"PIKI" VAN ROSSEM 2009 MAN OF THE YEAR

Andre Linberg 2009 rookie of the year with historical record on IOC points

2009 RANKING MODEL CAR RACING: "PIKI" BEST SEASON RACER

"Piki" (5), RalphSeif (4), Björn van Campenhout (4) winningest racers

2009 RANKING SCALE RACERS: HORKY BEST SEASON RACER

Horky (4), Saunders (2), Recek (2), M. Fyhr (2), Gawronski (2) winningest racers

ON LINE RESULTS OF THE 21ST IMCA WORLDS

Complete Reports only towards the end of next week

October 30, 2009 - Next Saturday and Sunday Dirk Baele will publish after each heat the results on the IMCA web site. However, there will be no possibility to publish the several reports on the race earlier than at the end of next week. Indeed, from November 2 until 11 I must be every day at the Book Fair in Antwerp to sign my two new books. As this web site is nearly completely from my hand, and as I have nobody else than myself to write all reports, I ask my readers some patience.

The formula of this year's IMCA Worlds lets the racers not the smallest place to hide themselves. One can say that they come naked at the start now that they have to race, both in 1/32nd and in 1/24th handout cars. In such races the pure driving abilities of all entrants can be judged by anyone. Now it's no longer possible to compensate a certain lack on racing abilities by better and more expensive racing material. Among the Half-Gods two racers gave full evidence of their anxiety for an open confrontation with equal weapons. This night I received from them an e-mail with false reasons for their very last minute withdrawal. 

The 21st IMCA Worlds will go with the best entry field ever. As well among the PROS as among the Citation Cup SEMI-PROS and AMATEURS there will be a gruelling combat for victory.

You want my pronostics? In 1/32rd Production: 1. Michael Niemas, 2. Piki van Rossem, 3. Andre Linberg, 4. Paul Gawronski, 5. Josef Korec, 6. Sergio Maresca, 7. Giovanni Montiglio, 8. Chris Radisich. At the 1/24th Sprint Worlds: 1. Piki van Rossem, 2. Paul Gawronski, 3. Michael Niemas, 4. Sergio Maresca, 5. Tim Tyler, 6. Ralph Seif; 7. Alexander Ortmann, 8. Chris Radisich.  At the Citation Cup Worlds: 1. Andre Linberg, 2. Carlos Checa, 3. 'Javi' Checa, 4. Ramon Trimberg, 5. Desmond Dekker, 6. Björn van Campenhout, 7. Dirk Baele, 8. Kristof Huys.  At the Mello Yello Junior Worlds: 1. Alexander Ortmann, 2. Andre Linberg, 3. Carlos Checa, 4. Ramon Trimborn, 5. Björn van Campenhout, 6. Marcel Kuhn, 7. Marc Kurella, 8. Desmond Dekker. And Maresca? Seventeen years of absence can probably not be compensated in only one week-end. Or is he really God and will he win it all? [JPVR]

21ST IMCA WORLDS AND THE CONTROLLER WAR

Franspeed FS262 the most advanced, ACD the most used, ENGAGE the most interesting

WHY ONE WEEK OF SILENCE BEFORE THE GODS BATTLE?

Saturday tests: Why nobody will beat the Slotringers at the Citation Cup Worlds

October 26, 2009 - During ten days I had no time to update the IMCA web site. Why not? To cover all costs of the 21st IMCA World Championship I needed enough sponsoring money. I knew very well that some sponsors pay weeks, sometimes months after the race. Knowing that I wrote two books which have been released by my new editor: Uitgeverij Lampedaire of Antwerp. The books are sold very well. My book upon the economic crisis was three weeks on #2 of the best sold books in Belgium. My autobiography entered the top-10 two weeks ago. So I believed that my editor could pay me at least a substantial advance. But as it is a new editing house there was no money to pay me. How to find a way out? On October 12 I received the news that an old friend of me, Frank Vandenbroucke, died in Senegal. VdB is one of the Belgian bike rider Gods, having let a very turbulent life behind. I decided to write a book on him. That's what I did in the last ten days. This night I finished the book (only 220 pages) and today I'll visit a couple of editors to sell it.
Up from now, a whole week long, all attention goes to the 21st IMCA World Champion-ships. Last Saturday there was already a practice session where some twenty racers showed, among them the six Slotringers, the three Frenchies (the Havet Bros and Hubert Jacob), Remco van Waaij from Holland (but not Dennis Vogel, not the two Dekkers) and some Belgian racers as Björn van Campenhout, Gert Klinge, Quinten Vanspauwen, Bart Gijsen, Marc Huys and Quinten Ivens (but no "Piki", no Yves Welter jr.) The sharpest times were realised by the Slotringers where Andre Linberg was the fastest in 7"401. Nobody of their direct competitors went under the 7"7, whilst all Slotringers easily went under that limit. It's hard to see who'll be able to beat them, now that Ladislav Szalai (SVK), Henri van Gool (NL) and Emily Kuipers (NL) cannot show. At the Mello Yello the main final risks to be an all German one as Alex Ortmann and Philipp Kremer will be among the starters. The last hope to beat the Slotringers rests upon the shoulders of "Javi" Checa, Carlos Checa and their dad. Or on Mike Stahl (USA) and Desmond Dekker (NL). Free practice for the BMW M1 racers is on Friday morning from 9am thru 3pm. Semi-pros and amateurs, driving F430s can start their practice on 3pm until 11pm. All cars must be in the enclosed zone on Friday by 11pm. There is no practice with handout cars. At the 21st IMCA Worlds there are 30 trophies to win and € 3,000 cash.

ATTENTION 2 - All racers, GODS & HALF-GODS included must be present on Saturday morning at 7pm. The Production Worlds with the handout Moslers MT900 of NSR will start with the 26 to 28 pros, with the highest IOC numbers starting in the first heat, the racers with the lowest IOC numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc) in the last heat. After all pros did their heats it will be up to the semi-pros and amateurs where the racers with the highest IOC numbers will start in the first heat, those with the lowest in the last heat. (We have only 32 handout NSR Moslers available, so each car will be raced twice, once by the pros, once by the semi-pros & amateurs).

ATTENTION 3 - Two racers are not still sure to start. It concerns "Gugu" Bernardino from Brazil and Christian Schnitzler from Germany. Among the semi-pros and amateurs Ladislav Szalai (SK), Henri van Gool (NL) and Emily Kuipers (NL) will not start. They have been replaced by Marko Salomaa (SF), Quinten Ivens (B) and Ralf Wernery (D). At the F430 races Wernery will receive a car having been raced at the 2008 IMCA Worlds by one of the pros. We have no news from Henk Visser (NL), Piet Blaauw (NL) and Sjors Blaauw (NL), just as if they disappeared from the globe. It's thus possible that there will be 29 starters at the Citation Cup Worlds instead of 32.

ATTENTION 5 - Race director on Saturday, doing also the technical inspection of all cars will be Theo Vanginderhuyzen. On Sunday I'll do the race direction myself. After each heat Dirk Baele will put the results, as seen on the computer screen, on our web site, so that the races can be followed by all those who cannot show. The race will be filmed by Daniel Schelfthout. The DVD of it will be for sale two weeks after the race.

ISRA WORLDS & THE SEPARATISM OF THE 'NEW MODEL CAR RACERS'

October 10, 2009 - At the 2009 ISRA Worlds web site I found a very interesting statistic. We all know that the ISRA Worlds are at least since 1993 a highlight in international slot-racing. Those worlds, where the best racers of the world are present, are followed by slot-racers from the most different nationalities. But what did i see? There is a group of racers, mainly from Germany, Canada, Norway and The Netherlands who, recently, decided to organise next year their own world championship. Let's call them the "new model car racers", wishing to have no longer the smallest contact with IMCA (where they found each other). In the past IMCA did serious efforts to bring scale racers, wing car racers and model car racers yearly together at the IMCA model car world championship. At IMCA there were 25 years long intensive contacts with wing car racers and scale racers. Of course the IMCA racers were always very interested in the ISRA Worlds. But what we see from the side of the "new model car racers", the group around Mark Campbell, NDW and Borge Haug? This year they used all together 25 MB bandwidth on consulting the 2009 ISRA Worlds web site. That's less than the interest racers from ... Niue showed for the 2009 ISRA Worlds: 29 MB bandwidth. Niue is a small island in Polynesia and counts actually .... 1,398 inhabitants. Such an unbelievable small population is thus more interested in the 2009 ISRA Worlds than all "new model car racers" together! Can the alienation and the separatism be any bigger than this?
Indeed, the "new model car racers" form a very small and closed entity, having no interest in other forms of model car racing than just their own racing. I maintain since years that model car racers believe of themselves that they are the best racers in the world. Results of the past, where scale racers competed with equal cars with model car racers, gave full evidence that scale racers are much more talented and skilled racers than model car racers. Each time the scale racers as a group performed better than the model car racers. The same will be proved once more this year at the "Battle with the Gods Race" of October 31, 2009. The Gods are the scale racers, the Half-Gods the model car racers.

Only by fully ignoring the scale racers and the wing car racers, by having no contacts with them, the "new model car racers" of mr. Campbell can maintain the illusion that they are the best racers in the world. Let's take the case of Børge Haug (N), the winner of the self-declared worlds in Toronto. Let him start in the "Battle with the Gods Race"  and he will with mathematical security finish among the three last. The case of Haug is typical for what the average model car racer is: a person who can compensate his lack on pure talent by driving an ultra sophisticated and very expensive car, a car with a superb road holding and with a powerless motor, very easy to control. Quite the opposite of the brutal power of an ES24 or ES32 scale car. As soon as the modal model car racer - for who I took Haug as example - has to compete with equally performing cars against the average scale racer, he will be completely dominated by the much more talented scale racer. Characters as NDW, Haug or Campbell know extremely well why they don't show at the "Battle with the Gods Race" - where they are always welcome. Indeed, they have not a fraction of one percent chance to win from Vladimir Horky (27 times world champion!!!) or Sergio Maresca. In their extremely naivety they continue to believe that they are much better than Horky, Korec, Krcil, Saunders, etc., because at the 2007 IMCA Worlds in Mechelen at least one of the "new model car racers" - NDW - finished ahead over Korec and Horky. Why? Because Korec & Horky had to drive in Mechelen each a car assembled by Geert Mertens - who received a fortune to build them - the evening before the race. Those cars were just unmanageable, a pure shame.
If one wishes to abolish the insane prejudices of the average model car racer, one has to stop the alienation and the separatism of the "new model car racers" à la Campbell. Instead of working in a very closed group, one has to open the doors for scale racers and wing car racers instead of to flee into a micro-cosmos which is blind for the unique talent of non model car racers. A guy like Sergio Maresca can beat after 17 years inactivity any model car racer (with Christian Schnitzler as exclusive exception). Who loves open competition doesn't close his eyes for scale racing at the highest level, but will try to learn from the superior scale racing. [JPVR]

ISRA 2009 PREVIEW: WHO CAN BEAT MATTI FYHR AT HOME?

Kari Sinisaari, Raivis Jansons, Nikolaij Dolzhanskij & Justus Pohjasniemi win warm-up tests

September 30, 2009 - Number of well-attended international races for scale cars is very restricted. This year we lost one of those meetings the German Open. So the annual highlight in scale racing is undoubtedly the ISRA World Championship. Those Worlds are contested at the ARH premises in Helsinki, the greatest slot-racing centre in the world. Despite the economic recession - a world crisis - number of entrants is as high as last year in Milton Keynes (GB) or as in 2007 in Revuca (SVK) and even higher than in 2006 at Soragna (I). Indeed, 120 racers subscribed despite the fact that entry fee for 8 days is up to € 180 for racers entering the four races. Racers come from 15 different countries. Finland counts 44 starters, Czechia 11, Latvia 10, Sweden and the UK 9, Ukraine and Italy 7, Estonia 6, USA 5, Brazil, Lithuania and Slovakia 3; Belgium, Russia and Spain 1. [In the entry list organisers note Jose Mario Serra as from Portugal, whilst he's living and racing all his life long in Brazil]. Astonishing is that there are no racers from Norway and no racers from Denmark. This year also no racers from Germany, from France, from Australia, from New Zealand, from Canada, from South-Africa, from Portugal, from Holland (thus no NDW who announced earlier to show), from Austria, from Switzerland, etc.
Let's first have a look who of the top racers are absent. If we restrict us to the top-40 of the 2009 ISRA Ranking we find as famous absentees Paul Gawronski (USA), who had initially plans to do the production race with "Piki" (B), and Josef Korec (CZ), res. #6 and #7 on the ISRA ranking. In the top-11 to 20 we miss Andris Podosinoviks (LV), James Cleave (GB) and Guido Santarelli (I). Absent from 21 to 30 are Lasse Åberg (S), Charly Gooding (GB), Tomas Rosenberg (CZ) and Ladislav Koterba jr (SVK). From 31 to 40 we miss Mikael Palmqvist (S), Paolo Niccolai (I), James Herman (USA), Mark Harwood (GB) and Tracy Chin (USA). Of those absentees Gawronski, Korec, Cleave and Åberg will really be missed in competition. But let's look at the favourites.
Finland: Matti Fyhr *****, Atte Lyyski ***, Justus Pohjasniemi ***, Olli Kantamaa **, Heiki Sinisaari **, Kari Sinisaari *, Kimmo Rautama *
Czechia: Vladimir Horky *****, Petr Krcil *****, Antónin Vojtik ****, Jiri Karlik***, Pavel Flaisig ***, Miroslav Vadlejch **, Jiri Micek **
United Kingdom: Brian Saunders ****
Slovakia: Ladislav Szalai ***
Brazil: Luis "Gugu" Bernardino **
Italy: Paolo Trigilio ***, Piero Castricone ***
Sweden: Michael Landrud ****, Anders Gustafson ***, Christer Helgesson **
Latvia: Raivis Jansons ***, Janis Sneiders *, Janis Rage-Ragis *
Estonia: Kaiar Tameleht **
Lithuania: Arunas Leonavicius *, Simonas Nemira *
Russia: Nikolaij Dolzhanskij ***
USA: Roger Schmitt **, Mike Stahl *

What I deplore on ISRA racing is that no part of the (high) entry fees is used to pay the plane ticket of some racers having actually not the financial means to show. Then I think at the first place on Chris Radisich (NZ). He made the last year a terrible progress, he'll win at the end of October "The Battle with the Gods Race" (despite the presence of Sergio Maresca, "Piki", Josef Korec, Vladimir Horky, Paul Gawronski and so many other top racers) and he's one of the best all-rounders in the world. Another top-race who should have been helped to fly over is Gustav Heymann (RSA), the all-time best racer of South-Africa. And then there are Dave Gick (NZ), Paul Gawronski (USA), Greg Gilbert (USA), Tim Tyler (AU), Gary Johnson (AU), Peter Dimmers (AU). It concerns only eight racers, but they could have given the 2009 ISRA World a serious other cachet. Let's be serious: Except for Vladimir Horky, Petr Krcil and perhaps Brian Saunders, nobody is able to beat Matti Fyhr on his holy home grounds. But should Chris Radisich and Dave Gick had been there Matti should have had two terrible competitors, making his victory much more difficult. Seriously missing are also James Cleave, Josef Korec and Paul Gawronski. Why not having reserved € 12,000 to bring the best missing racers at the start?
Among the outsiders I expect surprising performances by such youngsters as Atte Lyyski, Justus Pohjasniemi, the youngest of the Sinisaaris, Antónin Vojtik, Miroslav Vadlejch. For ex-world champion Michael Landrud time has come to confirm, especially after his poor ISRA Worlds of last year. Curious if Olli Kantamaa will confirm his find results of May 2009, when he was the best man of the ISRA warm-ups. Results of those warm-up races can be found at our ISRA Scale Racing pages. Pohjasniemi was the best in Production 124, Raivis Jansons the best in 132 F1, Nikolaij Dolzhanskij the best in ES32 and Kari Sinisaari the best in ES24.

Of the great Italian generation of the late 1980s, when they were dominating the complete entry field even more than the Czechs do now, only Paolo Trigilio survived the debacle after Salvatore Noviello had to withdraw due to a double heart attack. But it's no more the fabulous Trigilio of the late 1980s, also because he's missing high level competition in the own country. My previsions? I think that Matti Fyhr will win 132F1, ES32 and ES24, with Vladimir Horky and Krcil collecting the necessary podium places. Perhaps Krcil will be more dangerous than Horky (who won no less than 24 world championships). Krcil won this year already the wing car worlds and was the moral winner of the USRA G7 Pro Nats. He's a hell of a driver, doing lots of practice. Matti Fyhr from his side was this year nearly not seen in competition. He was absent at the Swedish Masters, absent at the Hjarup Open Group 12 12 hours race, absent at the ISRA warm-up races. He only showed at the Finnish Nats. Can someone be so often absent and still win the ISRA Worlds? The answer seems "No". But if you have the smashing talent of Matti Fyhr, the answer is certainly "Yes". [JPVR]

GREAT JON LASTER BURIED ON SEPTEMBER 12

Message from his youngest sister

September 1, 2009 - The great Jon Laster - for me the finest guy I ever met in the international community of slot-racers - will be buried next Saturday in the woods of Maine, ext to his father who passed away in 1986. There are moments I believe that Jon suffered from intellectual solitude. We had our longest conversation towards the end of 1989 after Jon make a series of critical reflections on The Power Elite, a book by the American leftist sociologist Charles Wright Mills. In that book Mills was in search of who has the power in the United States. His conclusion was that after the Second World War that was no longer the president but the military-industrial complex. Jon didn't doubt that such vision could be untrue, but he pretended that this was already the case during the Great Depression when Roosevelt was elected as president. By while we were hanging hours on the phone because email didn't exist in those days. Most of our conversations - if not going about slot-racing - were concentrated around American politics. Jon was very critical about the arms race with the former Soviet Union and of the role played by the American arms manufacturers in international policy. He shared several ideas with America's New Left, but always in his personal critical style.
When by the end of 1988 I decided to buy my proper F1 team and to develop a brand new F1 car (Onyx ORE 01) Jon disagreed with that. He found that investing some twenty million dollars in it was a pure waste of money. But when he saw pics of my #36 (Stefan Johansson) and #37 (Bertrand Gachot) in American autosport magazines with - at the Monaco Grand Prix - on both cars a sticker with the text "I love slot-racing" he found it the best publicity for slot-racing, even better than the oval Cox sticker on the Chaparral 2C and 2D in the mid 1960s.
When by the end of 1991 I was directly elected into the Belgian parliament with more than 200,000 votes - four days before the elections the Belgian Catholic Conservatives put me in jail! - Jon wrote me a long letter that it was a major mistake to seat in the Parliament as an anarchist. Anarchist should never accept to seat in the Parliament was Jon's vision.

This evening I received the following mail from Sally Laster Hudson, his youngest sister:
Dear Jean Pierre, I am Jon's youngest sister, Sally.  On behalf of all of Jon's family, I would like to thank you for the wonderful tribute you posted about Jon.  It is impossible to believe he is gone but there has been comfort in learning how much he was loved and respected by the global slot car community.  As I hope you are aware, we are holding a Memorial Service for Jon in Maine, where our mother lives, on Saturday, September 12.  He will then be buried next to our father,  who died 23 years ago, in a small cemetery in the woods, a very beautiful spot. Through Joel Montague, we have the details for the service posted on all the relevant sites as we want to make sure that anyone in the slot car community who can attend is most welcome.  Understanding, also, that Maine is not the easiest place for people to get to, I am also inviting people to email me any remembrance or tribute that they would like to have shared at the service itself. I simply want to personally extend this invitation to participate in the Memorial either in person or via a tribute you write to you. Sincerely, Sally (Laster) Hudson.
Tomorrow morning I'll go to find the major of Grimbergen - the city next to Brussels where I live. My passport is no longer valid and I need a new one. Unfortunately, after the attack on the Twin Towers, it takes three months to receive a new passport. If the major can do nothing for me I can always try to get it through the American embassy. But as I am a personal friend of colonel Khadaffi - I was the lonely western deputee having been invited at his anniversary - they have that in their lists and it may be a handicap to get a valid passport in time.
I remember a night in Profondeville, just after Jon and Jan Limpach had given the Italians, Sergio Maresca included, a clear beat, by finishing 1 and 2.Jon was kidding. Convinced as he was that I should die before him, he told me that he should come over for my funeral and that he should put a wing car version of my Ferrari 250 GTO on my coffin. Later the same evening he spoke me about the death of his dad. It was a very emotional conversation. He told me that he was not afraid of dying. So was I. We were much younger and lived as if Death was so far away that there was nothing to be afraid for. 

ACHIM ZANDERS THREE YEARS AFTER HE SOLD THE SPA TRACK

"Slotracer werden immer unorganisierbare Chaoten bleiben"

August 20, 2009 - Four years ago Achim Zanders (D) let make the famous Spa MC track (which is now at the Alsdorf Titanic Bowling from where it will be transported to a new location in the Euregio). The new track - on which Tamar Nelwan organised in 2006 the 1st EEC - was hardly finished when the first troubles began. Well knowing that Zanders is a clever businessman, earning good money, everyone having been involved in building the track, claimed extra money. For Zanders the Spa track became in less than no time a source of vexation. At once he decided to stop everything: he sold the track for € 10,000 (less than half what it cost), sold all his slot cars, and decided never to return to slot-racing: "Slotracer werden immer unorganisierbare Chaoten bleiben." He changed his hobby. Now he's just for fun involved in music production with his ZZ-Music Productions. Although he bought in 2007 the newest Aston Martin DBRS9, he found more pleasure in his recently acquired motor bike: a Road King. Does he miss slot-racing? "Absolutely not. Ärger, nichts als ärger. Immer noch. Lass die Jungs doch und mach’s wie ich. Widme Dich Dingen, die Dir Spass machen und die Du machen kannst, ohne dass Du Dich ärgern musst. Slotracing und all der Ärger ist bei mir so weit weg. Ich habe seit dem Verkauf der Bahn keinen Regler mehr angefasst. Und ich vermisse es nicht. Ich vermisse nicht die Schleimbeutel, die Besserwisser und die, die sich haben aushalten lassen."
Slot-racing needs persons as Achim Zanders, having good business relations, and able to organise fine meetings. But each time a new comer with a considerable capital at his back shows a bunch of profiteers creates so much stress that the new comer retires in order to avoid all that stress. Those with some capital behind only stay if they can make some business out of it. But once they have commercial interests they are not the best placed to promote slot-racing. Above all they promote their own products. Persons as Achim Zanders, Tamar Nelwan, Raymond van Campenhout - having promoted or still promoting slot-racing without the smallest commercial interests - are rare. Instead of keeping them, there are always minor persons, with no historical background, trying to work them out. Poor mentality! [JPVR]

MOST ANACHRONISTIC OF ALL RACE CARS, BUT WINNER

August 15, 2009 - It's hard to believe, but this year a Morgan succeeded to win the two GT3 races at the Silverstone Tourist Trophy, ahead over such prestigious cars as the Aston Martin DBRS9, the Audi R8 LMS, the Ferrari F430 GT3, the Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, etc. Two cars were brought at the start and both they won once. Used type is the Morgan Aero 8 Super Sports GT3, derived from the street car which was launched this year for the 100th anniversary of Morgan Motor Company of Worchestershire. In 2007 the company entered FIA GT3 racing with the roofed Aeromax (cf. the picture with the #31 car), however without scoring the smallest top-10 result over 12 rounds. In 2008 things went already a lot better as the Aeromax reached three times the top-3. This year's Aero 8 SS is a modified roofed version of the brand new street car, equipped with a large rear wing. The race version uses a 4.9 V8 BMW S50LA engine, developing 440 bhp at 7,000 rpm. It's coupled to a sequential 6-gang Hollinger gearbox. Contrarily to what is generally believed the car uses (of course) no wooden chassis but an aluminium one. Despite the considerable length of the car (4m17) the wheelbase is rather short (2m52). The car has an excellent AP brake system with six cylinders in front and four in rear. Front suspension works with a double wishbone, with coil springs and with BOS gas tank absorbers. Rear suspension works with independent axles and with double wishbone coil springs of the same BOS system.
Compared with the De Walt sponsored Morgan Aero 8, entered in 2002 at the Le Mans 24 hours, the Aero 8 SS is a relative new car with a very old looking body. With its 440 bhp for a dry weight of 1080 kg the Aero 8 SS has a quick acceleration: 3.8 seconds for 0-60mph, but its top speed is limited to 174 mph (279 kph) what is low as compared to the top speed of e.g. the Ferrari F430 GT3.That explains why the car handles well on a circuit as Silverstone, but rather poorly on an ultra fast circuit as Le Mans or Monza. Apart from its double victory at the Silverstone GT3 Trophy, the car finished as direct runner-up to the winning Aston Martin DBRS9 at the second race at the Adria circuit. Difference between the two cars at the finish was less than one full second. At the opening race at Silverstone the winning #100, shared by Dimitri Enjalbert (F) and Johan-Boris Scheier (F) had more than eight seconds in hand over the 550 bhp strong #3 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 (with a dry weight of 1,300 kg). At the second round at Silverstone the winning #101 Morgan Aero 8 Super Sport, shared by Gaël Lesoudier (F) and Maxime Martin (B) had an advance of 19 seconds over its runner-up, the brand new Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS with its 505 bhp for a dry weight of 1,250 kg. Especially the light weight of the new Morgan Aero 8 SS helps it to be so competitive despite the lowest power of all other entered cars. That helps to explain why both Morgans clocked at Silverstone the pole position at the qualifications. At Adria one of the Morgans was again fastest qualifier at the late evening race. At Ochsersleben the Morgan - entered by the French AutoGt Racing Team, was nowhere, both at the qualifications as at racing. In the teams ranking AutoGT is at half season runner-up to Hexis Racing AMR, having won also twice, but having collected 63 points against 32 for AutoGt. Curious to see how the cars will behave at the upcoming rounds at Algarve, Paul Ricard HTTT and at Dubai. Ansswer within four months. [JPVR]

WHY PETR KRCIL LOST THE USRA OPEN G7 PRO NATS

August 6, 2009 - At the main final of the USRA G7 PRO Nats Petr Krcil was a strong leader until lap 104 of the sixth segment. Up to then he succeeded to maintain an advance of ten laps over Paul "Beuf" Pedersen. A broken lead wire made Krcil loosing nine laps, but when he rejoined the race he was still out in the lead. Krcil was doing 1"8 laps on white. On red however Mike "Erkle" Tylinski was in problems, turning around in 2"8 per lap. That implied that Krcil had to pass Erkle's car every four laps, and eventually he crashed with Erke's car. The result of that crash was a real disaster. He had to change the motor. The rear axle was bent and he had to change the complete rear axle, including the spur gear.

Repairs cost Petr Krcil some fifty laps and he dropped in the standings from rank 1 to rank 5. Victory was definitively lost. At the start Petr Krcil, the reigning world champion wing car racing, had the intention to win in the same year both the worlds and the USRA Nats. Only four racers succeeded this double: Paul Pfeiffer in 1982, Mike Swiss in 1990, Paul Ciccarello in 1996 and "Beuf" in 2004. Krcil could have been the fifth racer in history, and the first European one, to realise the double. Let's hope that he can take revenge at the German Open of Decem-ber 3-6 in Brühl (D). If IMCA can make a dezal with the Brühl organisers that, preceding the G7 event, the 21st IMCA Worlds can be contested in Brühl, IMCA offers to pay the plane ticket of "Beuf" and P-A Watson to show at the Open.

 NEW MTT TRACK AT BRISBANE (AU)

August 3, 2009 - During the 1970s and 1980s Australian slot car racing went mainly with wing cars. Several Australian wing car racers were famous all over the world. Among them Dennis Traeger, Wayne Bramble, Peter Dight, Garry Fry, Garry Johnson, Charles Rickards, etc. Contrarily ro their American wing car fellows, Australian wing car racers were not racing exclusively on Blue King tracks and it was difficult to form a valuable opinion where Australian wing car racers stood as compared with the Americans. Only of Bramble, who went working for ProSlot in the States, we knew that he was fast and able to compete with equal arms with such American toppers as Paul Pfeiffer, Mike Swiss, Jon Laster, P-A Watson and others. In those days personal income was too low for much travelling around and Australia became a slot-racing continent at his own. The famous Camen-ProSlot-Koford-Alpha war of the 1980s and early 1990s reached Australia, and the best Australian wing car racers were supported by one of the top-4 American manufacturers. However the gap between the US and Australia became bigger and bigger. In 1993 an Australian racer, racing for Koford, was the first of his country to improve the 40 minutes world record on Blue King. His name was Darryl Zirbel and he realised 909 lap, what was 13 laps more than the old WR of Germany's Mario "MSP" Schöne. But already in May P-A Watson realised 918 laps and in November Martin Gramann totalled 925 laps.
From 1994 to 1998 speed of the wing cars increased seriously and at once Australia was limping behind. At the 2004 Ultimate G7 Race in Uden the best Australian wing car racers came all at the start and it became more than obvious that despite great efforts, they were nowhere on the international scene. Since then Australian wing car racing was no longer popular and model car racing became more important than wing car racing.

This week-end we received the following mail from Garry Johnson, one of the legendary Australian wing car racers. He wrote: I have taken up model car racing this year as there are no other options for serious slot racing in Brisbane at the moment. I’m in the process of putting together a 4 lane track for my own use and I’m also interested in building an MTT track to hold special events. To this end I ask if you have any plans for the MTT track you could provide to me, and/or an opinion as to the necessary features of such a track. I have managed to find some pictures of floor plans but they leave a little too much to the imagination. Original plans of the MTT track, as built by Michel Thoumieu for the 1987 IMCA Worlds in Toulouse exist no longer, but Brian Crosby of Steve Ogilvie tracks received a copy of Dan Debella's MTT, and all later MTT tracks were built following that plan. So Garry Johnson can get all the info in Canada.
An MTT track in Australia should be an excellent thing, now that Tim Tyler, Simon Wakelin and Jan Roestorf gave full evidence that model car racing of the Aussies became extremely competitive. Although international model car racing seems actually splintered after such guys as Nick de Wachter, Mark Campbell, Paul Hanson and others decided to go their own way, with own rules, it is very important that the MTT can become the standard track for international model car racing, just as the Bliue King track is for wing car racing. The more MTT tracks around over the world, the better for model car racing. Just a last remark: by April 2010 I'll start up my own editor's company, so that I'll have no more time for slot-racing or for keeping up this web site. So the IMCA MTT track will be used a last time for the 2010 IMCA Worlds at Wezembeek-Oppem. After that race the track will go to Germany, the actual mecca of model car racing. With an MTT track in Canada, in Germany and in Australia int'l model car racing seems safe. [JPVR]

THE FOLA REVOLUTION

Fola replaces spring plate by independent front and  introduces rear suspension

June 25, 2009 - There is a big chance that the spring plate (for the front suspension) will be reduced to a museum piece. Indeed Fola Osu launched a superb chassis with an independent carbon front and rear suspension. This may be considered as a true revolution in model car racing. Contrarily to many other chassis constructors Fola has always been extremely innovative: he launches complete new ideas. For the modal racer a guy like Fola is a nightmare: he works so fast that at any race he shows with new pieces. For rule makers he's certainly a problem as he's just too good. That's why in 2010 IMCA'll work with an exhaustive homologation list. So everybody has time until December 31 of this year to let homologate new chassis or new parts, but then, during six months no other new parts will be allowed. The new Fola chassis seems a killer in upcoming endurance racing. At IMCA we received several mails to nominate Fola in the entry list of the 2009 and 2010 IMCA Worlds. Perhaps we have to do so. Did Fola make illegal bodies? It's not easy to judge. At any rate his new Lola Aston Martin B09/60 can never be illegal as Lola makes no objections against manufacturers releasing a limited number of scale bodies. At any rate for his new Fola SFMKVI he deserves the admiration of all of us. For the moment it's stiill unknown at what price the new Fola chassis and the new Fola carbon front and rear suspension will be for sale. One can be sure that it will be at reasonable prices as Fola was always extremely moderated with his price list. Curious to know if his new suspension fits to the SLP 2 chassis. I know that at Niemas Racecars they are working on a new rear suspension, but it seems as Niemas had plans to work with a spring plate for the front suspension. At any rate the model car revolution started with Fola. [JPVR]

RULES ARE RULES: NEW IMCA RULE BOOK REAL PROGRESS

June 25, 2009 - On the OEPS forum NDW argues over more than two full pages that his F430 chassis is regular. It's obvious that this is NOT the case. If the rules say that no other holes of the chassis may be used than the original ones, then, every objective arbiter will agree that the NDW F430 chassis can never be allowed to start. Terry Dalton puts his finger on the wound when he remarks that something must have been wrong in art. 6.3. Let's be objective without trying to accuse NDW. He has a point when he says that there was a lot of commotion around art. 6.3. Mark Campbell insisted already during the first months of the year that there should be an exhaustive list with homologated parts and that no other parts than those in the list can be used. That was an excellent idea, however, making such list is a work of months and months, and such list could never be ready in time. So we came to the art. 6.3 as it is now written down on the web site of the Toronto Masters. It's beyond discussion that the rule on the openings in the bottom plate was written with the intention that the SLP 2 chassis could never be used under sprint cars, but exclusively under endurance cars. If Raymond van Campenhout - since 25 years the best rule maker in slotracing affairs - wrote about the modification of  chassis parts he didn't mean that it was allowed to change them in form, but that those parts on the original chassis had those parts could be replaced by other parts. The word "modification" in combination with "mixing of chassis parts between different manufacturers" was obviously to be read as "replacement".
So NDW can have a point that under the bare text of the rule book he was allowed to cut the SLP 2 bottom plate in three parts. But once he did so he faced a new problem: he had to cut the SLP 2 spring plate too. Here he could again read the text as it concerned not just a replacement, but a modification. However when he had to drill two holes in the bottom plate to use them for the T-shafts this was - beyond all discussion - a violation of the original rule book stating that only the original holes may be used.
I guess that when NDW started to modify the SLP 2 chassis parts the forgot to read the text on the openings in the chassis. Faced with the problem he had to fall back upon his great defender, Mark Campbell, who guaranteed him that there should be a very professional race direction. There is no doubt, Andy Wasserman and Lars Harryson are nice guys, but already long before the body clash with Mark Campbell of April 22, Raymond and I wrote Campbell that they have no profound knowledge of model car racing and certainly not about all model car parts being commercialised. I don't believe that those two guys - too gentle, no Bob Demeyer characters - will have the guts to disqualify cars built in the style of NDW. But if that is the case the question is: "What is the rule book still worth, if flagrant violation of the rules is accepted by the race direction itself?"

Meanwhile, after six long months of hard working, IMCA's Exhaustive List with Homologated Parts is nearly ready (we are just waiting on the new parts which will be launched by Niemas Racecars to finalise the list). The list gives pics of all parts and let see where one can order them and at what price. As well for the Toronto Masters as for the 2009 X-Mas IMCA Worlds this list comes too late. That's the reason why in December we'll restrict the sprint races to simple handout cars assigned by lottery. The refreshed art 6.A, nevertheless, will be used for the semi-pros and amateurs showing with Ferrari F430 Challenge cars. The renewed art 6.A is endless better than the old art. 6 and tries to protect the weaker racers, giving them a clear view on the parts which can be raced in the future. The list will be updated twice per year up from January 1, 2010. IMCA is now making a homologation form which racers will have to complete up from next year and will have to return by e-mail to the race direction at least one week before the start. That will simplify scrutinizing quite a lot.
In his auto-defensive article NDW announces that he'll make a new rule book and even will organise the world championship. Let's be a bit serious at least. It concerns the same NDW who confessed himself that he drove a masked illegal car at the 2008 Worlds, the same NDW who could win the 2004 Uden Worlds only after he changed the track conditions during the night, the same NDW who hoped to win the 2005 Worlds after his dad, in the function of race director, gave him two extra laps at the 1/24th Sprint Worlds and 3 extra laps after the Mello Yello jr Worlds. Fortunately the achieved laps were registered in my own computer, otherwise Salvatore Noviello and Dani Gonzalez should have been stolen. I think that Nick's greatest frustration is that he, who regularly won until end 2005 is no longer a winner. Now he wishes to win by all means, if necessary, by organising himself a world championship. I think time has come to be very clear. On December 14, 1985, when I founded vzw ESROC, later changed into vzw IMCA, with Gerard Caupène and Hans van Es, I paid a fortune to patent the terms "World Cham-pionship", "Worlds", "European Championship" and "EuroNats" in affairs of slot-racing. Why there are laws, why there are expensive protected patents, if everyone behaves as if such laws and such patents didn't exist at all? A world championship should remain a serious affair, not something that anyone can organise by calling a simple race with an entrance not representative for the world a world championship.
Meanwhile the stupid war continues, for no other reason that I refuse concessions concerning illegal bodies. On that point I'll stay inflexible. No matter if at once Mark Campbell feels the necessity to speak about our web site in terms of "an internet tabloid pinned to lamp posts in back alleys" or if NDW speaks of "wildwest stories". In 2005 all racers present at the IMCA Worlds witnessed how NDW tried to win and about 2004 Tamar Nelwan can confirm that during the night NDW changed the track conditions. Wildwest stories? My ears! [JPVR]

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TAMAR WRITES AUTOSPORT HISTORY?

February 15, 2009 - We all know that Tamar Nelwan (NL) is a perfectionist, especially when he builds a model car. In that case you may be sure that the built model will be at the highest standard a true copy. But what happens when the same perfectionist tries to write a page on the 1979-1980 BMW PROCAR Series? On another place I explained that in 2010 we'll use such cars for the 22nd Model Car Sprint Worlds. Since I put pictures of those cars on the IMCA web site I received dozens of e-mails by alarmed racers, telling me that I am wrong, that they saw on Tamar's web page that I attributed wrong years to the cars and that I forgot in my list so many BMWs M1 having entered 30 years ago the BMW M1 PROCAR Series. Let's have a little study who is wrong about what.

Ronald Zaal, who was a technician at the PROCAR races, let built 1/24th versions of 24 cars, to be used at a model car version of the PROCAR Series. Of his 24 cars only 10 were seen at the 1/1 PROCAR Series. All others are fake. That's what happens if one lets do an amateur autosport historian (Tamar). It's obvious that Tamar knows nearly nothing about the PROCAR Series and that what he writes is closer to fantasy than to the historical truth. His excuse is that nobody really studied the BMW M1 E26 Group 4 cars. Historians even don't know if 49 of those cars were built or rather 56. Nobody could draw a complete list with all the chassis numbers. I am working on it (as can bee seen at the 2010 IMCA Worlds web page. There are lots of misconceptions concerning the PROCAR races. When Tamar writes "In 1979 and 1980, Formula One Grand Prix spectators got a very special treat ... Procar racing on Saturday." That holds only for 1979. By the end of the season Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone created the Procar Association and bought the six works cars (white with the light blue/blue/red transversal stripes) from BMW and sent them to B&S Fabrication in Luton (GB) where the three colour stripe was replaced by a Bordeaux red wide stripe. At the three first rounds the works cars were seen in such liveries. Up from round #4 at the Norisring the six works cars were painted in lurid white with a bordered lime green transversal stripe. Unlike 1979 several European F1 Grand Prix were no longer preceded by a PROCAR BMW M1 round. That was only the case for the Grand Prix of Monaco, Britain, Germany, Austria, Holland and Italy. Three other rounds were contested at Donington, Avus/Berlin and the Norisring as separate events. 
In 1979 the sixth works car was still used for a promising young driver (Tiff Needell, Michael Bleekemolen, Teo Fabi). In 1980 that was no longer the case.  In 1979 the five fastest F1 qualifiers started always from the five first places in a PROCAR race. In 1980 the five best F1 racers had to qualify like all other racers and had to start from their obtained ranks. The 1980 edition missed certainly the grandeur of the 1979 version. Nevertheless there is no one make series in history of autosport where so many top-racers took the start. In total 36 F1 racers entered PROCAR and NEVER one of them refused the offered seat! [JPVR]

BRAND NEW MTT TRACK OF TRONDHEIM IS READY

Candidate for the 2011  IMCA Worlds and for EEC 2012 event?

January 23, 2009 - Frank Rødahl informed us that the new MTT track of Trondheim in Norway is now ready. It is actually the third MTT track on the European continent. The two others are the one of Sulmona in Italy and of Herentals in Belgium. As the IMCA Rule Book states that all IMCA World Championships have to be contested on a standard MTT track Trondheim is certainly a candidate to organise the 2010 IMCA Model Car World Championship. Other MTT tracks are those of Canada and the USA. 
Trondheim is some 360 kilometres away from Oslo. There is an airport, but unfortunately there are no direct flights to the rest of the world. That implies that racers have to fly to Oslo and have in Oslo to take an extra flight of 55 minutes to Trondheim.
We hope to see some racers of Trondheim at the second round of the EEC 2009 in Oslo. Then we can discuss what are the possibilities of the track location in Trondheim. Is there enough space for the working tables? How many racers can enter? Which are the nearest hotels? What is the price for a double room in those hotels, etc.
The new track could also be selected for a round of the EEC 2012, but only if Børge Haug agrees to move next year the Oslo round to Trondheim. An MTT track has the big advantage that most model car racers know such track already since 2007 - then the IMCA Worlds were organised on a brand new MTT track made by Brian Crosbie of Steve Ogilvie Tracks in Canada - that times per lane can easily be compared by times realised on other MTT tracks and that much time is saved by racing on 8 lanes instead of six. Actually Steve Ogilvie Tracks are working on a brand new MTT track for the 2009 Canadian Masters. As soon as we have pictures of the track in Canada we'll post them on this site. [NOTE: The Canadian Masters is NO IMCA event.]
IMCA does serious efforts to promote MTT tracks all over the world. The MTT track should be what the Blue King track is for wing car racing. There must come as soon as possible an MTT track in Germany, the very mekka of model car racing. The problem is that such track needs enough space and that the rent prices for real estate are high, despite the international financial crisis.
Meanwhile it's waiting on the second EEC 2009 meeting in Oslo. Rolf K. Andersen asked us to put the following information on the IMCA web site: "We got some questions during the weekend regarding accommodation for the race in Oslo. These questions indicated that not all have got the information that we at Badet can accommodate all of you for free at the race venue, aka the Badet Barbizon Plaza. You will have to bring yourself air mattresses and sleeping bags to sleep on. We have several rooms that we can use, but you cannot count on too much privacy. The Badet Barbizon Plaza will be open from Friday thru Sunday. We do kindly ask you to spread this information to as many racers as possible in case not all read this forum to often."