2006 Worlds - Indonesia 06'

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So who is everyone's pick to win?
Anyone have any pics?
Anyone have any latest news?

http://www.neobuggy.net/images/News/wtrack.jpg
http://www.neobuggy.net/images/News/wtrack3.jpg
http://www.neobuggy.net/images/News/wtrack4.jpg

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JAKARTA WC UPDATE
In 2003 ROAR agreed to the Jakarta venue for the 2006 IFMAR Off Road Fuel Championships. During the selection discussions there was much concern regarding the physical safety of the racers, the media, and all accompanying individuals. It was agreed that predicting the situation of a specific area of the world three years in advance was just not practical but ROAR's position was expressed at that time and support of the choice would remain contingent upon that concern.

The United States government has since posted a travel advisory concerning US citizens wishing to visit Indonesia. This advisory states that travel to this area of the world should only be made if deemed absolutely necessary. ROAR does not wish to prohibit any entrants from participating or competing in an IFMAR event. These World Championships are a fantastic experience and the Jakarta facility is very worthy of the event. World circumstances beyond our control can, however, dictate caution or concern.

It is with consideration of this travel advisory that ROAR cannot encourage travel to this event but does not prohibit participation by those who wish to attend. To all of those who participate, be safe, good luck, and good racing!

Mike Queller
ROAR President

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http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/scoobie1_76/worldstrackairial.jpg

[RC_KAOS]

Far out, looks like a BMX/Motocross Track, its huge

Cheers

[scoobie]

by Mike Myers

MONDAY, AUGUST 28
The difference between track conditions at the Pre-Worlds and the Worlds is like night and day. March was cool, wet, and wet. The only hazards from walking out on the track were sinking ankle-deep in the mud. August is completely different. Everyone here says it’s so hot, but at 75 degrees Fahrenheit I don’t see it that way. However, the absence of rain has changed the track into a huge dustbowl. Sometimes when you’re standing at track level it’s impossible to see the cars through all the dust. For photographers with a DSLR camera, the dust is a nightmare – these cameras have dust problems under normal conditions, and in Jakarta you just don’t change lenses unless you absolutely have to. The dust doesn’t seem to be too much of a bother up on the driver’s stand though – it’s tall enough to give the drivers an excellent view despite the dust.
Other than for the dust, the track is in even better condition than at the pre-worlds. The changes that were made seem to have helped the drivers see their cars better on the backstraight, but the higher jumps at the left side of the track seem to have made that section even more difficult.
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/practice-t.jpg
A view of today's practice session. (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/practice.jpg)

Controlled practice started today; Official Practice is tomorrow, with two rounds. The driver’s practice times will be used in setting up the qualifiers. There are fifteen heats, ten racers per heat. Qualifying starts on Wednesday, and continues through Friday with two rounds per day for a total of six rounds. Lower Finals will be run on Saturday, and the upper Finals on Sunday.

Something to remember, while many of the racers competing here have previous experience at this track, many racers have never raced here before, and today was the first day they had an opportunity to turn a single lap. So, the “experts” have lots of practice, setup knowledge, and experience, while the “newcomers” are starting from scratch.
At the end of the day, I was with a group of racers describing how the fast guys get around so quickly. The first thing that was pointed out, was that the really fast guys can “triple” some of the jumps, saving time. The second thing was that a select few of the very fastest guys take the “ripple” section with one wheel on the outside pipe (closest to the driver’s stand), and the other wheel on the very outside of the ripples. Done properly, this will certainly save time – but by mentioning it here, I’m not sure if the officials will permit this any more as the race goes on…
The event is over-sold, with several people not yet able to sign in. By tomorrow we’ll know who didn’t show up, and which of the drivers on the waiting list made it in. By tomorrow I’m hoping to have some of the statistical data available, such as how many racers are using which chassis or engine. I’ll post that as soon as it becomes available, along with an updated driver’s list with the names of all the drivers that made it into the event.
PHOTOS

Click Here to see today's photos. (http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/aug-28/index.htm)

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRACK SELECTION
For those who missed it in my reporting earlier this year, here’s a bit of basic information about this event. IFMAR consists of four “blocs”, EFRA (Europe), ROAR (North America), FAMAR (South America), and FEMCA (Asia). The location of the World Championship rotates around these four blocs. 2006 is FEMCA’s turn to host the event. The “JA” Group, headed up by John Agus is in charge of putting on this race. Their track is located inside of a gated compound on Ancol Beach, within the city of Jakarta. The official race hotel, the Mercure, is a short ten minute walk away.
RACE FORMAT
The way off-road World Championships are run, is to first divide the racers into two groups, “odd” and “even”. During timed practice sessions the racers are then placed in qualifiers based on their ability. During qualifying, the racers can get moved around to a “faster” or “slower” qualifier should one racer in a qualifier be very different in ability from the racers he’s competing against. When qualifying is completed, the fastest racer is automatically placed in the Final. The other nine places in the final will be filled by racers who advance through the lower Finals. The lowest finals are the 1/1024th. Then comes 1/512, 1/256, 1/128, 1/64, 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, ¼, and then the semi-finals. During the lower finals, the top three racers in each lower final advance to the next higher final.
THE TRACK:
The track is located in the middle of a gated “compound” on Ancol Beach. The size of the track is 62 meters x 50 meters, with a length of 470 meters. In feet, that’s 204 feet by 164 feet, with a racing line of 1,550 feet long. Typical lap times are 55 seconds and up. The W/C track was built in 2003. The track had dirt brought in from a nearby mountain – they dug deep enough to get some “good” dirt that sticks together well and provides excellent traction. While we thought it was a permanent facility, the people who own the land seem to have other uses for it – sometime after this event, off-road racing will move to another track closer to downtown. Look for an article and photos of this new track to be posted in a day or so on SGrid Online.
The Ancol Beach track was built in three different layers. The bottom layer is made of large boulders and stones and gravel, anything porous. Then there’s a layer of straw. Then the dirt/clay goes on top. There’s a series of canals throughout the infield which make up a drainage system. There are small openings on the down-side of the turns. The water goes from them into the infield canals. That’s why the condition of the track comes up very quickly after it rains.
The track is very long, winding, and with many American style jumps. There are several long straightaways, and the cars get up to pretty good speed. The more you look at the track, the more obvious it is as to how challenging this track really is. Looking at it closely, you’ll find lots of interesting, but very different sections. The almost-straight at the left of the track, before the cars turn left to go by the driver’s stand is one example. Cars go over a series of bumps at 90 degrees to the track. Then the track turns about five degrees to the left, and the bumps continue, but now at 90 degrees to the new section. These bumps have been made higher since the pre-worlds. For racers who aren’t aware of the slight turn, hitting the second set of bumps at an angle will flip the car over. Some turns use concrete berms to identify the edge of the track, but the concrete is angled, so if a car hits it, nothing is broken. The track is built on a flat piece of ground, but some turns and jumps have been built up to give some elevation changes. Now that the back section of the track has been banked towards the driver’s stand, pretty much all of the track is very visible. Pit lane is nicely done – cars come into the pits, and drive up a ramp. Meanwhile, the pitmen work in an area quite a bit lower than the track surface. This puts the cars quite high, relative to the pitmen, so it’s easier for the mechanics to work on them. There is a concrete ledge on either side of the ramp – mechanics can put the cars up on this ledge, which is several inches high and keeps the wheels off the ground. It’s a perfect place for supporting the car as the mechanics work on them.
FACILITIES
The facilities at the race are exceptional. There are about 80 people working here, including officials, the timing and scoring crew, security people, marshals, and those people assigned to keep people from going where they shouldn’t. Everyone gets a badge with their name on it, and depending on the category marked on their badge, they can go to only a limited number of places. For example, I have a “press” badge, which allows me into most places, but not the IFMAR meeting room.
Different areas around the track have been set up for all the necessary functions. There’s a huge tent set up for pitting, along with several smaller tents that some teams and event sponsors set up. There is a very large car cleaning area, with running water, compressed air, and so on. Tech inspection has its own area, where the tech people measure and inspect the cars. There is a very efficient system set up for measuring fuel tank capacity. The tanks are drained, then filled with fuel. A fuel line goes to a measuring flask, and an electric pump pressurizes the fuel tank, forcing all the fuel into the measuring flask. It takes very little time, and you get an accurate reading of all the fuel carried onboard. Check the photos to see how thorough tech inspection is!
The driver’s stand is very high, with a booth set aside on one end for timing and scoring. The drivers and the IFMAR scoring booth are on the top level. The mid-level is for many of the officials and judges.
OFFICIAL PRACTICE
Tomorrow is the first day of “Official Practice”. I hope to have a summary of practice times posted at the end of each day.
The following are two worthless lists, showing who is “fastest” so far. It’s meaningless really, as for many racers, this was the first time they ever turned a lap on this track. For better or worse, I’ll post the two lists anyway, first sorted by “best lap time” and another list sorted by “best results”. They’re interesting to look at, but please don’t pay too much attention to them, unless you also know whether or not the racer you’re interested in has ever run on this track before.

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Who's Fast in Practice, sorted by best lap timePos;No.;Name;Overall BestTm;In Session;2nd Overall Time;2nd Session;Country;Team;1;2;VRAY GUILLAUME;49.207;HEAT 15;50.843;HEAT 15;FRANCE;;2;1;DANIEL RECKWARD;49.343;HEAT 15;49.989;HEAT 15;GERMANY;;3;3;JOSEPH QUAGRAINE;49.675;HEAT 14;49.741;HEAT 14;FINLAND;;4;5;JON HAZLEWOOD;49.732;HEAT 15;49.810;HEAT 15;G.BRITAIN;;5;9;DAVIDE TORTORICI;49.748;HEAT 15;50.191;HEAT 15;ITALY;;6;4;YANNICK AIGOIN;49.817;HEAT 14;50.000;HEAT 14;FRANCE;;7;6;SAMUELE LENZI;50.169;HEAT 14;51.198;HEAT 14;ITALY;;8;7;JEROME AIGOIN;50.404;HEAT 13;51.093;HEAT 13;FRANCE;;9;3;CHOPIN YUSUF;50.543;HEAT 13;52.536;HEAT 13;INDONESIA;;10;5;JOSHUA WHEELER;50.574;HEAT 9;51.645;HEAT 9;USA;;11;11;ROBERT BATLLE;50.611;HEAT 15;51.366;HEAT 15;SPAIN;;12;6;CHEN WU CHUNG;50.676;HEAT 15;52.507;HEAT 15;TAIWAN R.O.C;;13;4;MIGUEL MATIAS;50.751;HEAT 15;55.578;HEAT 15;PORTUGAL;;14;3;SCOTT HUGHES;50.753;HEAT 8;51.057;HEAT 8;USA;;15;4;MARK PAVIDIS;50.855;HEAT 13;51.050;HEAT 13;USA;;16;9;ROBERT GUSTAFSSON;50.899;HEAT 12;52.111;HEAT 12;SWEDEN;;17;8;JEREMY KORTZ;50.899;HEAT 14;51.837;HEAT 14;USA;;18;7;JOHN AGUS;50.928;HEAT 14;51.705;HEAT 14;INDONESIA;;19;7;BOBBY TILLMAN;51.027;HEAT 7;52.669;HEAT 7;USA;;20;7;RICARDO GOMEZ;51.077;HEAT 15;51.975;HEAT 15;SPAIN;;21;5;ATSUSHI KAWAMOTO;51.087;HEAT 13;51.284;HEAT 13;JAPAN;;22;5;GREG DEGANI;51.101;HEAT 14;51.928;HEAT 14;USA;;23;1;YUUICHI AJISHI;51.247;HEAT 14;52.643;HEAT 14;JAPAN;;24;4;KRIS MOORE;51.252;HEAT 11;51.453;HEAT 11;USA;;25;6;BORJA HERNANDEZ;51.276;HEAT 13;51.362;HEAT 13;SPAIN;;26;8;CHAD BRADLEY ;51.277;HEAT 13;51.639;HEAT 13;USA;;27;3;KENJI OSAKA;51.343;HEAT 15;51.413;HEAT 15;JAPAN;;28;7;JEROME SARTEL;51.418;HEAT 12;52.094;HEAT 12;FRANCE;;29;2;YUUICHI KANAI;51.576;HEAT 11;52.065;HEAT 11;JAPAN;;30;1;DANIEL VEGA;51.577;HEAT 11;51.895;HEAT 11;SPAIN;;

Who's Fast in Practice, sorted by best resultsPos;Name;Country;Max. Laps;Total Tm;Overall BestTm;In Session;Best Session;Licensed;Bloc;Team;1;DANIEL RECKWARD;GERMANY;12;10:45.569;49.343;HEAT 15;HEAT 15;008;EFRA;;2;JON HAZLEWOOD;G.BRITAIN;12;10:51.234;49.732;HEAT 15;HEAT 15;009;EFRA;;3;CHAD BRADLEY ;USA;12;11:25.367;51.277;HEAT 13;HEAT 13;047;ROAR;;4;ATSUSHI KAWAMOTO;JAPAN;11;10:00.156;51.087;HEAT 13;HEAT 13;076;FEMCA;;5;JOHN AGUS;INDONESIA;11;10:00.223;50.928;HEAT 14;HEAT 14;132;FEMCA;;6;YANNICK AIGOIN;FRANCE;11;10:00.263;49.817;HEAT 14;HEAT 14;002;EFRA;;7;YUUICHI KANAI;JAPAN;11;10:02.168;51.576;HEAT 11;HEAT 11;083;FEMCA;;8;CHARLEE PHUTIYOTHIN;THAILAND;11;10:04.231;52.521;HEAT 12;HEAT 12;092;FEMCA;;9;BORJA HERNANDEZ;SPAIN;11;10:14.934;51.276;HEAT 13;HEAT 13;035;EFRA;;10;MARKUS FELDMANN;GERMANY;11;10:18.889;52.682;HEAT 11;HEAT 11;045;EFRA;;11;DANIEL VEGA;SPAIN;11;10:20.311;51.577;HEAT 11;HEAT 11;038;EFRA;;12;LINUS THERN;SWEDEN;11;10:20.480;51.785;HEAT 12;HEAT 12;041;EFRA;;13;DAVIDE TORTORICI;ITALY;11;10:20.513;49.748;HEAT 15;HEAT 15;025;EFRA;;14;YUUICHI AJISHI;JAPAN;11;10:20.776;51.247;HEAT 14;HEAT 14;075;FEMCA;;15;JEROME SARTEL;FRANCE;11;10:25.641;51.418;HEAT 12;HEAT 12;004;EFRA;;16;ROBERT GUSTAFSSON;SWEDEN;11;10:26.836;50.899;HEAT 12;HEAT 12;043;EFRA;;17;GREG DEGANI;USA;11;10:29.626;51.101;HEAT 14;HEAT 14;046;ROAR;;18;STANLEY WANGSANEGARA;INDONESIA;11;10:34.427;52.815;HEAT 11;HEAT 11;135;FEMCA;;19;KENJI OSAKA;JAPAN;11;10:34.781;51.343;HEAT 15;HEAT 15;074;FEMCA;;20;JOSHUA WHEELER;USA;11;10:35.387;50.574;HEAT 9;HEAT 9;051;ROAR;;21;FABIO BOERO;ITALY;11;10:35.742;52.352;HEAT 6;HEAT 6;026;EFRA;;22;IAN HALEY;AUSTRALIA;11;10:36.128;53.870;HEAT 13;HEAT 13;099;FEMCA;;23;SAMUELE LENZI;ITALY;11;10:36.834;50.169;HEAT 14;HEAT 14;027;EFRA;;24;STEWART WILCOX;G.BRITAIN;11;10:43.651;52.697;HEAT 13;HEAT 13;012;EFRA;;25;MARK PAVIDIS;USA;11;10:45.713;50.855;HEAT 13;HEAT 13;052;ROAR;;26;CHU MING HUI;CHINA;11;10:48.774;53.626;HEAT 7;HEAT 7;065;FEMCA;;27;KRIS MOORE;USA;11;10:53.831;51.252;HEAT 11;HEAT 11;057;ROAR;;28;YASYHIRO TAKEUCHI;JAPAN;11;10:54.087;54.456;HEAT 6;HEAT 6;081;FEMCA;;29;KAZUHIKO HOSOI;JAPAN;11;10:56.087;53.917;HEAT 6;HEAT 6;080;FEMCA;;

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This was all found at www.rc-racing.com (http://www.rc-racing.com) other wise known as s-grid. Its worth the money.

;) Your welcome beeeeches!!!!

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More S-Grid goodness


http://rc-racing.com/SGM/images/topics/News.gif (http://rc-racing.com/SGM/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=2)by Mike Myers

TUESDAY, AUGUST 29
Official practice started today; with two rounds. The drivers go out for a warm-up, and then run a ten-minute practice session. The results from these practice sessions (posted below) will be used in setting up the qualifiers. There’s one round in the morning, and another in the afternoon. Practice was followed by the Opening Ceremonies. The weather couldn’t be better – hot, dry, and sunny. From my point of view as a photographer, the track is greatly improved over yesterday – the huge clouds of dust no longer follow each car. Maybe that’s because the track was watered early in the day, but more likely it’s because the track condition is improving, and the loose dust has already been blown off the track surface.
Those racers who are new here are quickly adapting to the track, and getting their cars dialed in. The cars are definitely getting around better today than yesterday.
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/oops-t.jpg
OK, who forgot the “Loctite”?
Ricardo Gomez in practice session #1. (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/oops.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/opening-t.jpg
Opening Ceremonies (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/opening.jpg)

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/team-usa-t.jpg
Team USA (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/team-usa.jpg)

Carlos Gomez on the World Championships
Carlos Gomez has been involved in off-road racing since 1991, and has been involved as an official since 1997. Currently he is the Section Chairman for Off-Road in EFRA, and also the EFRA liaison officer for the federation. I had an opportunity to ask Carlos about this event, and the following are his thoughts.

Comparing this race with other world championships, I have a chart with different points of observation, and most probably this event will get a good evaluation. The track facilities are great, the pit area can be slightly improved, the driver’s rostrum is 100% OK, the crew is fine. I think it will be one of the best worlds we have ever had. I didn’t expect this, but I have to admit now that this is turning out to be the case. Hats off to FEMCA and the Indonesian team.
The track itself is a superb facility, quite challenging for the drivers because it has so many different surfaces, curves, and banking. I love this track – it’s quite interesting. There isn’t a single easy section on the track. Some parts are absolutely beautiful, with nice sweeping corners, tight corners – it has everything. High jumps, low jumps, everything! The marshaling is also quite good, as well as the track. The guys really know just what to do, and they are very fast.
I know the Americans, the Japanese, and the Europeans will do quite good. From the local scene, John Agus has some excellent times – he really impressed me as well. I feel that he is the one (personal impression) who has the best feel of the track.
The class is quite open in brands Kyosho, Crono, Mugen, X-Ray, Hong Nor, the new Sidorf car, - many, many brands. It’s way too early to tell how they’re each handling this track. It’s also too early to evaluate tires, but Proline is very impressive so far. The race hasn’t really started yet, and we’re just practicing. I’ll have more to say later on after a day or two of racing.
I love seeing the American team here. It’s a good thing ROAR, sent Regan LeBlanc as a representative, as he is an expert on off-road. That’s a wise decision from ROAR. The only thing I’m missing is the presence of the organizer of the 2008 track. Rumor says it’s Lance Norwick, from “The Farm II” in North Carolina. You’ll have to confirm the track information with Regan, as this hasn’t yet been presented. I wish the track representative had come here, to see the standard of what ROAR is looking for. If you’re willing to organize such a big event, it would be nice to come here to see what the other countries will expect of you, and what the standard is that’s expected at the best event in the world. We expect that it will be much better than the previous worlds in Las Vegas some years ago. He’s missed a chance to get a real feeling of the class here at this event.
Another thing, the moment that it’s official that this will be the track, people at the track will be busy with people coming to get track time on this track, in preparation, even though it’s now two years in advance. I know we can’t expect North Carolina to have as much help as they have here, as hiring so many people in Indonesia is very cheap. Here we have more people, but since they’re just hired outside help, there are not so many who know what to do. Another thing, here in Indonesia, for those people who don’t speak the local language, communications can sometimes be a bit more difficult than you’d expect.
The feeling of safety in Jakarta is that it’s safe enough. Inside the complex, you can feel like your’re at a beach any place in the world, from Ft. Lauderdale to wherever. There’s no feeling of being in an uncomfortable situation.
I think everything is quite OK at the moment.
CUSTOMS CLEARANCE
I wondered how the event organizers managed to take all of the racers, with their huge boxes of equipment, through customs with so little effort. The answer is that the organizers wrote a letter to the government, stating that this was an international world championship event, and that competitors would be coming from all over the world. The government then issued an official letter, stating that the participants would receive priority treatment when going through customs. In effect, this meant that ALL our boxes, suitcases, shipping containers, etc., completely bypassed customs – the only items that went through the electronic scanner were our hand luggage. This saved a huge amount of time, not to mention that no customs duty was levied on the items coming into the country.
PHOTOS

Click Here to see today's photos. (http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/aug-29/index.htm)

OPENING CEREMONIES PHOTOS

Click Here to see the Opening Ceremony photos. (http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/open/index.htm)
OFFICIAL PRACTICE RESULTS, SORTED
The official practice results were determined by taking the two five-minute practice rounds, and only considering a racer’s best round. These results were then sorted, with ties broken by laps/time, and used in setting up the qualifiers.

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PosNameCountry
1YANNICK AIGOIN FRANCE
2ROBERT BATLLE SPAIN
3DAVIDE TORTORICI ITALY
4RENAUD SAVOYA FRANCE
5DANIEL VEGA SPAIN
6CHAD BRADLEY USA
7JOSHUA WHEELER USA
8JON HAZLEWOODG. BRITAIN
9MIGUEL MATIAS PORTUGAL
10BORJA HERNANDEZ SPAIN
11SCOTT HUGHES USA
12GREG DEGANI USA
13LINUS THERN SWEDEN
14YUUICHI KANAI JAPAN
15FABIO BOERO ITALY
16BOBBY TILLMAN USA
17STANLEY WANGSANEGARA INDONESIA
18KENJI OSAKA JAPAN
19DANIEL RECKWARD GERMANY
20JEROME SARTEL FRANCE
21JEREMY KORTZ USA
22JOHN AGUS INDONESIA
23VRAY GUILLAUME FRANCE
24YAH HSIA CHINGTAIWAN R.O.C
25MARK PAVIDIS USA
26MARKUS FELDMANN GERMANY
27KRIS MOORE USA
28JEROME AIGOIN FRANCE
29ROBERT GUSTAFSSON SWEDEN
30MARTY KORN USA
31SAMUELE LENZI ITALY
32YUUICHI AJISHI JAPAN
33RICARDO GOMEZ SPAIN
34TAKASHI KATO JAPAN
35MARTIN WOLHUTER AUSTRALIA
36ATSUSHI KAWAMOTOJ APAN
37RAUL DARAS SPAIN
38JOSEPH QUAGRAINE FINLAND
39STEWART WILCOXG. BRITAIN
40YASYHIRO TAKEUCHI JAPAN
41YOSHIO OTSUKA JAPAN
42WANG WEN PEI TAIWAN R.O.C
43HIDEKI KOBAYASHI JAPAN
44PAUL COLEMAN USA
45CHEN WU CHUNG TAIWAN R.O.C
46MARTIN BAYER CZECH REP.
47RAUL PERIS SPAIN
48SCOTT YANG TAIWAN R.O.C
49JUSTIN MILLAN AUSTRALIA
50CHARLEE PHUTIYOTHIN THAILAND

[RC_KAOS]

Hey, there is two Aussie's in there.

Cheers

[scoobie]

http://rc-racing.com/SGM/images/topics/News.gif (http://rc-racing.com/SGM/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=2)by Mike Myers

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30
Wednesday was the first day of qualifying. Two qualifying rounds were run, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. There were 15 heats, each with ten drivers, to cover the field of 150 racers. For having minimal practice, Team USA certainly did quite well! Mark Pavidis was TQ after the first round, followed by Chad Bradley in second place. Scott Hughes was in third, with Greg Degani just after the top ten in 11th position. After the second round of qualifying, Daniel Vega from Spain took over the TQ position, with Chad Bradley in second. Mark is now in third, just ahead of Joseph Quagraine, followed by Scott Hughes. Marty Korn is in 9th, with Greg Degani in 10th, just ahead of Jeremy Kortz. That gives the USA six cars in the top eleven places!
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/mark-t.jpg
Mark Pavidis, TQ after the first round of Qualifying (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/mark.jpg)

The following are some comments on the race by Greg Degani, Rody Roem, and Mark Pavidis.

Greg Degani on the World Championships:
I was already here before, so I know it’s safe. The area here is very cheap, good food, with very poor people so it’s easy to tip, get people to carry your luggage and so on. Also, it’s got a very nice beach area.
The event is very well organized, and very secure. The Americans who didn’t come missed out on the race. We’ve had a few food poisonings; Jeremy was sick for a couple of days. My advice - don’t drink the water, and don’t eat the KFC here in Indonesia. …and also there were the tsunami warnings. What are the odds on that happening? All in all, it’s very good. With the high temperatures, the air conditioned tents are very nice. Today’s the hottest day so far, about 80 or so, but with 98% humidity it feels like 100.
The track is quite big. It’s holding together petty well. Track conditions are pretty different from practice. Not as bumpy. I’ve heard corner marshals get paid $2.50 per day to run around, and despite the price, they’re very fast. That’s what we’re hearing.
The facility is very well organized. The organization is first rate - the tents, drivers stand, heck the whole r/c part is excellent. Sponsorships chipped in around d$50,000, so they pulled through and did a good job.
We’re using stiffer setups compared to the USA, but mostly the same in way of car setup, at least for me. I’m running a Hobao, Hyper 8. It’s pretty much stock. We have three cars in the top 14 right now, but this is after only one round of qualifying.
The trip over here was good; I flew business class, upgraded with the miles. I stopped over in Singapore for a couple of hours. We met some girls at the airport. We had a pretty good time – that was nice. Business class is the only way to fly overseas!
There are some very good parts of the track, some good triple sections, some good American sections, and some good timing sections. It also has some good European sections with flat corners – any country can do well here. The drivers stand is a good height – I wish we had drivers stands like that in the USA, but we can’t afford things like this.
That’s about it for today; more tomorrow or the next day.

Comments by Rody Roem:
This is my first time in Indonesia. It’s surprisingly well organized. I saw photos of the pre-worlds. I was wondering if the track would be finished,, but it’s a very well finished track. The people are friendly; they are trying to do everything as well as possible. The find out what your needs are, and take care of them. It’s a very good World Championship.
The track is very interesting. It has almost everything in it, a long straight, banking, counter bankings, and a nice triple jump. The only thing that is a little strange is the washboard on the back straightaway. When we’re in the pit area the cars disappear for a while, and we hope they’ll re-appear after. It’s a pity we can’t see that. The washboard is made of concrete, but you can’t see it from the pit area. So when the car disappears, you hope it comes out OK, as then you know it’s passed the triple OK. Sometimes it doesn’t come if there are problems. The triple is very nicely made.
The interesting part is the counter turn you have directly after. Then you have another curve, and then a “double-triple”. If you take it right, you save a lot of time. If you take it wrong, you lose a lot of time. This is a good place for the best drivers to gain a lot of time.
For the rest, what can you say more? It’s a good facility. Everything is convenient, the hotel is close, the transportation is ideal.
We’re running the usual motors. We were a little worried about the high temps and high humidity, but there is no real change compared to what we use in Europe. Just a little bit hotter than what we drive in Europe. It’s about 10 degrees Celsius hotter than usual. Yannick, Danielle, Vray, the defending world champion, Tharen (from Sweden), - these guys are very fast. Richie Gomez is very promising as well in his new prototype car. It was great the way everything was arranged. Someone was there to meet us at the airport, and take us through customs, which is normally a hassle. With their system it was really appreciated, coming to a big event like this. This is significant – people who travel know how difficult this can be, especially if you bring in material with you. Here it was all taken care of for you. Lastly, I wish all the drivers who use our equipment good luck! We need a fortune cookie on that. We’ll also take a fortune cookie for the weather. In Europe, all the main events get rained out. Here we hope it’s different. Let the best man win!!
Mark Pavidis:
I think that all the USA guys coming were a little skeptical about what to expect, as you only hear bad news, not good news. To make things a little worse, my mechanic missed his flight, so I had to travel here all the way by myself. I wasn’t sure who was picking me up at the airport. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly things went once we arrived.
From driving from the airport to the hotel, we drove through some pretty rough areas, like anywhere else, but then we pulled up to the complex with the hotel, and it was even better than what I expected it to be.
I got here on Friday, and was one of the first people from the US. I was able to get a 7th floor room overlooking the ocean, before everyone else got here and took all the rooms. The other USA guys showed up on Saturday afternoon, and spent Saturday and Sunday getting things prepared, breaking in engines, all the last minute things you need to do.
Monday was our first day of controlled practiced. It’s been really smooth, more security than at any worlds I’ve ever been to, at home or abroad. We ran the first two days of practice, got the car kind of settled. We didn’t come for the warm-up race, so we had use the three rounds of practice to test and try different things on the car. The first round of qualifying today we ended up TQ. A few drivers had some bad luck, but we’ll take their misfortune as well – it’s all part of racing. That’s about it – just clean things up tonight, and get ready for tomorrow.
PHOTOS

Click Here to see today's photos. (http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/aug-30/index.htm)
RESULTS:
Full results with scoring information will be posted in a separate file in about an hour, along with the photos from today’s racing. Check back here for the web address to go to. In the meantime, here are the top 20 qualifying positions so far.

Pos Name Country
1 Daniel Vega, Spain2 Chad Bradley, USA3 Mark Pavidis, USA4 Joseph Quagraine, Finland5 Scott Hughes, USA6 Ricardo Gomez, Spain7 Renaud Savoya, France8 Jon Hazlewood, G.Britain9 Marty Korn, USA10 Greg Degani, USA11 Jeremy Kortz, USA12 Davide Tortorici, Italy13 Atsushi Kawamoto, Japan14 Robert Gustafsson, Sweden15 Vray Guillaume, France16 Kris Moore, USA17 Jerome Sartel, France18 Yuuichi Kanai, Japan19 Yoshio Otsuka, Japan20 Juan Camilo.R, Spain

[RC_KAOS]

Sure is alot of buggies there
http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/open/images/DSC_0655.jpg

Cheers

[scoobie]

http://rc-racing.com/SGM/images/topics/News.gif (http://rc-racing.com/SGM/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=2)by Mike Myers

QUALIFYING, ROUNDS #3 and #4
Qualifying contined today, with rounds #3 and #4 completed by around 5pm. While some people who may be doing quite may not yet show up at the top of the list (see why below) team USA continued the domination of the event. It's too early to tell what the results will look like, but with no drops, and adding up all four rounds, TQ goes to Mark Pavidis, second to Scott Hughes, third to Chad Bradley, and fourth place to Jeremy Kortz. Greg Degani is in sixth place, and Marty Korn is in eleventh. While dropping the "worst" race might move some people up in the standings, the USA team certainly is doing spectacularly well, especially when you consider that most of these racers put down the first lap on the track only four days ago. No matter what else happens, the top places at this point will certainly be in the semi-finals!
The full qualifying standings through round #4 are posted below.
QUALIFYING LISTS
Since I'm posting qualifying results at the end of each day, I really need to elaborate on how this is being done, as some people are misunderstanding what the results really show. Please take your time and be sure you know all of the following, if you'd like to understand what's really happening here at the Worlds.
First, it's important to know how the qualifying order will be determined at the end of qualifying. A racer's best points for four out of the six qualifying runs are added together, and that listing is sorted to determine the standings. No racers go directly into the Final - the top fourteen racers go into one of the two semi-finals. Along with the three racers who bump-up from each of the quarter finals, this brings us up to our total of ten racers in each semi-final. The top four racers from each semi-final advance to the main Final. The next two fastest racers, from either semi-final, also advance, making up the field of ten racers in the Final. However, I'm getting ahead of myself here.
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/jump-t.jpg
Air Traffic Controllers Needed? A near miss! (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/jump.jpg)

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/whack-t.jpg
Markus Feldman trying an overhead pass on Jeremy Kortz. (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/whack.jpg)

The racers are placed in the appropriate Final based on how many "points" they receive during qualifying. The fastest race in each qualifier receives a number of points equal to the number of drivers in the race, plus five. So, with 150 entries, the "TQ" for each round gets 155 points for that round. The second fastest racer gets a number of points equal to the TQ racer, minus two points. In this case, that would be 153. From then on, the points totals are reduced by one for each following position - 152, 151, 150, 149, and so on. If a racer doesn't turn any laps, he doesn't get any points. These points totals are calculated at the end of each round of qualifying, determining the points awarded for that round. The totals are then added up, to get a total for each racer at the end of each round. At the end of qualifying, four of the six rounds are counted with each racer's worst two rounds "thrown out". Qualifying standings printed out before that can be very misleading.

To show why I say that, let me exaggerate. If we had a racer at this event who was far better than everyone else, and who came in first place, two laps ahead of everyone in each qualifying round, but who didn't start in one round, he would be placed way down in the standings; in no way would this be representative of his abilities. In my opinion, the qualifying lists that I'm posting each day would be more representative of what's happening on the track, if they showed points summaries including one "drop", such as two out of three, or three out of four rounds. While racers at the top of the current list are probably going to do well, racers down in the list can not be assumed to be "also-rans". If you want to understand what's really going on, look at these lists, paying attention to how racers did in each round, paying attention to rounds in which they broke or dropped out early. With the lists in their current format, only at the end of qualifying, will the lists begin to represent the true situation, as first one round, and then finally two rounds, are dropped from the totals.
The bottom line, is that while it's "exciting" to think of the provisional TQ's, and to see one's name up near the top of the list, this is giving a false impression of what the final qualifying order is likely to be. Racers high up on the list are likely to qualify well, but racers well down in the list might simply be there because they didn't finish one of their qualifiers, even if they were outstanding in the rounds that they did complete.
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/qual-1-t.jpg
Qualifying Action (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/qual-1.jpg)

It's also true that if any racer "blows" more than two qualifiers, they're never going to be high up on the final list. To accomplish a good qualifying result, you MUST do well in four of the six rounds of qualifying.
Having said all that, racers who are very capable, but who qualify poorly because of unfinished rounds are by no means out of the race. If a racer who "belongs" in the quarter-final (based on natural ability) qualifies for the 1/128 final, he can and likely will bump up from each final to the next higher final. In fact, by the time he reaches the quarter finals (where he maybe "belonged"), he'll have an advantage over the other racers in the quarter final, having just finished lots of track time, and gaining an excellent understanding of current track conditions. The other racers will be hitting the track "cold", and will be at a disadvantage! So, this racer has an even better chance of advancing once again.
Just to be thorough, I should add that while the additional track time is a nice advantage over the competition, there's also the question of "luck" and "breaking a car". All things considered, it's still better to qualify directly for the quarter final, rather than to have to bump up into it, as this reduces the chance of being taken out completely due to bad luck or a broken part.
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/qual-2-t.jpg
Qualifying Action (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/qual-2.jpg)
FLAGLESS STARTS
The qualifying method used at World Championships follows an idea invented by the Toledo One Eighth Racers, a "Flagless Start". This method completely eliminates first-turn pile-ups, so common at many races. Cars are called to the pits at the start of a qualifier, and area allowed to go out to start their qualifying session. The race announcer simply announces how many minutes (or seconds) remain before the timing clock starts. Racers can come into the pits whenever they want, as often as they want. There is no requirement to be in any particular place when the countdown reaches "zero" and the clock starts. Racers can spread themselves out as they wish around the track. The first time they cross the scoring line after the countdown reaches zero, their individual clock starts, and they get to run the qualifier the same as before. The advantage is that the cars are nicely spread out around the track, and refueled before the clock starts. There are no more first-turn crashes, as there is no need for the cars to be close to each other! Some scoring software, such as J-Lap, can even run the flagless start completely automatically, broadcasting the information over the PA system! This is an excellent improvement - more tracks and clubs should consider using it in their local racing.
ARMCHAIR RACERS
I'm sitting in the press room with Carlos Gomez as I'm writing this. He's writing up his article for a Spanish Magazine, and he's placing a chapter in it about the racers who are not present at this race. He's got an endless list of the absent people, and feels that those who didn't show up are narrow minded. As he puts it, "one hundred fifty people are here from all over the world, and we all feel safe and happy to be here. No one is afraid of anything, but maybe of seeing a rat in the garbage or something similar. Those racers who didn't show up can be considered "back yard champions". Everyone here is trying to be the next World Champion, and those at home are only spectators, and don't deserve any title other than maximum backyard champion. If a driver is not here, it is because he doesn't have the willingness to be a champion. "
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/marshals-t.jpg
Some of the World's Fastest Marshals! (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/marshals.jpg)

PHOTOS

Click Here to see today's photos. (http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/aug-31/index.htm)
RESULTS:
For totaled results of rounds #1 through #4 of qualifying, with no drops, please click HERE (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/Qual-Results-1-4.html).

[RC_KAOS]

Here is the engine statistics and what everyone is using
RB Concept 23.3%
O.S. Max 14.7%
Ninja 12.9%
Novarossi 9.5%
Sirio 8.6%
FX 7.8%
AXE 5.2%
Others Less then 5%

[scoobie]

http://rc-racing.com/SGM/images/topics/News.gif (http://rc-racing.com/SGM/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=2)by Mike Myers


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 - FINAL QUALIFYING ROUNDS
Qualifying completed today, with the running of rounds #5 and #6. Although the conditions of the track are getting tougher each day, this does not adversely affect the qualifying results (other than by who is better suited to the rougher conditions). At the end of each round, the finishing order for that round is sorted, and points awarded accordingly. Regardless of whether the TQ car for that round got 11 laps or 10 laps, the driver will still get the full 155 points for that round. In a manner similar to the ROAR Qualifying Points System, this procedure take the track conditions out of the equation, and rewards those drivers who consistently put in the best performance. With ROAR, only one's two best rounds out of six count. The way IFMAR does it, four of the six rounds count, so it's especially important to do well in most of the rounds. Mess up in three rounds, and you're automatically way down in the point standings.
It was an exciting day of qualifying. Those racers who had one or two bad rounds could make up lost ground by putting in some good runs, but it was very unlikely that anyone could bump Mark or Scott out of the top position. In the final round though, both Mark and Scott had problems. Mark had a fuel problem, with fuel not being fed properly to the engine. Scott had an incident, resulting in the pivot ball coming out of a suspension arm. Despite these problems though, they were each very secure in their top position, and with both out, their standings remained the same.
As the day came to an end, Mark Pavidis is now TQ, followed by Scott Hughes. Each will wear the #1 number in their Semi-Final. The complete statistics for qualifying for all racers follow at the end of this report. Here are the top 14 racers, who made it into the semi's:

Mark Pavidis
Scott Hughes
Yannick Aigon
Jeremy Kortz
Chad Bradley
Robert Batlle
Vray Guillaume
Joseph Quagraine
Jerome Aigoin
Renaud Savoya
Borja Hernandez
Bobby Tillman
Greg Degani
Jon Hazlewood

More photos, and some short video clips showing the track will be posted at the end of this report in several hours, along with the qualifying results. Until then, those links won't work. We'll also have some statistics up very soon, along with the equipment list showing what equipment each competitor is using.

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/results-t.jpg
Team USA reviewing the final qualifying results. (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/results.jpg)


OPINIONS ON THE RACE
Regan LeBlanc is one of the most knowledgeable people in the USA when it comes to off-road. When it comes to understanding this sport, he's second to none. I thought it would be interesting to get Regan's take on this event, especially so with Regan being the ROAR representative here at this IFMAR event…
Regan:
Basically, I'm pleasantly surprised that the Americans are doing so well. They look like their cars are more set up for this type of track than some of the Europeans. That's why we're seeing the performance gap with Americans at the front. Scott Hughes is driving perfectly as usual.
From what I've seen so far, it's a fantastically run event. The marshals are incredible, they're still running. There seems to be a good mix of cars going fast. There are likely to be some very tough semis, and then a good final.
As to the track, I like it - it's huge. Personally, I like this type of circuit - dry, dusty, and loose. The track is breaking up a little bit, but not as bad as some others do. I hear the Europeans don't like the jumps we have here; even these jumps are too big for the Europeans. The track surface is OK. In the states it would break up with huge potholes; here it's just certain areas that are breaking apart.
The organization is top notch. It's all very well done. Yet again, it's a much better facility than we usually find in the United States. The schedule is all right - none of the drivers are too hurried, and they get out at a decent time, so I'm happy for that. The drivers just love the way you can look at when your heat is supposed to be up, go back to the hotel, shower, relax, and get back on time for the heat. Things here run right on time. The TV monitors are pretty helpful - everyone loves access to the information all over the pits and track areas.
For those Americans that are not here, they're really missing out on a top notch event. Most people here speak a little English, good for those of us who only speak English. I've traveled all over alone, and haven't felt unsafe since I've been here. WHO's (NOT) HERE
I had a long chat with Dallas Matheson, from IFMAR. Apparently while there are some reporters and photographers here from all over the world, there are only two from the USA. RC Car has had a reporter here since the very beginning (me) and RC Car Action's reporter just arrived early this morning. In the case of the European magazines, most have someone involved in the event doing a report for them, and doing photo coverage.
Dallas had received a message from one editor, upset that this race was being put on so far away from them. As Dallas explained, the World Championships are just that, a WORLD event, and the events are, and will continue to be, run in many different places around the world. In fact, the next IFMAR Off-Road Worlds will be held in the USA. It's certainly no less difficult for racers (or press) in Asia to visit the USA, than for racers (or press) in the USA to visit Asia! IFMAR intends to continue this policy, and Dallas thinks it's wrong for editorial people in any one country to try to control this process.


PHOTOS

Click Here to see today's photos. (http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/sep-1/index.htm)
FINAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
For final qualifying results CLICK HERE (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/Qual-Results-1-6.html).

[scoobie]

Team USA is kickin a$$!!!!!

[scoobie]

2006 IFMAR Off-Road World Championships - September 2, 2006http://rc-racing.com/SGM/themes/iCGstation/forums/images/spacer.gifhttp://rc-racing.com/SGM/images/topics/News.gif (http://rc-racing.com/SGM/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=2)by Mike Myers THE OTHER RACES (written by Carlos Gomez)
At a World Championship there is one race we are all focused on, the race for the title; but there are many other races in such a big event. Saturday is a key day for those other races. Racers competing on Saturday are the ones placed between 43 and 150th place after classification rounds. You may wonder: Why in h*ll they have to wake up 5:30 in the morning to race to achieve nothing? Answer: because there are many other races going on here. There are people trying to improve the bad week they have had. There are other ones trying to be the best drivers inside their teams, or to win over their room-mate and still others dreaming of a nearly impossible bump-up to the main final.

I said "nearly impossible" and that's true, there is still one chance as Marc Ibars showed us at 2000 Worlds at Las Vegas (Ne). He came back from Saturday midday up to race the Main Final where he ended in 6th position! So, even a dream may come true.
Other drivers dream of a single bump-up. They know their limits. Still, everyone is here to give his best and we have to pay respectful gratitude to those who give the best out of them. All of them are in some way "Champions".
VIDEO SPECIAL FEATURE!!!

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/ja.jpg
Click HERE to see a short video
of the racing in Jakarta!</B> (http://sgrid.rcpics.net/2006/ifmar-worlds-jakarta/jakarta.wmv)
The following are some photos of some of the better racers here at this event, and a close-up photo of their car chassis.


http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/mark01-t.jpg
Mark Pavidis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/mark01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/mark02-t.jpg
Mark's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/mark02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/mark03-t.jpg
Mark's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/mark03.jpg)

[scoobie]

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/jeremy01-t.jpg
Jeremy Kortz (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/jeremy01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/jeremy02-t.jpg
Jeremy's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/jeremy02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/jeremy03-t.jpg
Jeremy's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/jeremy03.jpg)

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/chad01-t.jpg
Chad Bradley (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/chad01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/chad02-t.jpg
Chad's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/chad02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/chad03-t.jpg
Chad's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/chad03.jpg)

[scoobie]

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/scott01-t.jpg
Scott Hughes (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/scott01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/scott02-t.jpg
Scott's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/scott02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/scott03-t.jpg
Scott's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/scott03.jpg)

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/yannick01-t.jpg
Yannick Aigoin (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/yannick01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/yannick02-t.jpg
Yannick's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/yannick02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/yannick03-t.jpg
Yannick's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/yannick03.jpg)

[scoobie]

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/bobby01-t.jpg
Bobby Tillman (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/bobby01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/bobby02-t.jpg
Bobby's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/bobby02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/bobby03-t.jpg
Bobby's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/bobby03.jpg)

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/greg01-t.jpg
Greg Degani (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/greg01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/greg02-t.jpg
Greg's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/greg02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/greg03-t.jpg
Greg's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/greg03.jpg)

[scoobie]

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/kris01-t.jpg
Kris Moore (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/kris01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/kris02-t.jpg
Kris's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/kris02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/kris03-t.jpg
Kris's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/kris03.jpg)

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/paul01-t.jpg
Paul Coleman (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/paul01.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/paul02-t.jpg
Paul's car (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/paul02.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/paul03-t.jpg
Paul's chassis (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/paul03.jpg)

[scoobie]

Two last photos, showing Mark Pavidis and Yuichi Kanai reviewing their qualifying results:
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/review-qual-1-t.jpg
Mark Pavidis checking over his results (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/review-qual-1.jpg)
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/review-qual-2-t.jpg
Yuichi Kanai checking over his results (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/racers/review-qual-2.jpg)

[AZRCaddict]

Interesting breakdown of qualifying positions by country:


Position Name Country

41 MARTIN WOLHUTER AUSTRALIA
56 STEVEN DRYGALLA AUSTRALIA
60 JUSTIN MILLAN AUSTRALIA
84 RON MAYA AUSTRALIA
85 RUDI YAP AUSTRALIA
98 IAN HALEY AUSTRALIA
99 DALE SMULDERS AUSTRALIA
103 TOM DRYGALLA AUSTRALIA
112 SIMON STEWART AUSTRALIA
120 THEO ASSA AUSTRALIA
121 JOHN GRENVILLE AUSTRALIA
134 STEVE SMULDERS AUSTRALIA

81 LIN CHANG TA CHINA
100 CHU MING HUI CHINA
141 HU WEI PPING CHINA
142 LIN JUN BEN CHINA
149 GAO MING CHINA
150 HONG NAN FANG CHINA

45 MARTIN BAYER CZECH REP.
59 MARTIN PATER CZECH REP.

8 JOSEPH QUAGRAINE FINLAND
33 ARI HEINONEN FINLAND
83 MARKKU HONKANEN FINLAND
96 ARTO HEINONEN FINLAND
3 YANNICK AIGOIN FRANCE
7 VRAY GUILLAUME FRANCE
9 JEROME AIGOIN FRANCE
10 RENAUD SAVOYA FRANCE
26 JEROME SARTEL FRANCE

14 JON HAZLEWOOD G.BRITAIN
34 DARREN COLE G.BRITAIN
49 TOMMY CHUNG G.BRITAIN
50 STEWART WILCOX G.BRITAIN
55 MIKE CRADOCK G.BRITAIN
63 KARL JACKSON G.BRITAIN
75 MARK DELL G.BRITAIN

15 DANIEL RECKWARD GERMANY
42 MARKUS FELDMANN GERMANY
92 ANDREAS ERTL GERMANY

115 POON SZE KEUNG SAM HONGKONG
144 YEUNG WAI KEI HONGKONG

32 JOHN AGUS INDONESIA
36 STANLEY WANGSANEGARA INDONESIA
43 ROY LIE INDONESIA
44 ANDRE SUPRYANATA INDONESIA
47 CHOPIN YUSUF INDONESIA
53 RACHMADI.R INDONESIA
54 DENNY BOY INDONESIA
62 WILLY BUWANA INDONESIA
64 AWIE INDONESIA
66 YAHYA STACEY INDONESIA
68 ANDRI HARTANTO INDONESIA
69 INDRA LIONO INDONESIA
87 ANTONIUS KUNDJUNG INDONESIA
88 BOBBY SATRIO INDONESIA
93 WILSON INDONESIA
95 EDWARD JOESOEF INDONESIA
111 STEVEN TEDJAKUSUMA INDONESIA
140 MICHAEL TEJAKUSUMA INDONESIA

24 DAVIDE TORTORICI ITALY
38 SAMUELE LENZI ITALY
39 FABIO BOERO ITALY
82 MARCO GRANDESSO ITALY
89 CECCANTI FILIPPO ITALY

20 KENJI OSAKA JAPAN
22 TAKASHI KATO JAPAN
23 YUUICHI AJISHI JAPAN
25 ATSUSHI KAWAMOTO JAPAN
27 YOSHIO OTSUKA JAPAN
30 YUUICHI KANAI JAPAN
48 YASYHIRO TAKEUCHI JAPAN
52 TAKAYUKI OBA JAPAN
58 DAISUKE TSUNEKAWA JAPAN
70 HIDEKI KOBAYASHI JAPAN
71 KAZUHIKO HOSOI JAPAN

67 HWANG SUN YOUNG KOREA
122 JO SUNG KI KOREA
125 MIN SU SI KOREA
128 KIM JONG SEO KOREA
135 SUNG TAE JU KOREA
137 AHN SUNGMIN KOREA
138 LIM GYUNG RAK KOREA
147 SEOK HO BAE KOREA

102 KELVIN NGOW MALAYSIA
105 DAVID LIM MALAYSIA
107 LAI KOK HENG MALAYSIA
114 VINCENT WONG MALAYSIA
123 CHAI KOK CHIN MALAYSIA
126 DANNY TEH MALAYSIA
130 SYAF ZULKIFILL MALAYSIA
132 LIM KOK BENG MALAYSIA
146 THOMPSON CHONG MALAYSIA

79 NATHAN TOIA NEW ZEALAND
91 GRAEME MC DOUGAL NEW ZEALAND
94 CHRIS BANHAM NEW ZEALAND

29 MIGUEL MATIAS PORTUGAL

74 CHESTER CHUA SINGAPORE
76 KENNY CHUA SINGAPORE
77 GOH AH-M SINGAPORE
78 GLEN PHUAH SINGAPORE
104 SAM CHENG SINGAPORE
106 CHRIS SZE SINGAPORE
113 LUI WEN YI SINGAPORE
124 DESMOND TAN SINGAPORE
127 JOE HWEE SINGAPORE

117 JURAJ HUDY SLOVAKIA
119 MARTIN HUDY SLOVAKIA

109 BRANDON DE WITT SOUTH AFRICA
110 DANIE DE SWARDT SOUTH AFRICA
116 DALE PRESTON SOUTH AFRICA
118 LOUIS TRICHARDT SOUTH AFRICA

6 ROBERT BATLLE SPAIN
11 BORJA HERNANDEZ SPAIN
16 DANIEL VEGA SPAIN
17 RICARDO GOMEZ SPAIN
21 RAUL PERIS SPAIN
35 JUAN CAMILO.R SPAIN
108 RAUL DARAS SPAIN
143 JOSE RAMON LOPEZ.C SPAIN

31 LINUS THERN SWEDEN
37 ROBERT GUSTAFSSON SWEDEN
101 NICKLAS HAKANSSON SWEDEN
129 MIKAEL JONSSON SWEDEN

40 CHEN WU CHUNG TAIWAN R.O.C
51 YAH HSIA CHING TAIWAN R.O.C
57 HO HUANG PIN TAIWAN R.O.C
61 SCOTT YANG TAIWAN R.O.C
72 HUANG MING TSE TAIWAN R.O.C
73 WANG WEN PEI TAIWAN R.O.C
80 LAI YING TSAN TAIWAN R.O.C
97 CHEN CHUN CHI TAIWAN R.O.C
136 LIANG CHEN MING TAIWAN R.O.C

46 PANIT CHOTLERSAK THAILAND
65 CHARLEE PHUTIYOTHIN THAILAND
86 MEEN VEJRAK THAILAND
131 KANKET EKNURIN THAILAND
139 SURASAK KERINSAKUNA THAILAND
145 CHAVIT SALIGUPTA THAILAND
148 WASURUTH CHOUGCHIROGI THAILAND

1 MARK PAVIDIS USA
2 SCOTT HUGHES USA
4 JEREMY KORTZ USA
5 CHAD BRADLEY USA
12 BOBBY TILLMAN USA
13 GREG DEGANI USA
18 JOSHUA WHEELER USA
19 MARTY KORN USA
28 KRIS MOORE USA
90 KEEVIN SHARP USA
133 PAUL COLEMAN USA

[RC_KAOS]

Nice breakdown of the countries. Didn't think there was so many Aussies overthere

Cheers

[AZRCaddict]

About 10 minutes to the start!

Go Team Kyosho! and Team USA!

A-Main Starting Order
1. Guillaume Vray - France
2. Yannick Aigoin - France
3. Mark Pavidis - USA
4. Chad Bradley- USA
5. Greg Degani - USA
6. Linus Thern - Sweden
7. Jon Hazlewood - UK
8 Scott Hughes -USA
9. Jeremy Kortz - USA
10. Bobby Tillman - USA

[RC_KAOS]

Yeah, i think Kyohso is going to take the title back

Cheers

[AZRCaddict]

:winner: MARK PAVIDIS WORLD CHAMPION 2006 :winner:

Another win for Team Kyosho!

[RC_KAOS]

1. Mark Pavidis - USA - Kyosho/OS
2. Scott Hughes - USA - Mugen/OS
3. Guillaume Vray - France - Mugen/RB
4. Chad Bradley - USA - Jammin/OS
5. Linus Thern - Sweden - Kyosho/RB
6. Yannick Aigoin - France - XRAY/RB
7. Jeremy Kortz - USA - HoBao/Werks
8. Bobby Tillman - USA - Mugen/Ninja
9. Greg Deani - USA - HoBao/Picco
10. Jon Hazlewood - UK- XRAY/Recab OS

Well done Mark and Team Kyosho

Cheers

[scoobie]

NICE!!!! Kyosho is back on top!!!
:winner: Congrats Mark and Team Kyosho:winner:

[AZRCaddict]

http://www.neoinvitational.com/images/News/markwin.jpg

http://www.neoinvitational.com/images/News/winmark.jpg

http://www.neoinvitational.com/images/News/markcar.jpg

[scoobie]

2006 IFMAR Off-Road World Championships - September 2, 2006http://rc-racing.com/SGM/themes/iCGstation/forums/images/spacer.gifhttp://rc-racing.com/SGM/images/topics/News.gif (http://rc-racing.com/SGM/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=2)by Mike Myers
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 -FINALS

MARK PAVIDIS WINS THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!!!
Today is the culmination of the past ten days' racing activities. For the guys near the top, today is IT. It's the opportunity to become the next World Champion. Everything before has led up to this moment.
For all the racers, it's necessary to advance through one or more of the lower finals. These 20 minute finals determine who will be placed in the Final. With all the lower finals, other than the Semi-Finals, the top three cars in each race bump up into the next higher Final. For the semi's, it's different - the top four racers from each semi advance into the Final. The next two fastest racers (from either semi-final) also advance, completing the field of ten cars.
http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/markwin-2-t.jpg
Mark Pavidis in Action (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/markwin-2.jpg)

http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/markwin-1-t.jpg
Mark Pavidis, 2006 IFMAR WORLD CHAMPION! (http://www.sgrid.com/2006/august/markwin-1.jpg)

As the 1/8 Finals started, it seemed to me that two things are necessary to continue to advance. First, you need to be at least as "fast" as the faster guys. Having the appropriate equipment, a good engine, a good setup, and so on, means you've got the ability to continue to advance. Of course, you've got to have the driving ability to run at the same pace as the fastest guys as well. However, even with all that, you also need the ability to keep your control regardless of what is going on around you, and to avoid mistakes either on your part or that of your pit crew. At this level of competition, even one mistake can put you at a disadvantage. The more mistakes you make, the further back in the pack you find yourself, and with twenty-minute Finals, there's not really any time to make up lost ground - you have to hope that your competition will also make some kind of mistake. Of course, if you do find yourself out in the lead, you only need to go as fast as you need to - no sense in taking un-necessary chances. In watching the races, it was obvious that even the best racers in the world sometimes found their cars upside down or off the track, in need of marshaling. The speeds are so high, the track is so tough, and the racers are so close to "the edge" that incidents are inevitable. Even so, the better racers in each round were usually those who had the fewest "incidents", and who recovered from them quickly. Any racer who could pull out a lead, as Kanai did in the A-quarter-final, could back off a little bit, which cut down the number of "incidents" to next to nothing. Those racers trying to catch him had to push harder, and they were the ones most likely to be involved in "incidents". I won't call these "mistakes", as the track is constantly changing, and with the cars so close to the edge, the smallest "bobble" can lead to a time-consuming wait for assistance.
In the 1/8 A-Final, John Agus seemed to have the race locked up; he was driving the best I've ever seen him, seemed pretty much flawless on the track, and was leading the race as it came to a close. Unfortunately, John's refueling times might have been a bit early, as he didn't have enough fuel left in his tank to finish, taking him out of the race with less than a minute to go. The top three racers advancing to the next higher Final were:
1 - Samuele Lenzi
2 - Yuichi Kanai
3 - Markus Feldmann

The top three racers advancing from the 1/8 A-final were:
1 - Miguel Matias
2 - Robert Gustafsson
3 - Linus Thern

After a short break, this brought up the 1/4 Finals. Once again, these were twenty-minute races. The drivers were introduced, the cars went out on the track for a short warm-up, and were then brought back to the pits. The starting line was on the front straight, right in front of the drivers. "3, 2, 1, release the cars, GO". Any car that moved before the horn went off had to come in for a penalty. The 1/4 finals went off smoothly. The top three racers advancing from the 1/4 B-Final were:
1 - Yuichi Kanai
2 - Daniel Vega
3 - Samuel Lenzi

The top three racers advancing from the 1/4 A-Final were:
1 - Miguel Matias
2 - Raul Peris
3 - Linus Thern


At 12 noon, the practice sessions for each semi-final started. There would be ten minutes of practice time for each group of racers. The finals were run shortly after.
While there was supposedly an equal mix of driver ability in each Semi, the two races were as opposite as can be. The B-Semi was a very smooth run, with the drivers almost working with each other to minimize incidents on the track. Jon Hazlewood pulled out a big lead at the start, and spent the rest of the Final simply pulling away from the rest of the field. He was never challenged. Behind him, the cars spread out, with Mark Pavidis, Chad Bradley, and Scott Hughes fighting for the bump-up places. As the race ended, the top four cars automatically bumped - Jon Hazlewood, Scott Hughes, Jeremy Kortz, and Bobby Tillman.
In the A-Semi, from the very start the track became a battlefield, with everyone fighting for position, causing many spectacular wrecks. The running order eventually sorted itself out, but the on-track incidents continued, making for wonderful photos, but not very good lap times. As the race went on, the cars at the front suffered all kinds of problems, from flame-outs to failure of their radio systems. This moved the cars behind them into better positions. The top four cars in each race would automatically bump up to the Final. When the dust finally settled, the top four cars were Vray Guillaume (with a huge lead), Yannick Aigoin, Mark Pavidis, and Chad Bradley. After reviewing lap times, Greg Degani and Linus Thern also bumped up to the Final.
We then had driver's introduction, and so on, and within a short time the cars were warming up for the Final. It was an exciting field of drivers, Vray Guillaume, Yannick Aigoin, Mark Pavidis, Chad Bradley, Greg Degani, Linus Thern, Jon Hazlewood, Scott Hughes, Jeremy Kortz, and Bobby Tillman. That's six cars from the USA, two from France, one from Sweden, and one from Great Britain.
The race got underway, and while it wasn't as "rough" as the A-semi, there were still lots of spectacularr crashes. The early running order was Scott Hughes, Greg Degani, Linus Thern, and Yannick Aigoin. Yannick started moving up through the field, and closed in on Scott. After the first round of pit stops, it was Scott, Yannick, and Vray, but shortly after that, Yannick took over the lead and started pulling away.
By ten minutes into the race, Yannick had a seven second lead, and Greg Degani had moved up to right behind Scott. Not too much longer Greg got around Scott for second, but Yannick was still pulling away. Mark Pavidis had gotten into trouble early in the race, and went from the head of the pack to dead last, but was moving up through the field. With maybe twenty or so minutes left in the race, he was up to second, but Yannick was a mile or so ahead, not slowing down. Then Yannick flamed out, giving Scott the lead. Yannick then flipped over on the "hill" at the very back of the track, in the far corner. Even the super-fast marshals in Jakarta took a while to get his car back to the pits, and with two errors, it was more than Yannick would ever be able to make up. With ten minutes to go, Scott was leading, and Mark was trying his best to catch up. A few of us at the back of the track wondered how being from the same team would effect this situation. As it turned out, Scott had problems, Mark got by, and held on for the win!
It couldn't happen to a nicer guy! Not that others didn't work equally hard on this race, but Mark was constantly working on his car, and his superb driving ability helped him out here as it had in Cincinnati, when he won the World Championships in a nitro sedan car - with a damaged radio! As Mark put it: "Unbelievable! I've wanted to win this race for ten years! The racing here started out easy, but as the track developed holes it became more and more difficult. This is one of the best tracks I've ever raced on! I was dead last in the beginning, but never gave up. We all worked together, making it happen."
RESULTS - THE FINAL:
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Country 1 3 Mark Pavidis 60 1:00:32.133 USA2 8 Scott Hughes 60 1:00:40.420 USA3 1 Vray Guillaume 60 1:00:49.327 FRANCE4 4 Chad Bradley 59 1:00:19.626 USA5 6 Linus Thern 59 1:00:38.312 SWEDEN6 2 Yannick Aigoin 59 1:00:47.410 FRANCE7 9 Jeremy Kortz 58 1:00:11.977 USA8 10 Bobby Tillman 57 1:00:13.633 USA9 5 Greg Degani 41 41:33.691 USA10 7 Jon Hazlewood 40 44:06.444 G.BRITAIN

[RC_KAOS]

Kyohso Finally has the World's Title Back

http://www.kyosho.co.jp/web/img/top_main_image20060904.gif

Cheers

[RC_KAOS]

Found a picture of his chassis
http://i6.tinypic.com/282lyjo.jpg

Cheers

[scoobie]

All those Fioroni parts look killer...:thumbs:...I love Fioroni stuff. I wish I had spent a little extra and got Fioroni instead of King Headz for my SP2.

Marks car has more than $1000 in added parts:eek: . The shocks are $200, the Decomposible center diff is $200. Mark runs the lightened ring and pinion in the diffs, thats another $200...plus the hingepin braces, chassis braces, knuckles, axle carriers, etc....damn thats one expensive car. Luckily for him, he didnt pay for it:D

[scoobie]

Heres one done by the forum sponsor...:winner:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/scoobie1_76/markwin.jpg

[RC_KAOS]

Does anyone know why Losi wasn't at the worlds?

Cheers

[AZRCaddict]

Does anyone know why Losi wasn't at the worlds?

Cheers
Some teams were boycotting the Worlds because of its location this year. So if a team a driver belonged to was boycotting the race that driver and his teamates didnt go.

Ryan Maifeild didnt go because of that reason.

[RC_KAOS]

Some teams were boycotting the Worlds because of its location this year. So if a team a driver belonged to was boycotting the race that driver and his teamates didnt go.

Ryan Maifeild didnt go because of that reason.

That's a pitty, would of loved to see how the 8ight would of went

Cheers

[AZRCaddict]

That's a pitty, would of loved to see how the 8ight would of went

Cheers
Yeah they tell everyone how great it is and when it comes time to compete against the top drivers and cars they're a no show.