Racers settle in in Sydney ahead of 1:10 Worlds action
Officially the opening day of the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships, while there was no track action today in Sydney the pits were busy with drivers completing their registration, gluing tyres and making final preparations to their buggies ahead of tomorrow’s first laps on the new layout at the Hills Off Road RC track. With the official duties of Day 1 concluding with the opening ceremony, a huge Australian team, which make up over half the entry kicking it off, and the United States, the biggest visiting nation, concluding the presentation of countries, drivers had plenty of talk about after their long journeys Down Under. In terms of the longest journey time to get to here, this year the 40th anniversary of the first 1:10 Offroad World Championships, that honour goes to Xray’s Bartek Zalewski, the young Polish talent enduring a brutal 61-hour journey! There were travel dramas for many drivers including 2-time 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin and Schumacher’s Broc Champlin, flooding in Phoenix causing their original flight to be cancelled. Driving to LA to get a new flight, they finally arrived but without their original baggage. Luckily carrying their buggies and radios as hand luggage, Rivkin was able to stop at his home to repack tools etc. from his 1:8 gear bags. Newly crowned 1:8 Electric Buggy World Champion Marcus Kaerup is another without his baggage, which went awol on his stop over in Istanbul. While a headache for Team Associated team manager Brent Theilke to have two drivers without their bags and some equipment, he said they won’t be stuck for anything while Kaerup joked he had plenty of team-mates he could ‘rob stuff from’.
