Red RC

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

Revolution Design RC8B4.1 Ultra Shock Cap Set

More new RC8B4.1 parts from Revolution Design with their release of this Ultra Shock Cap Set for the 1:8 Offroad platform. These tuning shock caps feature special hard membranes with a honeycomb design that enhance the shock response, providing finer tuning capabilities on the track. Despite the improved membranes, these shock caps still offer the option to use them as aeration shocks. With the included seals and a bleed screw in the shock cap, adjusting the shock’s ventilation is easy and efficient. Manufactured from high-quality 7075-T7 aluminium, these shock caps are hard-anodised, featuring a laser-etched RDRP logo and a stylish silver chamfer, ensuring both durability and a premium look.

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February 20, 2025

LRP X22 Stock Spec Motor Series Dual-Use Parts

New from LRP are these Dual-Use parts for their X22 Stock Spec Motor Series. With this system, you can configure your X22 Stock Spec Motor in two ways, Full Competition Mode or Fixed Timing Mode. In Competition mode you have adjustable timing and aluminium screws for maximum performance while in Fixed Timing mode for controlled racing you have fixed 30° timing and steel screws. To switch the motor from one to the other simply swap the components to switch between Timeable and Fixed Timing versions.

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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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