WORLDS: Coelho is 4WD World Champion [FULL RESULTS]

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Since setting the pace early in practice, Portuguese XRAY driver Bruno Coelho remained one of the frontrunners for the 4WD title throughout the three-day affair. After earning Top Qualifier honors in four of five rounds, he dominated both of the first two finals to earn his, and Portugal’s, first IFMAR World Championship.

Coelho sped away from the start in A1 and led the first lap without issue. On the second pass over the center tabletop, though, he jumped onto the wrong side of the pipe - and hesitated momentarily before continuing. After that, Coelho drove off for the win. Second qualifier Michal Orlowski crashed on the third lap - dropping the young Polish Schumacher driver back to ninth. The crash promoted Naoto Matsukura and David Ronnefalk to second and third, and that’s how they finished.

After the race, a member of the Japanese team protested that Coelho did not concede a position before rejoining the race - as per IFMAR rules calls for upon a track cut - but the protest was entered after the 15-minute post-race cutoff. Coelho’s A1 victory stood.

Coelho had no such drama in A2, driving off for the win and securing the IFMAR 4WD World Championship. Michal Orlowski used the full advantage of his second spot on the grid to maintain the position, while TLR’s Ryan Maifield - who raced from ninth on the grid to fifth on the opening lap - fought past Matsukura, Ronnefalk, and Yusuke Sugiura before the halfway mark on his way to a third-place finish.

With Coelho sitting out A3, Michal Orlowski led the pack into turn one in the third A-Main. Matsukura took over the lead before the end of the second lap, however, when the young Polish driver made a mistake on the left side of the track and dropped to fifth. That left Matsukura out front, having only to withstand the charge of David Ronnefalk to win the race as the two drivers secured the final two podium positions. Behind them, Yusuke Sugiura worked his way through the field from eighth on the grid to his best finish of the finals.

That’s a wrap on LiveRC’s coverage of the 2015 IFMAR Electric Off-Road World Championships at the Yatabe Arena in Tsukuba, Japan. Our next broadcast will be November 12-22 in Americana City, Brazil for the IFMAR 1:8 IC Track World Championships.