Although there is a lot of different myths and legends surrounding the Land of the Rising Sun - I hope that I can dispel a few, namely that all Japanese car drivers are experts in their chosen hobby and that the Tamiya Championship Series (TCS) is some sort of ultimate precision driving event - competitors chosen because they are the best of the best - or something like that.

Because of the growing interest in F1 in the forums of late, I chose to check out the F1 leg of the TCS and see once and for all just what all the fuss was about.

Luckily I was in Odaiba that day (checking out the Tokyo Motorcycle Show - great if you like scooters) and it didn't take too long to find the race location.

The TCS changes venues every race and surfaces and track conditions can vary a great deal. It all looks very professional, as you would expect. This course was laid out in front the Shell Petroleum Museum . The surface was the kind of marble/concrete pavers that you might find out in front of a shopping mall or local library. And even though the day was warm - tyre warmers were absolutely essential. To say that the track lacked grip is an understatement. I really wanted to check out some drift racing whilst I was here but now I don't have to as you can see by this video!

I checked out the setups people were using - plenty of hopups and as this was the TCS - no aftermarket parts! The TCS in the U.S.A. is a little more lenient but in Japan there can be absolutely no non-Tamiya parts on the car, except the ESC, servo and radio gear. That means you must use Tamiya batteries, shells, chassis, hopups, tyres, inners, wheels and everything else. Some of you may consider this a bit extreme but Tamiya put on the racing venue for a very cheap price (2 x 80 YEN stamps) and they expect a lot of product placement for the effort.

Another thing to note was the size of the course. As this is a public place and there were a lot of people competing, the size was about the same as Boronia. There are a lot of bigger courses in Japan , some the size of go-cart tracks but considering that the main aim is to host these events in the public domain, size is limited.

Did this have an adverse effect on the racing?

Hell no!

There have been a lot of people criticizing the size of Boronia and I would like to add a few things; Size does matter but not in the way you expect. If your ultimate aim is to be the best of the best and travel to Japan to compete - get used to small tracks - everyone knows that they hone your driving skills.

That said, Boronia desperately needs to get some of these yellow Frisbee things (pic 2) to layout on the corners. There is a big problem with the amount of damage caused by the barriers in Boronia (newbies watching $1000 cars smacking into a yellow barricade is not healthy advertising for the sport), but these Frisbees keep the cars away from the danger and this results in far less damage. In the 2 hours I was there, I didn't see any cars retire due to a collision with the barricades - I'm sure it happened but I didn't see it. What I did see was a lot of close incidents that avoided a big crunch because of these discs - it's something to consider.

So what equipment were people using? Any F201 was the order of the day. It didn't matter if it was a FW24 or F2001 shell, There seemed to be very little difference. The races were very short - about 2 mins - so NiCad's were the order of the day because of their low weight. Anything else is overkill. Futaba 3PK's seemed very popular as the controller of choice but I did notice a few EX-10's. I asked someone who had both controllers on his table and he indicated that he thought the EX-10 was a better unit (this is certainly not a proper review and I will be taking a more in depth look at the EX-10 when I purchase mine later this year).

Mentioning tables, check out this pic (pic 3). Japanese drivers are fairly meticulous in their pit setups and looks as though good pit preparation is something we have in common.

Lightweight diffs, reinforced swing arms and suspension seemed to be the main hopups everyone was using. As has been mentioned in the forums, everything else is a bit a wasted expenditure.

So. down to business. how was the racing?

As exciting as you would expect. The course was very slippery and I think that the drivers did a remarkable job given the track surface. Not that everything was smooth sailing. There are a lot of racing divisions at the TCS (F1 - A, F1 - B, etc) and the quality of driving matches the skill levels of those competing. I saw some cars regularly slide into the walls, some cars crunch into each other and I even saw the leader of one final hit the yellow Frisbee at speed, get airborne and let the number 2 car overtake him by driving underneath his still airborne car!

I would say that most of the drivers at Boronia possess the driving skills required and could fly over and compete tomorrow. There would only be two conditions:

•  The TCS involvement is determined by a draw. You fill out the form, add two stamps and send it in. Then you wait to see if your name has been drawn from a barrel. They write back to you and hopefully the news is what you want to hear.

•  Any ego's have to be put aside. This is Japan and grandstanding and throwing a fit doesn't win you any favours. This is a non-confrontational society and having a whinge doesn't cut it here. Sure, they get pissed off like everyone else if something doesn't go their way but they don't vent - not publicly anyway.

I also had the good opportunity to meet a driver who spoke quite good English and I was able to get a lot of this information for this report from him - a big thanks to Hiroaki! Most drivers were only to happy to show me their car and any other specialized equipment that I thought looked cool.

Trick gear? Tyre warmers - everyone had these, gear bags were also the order of the day. Most of the other stuff was pretty standard. As I said before, the specs were Tamiya so there were no special batteries or motors, most stuff looked like it belonged at home. I mentioned to Hiroaki that if you took a photo at the right angle (didn't include any Japanese signage) then this event looked like it could be in Australia .

The day proved very eye-opening. Anyone who thinks that F1 is dead only has to look at these photos to realise that there is still a lot of life in this class.

It was great to see that everyone who likes RC racing is just as enthusiastic about their sport regardless of location. So hopefully that busts some myths - they have great drivers here but then we do too in Australia and the TCS is for everyone, not just the driving elite.

So, what next? Hiroaki has offered to lend me some RC gear (I'm still saving for my EX-10) and if my name is drawn out I will be competing in the touring class with my 415MS. It's on the 3rd of May in Asakusa and it's on. carpet!

So fingers crossed and hopefully my next race report will be a first hand recollection.