September 18, 2022

Coelho cruises to A1 win at World Championship

Bruno Coelho has cruised to victory in the opening A-Main of the ISTC World Championship in Gubbio, Italy.  The one delay in proceedings at the 11th running of the championship had no effect on the pace show by the defending Champion in qualifying.  Taking all 6 qualifiers, from the pole position Coelho was able to pull clear of his rivals, the closest of those being No.2 Christopher Krapp,  Krapp in turn had a big advantage of Akio Sobue who finished third ahead of Ronald Volker, who came through from 8th on the grid.

Continue reading here


September 17, 2022

Bad weather pushes finals to Sunday at ISTC WC

Bad weather has pushed the running of the finals at the ISTC World Championship to Sunday.  Originally scheduled for running today (Saturday), a team managers meeting this morning got agreement that due to bad weather in the area that the controversial ‘Rain Day’ would be used to complete the 11th running of the Electric Touring Car World Championship.

Continue reading here


September 16, 2022

Grid Set for 11th ISTC World Championship

The grid for the 11th running of the IFMAR ISTC World Championship is set with Christopher Krapp securing the No.2 spot on the grid behind defending Champion Bruno Coelho. Despite the heavy rains that played havoc with the timetable, the organisers managed to get all six rounds of qualifying completed just before the arrival of yet more downpours this evening. A grid comprising of seven different manufacturers and 4 World Champions, the big question on everyone’s mind for the finals is what conditions they will face. Currently it is looking like a wet finals day here in Gubbio, Italy, something many of the drivers have never experienced before.

Continue reading here


September 16, 2022

Duchet is Spec World Championship Top Qualifier

Alexandre Duchet will lead away the first ever ISTC Spec World Championship A-Main in Gubbio, Italy, tomorrow. The Xray driver secured the overall TQ in a battle that went to the final qualifier.  The French driver went into Q6 with just one opponent remaining, Awesomatix driver Simon Lauter.  While Duchet had three TQ runs on the board, his German rival had 2 but the advantage of the fastest qualifying time.

Continue reading here


September 16, 2022

Sobue & Rheinard shine in Q4 Rerun

While it was business as usual at the front with Bruno Coelho posting his fifth TQ run in the re-run of yesterday aborted Q4, the two drivers to enjoy strong performances would be Akio Sobue and Marc Rheinard.  Both driver would posts their best runs around the Gubbio track, Sobue setting the second fastest time and getting within 8/10th of Top Qualifier Coelho while Marc pulled off a P3.  Behind, Q1 surprise Michal Orlowski would getting another P4 ahead of former champions Jilles Groskamp and Ronald Volker.

Continue reading here


September 16, 2022

Coelho to defend World title from TQ

Reigning ISTC World Champion Bruno Coelho is to defend his title from the TQ, the Xray driver making it 4 out of 4 in the latest round of qualifying in Gubbio, Italy.  A delayed start to Day 3 of the Championship following the heavy rain yesterday that left a very slick track. When qualifying did finally get underway at lunchtime it looked like the new conditions might result in some changes at the top.  While Coelho led off the qualifier, it was Christopher Krapp who set the early pace. However, once Coelho adapted to the lower traction, he resumed normal service despite Krapp’s impressive effort for the closest TQ battle we have seen so far.  Behind the big surprise of the round was Serpent’s Alessio Mazzeo, the 2016 Nitro Touring Car World Championship podium finisher here at the same track, posting the 3rd fastest time ahead of Alexander Hagberg, Hayato Ishioka and Ronald Volker.

Continue reading here


September 16, 2022

Duchet & Lauter to duel out Spec TQ

Alexandre Duchet and Simon Lauter will duel it out to see who becomes the first ever ISTC Spec World Championship Top Qualifier in the sixth & final round of quali in Gubbio, Italy.  The duo have taken all five rounds of qualifying so far with Duchet having the advantage of 3 TQ runs compared to Lauter’s two, but the latter has the fastest time.  However with one qualifier remaining it is all to play for Lauter if he can TQ on the improving track.  The rain that stopped proceedings yesterday faded over night but left a damp track this morning that would cause big delays in the resumption of action. Earlier attempts to get quali back underway looked like the Drifting World Championship Title was up for grabs.

Continue reading here


September 15, 2022

Mother Nature finally shows up, Coelho one hand on TQ

It was what everyone was expecting to wake up to on the Day 2 of the EP Touring Car World Championships and thankfully didn’t, but when the bad weather did decide to show up in showed up in spectacular style with lightening for added dramatical effect.  With it looking very like Q4 was going to make the history books, drops would start falling as the top heat took to the track.  Unfortunately as we got to within a minute of getting the round done, the drops got bigger and cars started sliding around with the call coming from race officials to stop racing – the heat was cancelled.  As soon as it stopped, so too did the light rain. However, in the distance it was visible that this was only a little warning of a lot worse to come and for drivers pitting at the edge of the large covered pit area to move their stuff if they didn’t want it to get wet.  While discussions went on about heat re-runs and new timetables, when Mother Nature turned up it was quickly clear Day 2 that was done, the rain bouncing off the track.  While there still is the opportunity to run 3 more rounds of qualifying, it is looking very like job done for Bruno Coelho in terms of becoming Top Qualifier, with more mixed weather being forecast for tomorrow.

Continue reading here