The 2010 IFMAR 1/8 Scale Nitro Off-Road World Championships were held November 7th – 14th at the RC Power Boat track in Pattaya, Thailand. Team Kyosho from the USA was represented by Jared Tebo, Joe Pillars, Cody King, Paul King, Mark Pavidis, Keevin Sharp, Tyler Vik, and Leo Vik.
We all left California on Friday, November 5th to start our long journey over to Thailand. Our first flight left LAX at 1:00am and 14 ½ hours later we landed in Hong Kong for our 1 ½ hour layover. Then our next flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok was 2 ½ hours. Due to the time change, we would land in Bangkok on November 6th. From Bangkok Airport we took a shuttle 1 ½ hours to our hotel in Pattaya. When we got to our hotel we first checked in, then went to go eat lunch. After lunch we went and did a little exploring in the city.
November 7th the track opened for race registration and car inspection that all needed to be done before the first practice on the following day.
November 8th would consist of 2 10-minute practice runs for each driver.
November 9th had each driver run 2 10-minute timed practice runs where there 3 fastest consecutive laps would be used to seed them into their heats for qualifying throughout the event.
November 10th would be the first day of qualifying. 2 10-minute rounds of qualifying would be ran. Kyosho’s Cody King would go on to qualify 2nd overall in round #1 with his Kyosho Teammate Jared Tebo qualifying 7th overall. In round #2 it was Jared Tebo who would record a 3rd overall with Cody suffering a DNF while on a very fast run.
November 11th was the second day of qualifying. In round #3 Jared Tebo would finish 3rd overall for the round with Cody King bouncing back nicely with a 6th overall. In round #4 Jared Tebo would lay down a perfect run to take the TQ for the round with Cody King finishing 4th overall.
November 12th would be the last day of qualifying. Jared Tebo picked up where he left off yesterday and went on to TQ round #5. By TQ’ing this round Jared Tebo locked up the overall TQ! In round #6 of qualifying Tebo didn’t hold anything back and would once again TQ the round. This gave Tebo 3 TQ’s and a 3rd overall for his qualifying points. Kyosho’s 2006 World Champion Mark Pavidis had a great run to qualify 7th overall and Kyosho France driver Jerome Aigoin would qualify 10th overall for the round.
November 13th would be a well deserved day off for the top 48 drivers. The lower mains up through the 1/16 finals would be ran.
November 14th was the final day for the IFMAR World Championships. This would be the day all the races have been waiting for and see who would be the new 1/8 Scale World Champion. After the bump-ups from the 1/8 and ¼ finals were complete, the Semi’s were to follow.
The first Semi would be the even qualified drivers. This was a very stacked heat including defending World Champion Atsushi Hara and previous Worlds TQ Mike Truhe. Kyosho’s Cody King would put in a very strong run and finish 2nd overall in his Semi and would transfer into the A-Main starting 2nd overall. The second Semi would be the odd qualifying drivers with Kyosho’s Jared Tebo who TQ’ed the event. Tebo went on to win his Semi and would transfer into the 60-minute A-Main starting in the 3rd position.
At the start of the 60-minute A-Main event every seat was taken up and only standing room was available for all the fans to watch. As the tone went off the field quickly raced up the straight and it was on. After a few laps were completed it was Hara, King, Maifield, and Tebo all seperating themselves from the pack. After the first round of pit stops the top 4 were still going at it for the lead. At the 30-minute mark of the main it was now Cody King leading with Hara in 2nd, and Tebo in 3rd.
A few laps later Tebo would hit a rock with his flywheel and caused his car to stop. This left it a two car race for the win. As King and Hara came in for their last pit stop they were only a few seconds apart. Hara followed behind King for many laps and finally made his move.
King responded only a few corners later to pass Hara right back for the lead. With only 4 minutes to go in the race, Hara made a mistake over the big back double jump and would allow King to stretch out his lead. With 1 lap to go Cody had about a 4 second lead on Hara. The IFMAR World Championship would come down to the last lap!
Cody stayed calm and hit his marks not making any mistakes while Hara was on the gas trying to catch up. When the checkered flag waived, it was Kyosho’s Cody King crossing the finish line first by only a few seconds ahead of Atsushi Hara. Hara would have to settle for 2nd. Kyosho’s Jared Tebo would come back to finish 3rd overall landing the only 2 Team Orion powered Kyosho MP9 TKI2’s on the podium!
Source/Fonte: Kyosho.de/BuggySport.info/NeoBuggy.net/RedRC.net/RCSpecial.com
