Tadahiko just one run away from being Top Qualifier
Tadahiko Sahashi is just one qualifier away from securing the honour of Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships and based on today’s qualifying the Team Serpent driver can already get the glasses ready for the champagne to celebrate. After yesterday evening’s rocket round, today’s hot conditions meant no one came near to challenging Sahashi with the Top 16 remaining unchanged from yesterday. The highest placed driver to post their quickest time today was HB’s Hideo Kitazawa who holds 17th position. With the top drivers using today’s three qualifiers as a test run for the finals, it was the Sahashi brothers who still locked out the top of the time sheets. Having posted the fastest time in the days opening & third qualifier, when the only 36-lap runs were recorded, Tadahiko also ended the day with the fastest time of Q5 & the day albeit it over a full lap of his TQ pace. In Q4 his brother Yuya took his Serpent 977 to the fastest time again a full lap off the Q2 topping time.
The highest placed European sitting 3rd overall, Jilles Groskamp was the closest to Tadahiko in Q5 although had he not had an incident during his fuel stop he may well have become the first non Japanese driver to top a round of qualifying. The Dutch ace lost around 3-second when his pitman put his car into the path of another in pitlane spinning his car around. With the change of running order between Q4 & 5 giving the Team Shepherd/Maxima driver 4 hours to work on his car he used to the time to completely rebuild the Velox V8 and then using the final qualifier as a shakedown. Commenting that as he lined up for the heat that Pre Worlds winner Takaaki Shimo even joked with him that it was ‘another practice run’, the reigning Electric Touring Car Champion said maybe its time for a change of the qualifying format to something similar to touring car where irrespective of the track conditions your position for the round counts for something. Noting that some qualifiers finished with only 4 cars still running, he said with everyone knowing that improving the time wasn’t possible it was a very relaxed day but said that’s not the way to run a World Championship. He said the qual points system would make things a lot more exciting.
While the Q5 times counted for nothing, like in Q4 it was Mugen/OS driver Shinnosuke Yokoyama who was third fastest. Behind him KM Racing’s Meen Vejrak posted the fourth fastest time ahead of Italian National Champion Raiola Carmie’s Xray and the Mugen of 2011 Worlds finalist Takehiro Terauchi.
The only 1:8 World Champion competing at Keitune Racing Speedway this week, 1999 Champion Adrien Bertin said while the fastest time qualifying system has always been used it is probably time for a change adding that a points system would be more fair. Having won his title in Clermont Ferrand, France, when there was a similar situation where just one round pretty much determined the qualifying outcome, he said overall he thinks World Championships should be decided over multiple races. The head of the Team Orion engine programme, who has also been World Champion in 200mm Touring Car, said the current format favours local drivers too much. Although he contested the Warm-up race, adding that a lot of development work since then meant his KM Racing K8 is now very different and he is having to start again from scratch, he said the locals still have too much of a home advantage. This year’s Worlds is the first time that there will be no Top 4 direct qualifiers, everyone having to race through from the Semi-finals, which is something Bertin thinks is not a good change. The Frenchman, and Red RC fully agree with him, saying that becoming Top Qualifier should have a reward and that should be a place in the final to compete for the World title.
Tomorrow’s schedule will get underway 2 hours later than normal with the final round of qualifying set to start at 09:00 local time. Following this the lower finals up to and including the 1/32 will be run.
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