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December 7, 2024

Coelho holds overnight FEMCA TQ in China

Bruno Coelho holds the overnight TQ at the FEMCA ISTC Championship in China, the Xray driver topping the opening two rounds of qualifying today at the GDC Indoor track in Foshan. Having topped seeding, the World Champion would take the first of the 5 scheduled qualifiers ahead of Naoto Matsukura and it looked it was going to be a similar result in Q2 until the Japanese driver’s Infinity got stopped suddenly in its tracks by the foot of a marshal. While Matsukura would eventually continued to claim a P4 run, it was his team-mate Koki Kato and Xray’s Shin Sawada who would benefit to end the round with the 2nd & 3rd fastest times respectively. Overall however Matsukura still holds P2 going into tomorrow morning’s final 3-rounds of qualifying despite ending the day on 6-points together with Kato & Sawada.

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December 7, 2024

Coelho tops seeding in Foshan

Bruno Coelho is the top seed at the FEMCA Championship for Electric Touring Car in Foshan City, China, the Xray driver laying down his fastest time in the third & final round of practice at GDC. With the indoor carpet track getting faster and faster each round as the hard compound controlled Rush tyres come in, Coelho’s time was 7/10ths of a second quicker than his near rival Naoto Matsukura over his 3-consecutive with Infinity team-mate & fellow countryman Koki Kato completing the Top 3 a further 3/10ths down. A Spec class finalist at the recent IFMAR ISTC World Championships in California, the Xray of Shin Sawada would post the fourth fastest time ahead of the similar car of Chinese National Champion Jerry Dai who claimed 5th at last year’s FIRC.

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December 7, 2024

Coelho opens FEMCA C/ship at top of SP1

After a very impressive ceremony this morning at GDC to officially open the 2024 FEMCA ISTC Championship in Foshan, China, it was the Xray of Bruno Coelho that set the opening pace when cars hit the track at midday. After his well executed speech during the opening ceremony, getting up on stage probably the most daunting things the World Champion has faced so far, the Portuguese returned to the environment he is far more comfortable with to set the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the first seeding round ahead of the Infinitys of Naoto Matsukura and Koki Kato. A driver who took part in the inaugural FIRC race last year, Maxim Laverychev would take his Awesomatix to the fourth fastest time ahead of the Xray of Japanese driver Shin Sawada with top Indonesian driver Bowie Ginting completing the Top 6 for the first of the three seeding rounds.

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December 6, 2024

World Champions settle themselves in at FEMCA C/ship

With the FEMCA Championship due to officially get underway tomorrow morning, today’s open practice at the GDC track in Foshan, China, was a day for World Champions Bruno Coelho and Naoto Matsukura to get settled in on this their first visit to the impressively sized indoor facility. Fresh from his World Championship win in the US, Coelho, who is in China as part of a 2-week trip that will also see him race 1:8 Offroad at next weekend’s annual SIGP race in Xiamen, was pleased with the data he has gathered from his time on the track with his Xray. While this evening saw the track and pits get much busier as more local drivers arrived for one of Asia’s most important touring car races, Infinity’s Matsukura felt he has a bit more work to do to get a handle on the differing traction he experience each run over the day.

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December 6, 2024

Xray announce Lee signing

Xray has announced Electric Touring Car racer Nicolas Lee has joined their factory team. Having announced his departure from Yokomo during the week, the Singapore driver joins the Slovakian manufacturer for a race programme that includes the legendary TITC race in Thailand in February, the FEMCA Championship, the Hudy Series in Asia, AOC and the annual SIGP in Xiamen, China. On the announcement the World Championship finalist said, “First of all, I want to thank Xray for welcoming me into the team. I am extremely honoured for this opportunity to represent the Xray factory team and the products. I’m excited to work alongside such a dedicated team, to drive and contribute to the development of the Xray touring car platform, and to assist customers at the tracks. Looking forward to seeing you all soon! “

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

December 6, 2024

Caretti announced as Yokomo Team Manager

Following the news earlier this week that long time driver Nicolas Lee is no longer with their team, Team Yokomo has announced Antoni Caretti as the new Team Manager for Asia and Australia. A long time Yokomo driver in touring car and buggy, Australian Caretti will oversee the Asian/Australian market and be available for technical support at races and online. On the announcement he said, ‘I am super exited to step up into a team manager position for Team Yokomo! I want to thank Taguchi, Naoya and Christopher for making this happen and I’m already looking forward to 2025 and beyond. When I started racing in 2007 my first race car was a Yokomo BD, so becoming a team driver and now team manager for such a prestigious brand is truly an amazing feeling!’

Source: Yokomo [teamyokomo.com]

December 6, 2024

Hamon and Serpent part ways

Jeff Hamon has announced he and his chassis sponsor Serpent are parting ways. The 1:8 Onroad World Championship finalist joined the iconic nitro onroad manufacturer during the 2019 season and just recently represented them at the ISTC World Championships in California. Achieving second place for the brand at the 1:8 GT World Championships last year in Sydney, just two weeks ago he finished on the podium at the Australian Electric Touring Car Nationals. In announcing the news, the popular Australian said, ‘It’s with a heavy heart to announce that I will be parting ways Serpent. We have shared some great results and memories over the past 5 years, I have met some fantastic people and had unbelievable experiences that would not have been possible without Serpent. A huge thank you to Mr and Mrs Lau, Joaquin, Michael, Stef, Grace and Felix for everything – Its hard for me to put into words how appreciative I am for all you have done for me.’

Source: Jeff Hamon [Facebook]

December 5, 2024

World Champions tour Foshan ahead of FEMCA C/ships

It’s not just all racing duties when you are a World Champion! When you have 2 multiple World Champions in town you want to make the most of the opportunity to help promote RC Racing. Well, that is exactly what happened today with Bruno Coelho and Naoto Matsukura ahead of this weekend’s FEMCA ISTC Championships in Foshan, China. With his GDC Indoor Race Club track hosting this year’s FEMCA race that will crown the Touring Car Champion of Asia, Gavin Kwok took a number of the visiting drivers to the City’s Nanfeng Ancient Kiln which was built during the Ming Dynasty. The oldest existing active ceramic wood-burning dragon kiln in the world it has a history of more than 500 years. Accompanied by a photographer & videographer to capture the visit, there was an interesting and novelty electric bus ride from the track to the city’s major tourist site. With Matsukura sitting up front in the bus beside the driver it was a very entertaining ride and one which highlight that the Japanese racer could have a career as a tourist guide once he decides to hang up his radio!! With a day of free practice ahead of drivers tomorrow (Friday), the FEMCA Championship gets underway in earnest on Saturday morning with seeding followed by qualifying before finals on Sunday decide the new FEMCA Champion. You can follow all the action from GDC here on Red RC over the next 3-days.

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