2012 IFMAR 1/8 Off-Road World Championships – Final recap of practice!

Ryan Maifield led the way in practice among Team Associated drivers with his modified RC8.2.

It was 751 days ago that Cody King, the young American who races for Kyosho and Orion, crossed the finish line to win his first IFMAR World Championship in what has become the elite class in radio control racing. And after the completion of Monday’s final practice, we are just hours away from the official begin to King’s title defense.

His biggest opponent may not be anyone on the track, but the track itself. With a track surface already deteriorating from tons of run time mixed with freak thunderstorms, and more rain in the forecast, the drivers who plan on making a run for the World Championship in Saturday’s final will have to battle the elements as well as their competitors.

Several manufacturers have brought new cars to this year’s Worlds, with prototypes from Hot Bodies, Mugen Seiki, Team Durango, and Team Losi Racing as well as significant modifications to Team Associated’s and XRAY’s buggies. It’s worth noting that defending champion Kyosho – whose drivers TQ’d (Tebo) and won (King) two years ago – was one of the few teams to roll into Argentina with no major modifications to their chassis. Their experience with the MP9 TKI3 has paid dividends early, earning European pilot Elliott Booth the top overall seed after practice based on IFMAR’s point system. However, it was the new TLR 8IGHT 3.0 of young Michigander Dakotah Phend who turned in the fastest 5-minute run during the timed practice sessions. Here are the top fifteen drivers from yesterday:

Seed Name Chassis Engine Time Country
1 Elliott Boots Kyosho Novarossi 7/5:17.508 Great Britain
2 Ryan Maifield Associated LRP 7/5:18.402 USA
3 Dakotah Phend TLR Orion 7/5:17.429 USA
4 Ty Tessman Hot Bodies O.S. 7/5:18.593 Canada
5 Atsushi Hara Hot Bodies O.S. 7/5:20.053 Japan
6 Jerome Aigoin Kyosho Novarossi 7/5:20.282 France
7 Robert Batlle Mugen Novarossi 7/5:18.687 Spain
8 Renaud Savoya XRAY RB 7/5:19.300 France
9 Yannick Aigoin Associated NVision 7/5:21.627 France
10 David Ronnefalk Kyosho Orion 7/5:20.155 Sweden
11 Kyle McBride Kyosho Novarossi 7/5:20.667 Australia
12 Lee Martin Mugen Novarossi 7/5:20.837 Great Britain
13 Ryan Lutz Durango Alpha 7/5:23.141 USA
14 Shin Adachi Hot Bodies O.S. 7/5:23.316 Japan
15 Taylor Peterson Mugen Alpha 7/5:22.099 USA

Who will win the first round of qualifying? Will it be Boots? King? Tebo? The racetrack? Stay tuned for more coverage!

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Updated: July 21, 2015 — 4:16 PM
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