Team ARC-BLITZ-TITAN at TITC 2014

Team ARC may not seem to be the biggest team at TITC 2014 but it is definitely a growing team and a team to look forward to in the coming years with many close relationship and support within the drivers.

TITC 2014 was held on Feb 19-23, at the new Huge R/C Circuit in Bangkok, owned by former IFMAR World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya. The event recorded over 400 entries in Modified, Open Brushless, No-Boost, FF and F1 class. However, large number of drivers did not make it to the event due to the recent instability political issues in the country. Nevertheless, it did not stop us from reaching the event to have some fun, testing and to try to achieve some good results for Team ARC this year in Open Brushless Class with close to 200 entries in this class.

Myself arrived at the event early on Feb 13 morning. With no delay, I started testing extensively on my two race cars, main difference on chassis thickness but similar setups. This year, Ride REX34 was the control tire which I have not used it for stock class racing previously. To reduce testing time, I decided to just use the Blitz GSF Lightweight shell which I won with it at BIRC last year. Initial testing for the first few days went pretty normal. Some new prototype shocks and chassis were tested but at the end of the week, my previous BIRC setup with 2mm chassis was still better and getting good lap times below 15s. Thailand Team ARC driver Thanet S., was also seen testing extensively with his ARC R10, a definite contender in the No-Boost class which he had won numerous races in this class.

More Team ARC drivers arrived on Sunday, where ETS A-Main Finalists Henrik Heitsch and Patrick Buddrus flew in all the way from Germany racing back to back from ETS Round 1, and back to ETS Round 2 in Spain after TITC! Team ARC Malaysia also dropping by early on the weekend including one of the top driver in Malaysia, Norazam Z. Team ARC from Taiwan touched down on Monday including Ron Chen, Huang Yi Hao, Steven Pai and Titan owner Jones Chu. Henrik Heitsch completed his first day of testing successfully matching the pace of the fast drivers, which he mentioned that could have been better after a good night sleep, suffering from fatigue after a 17hours flight.

As the race week progresses into the mid-week, more drivers came and practice became a hazard when there was more than 15-20 cars at any time on the track. The organizer did put in some rules in limiting 15 cars maximum of the same class within a period of time frame, but it was not done systematically throughout making practice result very inconsistent. Some drivers even decided to wait until the end of the day to test their cars when more drivers left for the day.

Heading into mid-week, our team was testing a few prototype chassis with different flex characteristics which at that point was seemed to be a good option, as my 2mm chassis setup was getting too responsive in a very high traction track where at this point more drivers were running their cars. The team discussed on setup daily and before every run to try to characterize the track traction level. It proves to be a difficult task for me as I found the traction level to be quite unpredictable. It is definitely one of the hardest track that I have been to. Henrik and others seems to be adapting to the higher traction level better than I do.

Timed practice started on Wednesday, we made a decision on which setup to use. I changed my setup, mainly using the standard 2.25mm chassis, a harder shock oil in the rear, and also using the Hard arms to give a more consistent run throughout. The setup worked in timed practice as I topped the group with 20 5:03.114. Henrik Heitsch and Patrick Buddrus completed in top 10. Good start into the race for Team ARC before control practise the next day.

In Control Practice, one of the favorites, Kittipong R. and Araya I. from Thailand, set the pace in CP1, where I suffered from low grip due to track condition changes. CP2 was slightly better for me with 7th fastest timing. Henrik Heitsch in 9th while Patrick Buddrus dropped to 23rd, and Huang Yi Hao in 17th fastest, and Malaysia Norazam in 12th overall

Top10 Control Practise (OBL 13.5T)
1. Kittipong R. - Thailand - 20 5:04.308
2. Stick King - Hong Kong - 20 5:04.866
3. Andreas Myberg - Sweden - ORCA - 20 5:05.098
4. Araya I. - Thailand - 20 5:05.141
5. Mongkolpan L. - Thailand - 20 5:05.787
6. Natee T. - Thailand - ORCA - 20 5:06.611
7. P.Y.Tang - Singapore - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF - 20 5:06.614
8. Wong Kok Wai - Malaysia - ORCA - 20 5:07.987
9. Henrik Heitsch - Germany - ARC - BLITZ GSF - 20 5:08.626
10. Kit Chau - Hong Kong - 20 5:09.212

Three qualifying rounds started on Friday with very windy and cool weather which is weird for Bangkok. At this point, the team was still discussing on to expect on the traction level. Previous practice and control practice sessions showed that the traction can be very high and low at times within the same time frame. This made our decision is setup and the use of tire addictive difficult. In Q1, I used a safe setup resulting in 5th fastest overall at 20 5:05.758, about 2.5s off the leader, which was not too bad. Patrick Buddrus and Henrik Heitsch set the 9th and 10th fastest. At this point it seems a good result for the team with another 4 ARC R10 in the top 30. After Q2, i was 4th by points system. Henrik did not get a good run in Q2 which he had to wait for Q3 for a better run. After Q3, although I was quite confirmed in a A-Main place, I was unable to improve my timing still struggling to get the right amount of traction on my R10. I ended up in 6th after Q3, Henrik in 10th, Norazam 17th, Patrick Buddrus 22nd, with Steven Pai, Ron Chen, Jones Chu and Huang rounding up top 40. In the No-Boost class, Thanet S. will be on his way to clinch the TQ spot.

Top10 after Q1,2,3 (OBL 13.5T)
1. Andreas Myberg - Sweden - ORCA - 378 pts
2. Araya I. - Thailand - 378 pts
3. Mongkolpan L. - Thailand - 378 pts
4. Natee T. - Thailand - ORCA - 372 pts
5. Trin T. - Thailand - 371 pts
6. P.Y.Tang - Singapore - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF - 371 pts
7. Pan Sik Yoon - Korea - 369 pts
8. Salton Dong - China - 368 pts
9. Peeramet C. - Thailand - 363 pts
10. Henrik Heitsch - Germany - ARC - BLITZ GSF - 360pts

Q4 and Q5 was a bit more challenging on Saturday. With just 2 runs for the day, I would have to guess what would the traction level be again, as the weather are hotter which means the traction may be different than on Friday. As I already had some good runs, I decided to use a more aggressive ESC settings including changing the tire addictive application. This setup was quite good for the first few minutes running in top 3 pace, but a traction roll at the center chicane resulted precious seconds loss, a 20 5:11.329 run. Henrik did a 8th fastest timing of 20 5:08.184. After Q4, I was just barely in the A-Main at 9th, when some of the top 20 drivers seemed to be able to get a better run as the qualifying progresses. in Q5, I was not able to improve and managed 14th fastest, still struggling with too much traction on my car, maybe a wrong decision to stay safe. One of the most difficult track that I have raced in. Unfortunately for Henrik Heitsch who just missed out the A-Main at 11th after Q5. Norazam managed to stay in the B-Main at 20th, Patrick Buddrus in 25th, while Huang Yi Hao improved after some bad qualifying runs to stay in 35th, Jones Chu 37th, Steven Pai 39th and Ron Chen rounding up in D-Main. Thanet S. in other hand dominated and TQ the No-Boost class.

Top10 after Q1,2,3,4,5 (OBL 13.5T)
1. Araya I. - Thailand - 566 pts
2. Mongkolpan L. - Thailand - 563 pts
3. Stick King - Hong Kong  - 561 pts
4. Trin T. - Thailand - 560 pts
5. Andreas Myberg - Sweden - ORCA - 559 pts
6. Natee T. - Thailand - ORCA - 558 pts
7. Pan Sik Yoon - Korea - 553 pts
8. Kittipong R. - Thailand - 552 pts
9. Salton Dong - China - 549 pts
10. P.Y.Tang - Singapore - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF - 548 pts

During the last day of the event, another weird new decision came from the organizer that the A-Main drivers in OBL class would get another 2 new sets of tires for free. These decision angered some drivers whereby previous maximum 5 sets of tires rules were changed, resulting tire strategy to be disrupted. Starting from 10th, Finals strategy was just to stay out of accident and push as high position as possible. I finished 6th in Leg 1, 5th in Leg 2 and 8th in Leg 3, all with little setup changes in ESC, car roll centers. My final standings were 9th, and Henrik winning the B-Main.



Final Standings (OBL 13.5T)
A-Main
1. (TQ) Araya I. - Thailand - 3 pts
2. Andreas Myberg - Sweden - ORCA - 4 pts
3. Mongkolpan L. - Thailand - 5 pts
4. Kittipong R. - Thailand - 7 pts
5. Natee T. - Thailand - ORCA - 9 pts
6.  Salton Dong - China - 10 pts
7. Pan Sik Yoon - Korea - 10 pts
8. Stick King - Hong Kong  - 11 pts
9. P.Y.Tang - Singapore - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF - 11 pts
10. Trin T. - Thailand - 15 pts
B-Main
1. Henrik Heitsch - Germany - ARC - BLITZ GSF
2. Daryl Thong - Singapore
3. Jacky Siow - Malaysia - ORCA
4. Wong Kok Wai - Malaysia - ORCA
5. Peeramet C. - Thailand
6. Suruth V. - Thailand
7. Witsarut R. - Thailand
8. Monchana L. - Thailand
9. Norazam Z. - Malaysia - ARC - BLITZ GSF
10. Naoya Morita - Japan
C-Main
1. Siow Woon Foong - Malaysia - ORCA
2. Jung Deok Lee - Korea
3. Patrick Buddrus - Germany - ARC - BLITZ GSF
4. Anusorn S. - Thailand
5. J H Lee - Korea
6. M. Izzah - Indonesia
7. Michael Lo - Malaysia - ORCA
8. Setthapong T. - Thailand
9. Alvin Koh - Singapore
10. Michael Lim - Malaysia
D-Main
1. Derek Yuen - Hong Kong
2. Ronny Suwarto - Indonesia - ORCA
3. Steven Pai - Taiwan - ARC - BLITZ GSF
4. Max Park - Korea - ORCA
5. Gerome Ling - Philippines - ORCA
6. Ron Chen - Taiwan - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF
7. Suchart B. - Thailand
8. Huang Yi Hao - Taiwan - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF
9. Jones Chu - Taiwan - ARC - BLITZ GSF
10. Ong Chee Yong - Malaysia
F-Main
8. Esmail - Singapore - ARC
G-Main
7. Sanitrat P. - Thailand - ARC - BLITZ GSF
8.Adrian Khaw - Malaysia - ARC - BLITZ GSF
H-Main
5. YS Heng - Singapore - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF
I-Main
3. Hazlyne Ibrahim - Malaysia - ARC
6. Leonard Kee - Malaysia - ARC
J-Main
6. Sittchai T. - Thailand - ARC
K-Main
7. Walter Kho - Malaysia - ARC - BLITZ GSF
10. Colin Tong - Singapore - ARC - BLITZ GSF
M-Main
5. Martin Meilwaine - Thailand - ARC 
N-Main
1. Smith Kek - Singapore - ARC - ORCA - BLITZ GSF

Final Standings (No-Boost)
A-Main
1. Suruth V. - Thailand - 2 pts
2. (TQ) Thanet S. - Thailand - ARC - 5 pts
3. Jung Deok Lee - Korea - 7 pts
4.Supawoot P. - Thailand - 7 pts
5. Hiroki Kawase - Japan - 7 pts
6. Amir K - Malaysia - 10 pts
7. Joe S. - Thailand - 11 pts
8. Watchararit T. - Thailand - 12 pts
9. Tony Neo - Singapore - 15 pts
10. Yingyos Y. - Thailand  - 17 pts
B-Main
6. Iezat Ismail - Malaysia - ARC
C-Main
1. Kanokpit R. - Thailand - ARC

Report by P.Y.Tang - Team ARC-BLITZ-TITAN-ORCA-XPERT-DUBIDESIGN-ELANGEARS

Source: ARC