Above left to right: Elliot Boots, Adam Drake,
David Ronnefalk, Mark Pavidis, Cody King and
Marty Korn. Left: ;e number stickers on his
car weren’t lying – with a convincing
victory at the Warm-Up and a
brilliant drive to take the title,
Robert Batlle was truly the #1
driver on the planet in 2012.
A SYSTEM OF BROKEN HEAR TS
For IFMAR’s nitro o;-road competition, six rounds of
qualifying (rain cancelled the sixth round this year)
using a points-style system to reward round-to-round
consistency seeds dual main event ladders with no one
transferring directly to the 60-minute final – meaning
that all 12 of the cars that lined up on the grid had to
race their way into the show. ;ough touted by nitro
o;-road racers as the fairest way to remove track
conditions from the equation and put all racers on an
even playing field, the dual ladder system has a knack
for creating unbelievable heartbreak – like 2004, for
instance, when Yannick Aigoin outclassed the field
in qualifying but was DQ’d for an illegal fuel tank
after handily winning his semifinal; he had to sit and
watch the final (which was won by fellow Frenchman
Guillaume Vray).
To debut a new car at the World Championships is a big deal; XRAY brought a huge team to support
the launch of its prototype XB9. American driver Josh Wheeler was the comeback kid of the team,
coming from what seemed like out of nowhere to qualify for the Final.
