Day 1 – Traveling, traveling and traveling

Greetings, race fans! Our trip this month takes us to beautiful Japan to attend the IFMAR Offroad World Championships. The trip started on Sept. 7 from the always fun LAX International Airport. Mike Truhe and I traveled together. Fellow USA/Novak team driver Billy Fischer was also traveling at around the same time as us due to some unfortunate flight cancellations. He was supposed to leave the day earlier but ended up on stand-by for a flight that left the same day as us. Good start.

The flight to Narita Airport was about 11 hours. Myself, being the ever well prepared traveler that I am, didn’t look over the flight itinerary closely. There was an airport change. I’d never seen or heard of that, so we simply jumped into the first ticketing line and waited. When we got to the front, and the very nice lady informed us we were at the wrong airport for our connector to Komatsu. We went to the lines in the front of the airport and boarded a bus that delivered us to Haneda Airport. From there, it was a short flight to Komatsu and our waiting taxi. We came in on the final flight of the day. The airport closed and shut the lights off as we stepped outside – another first for me.

Because we were not originally traveling with Billy and our taxi couldn’t even fit Mike and I and all of our boxes let alone another passenger and his boxes, we had to make some special accommodations. Luckily, there was a couple of taxis left and a very nice gentleman from Serpent, Japan, was able to translate our needs to the drivers. The taxi ride up into the mountains was about an hour through some nice countryside and some fun twisty roads. Next time, I’m getting a rental car.

I’ve never stayed in Japan before, so I was not sure what to expect from the hotel. We were greeted by the owner and his wife. It is a Japanese-style hotel with a common shower and bathroom area. Luckily, there was AC; that’s all we were really worried about. But unfortunately no elevator, so we lugged our 60 lbs. boxes up a few flights of stairs. After the time change set in, we were beat and hit the hay. 

In summary, we left LAX at 1:30 p.m. and got to the hotel about 11:00 p.m. local time, or 7:00 a.m. LA time. That’s a 16-hour trip!

Day 2 – At the track

The first day was simply registration and pit setup. Nothing exciting. The weather was very nice, and we sat around chatting and preparing.

Day 3 – At the track

Practice opened up on a mud bog of a track. It down poured over night and drizzled throughout practice. Many drivers tried to practice anyway; cars did doughnuts and could barely get up the moguls. 

A few of the cars’ electronics had issues because of all the mud or during the post run cleanings. It was virtually impossible to tell who was fast or not. It was kind of a wasted day, but the weather was forecasted to be much better on the qualifying day.

Day 4 – Qualifying

It was a nice sunny day. The track started out slick and muddy but dried out as the day went on. The first run was the fastest and got slower. Then it swapped. As the day went on, the track got faster. It was pretty interesting for sure.

Drivers continued to chase the track and the magic setup for the ever changing conditions. 

Novak’s very own Mike Truhe was TQ in the first round, using his Novak Brushless/Losi ride. The UK Novak drivers also showed their “Orange Power” and placed 9th and 10th overnight. Paul Bradby has been powered by orange for a couple of years now and doing very well in the UK. Novak’s newest UK driver, Lee Martin, piloted his B4 to 10th on the grid overnight. Both of these drivers used 6.5L Motors/GTB setups and six-cells.

Mike Truhe has been running five-cells for the entire year and stuck with it for this Worlds. He chose to use a 6.5R/GTB combo. Truhe slept on a 3rd place grid position overnight.

But no one could rest easy because the forecast predicted rain overnight. Many drivers were apprehensive that the mud bog would return or a rain out was on the horizon. As we sat down for dinner, the skies opened up and it rained throughout the night and into the morning, promising some treacherous track conditions for the final round of qualifying.

Day 5 – Mains begin

Last round of practice and the start of Mains was today. It poured down hard all night long. The first cars on the track were the unlucky ones. The track was a good 4-5 seconds slower per lap than the last cars on the track. This allowed the UK Novak drivers to secure spots in the Main and moved Truhe to the 2nd starting spot.

Mains started at 2 p.m., and the track was dry and fast. Unfortunately for Mike, we missed the setup a bit and the car simply didn’t have much to offer. He drove the wheels off to keep the car up front but couldn’t handle the onslaught that came from the back. The Novak team was very unlucky in the first Main, finishing 6th, 8th and 9th.

In the second Main, Mike made a few more changes that certainly improved his car’s performance, but it still wasn’t what he needed. He was able to hold on to the 4th spot, a big improvement from the previous race. Bradders and Martin drove well and their cars held together nicely, but they had some bad luck and were not up front like they had hoped.

The third Main brought some more changes for Mike. This time the car was by far the best it had been, and arguably, one of the better ones on the track. Ryan Maifield and Mike battled for the lead. Maifield got by Mike, but shortly after, bobbled and allowed Mike to mount a hard charge on Hayato. Mike moved to within striking distance just as they approached the small triples. Unfortunately, Mike bumped the back/top of Hayato and was left on his lid, allowing Hayato to pull away and Jared Tebo to slide by. But Mike wasn’t done yet. He put on a hard charge, and reeling Tebo in and battling to the final lap. They swapped spots a few times throughout the moguls, but Jared was able to hold him off. They crossed the line bumper to bumper.

Overall, Mike wound up 5th, Paul was 8th and Lee finished 9th.

Young Hayato Matsuzaki was crowned the new 2wd World Champion, followed by Jared Tebo (from 7th on the grid) and Ryan Maifield.

Day 6 – Godzilla returns

It was another day filled with registration. But I got to get some more Godzilla toys. Hooray!

Day 7 – More practice

4wd practice was today. The weather looked to be clear and sunny most of the day, so it was good and hot. We ran eight rounds of practice total. The track broke up fairly bad by the end of the day, so everyone was chasing the setups throughout the afternoon.

In the end, no one was particularly fast. It looked like it was going to be a driver’s track, with the conditions being what they were.

The Novak Crew had few if any problems. Temps were all in the 130-155F range, which is comfortable. We practiced with all of our “rain protection” in place to ensure it wouldn’t cause any problems if the skies did open and we were forced to run in muddy conditions.

Day 8 – 4wd qualifying day

The day started out well, without any problems to be found. Unfortunately as the day went on, all of the Novak-powered pilots found mistakes here and there that cost them dearly during runs. Everyone’s car was fairly decent, and I would say that everyone had a shot at making the Main. On more than one occasion, Novak drivers were on fast runs and simply encountered traffic at the wrong time or had a minor bobble pushing hard.

Novak drivers’ heads hung a bit lower that night, but all hope was not lost. All of the drivers were only a bit outside of the top ten runs, so with a very good run in the final round of qualifying, a few could still make the Main.

Day 9 – Final round of qualifying and the Mains

The last round went off smoothly and without any problems, but no luck for Team Novak. The traffic and bobble luck carried over from yesterday, and most of the drivers found themselves in the B Mains. It was still a good effort though; we had great pace all week.

The Mains kicked off in the afternoon. Maifield did his best to put up a fight for the win, but Tebo’s car – and complete lack of mistakes – put him on top of the podium. Maifield held on to second with Ryan Cavalieri third.

Just before dark the trophy presentation was held. The 4wd World Champ was crowned, champagne was sprayed, speeches were made and just like that, the Worlds was over. It was a long week in a great country filled with some awesome R/C action. 

The track crew did an absolutely amazing job taking care of the track in the ever changing conditions. From a super clean and easy race tech to a schedule that never was off, this was a very well run event. We extend our thanks to the IFMAR organizations as well as the JMRCA block for hosting this year’s 2007 IFMAR Offroad Worlds.

For the complete race results for the 2wd (click here!) and 4wd (click here!)