Lauter ‘Spec Class’ Top Qualifier at ISTC Worlds
Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter is the Top Qualifier of the ‘Spec Class’ at the IFMAR ITSC World Championships in California. The reigning back to back European Spec Champion secured pole position for what is only the second running of the class as a World Championship with one round to go when he recorded his fourth TQ in the fifth & penultimate round of qualifying at Finishline RC Raceway. Going into qualifying as the Top Seed, the German, who earlier this year added the TITC Open Brushless title to his impressive CV, opened with a TQ run which he would back up in Q2 with another. Also a competitive international Modified Touring Car competitor, the third round would be the only glitch of the day as he rolled his Hobbywing powered A800R on a curb, a mistake that allowed team-mate Max Mächler to post a TQ run. In Q4, Lauter returned to the top moving one step closer to locking in his first goal of the week, a new Spec World Champion going to be crowned as inaugural winner Alexandre Duchet hasn’t made the trip to Bakersfield.
With just Mächler able to keep the race for the overall TQ going into the final day, he couldn’t do anything about Lauter’s pace, his closest challenge again coming Xray’s Jan Ratheisky and Matus Benetin, Ratheisky 1.7-second off at the end of the 5-minutes. With one final round of qualifying left, which will open tomorrow’s (Saturday) finals day action, it is Mächler who holds the provisional P2 with Ratheisky third, the later having a chance to jump ahead of the 1:12 Spec World Champion on the grid.
Reacting to his Worlds TQ, Lauter said, ‘The first and I think more important step complete’. He continued, ‘TQ always shows that all the preparation and all the practice and all the set-up choices work perfect. The end result you sometimes don’t have any influence, it’s race luck or strategy or whatever but TQ is important as it shows we did a perfect job. Special thanks to Tim (Wahl) for the great job he does all year and especially now, I’m super happy.’ Looking to the finals and asked about leading them out from the front, he replied, ‘Of course it is very good to lead out front but it will be interesting what happens behind because Max has a TQ run and for sure it is always better to have a team-mate starting behind. We will use Q6 probably for some more tests to get more used to the conditions and try to anticipate what is going to happen in A1.’
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