Levanen & Matsukura untouchable
Day 2 of the IFMAR Electric Onroad World Championships has come to a close and yet again the final 1:12 scale qualifier of the day saw Juho Levanen and Naoto Matsukura crush the opposition. The Associated duo managed a 1-2 in Heat 4 despite both of them dumping at the end of the run. Producing the fastest lap of the event with a blistering 11.675 second lap during the heat, Levanen put his dumping down to the increased traction but the Yokomo team pointed blame for their young star dumping down to the pair battling throughout the heat for the TQ. Running 40 laps in 08:07.965 the Finn was a little under a second ahead of his Japanese team-mate despite nursing their cars to the line but such was their advantage that third placed Jilles Groskamp was too far behind to capitalise and end the RC12R5’s reign in Thailand.
Groskamp described his run as decent when you take the dominating AE drivers out of the equation. The Dutch driver was happier with his CRC, in which he is running a 4.5 turn Speed Passion motor, in the cooler conditions and was happy to record his first 40 lap run. The only other driver to break the 40 laps today was Hideo Kitazawa who has a 5.5 Speed Passion motor installed in the rear of his Hot Bodies Cyclone 12X.
Viktor Wilck enjoyed his first decent run so far clocking up 39 laps in 08:06.340. The Swede has been struggling to get his car to work but isnt quite sure if its the car or tyres that are the problem. Encouraged by his fifth position he is hoping he can continue on a similar pace in tomorrow’s final two qualifiers as he needs two good runs if he is to have any chance of securing a spot on the grid for the A Mains. Hupo Honigl, who is running in the second last group of heats, was annoyed that he got collected by back markers twice on his way to topping the group. The CRC driver eventually took sixth overall for the round.
Xray driver Steven Weiss was very pleased with his run to 9th making him the fastest of those running the new prototype XII. A change of tyre compound resulted in a big improvement in the cars handling and allowed the German to claim his best run ahead of fellow Xray driver Paul Lemieux. Elsewhere Marc Rheinard was on for the 3rd fastest time when a rear tyre parted company with the wheel, while Atsushi Hara’s bad luck continued as a chunked tyre ended his run for a second time today.
Two more qualifiers await the 49 drivers tomorrow morning before the finals get underway and the 14th 1:12 World Champion is crowned. Our live coverage, which is supported by Speed Passion and LRP, continues tomorrow when we will see if anyone can respond to the Associated domination.
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