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October 31, 2023

Kurzbuch is Top Seed in Japan

Simon Kurzbuch is the Top Seed at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship, the Mugen Seiki driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the day in the fourth & final round of timed practice in a great battle with Capricorn’s Toni Gruber. The duo swapped position at the top of the timing screens, their engine tuner Daniele Ielasi finding it hard to keep up with which of drivers was currently fastest, but at the end of the 7-minutes it was Kurzbuch who was 2/10ths faster than Gruber. That time would give the very much back in form 2015 World Champion the tiebreaker in the final seeding points ranking as himself and Gruber both count a P1 & P2 each. Fastest in the second round, Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura would put himself out of contention for the confidence boosting Top Seed status when he crashed out just before the final 2 and a half minutes of the run which is when the times start to tumble. Another contender, having topped Round 3, Dario Balestri could not match the lead pace and finished with the third fastest time just ahead of Infinity team-mate Jesse Davis. Overall that would seed Balestri third.

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October 31, 2023

Indonesia Year End Race 2023 – Report

The annual Indonesia Year End Race 2023 was held at East RC Speedway last week, attracted a total of 88 racers from Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand joined in. All drivers welcomed by the very hot weather during the race week, made it much tricky for each one to find the best tuned for their car. The event support the primary Expert Modified Class, Expert GT Class, GT Class and Touring Blinky Class. Bowie Ginting took the overnight TQ at Modified Expert Class as he snatched Q2 and Q3 win, while Nicholas Lee won the Q1 and Q4, means the tie breaker rules handed Nicholas the overall TQ by the fastest time. Ethan Cheng rounded up 3rd for the triple A Main Final. It was a close run between these three racer, Bowie would able to capitalise the win in A1 and A2 which awarded him the title. As Nicholas and Ethan battled it out for 2nd overall in A3 after some close racing which seen the pole sitter grab the 2nd ahead of his fellow countryman. Wee Yuan from Malaysia was all over the contention in Blinky Class. Secured the TQ and overall win in the first two legs. Indonesian’ Dede Supriyatna would made the highest move as he started from 10th and ended up 2nd ahead of Wuzi Sevta who takes 3rd.

View results & podium images here

October 31, 2023

Matsukura & Balestri top seeding rounds 2 & 3

With three rounds of seeding complete at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, three different drivers have topped the times with Infinity’s Dario Balestri the latest driver to top the times in Japan. Toni Gruber kicked off the first day that counts for anything when he took the opening timed practice but an hour & a half later Naoto Matsukura took the round with an even faster 3-consecutive laps. With ranking points from the drivers best two of four rounds determining the heat groups for qualifying tomorrow, Balestri threw his hat in the ring for the Top Seed honours when he went fastest in the third round, track conditions slowing due to the hotter midday temperatures. The latest round would also see reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata have his run so far as he posted a P3 run behind Mugen Seiki team-mate Simon Kurzbuch who was very lucky to survive a driver error during the 7-minute practice.

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October 31, 2023

Gruber tops first time practice in Japan

Toni Gruber has topped the opening round of timed practice at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan. The Capricorn driver’s fastest 3-consecutive laps around the Infinity International RC Speedway gave him a 3/10th of a second advantage over his closest rival, the same margin of time then covering the next 7-drivers. Better known for his electric onroad exploits, it was Hayato Ishioka who was second fastest driving a Mugen with factory Mugen driver Simon Kurzbuch completing the Top 3. The best represented brand at this year’s World Championship with over half the field running the Japanese manufacturer’s car, it was Naoto Matsukura who lead their charge with P4 for the first of today’s scheduled four seeding rounds. Just 1/100th off, Serpent young gun Andrea Catanzani, who was up in the second last year to go on track, kick his day off with a P5 ahead of Dario Balestri and reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata.

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October 30, 2023

4 busy days of practice conclude at 1:8 Onroad Worlds

After four busy days of practice for drivers at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan, things are finally set to get official tomorrow with four planned rounds of seeding practice to determine the heat order for qualifying. Summing up how practice had gone, many of the international drivers getting their first taste of the Infinity International RC Speedway on Friday, it was mixed reports from some of the leading title contenders. The driver they all will be trying to beat over the next 5-days, reigning Champion Shoki Takahata was looking content and relaxed and reported being pleased with how he was working through his program. With no official timing being published, icon of the sport Atsushi Hara highlighted the Mugen driver as a driver looking strong over the four days. A 1:8 Onroad Worlds podium finisher himself, Hara felt Takahata’s new for 2023 team-mate Simon Kurzbuch was also looking strong. From his own team, Infinity, he thought Dario Balestri was leading their charge with the 2017 World Champion in confident mood when we caught up with him at the completion of the final practice.

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October 30, 2023

Payne defends double Masters of Foam titles

Ollie Payne has successfully defended both his Masters of Foam titles, making it back to back wins at the annual Belgian event in both Mod and 13.5 Stock. In Friday and Saturday’s qualifying the Schumacher driver claimed overall TQ honours for both classes and was able to carry that form into Sunday’s triple finals. With Xray’s Alexander Hagberg lining up P2 on the grid, Payne opened Mod with a win but A2 ended in a DNF with Hagberg taking the win to set the stage for an A3 showdown between the pair. From the front however Payne lead from start to finish to win by 2-seconds from Hagberg who claimed the second step on the overall podium. Second behind Hagberg in A2 and with a P4 in A3 it would give Stuart Cartwright third overall, the Schumacher driver winning out on a tie break with Markus Mobers. In 13.5 Payne produced a clean sweep winning all three A-Mains for the overall title ahead of the similar Eclipse of Morgan Williams with Max Machler’s Awesomatix completing the podium.

View 13.5 podium here

October 29, 2023

‘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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October 29, 2023

Double TQ for Payne at Masters of Foam

Schumacher’s Ollie Payne has pulled off the TQ double at the annual Masters of Foam event in Belgium. The British driver, who is the reigning Champion of what has become one of the big 1:12 races in Europe, dominated Modified qualifying topping all five rounds. Behind him Xray’s former World Champion Alexander Hagberg secured P2 on the grid with Marcus Mobers completing the Top 3 for Sunday’s triple A-Main. In 13.5, Payne took four of the five rounds after a DNF in Q2 which went to the similar car of Morgan Williams who lines up P2 on the grid ahead of Awesomatix’s Max Machler. In the GT category, it is good to see the next generation coming through with Louis Mobers, son of 1:12 stalwart and 2023 Mod class runner-up Marcus, taking the TQ after topping 4 of the 5 qualifiers.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]