Day One of Finals at the IFMAR World
Championships
Today was
not just the start of the finals; it was also the start of rebuilding the track
along with the pit area after all the rain.
I was quite amazed when I made my way over to the track in the morning
to check out the damage. The organizers
had many people there working and they brought in a sewage pump truck to suck the
thousands of gallons of water off the track in no time. Once the water was off the track many of the
racers and mechanics helped out getting the rest of the track prepped and ready
for IFMAR to start on time at noon. It was quite amazing the track was like new and when the first race went off the
cars were staying clean and mud free.
I had the
chance to watch many of the lower mains today and the best race of the day was
the 1/32 final with Team Losi Racing driver Hannes Kaeufler with three other
racers the entire main event. Hannes
lead most of the race but the last half was a great battle back and forth with
Hannes taking the second spot and the bump up into the 1/16 final where Hannes
would end his weekend short of the world championship. The 1/16 final was a very tough race with
Team Losi Racing driver and former world champion Mark Pavidis in the bunch
also looking to keep his hopes alive and move onto the final day of the world
championship. Mark would do just that by
driving a consistent race keeping the wheel side down.
Tomorrow is
going to be a tough day as the fields of top drivers are very spread out as
many had a hard time in qualifying. We
have a couple of guys up first thing in the morning in the 1/8 finals and we
are really pushing for them to make the bump into the 1/4 final to up our odds
with seven cars in the 1/4’s. I have looked
and the other drivers in there heats and I feel we are in very good position to
make the bumps into the semi finals and then on to the A-Final.
The track at
the end of the day was much bumpier then it has been all week due to how soft
the track was but I feel the track is much better also. What I mean by this is the bumps are more
round and not so square edged. The cars
will go over larger round bumps much easier than smaller square edge
bumps. There were also a couple of the
bad jumps fixed and packed in really well so they should hold up nice the rest
of the weekend. I just have the gut
feeling the guys and going to get in a nice groove tomorrow with this new track
and be ridicules fast!!
