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Down Under - FINAL DAY....now for sure... (16/09/2006)

By:: Michael Salven

Let's get this party started!

One more morning getting up early and hoping for good weather at this IFMAR World Championship 1:10 scale......and guess what...until now our prayers of yesterday evening helped. It rained during the night but right at the moment it is dry and the track is drying up.

So let's hope that it stays like that and there are no more clouds coming (at least no ones with rain).

It's a little bit spooky...but we still have a Final to go...

Update after Semi Final Odd

Semi Final Odd has just been finished and the disappointment is big here in the 'Snake Pits'.
No Serpent racers from this Semi Final were able to make it to the Grand Final.

Again..the Semi Final had to be interrupted because of some rain but now the run could be restarted as a whole. Michael Salven had a good start but lost some positions due to problems with his brake. After 10 minutes it got even worse...with running out of fuel..unluckily. After this incident he tried to recover but with the fast competitors this was a very tough battle, even impossible.

Toshiyuki Iwamoto had engine problems right from the beginning on, so he came into the pits to adjust the engine a couple of times. As you could imagine, this costs a lot of valuable time, something you can not afford at this level of racing.

So now our hope and attention is all focused on Masao Tanaka San. GO Masao GO!! The Final will be started in approximately 2 hours. Keep you posted!

Adrenaline

Look at the racers just before they were allowed to go upstairs...a lot of adrenaline.

One step ahead

Look at Rody, he is always one step ahead! Live coverage through the internet!!

And the winner is.....

Keisuke Fukuda just won the IFMAR World Championship 200 mm 1:10 scale!

We saw a tremendous Final with Chris Tosolini loosing the pace in the last 5 minutes of the race. I will post a complete report of the Final later.....for now, just enjoy the happy winner Keisuke Fukuda.

Final - Before the start

As promised here a short summary of the Final of these 1:10 scale 200 mm Worlds in Brisbane.

Let's start with an overview of all racers that were able to make it to the Final:

1. Chris Tosolini
2. Takaaki Shimo
3. Adrien Bertin
4. Takaaki Shimo
5. Josh Cyrul
6. Ken Furukawa
7. Keisuke Fukuda
8. Peter Jovanovic
9. Mike Swauger
10. Masao Tanaka

Final - after 10 minutes of racing

After 10 minutes of racing we saw Chris Tosolini convincingly leading the race with Takaaki Shimo in second position and 'local hero' Peter Jovanovic already in the third position.

Josh Cyrul had problems with his engine right from the beginning on so he needed to go back to the pits a couple of times.

Final - after 20 minutes of racing

After 20 minutes of racing there was still Chris Tosolini in the lead with now Keisuke Fukuda already in second position and Peter Jovanovic still in third position.

Both Kyosho racers Adrien Bertin and Takaaki Shimo' s engines flamed out after 15 minutes which made it quite hard for them to still have chances winning this World Championship. Adrien Bertin again got problems with his engine after 25 minutes so for him chances were definitely washed away.

Final - after 30 minutes of racing

After 30 minutes we felt some drops of rain....but luckily it were just some drops and it did not start raining again and there was no impact on racing due to the weather conditions.

During the 30 minutes pitstop Takaaki Shimo changed tires and Chris Tosolini had some problems when his pitmen dropped his car in the pitlane. We were quite surprised when neither Chris nor Keisuke Fukuda changed tires during this pitstop (at the end it turned out that they did not change tires at all!!).

Final - after 40 minutes of racing

After the 35 minute pitstop Chris Tosolini had to come in for a stop and go penalty (due to his pitmen repairing a broken antenna in front of the pit-line) but this had no impact on his lead of the race.

So after 40 minutes of racing we still saw Chris leading the race with Keisuke Fukuda in second position. The distance between both racers got less every lap so we got excited while realizing that a great battle will follow soon. Regarding the third position Takaaki Shimo managed to get back in the picture again.

Final - after 50 minutes of racing

After 45 minutes Adrien Bertin had to stop racing because of frequency problems.

The race got really exciting when Keisuke Fukuda and Chris Tosolini changed positions a couple of times after approximately 50 minutes of racing. During the 50 minutes pitstop the engine of Keisuke stopped and had to be restarted. Two laps later Chris ran out of the track at the end of the straight (we guess due to frequency problems). Anyway after 53 minutes it was still Chris leading the race with Keisuke close behind.

The crowd was excited and it was very impressing to see so many action after 50 minutes of racing at a World Championship.

Anyway everything came to a sudden end when Chris went into the grass again after 55 minutes (again frequency problems). His car seemed impossible to drive so he had to stop. His dream of becoming World Championship came to painful end...

It became clear just after Chris had to stop racing: 2006 World Champion 200 mm 1:10 scale will be Keisuke Fukuda with Takaaki Shimo in second and Peter Jovanovic in third position.

Final - after 60 minutes of racing

...look at the scoreboard to the see final results....

We are especially happy with Masao Tanaka being able to catch the 5th position! Thanks a lot for your effort and great racing, Masao, well done!

Happy winners

Congratulations to all winners here from the 'Snake Pits' in Brisbane and off course also Heemstede in the Netherlands!

It has been a great race with lots of excitement, well done guys.