LRP Column - October 2016

This event clearly wasn’t for the faint hearted as I had the pleasure to experience first hand. This was the first IFMAR World Championship to be ever held in China. The organisers had done everything within their power to also make it one of the most memorable ones. Even the side program was spectacular like the opening ceremony with a Chinese drum group performance and the marching in of the participants to the movie theme of “Star Wars”. Another great example of the efforts undertaken was the 80m long air-conditioned pit area for drivers - just amazing.

First on schedule was the 1/12 competition. Two of our LRP team drivers, Akio Sobue and JJ Wang were in great position for the finals after qualifying. Especially Akio was able to keep the pace of top qualifiers Marc Rheinard and second placed Naoto Matsukura. After three thrilling finals, Akio was able to successfully defend his podium position with his LRP power package, consisting of the LRP Flow WorksTeam speed control with the V4.7 firmware, LRP Vector X20 4.0T motor and the LRP 8100 -1/12 1S-Competition Car Line battery, behind new World Champion Naoto Matsukura and runner up Marc Rheinard. The speedo setting of “0-2-1-2-4-8-8-4-0-1” enabled very smooth driving in the lower RPMs to compensate the lack of grip, though having great top speed on the pretty long straight with the long right curve.

In the 1/10 TC class, our team driver and title contender Ronald Völker aimed to finally secure the one title that had eluded him to this date. Having won multiple National, European and ETS titles, the World Championship title had always eluded him. Right from controlled practise, it became apparent the Portuguese top driver Bruno Coelho and Ronald were the fastest and most constant drivers over the whole 5 minute periods. After Bruno secured all but 1 qualifying rounds that went to Ronald, the starting order was Bruno ahead of Ronald and Alexander Hagberg. In A-Main 1, Bruno won ahead of Ronald, fellow LRP teammate Akio and Alexander. In A-Main 2, Bruno made a mistake that was enough for Ronald to secure the lead and holding on to it until the end.

Therefore the decision about the champion had to come down to the third and last A-Main. After the grip got better again as it got closer to the last final, we decided not to change anything on the setup. Right after the start tone went off, Bruno made a mistake and Ronald was able to overtake him. In the ensuing fight for the lead, both cars touched and turned, relegating them to second and third place. Throughout the next lap, a 3-way fight played out. Marc and Bruno got entangled at one time and crashed, opening the way for Ronald’s cruise to win A-Main 3 and therefore the World Championship with his LRP powered Yokomo car. After so many close misses, he finally succeeded in the most thrilling way possible. This time, the luck he had been lacking in his earlier tries, was on his side!

The LRP team did use the prototype version of the upcoming high-end speedo LRP FlowX at the TC event. Everybody was totally excited by its performance. Right at the first major championship, it won the World Championship title in combination with LRP X20 4.5T motor and LRP 5600-TC LCG-CCL battery! LRP was also the most used battery brand at the event with a total percentage of 26%.

The LRP team was also successful earlier at the EFRA 2WD Electric Offroad EC. Spain is just a great place for LRP at the moment. LRP team driver Neil Cragg secured the European crown with the LRP Flow WorksTeam and his brand new Team Associated RC10B6D car in a thrilling duel with Germany’s top driver Jörn Neumann.

The duel commenced right from qualifying with Neil winning the TQ ahead of Jörn and fellow LRP team driver Michal Orlowski on third. This was also the standing after the first A-Main. There was just no way past Neil. As great as A-Main 1 was for Neil, as equally bad was A-Main 2. Neil had to settle for the fifth place while Jörn won the second round ahead of Michal and closed up to Neil in the overall standing.

The decision came down to the third and final A-Main. This round was extremely close – Neil was only 2/10 of a second ahead of Michal at the end. Jörn came only in fourth. Therefore, Neil was the new European Champion ahead of Jörn and Michal … 2x Blue is better on the podium! LRP team driver Carlos Pineda completed the great result with his fifth place.

The 1/8 E-Buggy European Championships were held in Malaga/Spain in very hot weather. The track was on the smaller side but greatly prepared and offered a unique variety of different surfaces. There was even a curve where you had to show some drift skills due to the low grip surface. This layout also made it technically very challenging and hard to drive at the limit and still remain flawless. Due to the hot weather, cooling was of great issue. Our LRP team did use the standard LRP speedo cooler on the iX8 V2 (setting: 1-3-4-1) and a 42x40 cooling fan with the new cooling fan mount on the Dynamic8 2200kv motor (gear ratio: 11.2:1).

Swede driver David Ronnefalk was the clear favourite after dominating practice, qualification and winning A-Main 1 ahead of 14 year old local young gun and LRP team driver Juan Carlos Canas and Portuguese Bruno Coelho. Juan Carlos was even able to win A-Main 2, but had to settle for the runner up position in the end behind new European Champion David Ronnefalk. But due to his young age, Juan Carlos is now the Under 17 European Champion, a title he inherited from fellow LRP team driver Davide Ongaro!

In the finals, a total of six drivers did trust in the LRP power combo iX8 V2 speedo, Dynamic8 2200kv motor and the LRP 7500 CCL P5. Carlos Pineda was the only one using the LRP 5600 – TC Mid Shorty P5 CCL. The decision came down to more options in weight distribution and better balance or a little more weight that gives the car slightly more grip, with most drivers opting for more grip.

The warm summer months are nearing their end now and we are already looking forward to the upcoming fall and winter time!