Collari fastest in CP2 at World Championship

The second round of controlled practice at the 1:10 200mm World Championships at Homestead RC Raceway saw Lamberto Collari go quickest.  The Infinity driver bettered the CP1 pace of team-mate Naoto Matsukura, to top the Japanese driver with Tadahiko Sahashi making it a 1-2-3 for the reigning 1:8 Onroad World Champion manufacturer. For reigning champion Dominic Greiner it was a frustrating round as he struggled with the balance of his car ending up P5 for the round behind Robert Pietsch.  After struggling with traction conditions reigning 1:8 World Champion Dario Balestri would manage his first Top 6 run ahead of Leo Arnold who is the best of the Xray challengers in Florida so far.

‘The car feels very good’, was a very pleased looking Collari’s reaction after topping the round with the Italian adding, ‘for the long run I’m very confident’.  Asked how he was adapting to the 1:10 driving style he replied, ‘I start out in my mind driving like 1:8 but after the first corner I remember I’m driving 1:10’.  He added, ‘the braking and acceleration are completely different but I am getting more and more comfortable with the driving style each time I go on the track’.  Running a different bodyshell in CP2, he will try and different body position for his next run as well a running a different engine with different timing.

Having made changes to his Infinity, Matsukura said, ‘Now it is too stable for my driving.  I have to be more hard on braking so it is too much hard work. I will go for a set-up in the middle of what I ran now and the first round’.  The 1:8 Onroad World Finalist, his international 1:8 racing debut coming at the Worlds in France last year, continued, ‘my driving is a little different to the others and I am using different lines but I need to change this because I am putting my tyres on dirty parts of the track and it is getting loose in the dust’.  With 2 of the four rounds counting for the seeding for qualifying, meaning he will line up in the top heat tomorrow, he said, ‘This is my first time racing 1:10 and I am really enjoying it. It is good fun.’

Sahashi said he found a better set-up for CP2.  Making rear end adjustments as well as switching to softer shock oil in the rear, the Japanese driver said the changes made his car ‘drive better’.  Making his Infinity debut in Florida, the long time Serpent driver plans to take each of the adjustments one step further for CP3.

Having had a front diff problem in CP1, Pietsch said his car ‘felt pretty ok’ for the second run but added ‘it was still not the same as 2-days ago’ when he topped the opening day of practice. Fitting a new diff for CP2, the Mugen driver will now change the weight distribution of the prototype car concluding, ‘I hope with this we can find the pace of 2 days ago again’.  

‘I’m not happy with the car’, was Greiner’s reaction after CP2.  The German continued, ‘the balance is not good. It is pushing on corner entry and then has too much steering on the way out. It’s only on the left side of the track.  The right side is pretty OK so I don’t know what to do.’  One thing he said is contributing to his problems is the shore difference between the front tyre and rear tyre. He said, ‘there is a 10 shore difference, normally I would race with a difference of 3.  I can qualifying the car ok when I am driving around on my own but I could not race it like this. It is too hard to drive’.

Commenting on his performance Balestri said, ‘It is getting better but the big problem is when we tested at the Warm-up the tyres were completely different. They had more grip.  We were 1-second faster than we are now and then when we start 2 days ago the car was undriveable.  We had to start again from zero which is really bad for us’.  The Italian was critical of the format saying, ‘they always changes the rules. In Gubbio we had 6 practice each day but here get 4 and yesterday because of the rain it was only 3. Anyway today its getting better but it is not enjoyable to drive. It is like driving on ice. It’s a really bad race’.

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