Hara fastest in Q3 in Thailand

Defending World Champion Atsushi Hara has topped the third round of qualifying on Day 4 here in Pattaya, the Hot Bodies driver taking maximum points for Q3 ahead of Team Losi’s Billy Fischer and Kyosho’s Jared Tebo.  The Japanese ace said it was another safety run on what he described as being a much more difficult track today.  With the Top 5 heats having been run at the beginning of the rounds yesterday they are now last to run and a lot of ruts have appeared since Q2.

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Brazil set to host 2012 Off Road Worlds

Brazil is set to the host the next 1:8 Off World Championships. The decision was made at a meeting of the sports governing body last night in Pattaya, Thailand, where the 13th 1:8 Off Road World Championship are currently underway. Having hosted the 1:10 200mm Onroad World Championships in 2004, where well known buggy figure Adrien Bertin won the title, the city of Jundiai will get its second IFMAR World Championship. Although an off road track already exists at the facility, the local government plan to build an all new track for the event. The allocation is subject to issues experienced with the Brazilian customs holding up team’s equipment during the last visit being rectified. Should IFMAR not get sufficient guarantees that this will not create the same headache it did for competitors in 2004, the event will be moved to Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Maifield leads the way after the first day of qualifying

The first day of qualifying is complete and there was no question that it belonged to Ryan Maifield, the factory Team Associated driver dominating proceedings.  Q2 saw the American ace improve on his earlier time, recording the fastest lap we have seen here yet in the process.  Describing qualifying as being all about not crashing and collecting enough points for a place in the Semis he said he was driving well within himself but admitted it did feel good to end day one at the top.

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Maifield tops opening qualifier in Pattaya

Team Associated’s Ryan Mayfield has set the pace in the opening round of qualifying for the 2010 World Championships being one of only two drivers to run 14 laps here at the Pattaya track.  The American topped the time sheets from Kyosho’s Cody King and was the only driver to break into the 43 second lap times.  With some fresh parts and a new bodyshell fitted to his RC8B overnight he ran the same set-up as yesterday with his focus on just staying calm and getting the job done.

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Tebo top seed for qualifying

One of the pre-event favourites for this the 13th running of the 1:8 Off Road World Championships, Jared Tebo made his intentions clear here in Thailand today by topping the reseeding for qualifying. The Kyosho driver completed the fastest three consecutive laps around the Pattaya track in the second practice to maintain his form at the top and again leave the track as top dog.  The American ace fitted a new Orion engine along with a fresh set of soft compound AKA Impact tyres to his MP9 for the final practice but otherwise ran the same set-up as he had used to convincingly top the morning time sheets.

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Tebo raises the bar on Day 2

Fastest yesterday, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo continued to set the bench mark in terms of outright pace as he recorded the fastest lap so far of the championships in this morning’s third free practice. Running on a track that underwent a lot of patching, he set a 44.840 lap to top the time sheets by the biggest margin yet ahead of fellow countryman Travis Amezcua. Kyosho team-manager Joe Pillars, who is pitman for Tebo, described the morning run as near perfect saying everything came together with driver, car and tyres all performing really good.

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