Associated continue to rule
It’s a case of who can catch Team Associated here in Thailand as Naoto Matsukura and Juho Levanen again topped the time sheets by an impressive margin in the second qualifier. Matsukura narrowly missed out on a 40 lapper recording 39 lap in 08:00.902 while Levanen considerable narrowed the gap to the young Japanese star stopping the clocks at 08:03.632. While the Finn was able to close the gap on his fellow RC12R5 driver thanks to the sharing of tyre information, behind them the field have their work cut out if they are to do anything about stopping the duo. Hupo Honigl took his CRC again to third but the IIC Champion was 10 seconds, or 3/4 of a lap, off the TQ time and admitted that it was almost impossible to match the pace of the back to back Japanese Champion who has the distinct advantage of regularly racing on asphalt.
Starting to show better form with fourth fastest in Heat 2 was Marc Rheinard. Driving his Speed Passion powered Hot Bodies, the European Champion is far from happy with his pace so far and appears to be struggling to get a good feeling with the car, a complaint shared by his 1:12 scale team-mate Andy Moore who with 38 laps was seventh.
Running Futaba’s new prototype ESC in his Cyclone 12X, Hideo Kitazawa recorded fifth in Heat 2 but the Japanese driver is not feeling well suffering from a suspected cold. Completing the Top 6 was Jilles Groskamp with his Speed Passion/CRC combination. The Dutch ace is a lot happier with his car now after trying different additive which is turning out to be the key to getting a car to work right on the asphalt surface which is being used for the first time at a Worlds. One just has to look around at the huge selection of tyres some of the teams have turned up here with to see the importance that has been put on the black foam.
Elliot Harper headed the Xray challenge in Heat 2 with eight place just ahead of team-mate Alexander Hagberg. Atsushi Hara rounded out the Top 10 suffering from two much front end grid on his Orion powered Hot Bodies. Hara will switch compound for Heat 3 and admitted to being relieved that its three of the six heats that will decide the final qualification ranking.
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