Levanen TQs Round 3

Juho Levanen has TQ’d Round 3 of qualifying with the first and so far only 40 lap run of the 2008 IFMAR 1:12 Worlds.  The Finn recorded 40 laps in 08:12.355 to beat a much improved Atsushi Hara who made 39 laps in 08:05.640.  Levanen who is running a 5.0 turn version of LRP’s new X12 motor described his RC12R5 afterwards as near perfect as he maintained Associated’s reign at the top of the time sheets.  Only his second big 1:12 race this year, his other outing being the IIC in Vegas, the 23-year-old will leave the car the same for Round 4 but may try running his tyres for a second time. Hot Bodies team leader Hara said his change of tyres was an improvement but his car was still not super fast and he plans to try another compound for the final heat of the day.  Hideo Kitazawa completed the Top 3.

Top Qualifier in Round 1 & 2, Naoto Matsukura’s great run came undone when he made a mistake while swapping the TQ time with Levanen.  The protege of 5 times World Champion Masami Hirosaka, the Japanese driver reported his car as suffering from slight understeer.  Using Nosram electrics the youngster is running a 4.5 turn motor with the speedo set to the lowest power setting so as to save his tyres.

Normally touring car team-mates at Tamiya, Marc Rheinard, at the controls of a Hot Bodies, and Jilles Groskamp, driving for CRC, completed the Top 6 for heat number 3.  Groskamp’s team-mate Hupo Honigl who was third in the two earlier heats struggled, eventually crashing out with an ill handling car.  For defending World Champion manufacturer Corally, Simo Ahoneimi was fastest of the SP12X WC Edition runners in 8th while fellow Scandinavian Alexander Hagberg was top Xray in 10th.

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