Sahashi again in Q2
As predicted the second of today’s qualifiers at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Japan proved to be the rocket round with Tadahiko Sahashi again fastest improving his Q1 topping pace by 11-seconds on the 16-seconds a lap track. As in the opening round it was Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo who was closest to the Serpent driver, 5/10ths of his pace over the 10-minute qualifier. After a bad start to qualifying, Q2 saw Jilles Groskamp bounce back to post the 3rd fastest time as the only foreign driver who appears to be a serious treat to the Japanese.
Having not been overly pleased with his Q1 performance, Sahashi was this time ‘really happy’. Making a set-up change to his 977 for the cooler conditions of the days closing run, he said the car worked perfectly. Having had concerns about his run time after Q1, he said adjustments made to his Picco engine improved the fuel economy considerably. Conscious of conserving fuel in Q2, he said the amount of fuel remaining in the fuel tank afterwards shows the problem has been resolved. As a result of this should the conditions in tomorrow’s final qualifier be similar to Q2 he is confident he can improve on his provisional TQ time as he will be able to push harder without any worries over running out of fuel.
Commenting on his OS powered Mugen after Q2, Shimo said it was by far the best it has been this week. Getting his set-up wrong for the first qualifier, the Japanese National Champion said everything worked really well this time round. Predicting that the only real chance of bettering his time and having at shot at the honour of being the Top Qualifier will be tomorrow evening’s 5th qualifier, he said there is a little more time in both the driver and the car if the conditions allow. With rain originally forecast to disrupt Wednesday’s running it now looks like this is no longer the case and racing will be able to go ahead on a dry track.
‘Disappointed to miss a TQ run’ was how Groskamp summed up his run. Just 9/10ths of a second off Sahashi’s time he said he went a little too safe with his set-up. Switching from Protoform’s R18 to their 909 for the run he said the change requires the rear toe to be adjusted and he aired too much on the side of caution making too big an adjustment. This resulted in a very safe car but at the loss of a little steering. While disappointed not to top the times he said he is pretty happy with the fact that he is the only driver able to keep up with the Japanese at their home track. Really happy with the feeling from his Maxima engine, the European Champion said a slightly warmer final qualifier tomorrow could give him a shot at the overall TQ as his Velox V8 seems to be faster when conditions are hotter while his rivals performance drops off.
Fourth fastest despite again suffering from his engine running too lean was KM Racing’s Meen Vejrak. Twice the Thai driver’s OS Motor came close to cutting through the sweeper at he end of the straight but he managed to control the problem with his throttle control. Very happy with his K8’s handling the 200mm World Champion was less happy about being held up by Team Shepherd’s Oliver Mack. With the German getting passed him when his engine lost power the first time, he said he couldn’t get Mack to open up to let him back by and this cost him valuable time.
Having had run time concerns after Q1 about being able to do 36 laps, Takehiro Terauchi posted the 5th fastest time but the 22-year-old said his Novarossi engine ‘just made it’. The Mugen driver said while his MRX-5 was good he could have done with a little more steering. Behind him in a Top 10 that was made up of 6 Japanese drivers was Serpent’s Yuya Sahashi and Mugen’s Shinnosuke Yokoyama with 2011 Worlds runner-up Keisuke Fukuda ninth just ahead of KM Racing team-mate Adrien Bertin. Despite a early crash while running second on pace that lost him almost 10-seconds Italy’s Raiola Carmine ends the day as the second fastest European driver. The Xray/Max driver also posted the second fastest lap of Q2 with only Tadahiko Sahashi faster.
After struggling to the 9th fastest time in Q1 after both a clutch and a front one way issue, Atsushi Hara looked like he was in contention for a TQ run in Q2. Having changed the set-up of both his chassis and clutch, he said the Mugen was a lot better but unfortunately his OS engine was set too rich. Doing an extra lap at the 5-minute mark so as to avoid the busy pitlane, the engine cut due to the extra consumption of the rich setting. Currently sitting 20th thanks to his Q1 time, Hara said despite the flame out he is really looking forward to tomorrow as he is now very happy with the feeling he has with his MRX-5.
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