1/8 IFMAR OFF ROAD GAS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2002 - PUNTA DEL ESTE - URUGUAY
Complete report by Sarkis Kaloustian Green Mountain Raceway
São Paulo- Brazil December 2002
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1/8 IFMAR OFF ROAD GAS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2002 - PUNTA DEL ESTE - URUGUAY |
Complete report by Sarkis Kaloustian Green Mountain Raceway São Paulo- Brazil December 2002 |
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The track |
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| Bienvenidos = Wellcome. The Uruguaian organizers did their best to make an excellent job. | The pit area was just enough to 131 drivers. Some had to improvise side tables to be more confortable | The drivers stand. High enough and a lot of space to everybody | The triple jump. In the finals it broke a lot of suspensions! | General stands. At the opposite side of the track gave good vision to all the action. | Time keeping booth with a good work by Pedro Tamón |
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The cars |
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!/8 OFF ROAD
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| Kyosho:(46 cars) A lot of KanaiI and some KanaiII with new parts. Yuichi Kanai's car entirely stock as ever. | Every car was completely different, and Jeremys Kortz buggy was maybe the most "personal"off all, with a beautiful black color and some writen words on the chassis. | Mark Pavidis'7.5 full of after market parts, with the O'donell prepared RBWs7. Look the beauty of this engine head. They said it lowers the temperature about 20 degrees |
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| Mugen: (31 cars) Two strong teams,one from Japan with Kenji Osaka, Takashi Kato and Daisuke Endo | Takashi Kato -Mugen /OS | Henrique Winik - Mugen/JP |
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| Crono: (14 cars) A very good suport from the manufacturer. Jerome Sartel was the best Crono driver | GS: (12 cars) A car that is developing very fast, with good factory support. Tommy Chung was impressive during qualifyings. | Thunder Tiger: (11 cars). The only not Mugen or kyosho car inside the top 14. Yannick Aygoin made a very good final race. |
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| Bergonzoni: (7 cars) The spanish team came with a lot of drivers to develop the new model. All parts now have aluminium color parts, and new front hubs. | Hobao: (8 cars) The new Hyper 7 is now called Hyper PBS, and made good impression in the hands of American driver Paul Coleman | This is my car, and "old and good" Mugen MBX4, with OS engine.It was my sixth race in 3 years, and I was not the last one classified in the worlds!!! |
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The engines |
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| RB:(39) The reliable WS7 was in almost every car. A good engine that will stay for a long time. | Novarossi:(26) A lot of models, mainly the new P5, and BX21 1BK | OS:(19) The new model, that OS engineer said is completely different from previous design was tested all the week by American and Japanese drivers. | But in the final the old and reliable RZV 01B was the world champion! This is the O'donnel prepared OS RZV 01B, soon after his victory! | Picco:(10) Paul Coleman and Steve Dunn made good qualifyings with this engine. | Omega:(6) The magic engine that has some secret in the carburetor and does not need tank pressure line! This is Jerome Ezazian's engine from France. |
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| Sirio:(3) Adrien Bertin was the best driver with Sirio engine with a good suport from factory owner besides him. | JP:(5) Jerome Sartel was the best JP engine driver. | Bergonzoni:(4) Another Novarossi based engine, in the Spanish factory cars. | Rossi:(3) The most beautiful design in the worlds. A good run with Andrea Monaci italian factory driver. | Medial:(3) marty Korn from USA was the best driver with medial engine. | Hyper:(3) An engine in development in the hands of Taiwanese drivers. |
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The tyres |
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| Pro Line | Medial Pro | Treadz | Ellegi | Kyosho |
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The radios |
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The drivers |
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Drivers sorted by country - Name / Country / Chassis / Engine |
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Body beauty contest at night! Six finalists and the winner is... |
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Daisuke Endo from Mugen Japan |
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THE RACE |
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Day 1 Monday, November, 25 2002 - Inscriptions and first round of practice |
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Final inscriptions, everybody ready to start, but at 11:00 in the morning a light shower that soon became heavy rain put all the cars in the boxes and back to the hotels. No practice today and maybe delay in yesterday schedule. |  |
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Day 2 Tuesday, November, 26 2002 - Controlled practice |
| The track was full of water splashes in the morning. Hard work for the organizers to put it in shape ( well almost!) at 14:00h in the evening. From now only one free practice to test the cars. After that one timed practice with 10 minutos. 10 heats with 14 drivers in each heat, to define the reseeding for the next three days and 6 qualify heats. It was an American domination with 5 drivers winning their heats. |
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Day 3 Wednesday, November, 27 2002 - Heat 1 and 2 |
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Real action on the worlds! We started the first two heats in a series of six. The best four results make the qualifying table. Rain in the morning but no delay this time. Heat one raced with a lot of big splashes around thr track, and of course a lot of broken cars. Things changed a lot in the evening. Dry track and 13 laps for the best drivers |
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The best ten drivers after heat 1 and 2 |
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Day 4 Thursday, November, 28 2002 - Heat 3 and 4 |
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Second day of qualifying heats in a clear day, blue sky and crispy strong winds. Some drivers started to post 14 laps in the evening. |
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The best ten drivers after heat 1, 2, 3 and 4 |
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Day 5 Friday, November, 29 2002 - Heat 5 and 6 |
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The two final heats and the last chance to get a good position on the table. The best driver in 4 out of 6 heats is the pole position and secures his place in the finals. A lot of drivers made 14 laps. Six American drivers in the top ten! |
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The best ten drivers after heat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. |
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Day 6 Saturday, November, 30 2002 - Subfinal 1/512 to 1/16 The first 3 drivers go to the next subfinal |
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End of race for me. Sixth in the last subfinal(512B) and a dream come true! 22 laps for the winner. |
Thanks to my mechanic Fabian Kaloustian who worked hard to put the Mugen in good shape. 23 laps for the winner. |
Fabian's birthday was in the pits! | Lucio Filho (Crono/RB) was the only Brasilian driver to bump once. 24 laps for the winner. |
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Young brasilian driver Vinicius Rodriguez (Mugen/RB) made an impressive debut at world level |
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Nassouh Ejje (KYosho/OS) 25 laps for the winner |
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Maruen Ejje (Kyosho/OS). Daisuke Endo in his way up to the semifinal. Ramon Guasch started his way up to 1/8 |
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Wallid Ejje (Kyosho/OS). The best Brasilian driver in the worlds.End for Alex Laffranchi,who could not show his class this time. Great win for Tortorici.26 laps for the winner. |
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Day 7 Sunday, December, 1 2002 - Subfinal 1/8 to 1/4 - Semifinals - Final |
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End for Philippe Lachat (GS/RB). Good race for Paul Coleman(Hyper PBS/Picco). Jerome Ezazian (Kyosho/Omega) did his best in his first worlds. |
Chad Bradley (Mugen/Novarossi) starting his way up to the final. wu-Chung Chen (Thunder Tiger /SH) from Taiwan ends a nice race.Claudio Gaggioni (Kyosho/Novarossi) from Uruguay was the best South American driver. |
Yannick Aygoin(Thunder Tiger/Omega) in his way to final. End for Adrian Bertin (Kyosho/Sirio) in a good show of Sirio engine. End for Jerome Aygoin(Thunder Tiger/Omega) after coming from 1/16 |
Chad Bradley again! Look for Daisuke Endo, he is still here! End for 3 good French drivers in 4/5/6 positions. |
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| The best four and the fastest fifth go to the finals. Here, Raul Peris won Daisuke Endo by 17 seconds. Bad luck for Billy Easton, one of the fastest drivers, and Miguel Matias. A brilliant race for Takashi Kato. Jerome Sartel put the best Crono in place. 27 laps for the winner. | Chad Bradley showed his power as well as a fast Atsushi Kawamoto. Kanai and Reckward made a strategic race to get a bert in the final. Bad luck for Pavidis, a small problem put him out of the final. The same for Jeremy Kortz. The end for Tommy Chung and Samuele Lenzi after a nice race . And the end for the best drive in the worlds by Daisuke Endo. He almost went to the final! |
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The ten drivers and cars of the final |
| Pole position: Car 1 Richard Saxton Kyosho/RB O'donnell | Car 2: Kenji Osaka Mugen/Novarossi | Car 3: Chad Bradley Mugen/Novarossi | Car 4: Greg Degani Kyosho/OS Odonnell | Car 5: Atsushi Kawamoto Kyosho/OS |
| Car 6: Yannick Aygoin Thunder Tiger/Omega | Car 7: Josh Wheeler Kyosho/OS | Car 8: Raul Peris Mugen/Novarossi | Car 9: Yuichi Kanai Kyosho/RB | Car 10: Daniel Reckward Kyosho/RB |
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Chassis: Kyosho(6), Mugen(3), Thunder Tiger(1) Engines: RB(3), OS(3), Novarossi(3), Omega(1) |
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The FINAL |
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Time: 60
minutes of race First lap:
Chad/Degani/Osaka/Saxton/Kawamoto/Kanai… 4 min:
Chad has a lead of 7s over Degani. Kanai make a mistake and is the last
one 6 min:
First refuelling 8 min:
Chad broke his pipe and his chances are over, Saxton is now in the lead 14 min:
Refuelling round 2 15 min:
Osaka turns dowm in the triple jump 1-Saxton
2-Kawamoto 3-Degani 4-Osaka 5-Reckward 6- Aygoin
7- Wheeler 8- Peris 9- Kanai 10-Chad 16 min:
Kawamoto breaks the front arm in the triple, lost 8 minutes and his
championship chances are over. Aygoin loses a glow plug 17 min:
Saxton/Degani/Osaka/Reckward/Wheeler/Peris… 21 min:
Refuelling round 3 25 min:
1-Saxton 2-Degani 3-Osaka 4-Wheeler 5-Reckward 6-Peris
7- Aygoin 8-Kanai 9-Chad 10-Kawamoto 27 min:
Refuelling round 4 29 min:
Reckward broke the front damper Halfway
of the race, 30 min: 1-Saxton
2-Degani 3-Osaka 4-Wheeler 5-Peris 6-Aygoin
7-Kanai 8-Reckward 9-Chad 10-Kawamoto 32 min:
Saxton and Degani fight for the lead 35 min:
Saxton stops(no gas!), goes to third spot, after Degani and Osaka 35 min:
Refuelling round 5 38 min:
Saxton swaps position with Osaka and is 13s behind the leader 40 min:
1-Degani 2-Saxton 3-Osaka 4-Peris 5-Kanai 6-Wheeler
7-Aygoin 8-Reckward 9-Kawamoto 10-Chad 41 min:
Refuelling round 6 42 min:
Reckward breaks rear suspension, loses 3 laps 43 min:
Kanai stops (no gas) 45 min:
1-Degani 2-Osaka 3-Saxton 4-Peris 5-Wheeler 6-Kanai
7-Aygoin 8-Reckward 9-Kawamoto 10-Chad 48min:
Aygoin stops(small rock in the flywheel) loses one spot and soon after
turns down on the triple 51 min:
Chad breaks the front left suspension, crawls for 3 laps and stops. He was
the fastest driver of this final, with 43.090 52min:
Degani has 1lap 6s over Osaka 56min:
Saxton breaks front right suspension and goes to sixth spot. Peres with a
steady run now is third 60 min:
And the race is over: A great win for Degani, he was the slowest lap time of all
drivers in this final, but had less errors and didn’t broke. At the end
he discovered that the pressure line was cut! The mechanical problems
played a great role in this race. No luck at all to Kawamoto, Reckward,
Chad, Kanai, Aygoin, Saxton, but this is racing… |
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| 1 Greg Degani Kyosho/OS Odonnell | 2 Kenji Osaka Mugen/Novarossi | 3 Raul Peris Mugen/Novarossi | 4 Josh Wheeler Kyosho/OS | 5 Yuichi Kanai Kyosho/RB |
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| 6 Richard Saxton Kyosho/RB O'donnell | 7 Daniel Reckward Kyosho/RB | 8 Yannick Aygoin Thunder Tiger/Omega | 9 Atsushi Kawamoto Kyosho/OS | 10 Chad Bradley Mugen/Novarossi |
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| Greg Degani USA 1/8 Off Road IFMAR World Champion 2002 - 2004 | Kyosho MP7.5 Kanai OS RZV01B O'Donnell engine |
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Bumpers Table - The drivers who raced a lot! |
| Driver (number of bumps) | Qualifying position | Bumps |
| Daisuke Endo (4) | 63 | 2* 1/32A 2* 1/16A 3* 1/8A 3* 1/4A 5* SEMI A |
| Chad Bradley (3) | 35 | 1* 1/8A 2* 1/4A 1* SEMI A 10* FINAL |
| Adrian Perez (3) | 86 | 2* 1/128B 2* 1/64B 1* 1/32B 10* 1/16B |
| Yannick Aygoin (2) | 22 | 1* 1/4B 3* SEMI B 8* FINAL |
| Davide Tortorici (2) | 45 | 1* 1/16A 2* 1/8A 7* 1/4A |
| Jerome Aygoin (2) | 46 | 1* 1/16B 2* 1/8B 8* 1/4B |
| Ramon Guasch (2) | 65 | 1* 1/32A 3* 1/16A 6* 1/8A |
| Tim Long (2) | 113 | 3* 1/256A 1* 1/128A 4* 1/64A |
| Scott Yang (2) | 101 | 1* 1/256A 3* 1/128A 4* 1/64A |
| Jorge Ali (2) | 122 | 2* 1/512B 3* 1/256B 8* 1/128B |
| Daisuke Endo (Mugen Japan) was the most impressive driver coming from a low 63* qualify position to almost grab a place in the finals. He ran 40 minutes on the saturday and 1 hour in the Sunday. The Mugen was really realible! He was just 17 seconds behind Peris in his semis. His car was a Mugen / Novarossi |  |
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Hard
packed sand. Average lap time around 44 seconds
