The 2009 Tamiya World Championship is only 21 days away for me. I would like to take this time to explain what the Tamiya World Championship is and how it is run.
The Tamiya World Championship is the Olympics, Super Bowl, or World Cup of amateur Remote Control Auto On Road Racing. During the beginning of the Tamiya Championship Series season, which around January to March, There are regional races held in numerous towns and cities, around the world ,and in the United States. There are regional races held in countries such as Canada, England, The Philippines, Thailand, China, Japan, Hong Kong and even Lebanon has a TCS series and hosts regional races there as well. After when the regional season is over, the racing leagues around the world host their national/continental races to determine who will be representing their country and continental in the world championship. The Asia Cup, hosts national championships in Thailand, the Philippines and other countries in the Asia cup to determine a winner and representative for their country in The Asia Cup continental championship, The Winner of the Asia continental championship will go on to the Tamiya Worlds in Japan. The UK hosts their national race for the trip to the World Championship as well as North America. In Japan, where the Tamiya Championship Series was created, Hosts their "regional championships" all over Japan, and the winner of the regional competition in Japan goes on to the World Finals in Shizouka City, Japan.
Now, on to how the race is run.
The race is held at the Twin Messe Area in the Shizouka City area, the race is held on a 160X60 (I believe) Ozite Carpet track. Ozite is a type of carpet that is used for RC Auto racing. The race is 3 days long, the race this year will be from the November 20th through November 22nd. You get 3 practice runs, The track is very slippery and loose when run on for the first time so you have to be careful not to overdrive your car and be smooth on the throttle. Once the first three practice runs, the track usually get's a little more grip, and then the race moves on to "qualifying practice". Qualifying Practice has two rounds and are treated like qualifying to see who is fastest so far. The rounds are 4 minutes long and are determined by the fastest single lap in the round. The racer with the fastest single lap is considered the fastest racer so far. Up next is "qualifying". This time there are four rounds but still are four minutes long. Your two best single laps count and are added up, and the racer with the two fastest single laps is the Top Qualifier and will start on the front row in front of the grid. The top 12 drivers with the top 12 fastest "two" laps go on to the "A main", for 3 heads up rounds of racing, while the rest head to the B main which is one round of heads up racing.
The A main Finals is a 5 minute heads up on the tone start, which means once the tone sounds everyone takes off and the race begins. Racers are encouraged not to hit or spin anyone around or else they will be called for a ten second penalty. Which is very huge because a lap in the Tamiya World Championship is usually 16 seconds long and you will be down a lap if you don't behave on the track. The winner of the round is the driver who finishes ahead of his competition at the end of five minutes. The winner of the 3 rounds of heads up racing is decided by points. If you win your race you get one point if you come second, two, third, three and so on. Your two best races count, the racer with the least amount of points at the end of three rounds is the winner. The rules for the Tamiya World Championship will be released shortly.
Last year's world championship track layout
The pit area
The drivers stand
Video of one of the A main finals at last year's race
All right everyone. The rules for the 2009 Tamiya World Championship have been given to me and i would like to explain how the rules will work. Qualifying works a little different than what i have explained before. There will be 4 qualifying rounds, 3 of them will be on Saturday November 21st and the last one will be on Sunday November 22nd. After the last round of qualifying, the mains will start. For every qualifier you finish you get a point. If you come in first in one round of qualifying which is the fastest single lap. you get 0 point's, if you come in second you get 2 points, 3rd three points, etc. The racer with the two best combined lowest points at the end of 4 rounds is the Top Qualifier and will start on the front row. Another thing to mention is in the GT2400 class (the class that I will be competing in) will be running a lower downforce wing, or as they say it, they will not allow you to run a upgraded wing that they sell. It will have to be the wing that comes with the kit. Which happens to be plastic. The motor that will be used this year will be the (Formula Tuned 32T motor) 32T means how may winds are on the motor which is 32 turns. This motor is a little slower this year than last years motor.
Type of wing that has to be used for 2009 world championship in the GT2400 class.
Type of wings that cannot be used in the GT2400 class this year.
The motor that has to be used in the GT2400 class.
I thought I'd give an update on my racing. This last Saturday, I just won a road course, 6 round, national championship point series called the "MJGTC" or Mini Japanese Grand Touring Championship. Which happens to be based on the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, a full scale, real car racing league formed in Japan in the early 90's which is now called the Super GT series. These cars are a little smaller than the touring cars that I ran in the Tamiya North American Finals. They also run body shells that are based off of Toyotas, Hondas, Datsuns, Mazdas, and other cars that were raced in the 70's, 80's, 90's, and a little bit of the 2000's.
Body shells used in the MJGTC
One of the chassis run in the MJGTC
The race format works like a points system similar to NASCAR and F1. In every race/round there are 2 qualifier's, 5 minutes long which either are a staggered start, which you race against the clock and not other racers, or a heads up on the on tone girded start, depending on what the race director at the race venue decides to use. After the qualifiers a is a 6 minute on-the-tone race that decides the winner of the round. The series started in late July and ended this past weekend in November. This series was held all over the southern LA/Orange County, on many different surfaces indoor and outdoor. From indoor carpet to outdoor asphalt. You get points according to how well you finish in Qualifying and the mains. I you come in first in qualifying you get 100 point however if you com in second in the A main final you get 98 points, which brings your total to 198 points of the round. Points in the qualifiers and the mains start out from 1st being 100 points, 2nd 98, 3rd 96, 4th 94 and so on. Your four best races count, are added up and you have your two worst rounds thrown out if you have bad race or you missed the first two races. I missed two of the 6 rounds of racing, so the races that i did not attend were removed and my four best races were counted. I went on to win the second round in qualifying and the the mains at a indoor carpet track called OCRC raceway in Huntington Beach. My next round was in Gardena, CA (southwest LA) in a parking lot, where I won qualifying but came in second in the A main in a very grueling race for first. Then i competed in round 5 which was held again in Huntington Beach, California, this time in a parking lot in a sports complex. I came 2nd in both qualifying and the mains. The last round was held at a asphalt permanent racing track called Bending Corners Raceway in Orange, California. I came in second and lost to first in the second round of the qualifier's by more than a tenth of a second after five minutes of a intense battle. In the A main I managed to only come 4th due to the fact that my motor overheated a was very sluggish on top speed. However, I had already had enough points added up for me to become the MJGTC US Finals Expert Class Champion. This happens to be my second national championship this year and my fifth overall in my career.
Me leading the first round of qualifying of Round 5 of the MJGTC. (Purple/Green Miata)
Me battling it out with second place in the qualifiers of Round 6
Another shot of the battle in the same qualifier in Round 6.
Last edited by Leester on Sat Nov 14, 2009 11:03 am; edited 1 time in total
I will be leaving for Japan for the Tamiya World Championship on November 17th and I will be flying into Japan on the 18th, it's going to be a long trip, but I welcome it because I like long flights. Another thing to mention is that I have been taking Japanese on Rosetta Stone which has helped me learn how to say some greetings and other words in Japanese.
In just 17 hours I will be departing for Japan, practice begins on Friday November 20 at 9:50am Japan time. I will start doing updates on how well I am doing in practice, qualifying and the mains. From November 20th (practice) through the 22nd (mains) I will give updates on how well I am doing in the Tamiya World Championship.
All right guys, tomorrow is practice rounds, right now it's 9:25 pm here in Shizuoka, Japan. I will be posting my times and how well I do in practice tomorrow.
I had a little bit of a touch practice today, in the first qualifying practice round, i qualified last but in the second, I qualified 7th, I believe. Tomorrow is three real qualifying practice rounds. Wish me luck.
All right everyone, Today i have had a very challenging day, I have came almost last in all of my qualifiers, and the way qualifying is setup i will not make the A main tomorrow, in the tamiya world championship if you do not make the A main,( top 12 racers) you do not race, there happens to be 13 racers competing and it looks like I will be sitting out the A main finals. I have one more qualifier to go tomorrow.
I actually had a shot at making the Amain i tied for 12th for qualifying points however i lost the final A main position by best lap by 3 hundredths of a second. So I did not make the A main. However I had a great time and made a few new friends.
Alright folks, right now, i am 34% done with the race report. I will then, after i finish the race report, edit and reedit it then i will submit it on the thread. I will continue to update how much progress I make on it.
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