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published: 2010-07-01 23:52:29 (57372) Author: ND

1/10th World Championships - Openingday

A hot and intriguing opening day of the IFMAR ISTC world championships here in Burgdorf Germany.
The 2010 1/10th Touring Car worlds kicked off today (Thursday) with 6 rounds of practice (4 open and 2 “controlled).
The nature of the timing of the practice sessions which only recorded the 3 fastest consecutive laps for each driver has left us guessing about who really is fastest as the huge drop off in tyre performance over a run (caused by the very high temperatures) means that keeping a car consistent over the 5 minutes will result in a better overall time than being super fast at the start of a race and then much slower towards the end!
What we do know is that a truly stellar field has been assembled with all the previous touring car world champions in attendance - Atsushi Hara (2000) Surikan (2002) Marc Reinhard (2004 and 2008) and Andy Mooore (2006). Looking at the times there appear to be a number of other contenders including Jilles Groskamp(NL) Ronald Volker (D), ShinAdachi (J) and Paul Lemiuex (US)
No international motor race would be complete with out some controversy and this event is no exception with Tyres being a major source or contention. The problem being that they are only really competitive for one run, but the drivers are only allowed 3 sets for the 6 qualifiers happening today. There is much talk about drivers sitting out individual rounds and team tactics, but to finfd out what does materialise tomorrow during qualification check beck here tomorrow!