Matsukura tops Day 1 in Finland
Young Japanese ace Naoto Matsukura has ended Day 1 of the 2011 IFMAR Electric Buggy World Championships at the top of the times sheets after producing a blistering lap in the day’s final round of 2WD practice. Quickest in the sixth practice session, only the Team Yokomo driver could better his own time doing so in P8 with a 24.222 second lap which left him 3/10ths clear of Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri who also produced his best time in the closing session of the day. With little appearing to phase the back to back 1:12 World Champion, Matsukura took his performance today in his stride saying he is looking forward to getting qualifying underway tomorrow.
With one final round of practice scheduled for the morning, drivers will run four of the five qualifiers tomorrow with Cavalieri not too concerned about the gap to the Japanese National Champion. Also running a B4.1, with his having the new longer chassis, the American Pro said his average lap is better than Matsukura’s and over a full 5-minute heat its consistency that counts.
Ending the day 3rd fastest thanks to his time from P6, Team Durango’s Joern Neumann said he had trouble running a clean lap in the final two practices but is happy that his Speed Passion powered DEX210 will be ‘OK’ over 5 minutes and he has no plans to make any set-up changes once conditions stay the same. Unfortunately after two dry days in Vaasa the forecast for qualifying is giving a 50% chance of rain in the morning.
The leading driver from Warm-up race winners Team Losi Racing, young American teenager Dakotah Phend ended the day with the fourth fastest lap. Having made a number of little changes to his TLR22 for P7 & 8 the up & coming talent said they did not give him what he was looking for and he will revert to the same set-up he used in the sixth practice when he set his 24.613 lap. Team-mate Mike Truhe ended the day with his best time finishing up sixth fastest, the US Champion saying the car has been good all day and now the driver was starting to come good too. Tipped as being a major contender for the title on Wednesday, Dustin Evans had a problem with a rear tyre insert in the final practice and ended up 15th fastest. Working on his consistency rather than outright speed the American said ‘qualifying is about 5-minutes and not one lap’ and he is feeling positive about tomorrow.
In between the Losi’s of Phend and Truhe is early practice pace setter Jared Tebo. Doing his best lap in P8, which was good enough to end the day fifth, the factory Kyosho driver said he now feels ready to go racing. More and more comfortable with the track and the set-up on his much modified RB5 he said it was a productive day.
Although he ended Day 1 with his fastest lap, Ryan Maifield did not appear overly happy with his opening day. Describing it as ‘up and down’, the factory Associated driver said he found the day very long and being used to running multiple classes at big races he had too much time to think about set-up changes. Unable to better his P5 lap time Steven Hartson ended the eighth fastest followed by two more long chassis B4.1s of former World Champion Neil Cragg and fellow Brit Paul Bradby who completes the Top 10.
Just outside the Top 10 setting the 11th fastest time in the penultimate practice session Lee Martin was as expected the best of the Tamiya Racing Factory squad with the TRF201 chassis.
Top 15 Practice Lap times
1. Naoto Matsukura – Associated – 24.222
2. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 24.521
3. Joern Neumann – Durango – 24.524
4. Dakotah Phend – Losi – 24.613
5. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 24.632
6. Mike Truhe – Losi – 24.714
7. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 24.739
8. Steven Hartson – Associated – 24.749
9. Neil Cragg – Associated – 24.813
10.Paul Bradby – Associated – 24.822
11.Lee Martin – Tamiya – 24.830
12.Peter Pinisch – Associated – 24.830
13.Keisuke Enomoto – Associated – 24.830
14.Tom Cockerill – Schumacher – 24.830
15.Dustin Evans – Losi – 24.921
View the full results here (PDF).
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