37TH GOTHENBURG 1000, Partile (S), December 4-5, 2010 (3 IOC-RACES level 3)

NØRKJAER (PR24), LANDRUD (G12) & GUSTAFSON (ES24) WIN

4TH RETRO SANO RACES, Chicago Raceway, La Grange, IL (USA), October 22-24, 2010 (IOC-EVENT level 2)

HOWIE URSANER VICTOR LUDORUM - Hershman & Gambo win 2x

October 27, 2010 - Sano IV was the last of the five IOC graded retro races of this year. With 152 entries for six races it did better than the Buena Park Checkpoint with 137 entries. Five of the six races went under IRRA rules. Howie Ursaner won the major race, the CANAM sprint on the Blue King. Ron Hershman, who had back luck at the Canam race (retiring after sixty laps with tech woes) won the two other races on the Blue King: GTC and F1. As he did not enter the Canam & F1 races on the Flat track, he lost his leading position in the victor ludorum standings after 3 races. As Howie Ursaner, in his deep purple God's t-shirt, went well to the two flat races, where he finished third and second, he won the victor ludorum standings at Sano IV. Those two races on flat track were won by Chuck Gambo, finishing tied third with Hershman at the overall standings. With the won 12 IOC points he collected now already 124 IOC points in his long racer's career, enough to be the 34th American racer to reach the exclusive list of pro drivers having won 120 or more IOC points in their career. Ralph Thorne, two weeks earlier still at the ISRA Worlds, won the JK Spec race. That, however, is an IRRA event not eligible for IOC points, and doesn't count for the overall standings. In those overall standings Matt Bruce finished as seventh, good for four extra IOC points, just ... one point short to enter the very exclusive historical list of pros. He has now 119 IOC points.
Second best racer at Sano IV was Jay Kisling who finished three times on the podium at the three races on the Blue King: twice as second, once as third. He entered also Canam at the flat track, but was there eliminated in the highest final by technical problems, finishing only eighth. IOC-list has been updated.
Two important racers were missing at Sano IV: Chris Radisich, the best 2010 retro racer (click here) and ... Dave "Sano" Fiedler (who was urgently transported to hospital with a tumour in his back).
As I have plans - depending upon my health condition - to move to Florida (Palm Beach) to pass there the last years of my life, it's possible that I'll invite the three first European racers at the 2010 Retro Worlds to the two most important American retro events of next season: R4 and Sano V. Meanwhile European interest in Retro racing is certainly growing. We expect 48 top-racers at the 2nd Retro Racing Worlds at the Antwerp Ramada Plaza Hotel on March 24; 2011. [JPVR]

24TH (ISRA) ES24 WORLDS, Downers Groove, IL (USA), October 8-9, 2010 (IOC-EVENT level 1)

EMPEROR VLADIMIR I  HORKY WINS HIS 31ST WORLDS

MAIN: GAWRONSKI, CHICKY, G. GILBERT, HORKY, VOJTIK, DOLZHANSKIJ, CASTRICONE, SANTARELLI

October 9, 2010 - JPVR is again in hospital and will probably go again to the States for a new risky medical treatment. So I was asked to cover the ES24 race at the 2010 ISRA Worlds. Contrarily to the former days, there were no longer problems with the UStream web cams and it was enjoyable to follow the evolution.

VENUE - Shortly before the start of the qualification PR-man M-G Brown announced 103 starts (23 less than those who subscribed). Eventually Lou Pirro (USA), Lee Gilbert (USA), Peteris Dunis (LV) and Lars Harrysson (S) did not start - what reduced the field to 99 racers. But at the last moment Trevor Rosenberg was allowed to start, despite the fact that he subscribed not earlier. That resulted in 100 starters. They represented 16 different nations (17 when one knows that America's Matt Bruce is in fact from Scotland). USA was present with more than a quarter of all entrants: 28 (but only 5 pros). Then followed the Brits with 15 starters (and Brian Saunders as lonely pro). Czechia came with 11 racers, 5 of them being pros); Sweden (2 pros) and Finland (no pros) with 7 racers each; Latvia and Brazil with 6 racers and both one pro; Italy with 5 racers (1 pro); Estonia with 4 racers (no pros); Russia and The Nether-lands with 2 racers, one of them being in both cases a pro; Belgium and Denmark with 2 racers but no pros; New Zealand with its pro Chris Radisich; Austria and Canada with one non-pro racer. A total of only 19 pros, which is under the standard level at ISRA World Championships.
General expectations are that the race will be a severe combat between the American top-trio Gawronski-Ciccarello-Greg Gilbert and the Czech top trio Horky-Krcil-Vojtik, with such strong outsiders as Piero Castricone for the Italians, Brian Saunders for the Brits, 'Gugu' Bernardino for the Brazilians, and Michael Landrud for the Swedes. All those racers won at least two world championships, Vladimir Horky - but that's an absolute unicum in the world - even 30! Of all the racers having won more than three world titles (16 other racers), only Nick de Wachter, Petr Krcil and Paul Gawronski are found at the start. 

 
Paul Ciccarello, back from retirement, and tired to fly R/C helicopters, won concourse and TQ-ed later. If he also wins the ES24 he'll be the first to realise the triple: concourse-pole-race. [pic M-G Brown]

The ES24 car of Paul Ciccarello, having TQ-ed in a fabulous time, having won concourse and having finished third O.A. just behind the two unreachable Czech ES24 specialists Vladimir Horky and Antónin Vojtik. [pic M-G Brown]

QUALIFICATIONS - Here Paul Ciccarello (USA) was rocketing over the track realising a canon bullet time of 3"936, an absolute track record. Thirtyfold world champion Vladimir Horky came 2.50 % short (an enormous difference in qualifying) to realise with 4"030 the second time, followed by his country mate Antónin Vojtik in 4"046. Biggest surprise came from the local racer Mike Mazur, realising the fourth time, followed by Greg Gilbert, Roy Hood, Paul Gawronski and Piero Castricone - completing the Quarter A group. Chris Bruyninx realised an excellent tenth time. Krcil could only qualify for Quarter B, Dolzhanskij, George Russell, Miroslav Vadlejch and Mike Stahl only for Quarter C.

QUARTER FINALS - Next up was the struggle for the move to the semi finals, where only 8 racers are allowed to start. Racers are grouped per 8 (or per 7, if it concerns those having realised a poor time) following the qualifications ranking, with the 7 slowest racers in the first Quarter and the 8 fastest in the last Quarter. Only the 24 racers having achieved most laps are qualified for the semi finals. Of the 28 started Americans no less than 11 could make the move (George Russell being among those who missed the move), against 4 of the 11 Czechs (where such pros as Peter Krcil and Jiri Karlik) missed the move. Of the 15 Brits only Chris Thomas and Richard Mack qualified for the Semis, but not Brian Saunders who lost his qualification on braids problems. Brazil had 2 of its 6 racers in the Semis, but not "Gugu"' missing the move for 2 laps. No Swedes in the semis after a disastrous race by Michael Landrud and Christer Helgesson. But also Finland - normally a strong contender in ES24 - disappointed with only young Olli Kantamaa making the move. For Italy Piero Castricone and Guido Santarelli qualified easily. The two remaining top-24 places went to one Russian and one Latvian. For Estonia Ants Volmerson seemed on his way to an easy move when technical woes made him dropping down. Eight countries had no racer in the semis: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden. For the Dutch Nick de Wachter, the star at the ES32 race, ran already in problems during the second segment, loosing 70 laps. He rejoined the track before mid-race but eventually retired at the fifth segment. Of the 19 pros at the start, no less than 9 were eliminated: Krcil (CZ), Bernardino (BR), Rage-Ragis (LV), Saunders (GB), Karlik (CZ), Radisich (NZ), Helgesson (S), Landrud (S) and NDW (NL).

SEMI FINALS - The Semis, where only the 8 best of the 24 semi finalists will survive, are the most difficult stage of the race. The racers having finished the Quarters between 17th and 24th start in the lowest semi. Of them Alexandre Leite was fastest, but with 395 laps certainly to slow to reach the main final. Then came the racers having finished the Quarters between 9th and 17th. Of them only Nikolaj Dolzhanskij (RU) and Roy Hood (USA) achieved more than 400 laps, being strong candidates for the main. But Semi A - where we found no less than 6 of the 8 fastest qualifiers - was a superb speed festival, where all but one racers realised more than 405 laps. That implied that Miroslav Vadlejch (CZ) missed the main, and that of the lower quarters only Dolzhanskij reached the top-8. We had 3 finalists from the USA with winner Paul Gawronski, Ciccarello and Greg Gilbert (America's king trio), two Czechs (Horky and Vojtik), two Italians (Castricone and Santarelli) and one Russian. That also implied that 7 of the 8 finalists were all pros.

MAIN FINAL - The main was essentially a confrontation USA vs Czechia, with the Italians as outsiders. During the warm-up the Czechs worked very hard at the set-up of their cars and rumour went that they should try to do the complete main final without tire change. Eventually Horky found the good set-up for the two Czech cars. At the race they were flying away from those of the US King's Trio (where Greg Gilbert dropped in the standings with technical problems). Horky and Vojtik pulled away from the rest of the field and were struggling among them for victory. Behind them there was a merciless combat between Ciccarello and Gawronski for the third place. Horky won the combat for the first place, less than a half lap ahead over Vojtik. So Emperor Vlad I Horky won his 31st Words. Six laps behind Ciccarello won from Gawronski by less than a third of a lap. The first 7 are all 7 pros. Miroslav Vadlejch has now 120 IOC points and is the 142nd pro in the history of slot-racing. The IOC-list has been updated.

FINAL COMMENT - I disagree with JPVR that the Roger Schmitt Worlds were a minor world championship. Despite the massive absence of several European and Australian pros it was undoubtedly the best scale racing event in the history of American scale racing. And yes, only 19 pros at the start was below the expectations, and yes there were serious problems with the web cams, but for the racers being there it was nevertheless a great event. I also disagree with the comment that Roger Schmitt had no eye for the several spectators being unable to show, and so enforced, to follow the races on both web cams. Roger had of course an open eye for the world wide publicity of his race, but very probably he was too busy to think in time on the whole UStream web cam thing. It's also probable that he omitted to contact Keld Høfler (DK) for info on a better use of the web cams. I refuse to accept that all this was just a question of money. Writing such is a proof of mauvais foi as the French philosopher Régis Jollivet put it. Or was that Jean Paul Sartre? I must ask it JPVR before he's flown over to the States.  [Yannick Lefèbvre] 

BELOW the ES24 body and chassis of the winning car made and driven by Czechia's Vladimir Horky. It's already the seventh time that he won the ES24 world championship. As Horky is an all-rounder who races wing cars and model cars as well, he won in his career a phenomenal number of world championships: 31. [Pics M-G Brown]

23RD (ISRA) ES32 WORLDS, Downers Groove, IL (USA), October 6-7, 2010 (IOC-EVENT level 1)

GREG GILBERT BEATS CHICKY BY 12 Track sections - NDW 3RD!

October 6-7, 2010 - Today starts the 23rd ES32 Worlds. The four first editions were organised between 1986 and 1989 by IMCA; the following editions were organised since 1992. The initial rule book was wrote by the late Perry Dekker and myself. Later the rule book was regularly updated to become a real standard for all organisers of scale racers. Czechia's Vladimir Horky won the ES32 worlds no less than six times. This year the #1 of the IOC list failed to win the Production Worlds and the 132 F1 Worlds. My favourite for this race is Brian Saunders (GB) despite the fact that he only once in his career reached the main (in 2002 when he finished eighth). Meanwhile the situation at Downers Groove seems being normalised. With M-G Brown there is now a decent P-R manager. He published also his first pics: 26 of tool boxes seen at the raceway, 36 of the t-shirts worn by the racers and a series of pics of the production cars. Some of those pics of cars were added below. Once the qualifications were started, the laps web cam was again off after 13 racers. The lack of professionalism at this year's ISRA Worlds thus just continues. At that moment Tracy Chin had the fastest time in 4.959. With still 25 racers to go the laps web cam was again on line. I could note in total 51 times. All this is just a shame. The press is informed about just nothing, has to do it with two not well functioning web cams. Meantime they started already Quarter A and we still don't know how many entries there were. I guess that M-G Brown has gone and that this is the reason why we get no info at all.

It's 5.15pm (local time) before M-G Brown is back to publish the results of the qualifications. Eventually we know that there are 91 entrants, 19 less than scheduled. As Paul Ciccarello (USA) is back, number of pros at the start is 19. There are racers of 15 different nations (not of 22 nations as in the Roger Schmitt publicity). The USA has 23 racers on the grid, a quarter of all entrants. The UK has 14 starters, Czechia 10, Sweden 7, Brazil and Latvia 6, Italy 5, Estonia and Finland 4, Belgium, Russia and Holland 2; Austria and New Zealand 1.

QUALIFICATIONS - Alexandre Leite (BR) caused a stir by realising TQ. With 4"723 he was 59/1000nd of a second faster than Piero Castricone (I) who won yesterday the 132 F1 world championship. Another surprise came from Raivis Jansons (LV) who realised the third best time. He is followed by four pros, all qualifying for Quarter A. It concerns Paul Gawronski (USA), Mike Stahl (USA), Petr Krcil (CZ) and Pavel Flaisig (CZ). The last racer to qualify for Quarter A is the hero of the 2010 USRA Div II Nats: George Russell (USA). That all implies three Americans, two Czechs, one Brazilian, one Latvian and one Italian qualified for the fastest Quarter. Biggest surprise was of course that Vladimir Horky (CZ), six times winner of the ES32 Worlds, failed to qualify for Quarter A. He signed only the eleventh best time, and was preceded by two other Americans: young Jonathan Forsyth and Greg Gilbert. Those two won on Sunday the Production Worlds for teams. Paul Ciccarello (USA), Michael Landrud (S), Tracy Chin (USA), Peter Verdo (USA) and Ricardo Texeira (BR) are qualified for Quarter B. That all imply that half of the pros who started reach the two fastest Quarters. Of the remaining pros Karlik, Helgesson & Vojtik qualified for Quarter C; Rage-Ragis & De Wachter for Quarter D; Donzhanskij & Bernardino for Quarter E; Radisich & Herman for Quarter F; and - he was my favourite! - Saunders for ... Quarter H.

QUARTERS - Now that M-G Brown is back, we can again follow the race. And - new! - now he publishes also pics of cars, also of a start grid. Whose cars it are was not added to the pics. With six of the twelve Quarters finished the situation is as follows: 1. Tammeleht (EE) 241.68, 2. Elfström (S) 241.52, 3. Olli Kantamaa (SF) 240.17, 4. Nordgren (S), 5. Sebft (USA), 6. Skene (GB), 7. Michaelsen (DK), 8. Kari Sinisaari (SF), 9. Viksne (LV), 10. Akesson (S), 11. Saunders (GB), 12. Volmerson (EE). Tammeleht realised at the qualifications the worst of all times, but ran a nearly perfect race at the slowest Quarter. Only Saunders, Michaelsen and Graham Woodward seemed under way to improve Tammeleht's lap total, but all three lost valuable time in the pits, especially Saunders who realised a couple of laps around 4"88 with 4"78 as fastest lap! Still 48 racers have still to run their Quarter.

In Quarter F Chris Thomas seemed on his way to improve the lap total of Kaiar Tammeleht, but at segment #6 he ran in technical woes. Chris Radisich & Herman James are on their way to take the two first places overall after seven of the twelve Quarters. With everybody running soft rubber, track condition continuously changes. With 40 racers to go Radisich and James precede Tammeleht in the overall ranking.
In Quarter E Nikolaj Dolzhanskij (RU) takes immediately the lead and holds it until the end. "Gugu" Bernardino (BR) took a slow start, was at a given moment seven laps down to the Russian ace, then accelerated, with a 5"041 as fastest lap, and came back - hardly half a lap down to the Russian. Both are now leading the O.A. ranking with Chris Radisisch as third, Herman James as fourth. Lee Gilbert (USA) had a very painful start, but accelerated during the second half of Quarter E to finish as fourth and sixth O.A. Steve Sargent as long time heading "Gugu", but his motor slowed down in the two last segments. He's fifth O.A. with 32 racers to go. Our early leader, Kaiar Tammeleht, is now seventh. Although it's hardly 10pm, they decide to interrupt the Quarters. This risks to create very unequal track conditions tomorrow morning, especially for the Quarter D racers - among them Nick de Wachter (NL) who qualified very well as 31st. What an unfair decision!

Organiser Roger Schmitt congratulates concourse ES32 winner Kevin Van Pelt (USA)

Then, after two hours of looking at nothing, the situation is at least saved by M-G Brown when he publishes the Quarter D results where Matt Bruce and Roy Hood are too slow to make the move. Shortly after the first web cam goes on air, followed a couple of minutes later by the lap web cam. In Quarter C Nick de Wachter realises a good time, probably enough for a place among the top-24. In Quarter B Vladimir Horky runs in problem, succeeding to save in the worst case the 24th place overall. In Quarter A Paul Gawronski and Piero Castricone fight for the first place, finishing in the overall standings first and third, split by Greg Gilbert. Paul Cicarello is the fourth pro in the top-8. The non-pros in that top are Texeira and Leite from Brazil, Raivis Jansons from Latvia and a fourth American: ex-world champion Tracy Chin. Not one Czech qualified for Semi A. All but one they qualified for the B and C Semi. Until the end it seemed that Chris Radisich should miss the main. But when George Russell runs in problems Chris will still make the move. From the chat box after Quarter B
: 5:23 JPVRossem: horky only qualified as 24th and last
5:23 JPVRossem: radisisch, herman james, vadlejch are out
5:24 JPVRossem: complete results, except for the last 8 are now at the imca web site
5:25 JPVRossem: the best news however is that the top model car racer nick de wachter - who never before drove an es32 car - is certainly making the move. congrats, nick!!!
5:26 JPVRossem: who said that model car racers cannot drive es cars?
5:26 JPVRossem: was that not edijs zaks?
5:26 JPVRossem: yes it was!
5:27 JPVRossem: now that stahl ran in problrems richard mack will make the move as 24th
5:28 JPVRossem: chris radisich is always out
5:28 JPVRossem: perhaps krcil will miss the move, and then radisich will be among the last 24
5:29 JPVRossem: why nobody is still here???
5:30 JPVRossem: bernardino is sure to go to the semis
5:30 JPVRossem: krcil still faster than radisich
5:39 JPVRossem: krcil is definitly faster than radisich. he'll make the move, and not chris
5:43 JPVRossem: will be qualified for semi A: Gawronski, Gilbert, Castricone, Texeira, Leite, Jansons, Chin, and Chicarello. strong USA performance!5:46 JPVRossem: now russell is in problems. will he drop under radisich?
5:47 JPVRossem: not one czech in overall standings!!!
5:48 JPVRossem: russell seems to lose it from radisich for the 24th place
5:49 JPVRossem: russell goes out. radisich will make the move.
Of the pros 15 move up to the semis. Herman James (CZ), Christer Helgesson (S) and Brian Saunders failed. Of the 22 Americans 6 enter the semis. Only one Britton makes the move. No Finns, no Estonians, no Belgians. At the main all went once more completely wrong and I interrupted my report. With Roger Schmitt, showing only respect for all those who pay him, but not the smallest respect for world wide spectators (paying him nothing), covering races becomes impossible. [JPVR]

17TH (ISRA) 132 F1 WORLDS, Downers Groove, IL (USA), October 4-5, 2010 (IOC-EVENT level 1)

CASTRICONE WINS F1, HEADING GREG GILBERT & LANDRUD

Believe it or not, but after four days of racing we found the real first pic of the 2010 ISRA Worlds. Photo was made by M.G. Brown. Here we see Greg Gilbert, the new production world champion, in company with Laura Schmitt, the track owner. Greg receives a trophy as he was the fastest qualifier at the 132F1 race. [courtesy M.G. Brown]