speed one-way bearing failure in the warm-up for the first controlled practice means we will have to wait till this evening to get a true indication of his pace over 10-minutes. Groskamp is really happy with the combined pace of his engines and Kyosho chassis which he says are allowing him to comfortably run fast consistent laps.
Check out the full coverage on our event site here.
The 4th round of the Belgian National Championships took place last weekend at the Roeselare track under changeable weather conditions. Qualifying saw the first round take place in dry conditions while the following 2 were wet and damp, with the fourth and final round dry again, raining near the end of the final heat, and it was Gunther Van Staey that took the TQ ahead of Robin D’hondt. Just before the 1/8th scale final it rained again and this was enough to wet the track and had racers scrambling for tires. The main final saw Robin able to take the lead after 1 lap and could drive away from Van Staey, who lost time struggling on the wrong tires. In the closing stages of the race Robin ran out of tires and had to come in for tires in the last 2 minutes to change to dry tires, yet was still able to win by 4 laps from Marc Van Passel in 2nd and Nico Vandewynckel in 3rd.
