Matsukura is Top Qualifier at 1:12 Worlds

Naoto Matsukura will for the third 1:12 World Championships in succession start from pole position after his rivals failed to run the magical 39-laps in the penultimate qualifier this evening in the Netherlands. With three 39-lap heats to his credit and two rounds counting towards the grid, the young Japanese star’s combined time can’t now be beaten despite one round of qualifying remaining in the morning. Like in Q4, when Rheinard was challenging Matsukura TQ pace, Q5 saw the Yokomo driver face another strong and more surprising challenge from factory Serpent driver Marc Fisher.  Unfortunately for the German as the heat came up on 5-minutes his electrics overheated causing the car to shut down.

Fastest in all four previous qualifiers, four laps after Fisher’s demise Matsukura also hit trouble but it was of his own making as he made a big driver error.  Pulling up after the heavy contact he rejoined to finish the run once his mechanic looked over the car but back in the pits the 18-year-old who has little english said his prototype R12 was ‘broke’.  With his mechanic rebuilding the car for tomorrow’s finals day Matsukura wasn’t phased

A round that saw a lot of the big names crash, there was drama before the top heat and last action of the day got underway as Rheinard’s CRC failed the pre race minimum 3mm ride height inspection.  Mechanic Thomas Pumpler returned to the pits to change front tyre but again the car failed.  Using some brute force on the front end of the car they got the prototype to pass but the heat was already underway.  Taking to the track with front tyres that hadn’t been treated with additive Rheinard said afterwards that his crash in Q5 must have tweaked the car and this was the cause of his ride height problem.

In the end it was a ‘safe drive’ that helped Jilles Groskamp to top the round with a time of 38/8:02.479 which was quick enough to move his Onpoint Racing chassis ahead of Rheinard’s CRC and into second in the provisional qualification ranking list.  Groskamp said while he could have possibly ran a slightly faster time he said a 39-lap run was never on the cards.  Behind the Dutchman Ronald Volker set the second fastest time with Simo Ahoniemi third, both drivers failing to better the previous two best run times.

Setting the fourth fastest time in Q5 was Team Associated’s Olly Jefferies but he too failed to improve his time.  The British Champion said his R5 feels pretty good on the track but that is not reflected in his times.  Currently holding onto the final spot on the grid for the A-Main and the only factory AE in the Top 10, he has a 4 second cushion over German Marcus Mobers and is hoping the morning’s sixth & final qualifier proves to be a slow round.

Team-mate Keven Hebert who made the final at the last World Championships needs all but a miracle tomorrow if he is to make the 2012 line-up.  The US Champion said his Reedy powered R5 feels broken in the first half of the run and if he could only start his runs with the car feeling like it does in the final 4-minutes he would be OK.  Sitting 12th in the overnight ranking, the Canadian will re-run his tyres for a second time along with changing his side springs which he hopes will give him some chance of a quick run should the 6th qualifier prove to be the rocket round.

Elsewhere having been 2nd & 3rd fastest respectively in Q4 CRC pairing & fellow Brits Andy Moore and Elliot Harper both had big crashes.  Moore pulled up after his early crash but rejoined to set a new lap record of 12.094 and said afterwards that the change to softer tyres had made his car ‘pretty awesome’.  Harper said an early off tweaked his car and having to use full trim to get it to go down the straight he caught a dot coming off the straight which launched he car into the sponsor boards.  The impact broke the steering servo along with a number of parts on the car with his mechanic Brian Wynn saying all but the chassis plate, which IFMAR marked ahead of controlled practice, will be new on the car tomorrow.

Round 5 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:02.479
2. Ronald Völker (DE) – Associated – 38/8:07.280
3. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:07.732
4. Keven Hebert (CA) – Associated – 38/8:09.472
5. Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:09.839
6. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:10.448
7. Rick Hohwart (US) – Associated – 38/8:12.620
8. Toshiki Kunitomo (JP) – CRC – 38/8:12.802
9. Hayato Ishioka (JP) – CRC – 37/8:00.589
10.Yugo Nagashima (JP) – Yokomo – 37/8:05.397

Overall Qualification Ranking List
(after Round 5 of 6)
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 78/16:18.266
2. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 76/16:04.032
3. Marc Rheinard (DE) – CRC – 76/16:04.118
4. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 76/16:05.174
5. Ronald Völker (DE) – Associated – 76/16:07.339
6. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 76/16:08.417
7. Andy Moore (GB) – CRC – 76/16:10.904
8. Elliot Harper (GB) – CRC – 76/16:12.531
9. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 76/16:12.860
10.Olly Jefferies (GB) – Associated – 76/16:13.853

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