Red RC » R On Road

February 21, 2025

Orlowski claims TQ honours on TITC debut

Michal Orlowski has claimed the overall TQ honours at the TITC in Bangkok, the Schumacher driver securing pole position for his debut at the legendary touring car race when for the third time in a row he topped qualifying. While it might be the Polish driver’s first time at the race that has earned itself the title of the unofficial World Championship of Touring Car, the race is proofing to be very much a repeat of last November’s official IFMAR World Championship where Orlowski and Bruno Coelho were the class of the field with their rivals fighting over 3rd position. The third & penultimate afternoon time qualifier would prove slower than Q2 but in terms of order the Top 6 were identical. While it was Coelho who had the outright fastest car on track this time round he once again could not better Orlowski, the gap the closest yet though at 0.058 of a second. Getting his tyre gluing correct this time round, Marc Rheinard got the closest he has been yet to the Top 2 as the Awesomatix driver got a P3, 2.9-seconds off Orlowski’s TQ time. Summing up the round’s finishing order as ‘boring’, Lucas Urbain added another P4 to his tally with Akio Sobue and Hayato Ishioka completing the Top 6 for Axon.

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February 21, 2025

Orlowski again in Q2

Having kicked off the opening day of the TITC yesterday by TQ’ing the first round of qualifying, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski made it two from two this morning as he again topped the second round of qualifying ahead of Infinity’s Bruno Coelho. A very humid day in Bangkok this morning, drivers faced much higher traction levels than expected with Orlowski able to knock 4-seconds off his Q1 time, its evening timing meaning most expected that to be ‘rocket round’ of the four scheduled qualifiers. With Coelho 4/10ths back, it was top seed Marc Rheinard who completed the Top 3 a considerable 3-seconds back as the Awesomatix driver again made the wrong call on his tyre gluing. Lucas Urbain would improve on his Q1 effort by going one better to set the fourth fastest time ahead of the Axon pairing of Akio Sobue and Hayato Ishioka.

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February 20, 2025

The TITC inside line with Salton Dong

Anyone who follows electric racing, either onroad or offroad, will know Salton Dong or if they haven’t yet met him in person they’ll recognise him from pit photos from the biggest races around the world. Involved with Hobbywing from its very early days, he is the face of motor and ESC manufacturer. As supporters of our TITC coverage for the last two years, we thought for this year we’d do a daily catch-up with Salton to see what kind of things he deals with in supporting team drivers and Hobbywing customers at races. A huge fan of the TITC, one of the reason for that is Open Brushless which Salton’s says challenges his skill set in getting the best performance from the electronics, unlike modified which he says is far more straight forward in terms of set-up. That said this year it was Modified that presented a very interesting issue that needed his input to solve – we’ll come back to that shortly!

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February 20, 2025

Orlowski takes opening Qualifier at TITC

He might be the big name rookie at this year’s TITC but Michal Orlowski has acquitted himself brilliantly on the first official day of racing at the world’s toughest touring car race by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying. Seeded No.2 behind Marc Rheinard, the Schumacher driver took Q1 ahead of Bruno Coelho as the defending champion suffered a spin and an overshoot. The lost time meant the Polish driver would top the times by 1.2-seconds over the World Champion who in turn had 1.6-seconds on Axon’s Hayato Ishioka. Having led away the first of the four qualifiers, Rheinard would start to struggle with his car having to revert to completing the run rather than aiming for a TQ run. Behind him, team-mate Lucas Urbain, who had to open twice for Coelho over the 5-minutes posted the 5th fastest time as last year’s Top Qualifier Ronald Volker completed the Top 6 in Bangkok with his Mugen Seiki.

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February 20, 2025

Rheinard top seed at TITC, Orlowski posts identical time

Marc Rheinard is the top seed at the TITC, the Awesomatix driver improving from P2 in the first controlled practice to jointly top CP2 with the Schumacher of Michal Orlowski. After tyre gluing issue on his first timed attempt, on tie break Orlowski will be seeded No.2 for this evening’s opening qualifier. With the first official day of the event normally dedicated to practice, unusual weather has forced the organisers to bring forward the timetable to ensure they get at least one qualifier in the timing system should the rain they have suffered over the last few days return. After topping the first seeding round, Lucas Urbain would improve on that time but so did everyone else and he ended up third fastest ahead of Bruno Coelho, this the order they will line up for Q1. Overall it was again Coelho who had the best 5-minute pace with only Rheinard, Orlowski and Aki Sobue able to join him on 21-lap runs. While 3rd fastest over 5-minutes, Sobue’s Axon was again 4th fastest over the counting 3-consecutive laps ahead of his team-mate Hayato Ishioka meaning the Japanese duo will carry the No.4 and 5 race numbers in qualifying.

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February 20, 2025

Urbain sets opening pace at TITC

Celebrating his first year as a full time professional racer at this year’s TITC, Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain marked the occasion by setting the pace in the opening controlled practice for the legendary Bangkok based race. Over 3-consecutive laps it was very close at the top with Urbain fastest from his team-mate Marc Rheinard and the Axon of 2020 Champion Akio Sobue, the trio covered by just 0.06 of a second. On his debut for Infinity, Bruno Coelho kicked off his title defence with the 4th fastest time with the second of the factory Axon drivers Hayato Ishioka P5 and Ryosuke Yamamoto’s Infinity completing the Top 6. Last year’s Top Qualifier Ronald Volker got the 21st edition of the race underway with the 7th fastest time 6/10th off that set by Urbain, the German describing his pace so far as ‘not super fast’. Making his TITC debut and therefore finding himself in the third fastest heat for the 2 controlled practice rounds, unglued tyres was Michal Orlowski’s main issue in the first one as he had to pull off after 2-minutes in which he recorded the 8th fastest time.

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February 20, 2025

Bruno Coelho – Can the TITC Champion make something ‘Speciale’ happen in Bangkok?

The 2025 TITC or Thailand International Touring Car Championship, to give it its full title, is looking like a special one in the history of the legendary race but there is one driver who could achieve something very ‘Speciale’ come Sunday. Already tied with Atsushi Hara as the most winning driver of the Bangkok based race, Bruno Coelho is back at the Infinity RC Addict track looking to make it win number 5 of the race the 3-time consecutive World Champion himself calls the most difficult in the world. A statement all his rivals are happy to agree with him on, a fifth win from the Portuguese driver would, however only be part of the story of the 21st edition of the TITC given the scale of everything else he has going in getting to this weekend. Gone are the blue t-shirts that have been a key part of his wardrobe for the last decade, replaced with Infinity t-shirts. Previously a driver with one of the busiest race schedules of all time, racing across multiple onroad and offroad classes, it is now two months since he last raced, his Xray touring car farewell being the FEMCA Championships in Foshan, China, in December. The longest racing break of his professional career, apart from Covid lockdowns, his highly anticipated debut with the Japanese manufacturer also brings something new to the table in the form of the ‘Speciale’ project, a brand new prototype car that he and his team-mates have had just two months to hone and master. While testing appears to be going well, nothing unearths any weaknesses in a car better than straight up racing against your opposition and given this year’s occasion they have not only turned up at the TITC but they have come with the best of best each aiming to claim the biggest annual title on offer in Electric Touring Car. While time ultimately tell, we grabbed a rather late night call with Bruno to get his take on where he feels he and this brand new project are at as the TITC race weekend has finally arrived.

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February 19, 2025

Michal Orlowski – the TITC Rookie!!

Think Electric Touring Car racing and one name that’s going to come to mind immediately is Michal Orlowski. It is widely acknowledged that the Schumacher driver is one of the, if not the, fastest drivers in the World but as we get ready to officially go into battle tomorrow (Thursday) at one of the most prized race titles after the World Championship, the Polish driver finds himself with the unusual status of being a Rookie at the 21st running of the legendary TITC. Given the unique challenges this race presents to drivers, most giving it the title of the world’s toughest race, with its ever changing track conditions this is one race where experience carries huge weight and so its going to be exciting to see how the ‘Rookie’ rises to the challenge of his TITC debut. Interestingly given the amount of World Championship events the country has also hosted, this year’s TITC appearance also marks Michal’s first time to Thailand so starting our conversation by asking how is finding Bangkok, Michal replied, ‘This is my first time on this part of the globe and it’s an amazing experience so far. The city is crazy, I have never seen as many scooters.’

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