Congratulations to Tadahiko and his driving AWESOME for his WIN at the 1/8th scale on-road WORLDS CHAMPIONSHIP. Congratulations to PICCO family, Edo and Alberto and the their dedications to the sport, PICCO family are awesome people and have worked there buts off to put PICCO engines back on top #1....in the WORLD...

A perfect 60-minute display of driving netted Tadahiko Sahashi the 1:8 Onroad World title this evening in Japan. Making his World Championship final debut, the Serpent driver cruised to victory to becomes the 11th driver to lift the biggest prize in the sport’s oldest category taking a comfortable win over the Mugen/OS pairing of Takaaki Shimo and Atsushi Hara. The 19th running of the World Championship, Sahashi’s win marks Italian manufacturer Picco’s first World title in the sport’s Formula One category and the first title for Serpent since 1997. In the pitlane it was Picco’s Eduardo Picco and Serpent designer Michael Salven who ensured perfect fuel & tyre stops en route to the 24-year-old taking a hugely popular win.

Tadahiko Crew

Commenting on the race Sahashi, the younger of the famous racing brothers, said he was ‘super happy’ to win especially in front of a home crowd. Making two tyre stops, the first for just new ZAC tyres on the left side and the second for a full fresh set, he said everything went perfectly. Complimenting the handling of his 977, and the performance & run time of his engine, he was particularly thankful to his pit crew for their faultless stops. Running 5-minute fuel stops, he said once he got the gap over Shimo to above 10-seconds he started to control his pace. Unable to hold back his emotions braking into tears as he drove his final lap, all his rivals paid tribute to his flawless drive.

Podium

Shimo was frustrated by not being able to take the challenge to his fellow countryman. The pre-event favourite, said a wrong choice of set-up for the final left the rear end of his MRX-5 loose preventing him from staying in contact with Sahashi. Happy with every other aspect of the final, doing two stops to change all four tyres each time, he said ultimately Sahashi did the perfect job including getting his set-up right for the track conditions and is the deserving winner.