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November 19, 2024

Defending Champion Sahashi leads way in early seeding

With seeding practice underway at the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand, it is defending Champion Tadahiko Sahashi who leads the way with 2 of the 4 rounds completed. The Infinity driver who secured his title 2-years ago on the opposite side of the capital city, set a fastest 3-consecutive laps of 45.540 as driver grapple the Huge RC Circuit’s challenging high grip levels that constantly change over the day. With Sahashi second attempt 3/10ths slower, it would be Thai driver Game L. Mongkolpan who would set the pace of SP2 6/100ths of a second up on Sashasi. With drivers best two points scores to determine the order of tomorrow’s qualifying heats, overall it is free practice pace setter Teemu Leino who holds P2 at the halfway mark ahead of fellow Scandinavian Wilck Viktor with Mongkolpan holding fourth having only managed the 13th fastest time in SP1. While Sahashi comes into the 10th running of these World Championships aiming to become the first driver to defend their title, current 1:8 Onroad World Champion Dario Balestri will chase the record of becoming the first driver to hold both title simultaneously with the Italian completing the Top 5 ranking going into the lunch break.

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November 18, 2024

Payne returns to British 1:12 Nationals with Round 2 win

The second round of the 2024/25 BRCA British 1:12 Nationals saw Schumacher’s Ollie Payne return to the championship and take the win in Stafford. Having missed the opening round as he was in Belgium racing at the annual Masters of Foam, defending Champion Payne opened his title defence by securing the TQ ahead of the Awesomatix of Mark Stiles with the Schumacher of Round 1 winner Louis Parker qualifying third in the FTQ format. Payne continued his form into the triple finals winning A1 & 2 to collect maximum points for his championship defence with Parker winning A3 to finish second overall and extend his championship lead with Stiles once again completing the podium as he did at the season opener. Drivers will travel to Crewe for the next championship encounter on December 7/8 with the event the first of three double headers events on the calendar.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

November 18, 2024

Harper wins EWS Round 2

The second round of the Essex Winter Series took place over the weekend with series champion Elliot Harper take the win ahead of Round 1 winner Olly Jefferies. In qualifying it was the Schumacher of Harper who secured the TQ for the single A-main as he topped the opening 3 of the four qualifiers. Taking ihs Awesomatix to the top of the times in Q4, Jefferies would secure P2 on the grid ahead of Kyle Branson and Xray’s Harley Eldridge. In the final, while Fefferies would set the fastest lap he was unable to get by Harper with the pair separated by 15/100th of a seconds at he end of the 5-minutes. Behind them Branson would complete the podium as he did at the season opener with Eldridge 4th. In Stock and FWD it was repeat wins for the Round 1 victors. Zak Finlay secured the Stock TQ from where he would add win No.2 while Iris driver Adam Southgate did the same in FWD. The 5 round EWS now takes a short break from racing as organiser Oli Meggitt and his crew turn their attentions to the sold out annual 2-day EWS International which takes place on December 7-8.

Image: Kyle Branson

November 13, 2024

2024 ISTC World C/ships Chassis Focus Index

While it was Team Associated and the announcement of their return to 1:10 Electric Touring Car competition at the ISTC World that almost broke the internet when we published the first images of their TC8 Prototype from Finishline RC Raceway in California, they were not the only manufacturers who had new cars at the 12th running of the biggest race in the World. Mugen Seiki also arrived with a brand new car which the Japanese manufacturer for now wants to keep under wraps but it looks like designer Robert Pietsch has come up with a very competitive all new MTC3. While it was great to see 2016 World Champion Ronald Volker in the mix, probably one of the most exciting things of the 2024 Worlds was their young up & coming star Jacob Cruz making the A-Main. Having covered a lot of ISTC World Championships it was brilliant to witness the emergence of a new talent on the World stage and turning just 16-years-old the day after Bruno Coelho took a history making three in a row, we look forward to seeing Cruz develop over the next 2-years before we all travel to Asia for the next Worlds.

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November 12, 2024

Nicholson joins Schumacher

Schumacher has announced that reigning multiple Australian National Champion Simon Nicholson has joined its touring car team. Having spend the last decade racing for Yokomo, Nicholson is a well known face in Australia and across Asia where he has raced at the TITC, AOC and FEMCA Championships. Set to debut for the British manufacturer when he races their Mi9 at the upcoming (21-24 November) RCRA EP Onroad Australian Nationals, which will be hosted Templestowe Flat Track Racing near Melbourne, on the announcement Nicholson said, ‘Firstly I must thank Robin, Chris and the whole Schumacher crew for this amazing opportunity to join this world renown team. Looking forward to what the future holds for this new adventure with upcoming races and helping to grow the team Australia/Asia wide.’

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

November 10, 2024

Coelho pulls off ISTC World Champion Hat Trick

10-years and 1-month after his father took the gamble on bringing him to the 2014 IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Florida, Bruno Coelho has today become one of RC racing’s greatest drivers of all time after pulling off a hat trick of consecutive electric touring car World titles. Travelling to Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield, California, for the 12th running of the Championships two years after dominating the last World Championship in Italy, this time round the Xray driver faced a fierce competitor in Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski. With the duo the class of the field from the getgo, they would battle it out right through the week and into a title deciding A3 showdown. After they clashed in A1, handing touring car legend Marc Rheinard the win, A2 would see Top Qualifier Orlowski lead home the defending Champion and the stage was set for four days of action to come down to the very last 5-minutes of a very well executed Worlds. Leading away A3, Orlowski looked in control but after the first minute the Polish ace was struggling and making a small mistake on his 10th lap, Coelho didn’t need a second invitation to take advantage and go to the front. Still it was game on, the next lap however, Orlowski had another moment which dropped him back to 5th, Coelho now with a clear lead he was never going to relinquish. While Orlowski fought back, contact with Alexander Hagberg on the penultimate lap as they battled over second sealed the deal for Coelho as he also ran the fastest time of the three A-Mains meaning his 29th lap was a victory lap for his latest World title. Having both had an outside chance of the title going in the closing race former Champions Marc Rheinard and Ronald Volker would come together in A3 resulting in P7 and P8 finishes respectively. Overall however Rheinard would complete the podium ahead of his fellow countryman, itself an impressive result for a driver who won his first World title 20-years ago also on US soil.

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November 10, 2024

Lauter ‘Spec’ World Champion after dominant display

Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter is the new ISTC ‘Spec’ World Champion, the German putting on a dominant display of driving at Finishline RC Raceway in California to secured the title in A2. Only the second running of the World Championship for the 17.5 Spec class, having finished runner-up to Alexandre Duchet 2-year ago at the inaugural event in Italy, Lauter made the trip to the US with just one goal in mind and executed a near perfectly campaign. Securing the TQ and winning A1 with ease, the back to back European Champion once again pulled clear of the field in A2 with one onlooker commenting that his race was the definition of the ‘perfect driving’. The only driver to top Lauter over the 6 qualifiers, Max Mächler would win A3 to make it a 1-2 for Awesomatix, the latter having given the manufacturer their first World title when he won the 1:12 Spec title in Florida last year. As the outgoing ‘Spec’ Champions Xray would complete the podium in Bakersfield with Jan Ratheisky, the German driver chasing home Mächler in A3 having taken P3 in the second A-Main after his body tuck in A1.

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November 10, 2024

Orlowski wins uneventful A2

After the drama of A1 at the ISTC Worlds in California, A2 was to be a very straight forward affair with Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski taking the win ahead of defending World Champion Bruno Coelho. The biggest moment of the race would be the bad start by the Awesomatix of A1 winner Marc Rheinard, the multiple World Champion getting off line and dropping down the order to 6th before eventually recovering to his P4 starting position. As Orlowski was again shadowed by Coelho, the Portuguese however not looking as racy this time round, Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker joined the mix at the front. Looking very competitive, unfortunately the 2016 World Champion would go wide coming off the end of the main straight drop off the lead battle. While Orlowski would have 1 or 2 bobbles he maintained station to win and set a showdown for the third & final A-Main here at Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield.

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