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Andreas Myrberg with XRAY made it to the A final at the world's most competetive race. click to enlarge
Track
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Story by Andreas

The All Japanese Championship 2003 was held at the Ichirino RC Plaza, Sept.13-15 for the second year in a row. The track is located "up in the moutntains" on the north side of Japan, some 50 minutes drive in a Suzuki Vagon R from the nearest city, Komatsu, where we stayed during nights.

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Andreas Xray
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After qualified for the final during the spring I was very curios about the event. As most of the Japanese RC industry is attending one was of course very eager to see what could be done with a European car. Over 123 drivers were competiting in this most competetive race supported by all possible factory teams. Just to list the different car manufacturers present at this race: OVA, T4 Neo, Mirage, Corally, XRAY, Kawada, Kyosho, Losi, HPI, Atlas, Associated, Tamiya, Tech racing, Alex racing, Yokomo. An unbelievable line up of different cars.

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Jilles & Andreas
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The race format was new. 8 minutes with free motors, free tires, and amount of tires as well as free additive. And with the big hype of shaft-driven cars, it was very interesting to see how our belt-driven X Ray T1 Evo 2 would stand up for the competition. I arrived a week before the race with Jilles, so we could do some serios testing. As Jilles could not race, he was able to help me find a set-up as practice was open for everyone.

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Andreas at work
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As I joined Team Sorex during my stay in Japan, they reserved a place for me in their pit area. This was partically good as the Sorex tire was choosen by all drivers by it´s performance. So finding the right tire compound was easy. As one have to change tire every run, I am still very greatful for Mr. Saiki´s support. Already the first day of practice, Masami Hirosaka was the fastest. When I say the first day, it was the first day for me. Masami himself had been there many times during the last two mounths. As a matter of fact, he have done nothing but prepare for this race most of the summer. This was the case for most teams and drivers who thought they have some serious business to do here.

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Andreas & Surikarn
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The HPI team showed up with their brand new Pro 4, and the designer of the car flewn in from USA. Yokomo have there new SD, in different colours and versions. It looks as the whole factory was at place. Tamiya, who have been very active during the last year had a hughe team including current World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya who also did the qualifing races. Alex Racing, with their Barracuda car looked very strong. Kyosho came with a brand new drive system on their cars. Gear to the rear, and belt to the front. Tech Racing, with the newely crowned champion in Pro 10, Yokijuro Umino, together with the rest of the team, used a belt-driven car. Team Atlas as well as Team Kawada also looked good.

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Andreas car
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During the first practice days I mainly tried to get a feeling for the track and see how I should tune the motor and gearing to do the 8 minutes. With a 10 turn, that was pretty tough, as I have to be quick as well. As the rules regarding bodies and wing is different from EFRA rules, some time was spent to see what would be the best combo. I spotted a body I never seen before, but as it was a prototype so far, just a few drivers was able to get it. The body was a Chevron ( Maker ) Nissan Skyline. No listed bodies here. 4-door-style seemed to be the rule, together with regulations regarding dimentions. I tried the Yokomo Stratus 2,0 for some days before deciding to go for the Protoform Alfa 2,0. This gave me more steering and it was also more easy to get more roll in the car, as this was vital to keep up the speed in the corners and the very tricky chicane. I started by angel down the shock´s and then up to find the best balance. More angel gave a bit more cornerspeed. But to much slowed the car and the balance got worse. This was with the Alfa 2,0. The Stratus reqiured a different set-up. After a while, the car worked great. Good handling and perfect feeling. But unfortunally not the lap times. So I have to try more set-up changes.

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Andreas with his father
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By shortening the wheelbase by 3 mm in the rear, less oil weight and softer springs ( Yellow ) the car now turned around the corners even quicker than before, the laptimes now dropped to a more compitive level. But the car did not work at all if you pushed it. But that was never to be the case, as a VERY gentle throttle finger was a must for a 8 min.run.

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Andreas and Yoshioka´s cars
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Saturdays scedule was one organized practice and two qualification runs. The odd thing was that the organized practice heat was by some strange reason only 5 minutes. We never figured out why. But I was placed in a quite good heat including drivers like Daisuke Yoshioka and Surikarn Chaidajsuriya, and that was good as Surikarn together with Masami had been the fastest during the last week. The 5 minute practice went well as I was slightly faster than booth Yoshioka and Surikarn.

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Andreas with his Xray
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The first run was unfortunally spoiled as my new body was cut to low, so the car could not roll as it needed to. To my surprise I ended up on the 11:th spot even I thought the car was undrivible.

Second qualifier, with a adjusted body, the car was very good again. I ended up 3:rd overall until the last heat was out for there try when it started to rain. As a result of that, the whole round was cancelled. So back to 11:th spot.

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Sunday came, and because of the cancelled round on Saturday, it was decided that the practice was cancelled and we all have an extra qualifer instead. So back to a new 2:nd round. I ended up 2:nd overall, a great move upfront. For sure, one can never relax, or feel secure with 2 more rounds to go.

3:rd round: After some weeks with temperatures around 35 degree Celcius, it now started to get a bit cold. I did some small changes to get less roll, and it worked great in the infield, but it was the opposite at the high-speed areas. By some reason, I also got 2 interferance glitches, and that hurted a bit as I fell down to 9:th position overall.

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Last chance, 4:th round: I went back to the set-up I used earlier, and realy tried the best I could. Unfortunally I did not use tire-warmers and lost around 1,5 sec. the first two laps. But as the tires got warmer I managed to take the lead, but hard charging in the early part of the heat took it´s toll in the end. I started to dump in the end, and came home 1,6 second adrift of Kazuyoshi Fujita who came home 3:rd overall as I ended up 8:th. 4 guys in between made it pretty close.

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To be in the A main was a relief as this was my first goal. Looking further down great guys like Surikarn qualified 14:th. I guess it was quite disapointing for Tamiya to only get one driver in the A. Satoshi Maesumi only managed D final and World Finalist Masayuki Miura with his new Pro 4 was in C if I remember it right.

Qualifing result:

1 Masami Hirosaka, Yokomo / Reedy
2 Daisuke Yoshioka, HPI / LRP
3 Kazuyoshi Fujita, Barracuda / Echo
4 Shinnosuke Adachi, Yokomo /
5 Kazuo Muramatsu, Tamiya / Reedy
6 Atsushi Hara, HPI / Orion
7 Hideo Kitazawa, Barracuda / Xenon
8 Andreas Myrberg, X-Ray / LRP
9 Masayuki Murai, HPI / Orion
10 Yosinari Maeda, HPI I Orion

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A-Main drivers
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The first A was not very good for me. It was quite tense and some small incidents that involved me as well. The car was slower than usual so I have to overdrive just to keep up the speed. Or not to lose to much. As for so many drivers this week, this always resulted in dumping the batteries. 9:th place was realy not the start I wanted.

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Starting grid, A-Main
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For the 2:nd round, I timed up the motor and geared up as well. This worked out great. The car was fast again, but Kitazava hit me from the behind already in the 2:nd corner. No time to lose, as the car was fast, I stormed into the chicane just to touch the curb. These curbs were evil. I than did some kind of "best of the weekend flight" and rolled for ever ending up out on the straight. On my way back to the right side of the track I got stranded and before the marchal finally helped me, the 9:th position guy was 9 sec in front of me. But the car WAS flying, this time on the tarmac, so I could soon catch up and worked my way up to 5:th place. This was not to be as my batteries now have gived thier best and I lost 3 places on the last lap with empty batteries.

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Andreas at the start line
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3:rd final: I did not touch the car as it was purely awesome. I manage to get a good start from my 8:th position and was soon on Yoshioka´s rear bumper. I tried to figure out a way to pass him for two laps before I got my chance and took it. Ahead of me now was Kitazava, and I was surprised how easy it was to catch up. But his car became very, very wide. But I found my way on the inside, without touching up on the curb, and the audience loudly appreciated this move. I was now up on 3:rd spot and had Hara in sight. For some laps it looked promising as I catched up on him, but the batteries were on the limit, so I decided to drive safe and secure my position. I finished the last final 3rd, a great drive through from 8th position.

Final result:
1 Masami Hirosaka
2 Atsushi Hara
3 Daisuke Yoshioka
4 Shinosike Adachi
5 Hideo Kitazawa
6 Andreas Myrberg
7 Yoshinari Maeda
8 Kazuyoshi Fujita
9 Masayuki Murai
10 Kazuo Muramatsu

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Prize winners
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This race was for sure relay special. It was very well organized by JMRCA, and the level and the effort by the team and drivers are extreamly proffessional. Japaneese are very friendly individuals, and it is a pleasure to race there. My final position gave me a "free ticket" to next years Championship, and it will be fantastic to do it again, with the gained experience.

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Interwiew with Andreas
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The interest for the Xray was very high, and all, I say all drivers were very impressed with the smoothness of the drivetrain. They where nothing but realy surprised as they thought such smoothness was possible only with a shaft-driven car. But also the overall super quality of the car was appreciated. All the drivers spent a lot of time working on their cars to get smoothness so my car was realy impressing them. And the performance was talking for itself. The Xray was the only belt drive car in the final, so I am confident I have disrupted slightly the might of the shaft, proving the belt can be at least at the same performance level, if not better in certaind conditions.

I have to congratulate Masami Hirosaka, who together with his Father did an outstanding job. It was a very well deserved victory. I would also like to thank Xray Model Racing Cars and Hudy Products for their support as well as LRP and Sorex. Not to forget, Team Echo for motor service and support. Without these fine companies support, nor the race itself but also the performance would not be possible. I´m in a great team. And the future looks great!

/Andreas Myrberg


Setup of Andreas Myrberg is available for download here at www.myTSN.com