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.
