Gruber takes 2nd qualifier at World Championship

In another dramatic qualifier at the 1:8 Onroad Worlds in Japan, Capricorn’s Toni Gruber took the second round TQ.  Having opened qualifying with a TQ run Dario Balestri wouldn’t even make the start of Q2, his engine expiring in the warm-up.  Having led Q1 until he ran out of fuel on the final lap, Simon Kurzbuch would flame out very early on and then when it looked like Naoto Matsukura was on for the TQ of the second round he too ran out of fuel.  All this allowed Gruber to take the TQ ahead of the Infinity of Kouki Kato and the Sahashi brothers who ran their times in the second fastest heat – Tadahiko faster than Yuya.  After a strong first qualifier, finishing P3, Jessie Davis was on for another Top 3 performance but trying to make a pass on Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani, the Italian made contact with the Infinity driver ruining both their qualifiers and earning Catanzani a time penalty.

‘It was really good for the points but not so good overall’, was Gruber’s reaction to taking the TQ for the round.  The German explained, ‘I miss a little bit of top speed and the shift (gearbox) was not so clean and I lost a few tenths.  I think the tyre this round was softer so with the wear it got smaller and that effected my top speed’.  He continued, ‘Naoto was closing behind me but something happened near the finish, I think he ran out fuel,  so I could get the TQ.  We need to see if the engine was not set right or if we had a problem with the gearbox’.

Summing up his impressive P2 run, 17-year-old Kato said, ‘I have a very good feeling with the car but in the first qualifier I was very nervous and I got fifth.  This time I was driving much better as I was more relaxed’.   His first 1:8 World Championship, the Japanese driver said that with his ‘car and engine good’ he will make no changes for the 3rd & final qualifier of the day adding he has ‘no problem with run time’.

Winner of the 1:8 World Championship a decade ago here in Japan, Tadahiko Sahashi reaction to his run was ‘it is getting better’.  The reigning 1:10 Onroad World Champion feels there is more to come from his IF18 III with the set-up still not exactly suiting his driving style.  Also suffering some traffic issues that cost him a few tenths of a second, he did admit he is close on fuel when it comes to making the 4-minutes run time.

Yuya Sahashi said he was happy with the balance of his car in Q2 and instead of making set-up changes to his car he will instead focus on his driving.  Saying he can make run time easy, one thing the 2015 Worlds Podium finisher said he wasn’t too happy with during the second qualifier was his clutch setting.  Looking to make it more aggressive, he will tighten it for the third round.

‘I was on for an easy TQ until the last lap, I lost 3-seconds’, was Matsukura take on the round.  A driver who could become only the third driver in the sport’s history to do the 1:8 & 1:10 Nitro Onroad double here at Infinity International RC Speedway this week,  he explained, ‘the bottom end was set to rich so the next one we will make it more lean which should get us to the 4-minutes.  The car is working great so just need to find half a lap more fuel’.

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