HONG KONG
The 2018 edition of the FEMCA Onroad Championships was held at the Tom Racing Circuit in Hong Kong with Jesse, Naoto and Shimo making the trip to compete for the 1/8th honours. With the event officially getting underway with a single round of timed practice, this would set the team off on a positive way with Jesse recording the fastest 3-laps to become top seed for the qualifying. Shimo would take his IF18 to the 3rd quickest time while, despite having a crash that cut short his run, Naoto was 4th.
With five rounds of qualifying to get through, 3 to count, it would be the perfect opening run from Naoto as TQ'd ahead of Shimo. Unfortunately for Jesse it was to be a difficult Q1 and he would be classified 9th. He bounced back in Q2 however leading a 1,2,3 for the team ahead of Naoto. After that Naoto would go on to rule proceedings posting three more TQ times to become Top Qualifier and book himself directly into the Main Final. Jesse soon joined him as the only other direct qualifier by winning the Super Pole. Qualifying 3rd overall, Shimo would have to drive an extra 30-minutes to secure his place in the Main winning his Semi Final from pole position by a comfortable margin.
The final was to prove a tough 45-minute encounter with multiple lead changes between the Infinity trio. At the end, it was Jesse who came out on top 3.5-seconds in front of Shimo to become Asia's new 1:8 Onroad Champion. Forced to make a late tyre stop while holding the lead, Naoto completed the Top 3 a further 6-seconds back for an all IF18 podium. With Jesse already completing a clean sweep at the Victorian State Titles at the start of the year in his home country, it has been a great start to the 2018 nitro season for our Aussie.
