ADVERTISEMENT | ADVERTISE WITH US
0
Aug. 19, 2016, 10:39 p.m.
By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com
The 2016 IFMAR World Championship for 1/12-Scale and International Scale Touring Car in Beijing, China kicked off Saturday morning with practice for the 1/12-scale portion of the event - and you’ll be able to watch every lap all week long exclusively on LiveRC.
Check out the carpet track built inside the incredible Fengtai Sports Center in Beijing, which will host the IFMAR World Championship for 1/12-Scale before the competition moves outside for the International Scale Touring Car competition later this week. With the Chinese government supporting the race promoters, CMAC (Car Modelling Association of China), to put on a world-class event, this place is something you have to see to believe!
IMPORTANT LINKS
LiveRC YouTube account -- RVA (Race Video Archive) recordings of all races available to All Access Pass members
We arrived in Beijing on Friday for setup day and were greeted by a large, smiling crew eagerly putting the finishing touches on the immaculate - and massive - Fengtai Sports Center, a purpose-built facility dedicated to technology sports that spans 50,000 square meters. It’s part of the larger complex that was used for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Five-time 1/12-scale World Champion Masami Hirosaka assisted with painting the starting grid and finish line. Nice t-shirt, Masami-san!
This is truly a no-expenses-spared operation, with the Chinese government giving a dedicated team the resources needed to prepare perhaps the most spectacular racing facility anywhere in the world. The Beijing police is in charge of security, which actually means the badges handed out at driver and media registration mean something!
The course for the 1/12-Scale event is made of black carpet - the same material uses for the Euro Touring Series - and the racing surface measures a very large 30 x 24 meters (or 98 x 78 feet). The course layout has 15 corners (nine to the right, six to the left) and several high-speed chicanes, making up one of the most tight and technical track designs in recent memory. The fastest lap times in opening practice were barely in the 11-second range.
There are pit spots for 84 drivers, in addition to separate tire prep and tech areas - as well as a closed-off referee room. Everything is clean, decorated, and designed with both racing teams and spectators in mind. Visibility from the large drivers’ stand, scoring platform and dedicated camera towers is excellent.
And now that the room is full of people - racers, mechanics, spectators, media and more - everyone loves it.
“The facility is awesome! The track is pretty cool, and will be interesting for racing,” said Andy Moore.
“It’s awesome! The track looks rad, and the layout is fun - it’s pretty big compared to what we race on back home," said Rick Hohwart.
“It’s really nice - very impressive. The track is bigger than we are used to. It’s definitely a big effort from the organizers, and I’m enjoying it,” said Alexander Hagberg.
Photo Gallery
Eng / Usd
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
Recent comments