User:Donnie Park/2016 IFMAR ISTC World Championship

The 2016 IFMAR ISTC World Championship is the upcoming ninth edition of the biennial IFMAR ISTC World Championship for 1:10 scale electric powered radio-controlled on-road cars with touring car bodies, known as International Scale Touring Car (ISTC); sanctioned by the International Federation of Model Auto Racing (IFMAR) to be run over four days in total on 24 through 27 August 2016 following the 2016 IFMAR 1:12 Electric Track World Championship.

The ISTC Worlds was organized by the Car Modelling Association of China (CMAC), in the championship's first event in China, on behalf of on behalf of Far East Model Car Association (FEMCA) and hosted by the Beijing Fengtai Model Auto Training Center. The championships will take place in a newly built circuit built within the  at Fengtai District, in Beijing, China; the first time any IFMAR Worlds have taken place in the country. Naoto Matsukura of Japan, formerly of Yokomo, was the defending champion. The ISTC Worlds was won by Yokomos of Germany.

Circuit
Purpose built within the, the Beijing Fengtai Model Auto Training Center is adjacent to the Fengtai Softball Field that hosted softball in the 2008 Summer Olympics as well as the Beijing Fengtai Stadium. Located in south Beijing, the venue is 44km away from Beijing International Airport and approximately 19km of Nanyuan Airport.

The sports center as a whole also hosted the 1990 Asian Games, 1993 National Games of China, which resulted in the successful bid for the 2008 Beijing Games in addition to volleyball tournaments at the 2001 Summer Universiade, regular China Baseball League and China League One games.

According to organiser, Rick Wang, the event is backed by the government.

Next to the ISTC track, built in 2015, is the AstroTurfed off-road track, in it's former dirt track form, was built especially for the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in 2013, won by Atsushi Hara.

Rule changes
One of the most major rule changes regards tires as five sets of controlled tires are issued to participants. The driver is required to run on new sets on all "odd numbered" rounds and used sets for "even numbered" rounds. If a driver do not complete a run for at least 95% of their run on new wheels, slows down or deliberately pulls out to save on tires, they will be required to use used tires from the controlled practices given out randomly. Tire warmers are prohibited.

Drivers
A full house of 150 drivers from 23 countries took part with host country China having the second most number of entries per nation with 14% of entries although Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Regions of China, makes up the highest number of entrants with 20% then Japan with 13%.

Germany has the highest number of European entrants with 11 drivers, representing 6% overall numbers.