Tebo stamps authority on Day 1
Jared Tebo stamped his authority on Day 1 of the 1:10 Offroad World Championships, the Kyosho driver topping the times for each of the six practice runs in Japan. Posting the fastest of his 3-consecutive lap times in the second of the controlled practices, which brought the opening day at the Yatabe Arena to a close, the defending World Champion leaves with the honour of being top seed for tomorrow’s qualifying. Controlled practice would end in a Kyosho 1-2 as an improved Naoto Matsukura managed to move ahead of Neil Cragg with the second fastest time 3/10ths off. Cragg too improved on his CP1 pace despite breaking with a minute left to run with Associated team-mate Ryan Cavalieri, who failed to go the full distance in the first round, posting the fourth fastest time while the next 4 drivers couldn’t better their early pace.
A driver clearly determined to divulge as little information as possible at what is effectively the home track of the former Yokomo ‘chosen one’, Matsukura said a new set-up for CP2 improved the car in every area. Allowing him to set a new outright fastest lap time of 17.089, he said it still needs further improvement in terms of how it is handling the washboard section. Looking to make the car easier to drive as he tries to work on his consistency, his average over the 5-minutes 1-second a lap off that of Tebo, the multiple 1:12 World Champion clearly doesn’t like the whoops and that combined with the set-up needing work appears to be adding to a driver who is showing signs of early frustration.
Breaking a rear arm off his B5M, Cragg said that was the result of ‘having too much fun and trying too hard’. Battling with Tebo, he said he got on the power too early and wheelied onto the straight leading to contact with the wall that caused the break but overall he’s ‘pretty happy with (his) pace’, adding he ‘hope(s) it continues’.
Cavalieri described his performance with a not so positive ‘it was ok’. The 2011 World Champion said he hasn’t been as consistent as in free practice and having ‘tried a few things’ he will go back to a set-up he ran earlier in the day. Saying there would be ‘no more testing, testing is done’, the current US National Champion said we’ll get the good set-up back on and then ‘just run’.
A driver whose lack of pace has been the most noted among his competitors, Lee Martin would end up 13th putting him in the second fastest group for qualifying. Commenting on his CP2 improvement, managing only 22nd in the first round, the Warm-up Race winner said his Yokomo ‘felt drivable that time’. Feeling his overall 5-minute run time was ‘not bad’, he said they still need to find more from the car but at least the day ended with things starting to take a positive direction.
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