IFMAR 1:10 Off-Road World Champs – Monday

Naoto Matsukura is a two-time on-road World Champ and was fastest in practice on Monday

Day one of action on the track and it has really been about the guys getting fast laps. As set-ups, knowledge and track conditions improved, the times dropped. Japanese World Champion and on-road super star Naoto Matsukura ended up being the quickest guy. He was the first to go into 24 second laps and got the fastest lap of the day in the final round of practice, some two tenths faster than Team Durango’s Jörn Neumann.

Kyosho has made some developments to their 2WD with rumours of a double deck chassis.
This is the car of 2010 1:8 Off-Road World Champion Cody King

Behind these two, there are the usual suspects including Mike Truhe, Neil Cragg, Ryan Maifield, Ryan Cavalieri and Jared Tebo who were there or there abouts.

Hupo Hönigl’s Team Durango 2WD prototype

The story so far of the World Championships has been illegal LiPos. Our source in Vaasa estimated that some 30 per cent are too big so there is lots of modification going on using files, Dremel rotary tools and sandpaper to reduce the size and IFMAR say this is acceptable – strange…

The good folks at Team Orion and LRP have lent out cells to lots of racers as they try to help. We also know that around six or seven are running sport/recreational packs with a low C rating. This includes Hupo Hönigl and Tom Cockerill who are modifying these packs that come as standard with a Tamiya-style plug, then fitting them in the 2WD cars as they make it easier to put the power down.

Paul Worsley extended the chassis on the Associated B4.1 in keeping with the factory’s
own modification. The revised chassis is 8mm longer and is being used by all the
factory drivers as well as the UK’s Rich Lowe (above) and Steve Lawson

Racer would like to thank Jimmy and Vicky Storey at oople for their help with our news and reports from Vaasa, Finland.

Source: oople