The Race to Save 1:10 Nitro Touring Car

It is almost three weeks since we crowned one of the most popular winners of a World Championship in recent years.  Jilles Groskamp’s victory at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship at Huge RC in Thailand was one which few would begrudge of one of the hardest working drivers in racing.  12-years after his ISTC World Championship win, his win in Bangkok was one of great stories for RC racing, the Dutch master back on top of the World after beating all of the best nitro onroad racers in the World.  However behind all the celebrations, there can be no denying that the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car category is not in great health and faces its greatest race yet, the race to save its future.  Ask any of the drivers who made the effort to take part in the 10th running of the IFMAR World Championship and they’ll all agree.  122 drivers attended the World Championship when the Huge RC Circuit hosted it for the first time in 2012, this time round the entry was only 58.  However as a World Championship at which every driver is competing in the same single class, it is worth putting that number into perspective.  At this year’s ITSC World Championships, Modified had only 2 more entries but it did also have another 60 drivers competing in Spec Touring Car to make it a bigger & viable event.  Last year’s 1:12 Worlds had just 19 Modified entries and was only possible because of the 55 drivers who raced in the Spec Class.

While the great keyboard warriors of the world took aim at 1:10 Nitro and a certain manufacturer as the World Championship got underway, on the ground there was positive moves underway and it was great to see the coming together of people who can actually make changes and potentially give this class a future.  Sure, nitro racing is not for everyone and it faces many other obstacles over noise and fuel regulations, but for many it is the engine that is at the heart of this category and what is the main attraction but rules and time are creating extra barriers the class could do without.  One of those taking the lead on this small group of people trying to do something about giving 1:10 nitro a better future is Patrizio Rossi.  For those who don’t know the Capricorn owner, lets just say he is well able to get his point across as highlighted by the fact that in 2012 he somehow managed to get his then team-driver Francesco Tironi into the Semi Finals of the 1:10 Nitro WC as an 11th car from where he went on to progress to the main and finish on the podium!

On the Friday evening after the completion of the lower finals in Bangkok, IFMAR hosted a meeting to openly discuss the future of 1:10 Nitro Onroad.  With only two manufacturers with official representation at race, Rossi would represent his interests while legendary race mechanic Masayuki Miura would give Infinity’s take on things.  With O.S. Engines represented, former World Champion of the class Daniele Ielasi was there to add his views as the man behind Ielasi Tuned engines while Francesco Tironi represented DB Engine Technology, a company that not only makes engines for Max Power but also car parts for one of the categories main car brands.

Having already briefly spoken to Rossi about the subject of the classes future earlier in the World Championship, arriving at the track on the Main finals morning, we headed straight to the upstairs air conditioned pit room the Italian was sharing with his driver Toni Gruber, Ielasi and Serpent’s Bryce Butterfield, to continue the discussion.  In the 20-minute chat that followed, Rossi started by explaining, ‘The car is a problem and the class is in trouble and in this current way the class has no future.’ With his message clear, the Italian continued, ‘If you check the breakdown of the entries I think Infinity have 37 drivers, 7-8 Capricorn, 2 Serpent, 1 Xray, 1 Mugen, something like this so the point is without Infinity team we don’t make the race, the World Championship is non existent and we need to understand why.  The first problem is at the moment the cars are too difficult to drive.  The engines have super power, you have too much to fix and Toni (Gruber) is a good example.  In 3-4 days we are in 22nd position but this is one of the best drivers in the World.  Infinity work better because you have 37 drivers, you have local drivers that make the set-up, then the other 20 come and use this, that’s it.  Also you see in the last qualifier, the Top 10 drivers in 7-minutes flip two, three times, so how can the standard customer make a race like this if the top drivers cannot make 7-minutes without flipping.’

Asked specifically about the meeting which was organised by IFMAR’s Sander de Graaf and Race Referee Javier Garcia, he replied, ‘At the meeting we discussed new rules and that we need to fix the problem of the cars, a lot of 1:10 drivers go to 1:8 because it is more easy, less trouble, you put 32 in the front and 35 in the rear, put on the Lola body, one way in the front, spool in the rear and you drive easy.  So, we try to make something like this and make 1:10 like before, like an entry level category.  This is what we talked about, me and Infinity as manufacturers but we also need to talk with Serpent, Mugen and the others.  We want to change to the Lola body and fix the rules with one-way in the front, spool or diff in the rear, it doesn’t matter, and we fix maybe the rear tyres’.  One point that they are still to investigate is the rear tyre width with Rossi saying, ‘We don’t know if we stay with the 30 or go a little bit less because the engine is small and with Lola body you don’t make 4-minutes or probably it is very at the limit.  The way to save the engine is to reduce the downforce, so the first thing is to make the rules that the body can’t make the wing over 5mm out from the body or completely take out. We need to make and test the body and this is why before the end of the year EFRA and IFMAR need to make a Zoom call with all the manufacturers to see if they want to save the category or not.’

Aside from rule changes to make the car more user friendly, the locations of the event has also had a huge impact on the numbers.  This year’s WC was originally due to take place in Costa Rica and when Red RC originally contacted manufacturers about their plans for the race no one, including Infinity, planned to send team drivers.  Issues over noise would force FAMAR to pass on hosting the event meaning its return to FEMCA and ultimately Thailand.   As Rossi explained, ‘The second point is the manufacturer need to choose the location. We see this year, I think we delayed three World Championship. One in Costa Rica, one in Brazil and one in Australia, 1:5, 1:10 and Offroad, why? You don’t know where you have the market?  IFMAR or EFRA don’t know, they need to ask the factories where do you want to go for the big races because the very old system of the Bloc rotation was good for maybe 20-30 years ago because you need to promote RC, so you need to go to Brazil, to Chile to show, now we need to survive and take care of what we have.  If you want to make the World Championship for 1:10 you need to go in the countries where 1:10 is alive – France, Italy, Germany, USA, Spain.  GT is the same, Offroad is the same. You cannot go to Brazil, you cannot sell anything cause all the time you have problems with the customs and you go with 10,000 worth of spare parts and they take everything, so why you need to go, go to another place.  Next year we need to go to Chile two times for the 1:8 and GT World Championships, super expensive.  Now if you book a flight it is €1,100 and the race is still 9-months away, and you need to go twice, and for what, no market. Why do we need to make this, you see the 1:5 European Championship in Lostallo, 135 entries.  The biggest in the last 10-years and you make the World Championship in Australia and nobody go.  So you need to choose the right track for the right category.’

Another issue, which was highlighted at the 1:8 Offroad Worlds regarding minimum tyre size, is the standardising of rules.  Making his points quiet clearly, Rossi explained, ‘The third point is the rules need to be the same, EFRA, IFMAR, FEMCA. I go to the European Championship and the body needs to be 100grams and no stickers but then I go to the World Championship, the body is 100grams but you can make this weight how you want.  I drive 1:10 and the rules needs to be the same around the World.  In F1 you don’t go to Singapore with one rule and you then go to Monza and they have different rules.  This is important that we change the rules for all the Blocs and technical teams.  In the meeting Daniele (Ielasi) went crazy because every time we need something we need to wait, wait for what, 2-years, 3-years, ‘Ah maybe we can make but for now we put something on paper blah, blah, blah’.  If you need something you need to make it now.  Why does the ENS work?  Because no democracy, only a boss, what we need is this and from tomorrow they made this, and every time they have almost 200 entries. Now here 58 and we spent how many days here, 10 days is too long for 58 people.  Maximum 1-week.’

Asked if he felt the meeting in Bangkok would come to anything, Rossi replied he did feel it was positive but added, ‘For IFMAR and EFRA the category is almost dead.  The problem is we having been talking about this for 5-years but IFMAR and EFRA tell us this is the rules.  Now when they see they are almost dead they ask us what we want to do.  This is stupid.  You need to ask before the deadline not after.’  Agreeing the fundamental problem is how difficult the car is to drive he said, ‘the rules increase or decrease the category.  The electric touring car European Championship in Gubbio, do you think it is possible to make Modified with 19 people?  In the stock you have 100, why, the car is the same but modified is undrivable.  In GT why does it grow more and more, because the car is easy to drive and because you need to make 7-minutes and to do this the engine needs to be less stressed.  So I can drive, the 6-year-old can drive, but with Modified the car goes 130 on the straight, you can drive this?  The car needs to be easy to drive, when it is people have fun and enjoy the driving.  20-30 years ago we only had the RC car now we have Tiktok, Playstation and the people have less time.  20-years ago I watched TV while I prepared my car, now people have no time to eat.  We need to give more voice to the factory.  Daniele told Javier (Garcia) that if all the factories stop attending the race you are then at home, IFMAR need to be the organisers of the race not the rules, we control our rules, you implement then.’

To conclude Red RC also spoke with Miura, Ielasi, Tironi and the new World Champion himself Groskamp. While not all agree on the switch to a Lola body, a middle ground GT body suggested as a better option by some, Tironi summed up the situation well in one line, ‘Before the people followed the federation but now the federation needs to follow the people,’