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Q2 Update
The second round of qualifying saw another TQ run from Naoto Matsukura but the Yokomo driver’s time was slower than in Q1 after a mistake on the last lap left him just shy of another 39 lap run. Behind the World Champion, Jilles Groskamp was second fastest, the Dutch ace improving his Q1 time by 4.5 seconds. Having run a cautious first qualifier Alexander Hagberg drove a more aggressive second heat which resulted in the factory Xray driver setting the third fastest time for both the round and overall.
Having retired from Q1 with a chunked rear tyre Ronald Volker again failed to go the full 8-minutes, this time ‘light contact’ with the track boards causing his motor to move. As a result of the two non-finishes the Euro Touring Series Champion currently sits in 92nd and last position in the qualification ranking. The German, who was top qualifier at last year’s 1:12 European Championships, said the set-up they tried in Q2 felt really good so he is confident he can move up from the bottom spot in Q3.
Second fastest in Q1 Marc Rheinard was another who failed to finish the second qualifier after his CRC ran out of battery power in the closing minute of the heat.
Round 2 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 38/8:00.732
2. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:02.773
3. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 38/8:02.945
4. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:04.420
5. Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:05.667
6. Andy Moore (GB) – CRC – 38/8:06.992
7. Elliot Harper (GB) – CRC – 38/8:08.223
8. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:09.375
9. Markus Mobers (DE) – Onpoint – 38/8:09.584
10.Juho Levänen – Associated – 38/8:09.614
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No surprise as Naoto TQs opening qualifier
There was no surprise in the opening round of qualifying for the 1:12 World Championships with Naoto Matsukura topping the 8-minute heat by a considerable margin from the CRC’s of Marc Rheinard and Simo Ahomiemi. Like in yesterday’s practice, the reigning World Champion was the only driver to record a 39-lap run with his Yokomo once again setting the fastest lap with a 12.203 which was near on identical to his 12.202 record set in controlled practice.
Despite his rivals openly accepting that they are battling it out for the runners-up spot at these, the 16th running of the 1:12 Worlds, Matsukura said his Yokomo was a little difficult to drive as his steering to the left and the right were different. Chasing a third consecutive world title here in the Netherlands he said his car felt a little loose something he put down to his set-up rather than the track conditions. Having had a control tyre additive in 2010, this year drivers are free to use any odourless additive and this has resulted in mixture of additives being used causing the track surface to be very oily with many of the top drivers struggling with the loose conditions.
Describing his run as ‘safe’, Rheinard said he lacked low end power with his prototype narrow chassis CRC very slow out of the corners. Happy overall with how the car handled he said he will leave the set-up as is but change the settings on his Speed Passion speedo for Q2. Reverting back to the same set-up that saw him feature strongly in free practice, Ahomiemi said his ‘standard’ CRC felt really good but his driving could have been better. Making a few small mistakes he said he will continue with the car as is for Q2 and focus on cleaning up his driving.
Setting the fourth fastest time Jilles Groskamp was on target to take P2 until he had a coming together with Tamiya Touring Car team-mate Elliot Harper. Glancing the track boards Harper’s CRC bounced into the path of Groskamp’s Onpoint Racing car sending the Dutch ace into corner marker from where he needed marshaling. Losing 5-seconds Groskamp said despite the incident, which he added was no fault of Harper, it was a positive first run as he was able to run a closer pace to Matsukura and with a clean run is confident he can be the quickest of those in the battle to become Vice Champion.
Xray’s Alexander Hagberg took a cautious approach to the opening qualifier and it paid dividends for the Swede as he set the fifth fastest. Describing the run as ‘OK’ he said he is still too far off the pace but with a better starting position for Q2 he is confident that by ‘increasing the risk’ and driving harder he can close the gap. Running in the second highest heat, he said he will leave his X12 set-up the same.
Completing the Top 6 was Corally’s Hideo Kitazawa. The Japanese driver, who is only in the third highest heat, said his prototype chassis was very nervous to drive and this led to him making a mistake. Planning to leave the car the same for his second qualifier he expects to try a different tyre additive to try make it more stable.
Elsewhere Ronald Volker, who was closest to Matsukura yesterday, pulled up after he got caught up in the Harper/Groskamp coming together that resulted in his Associated suffering a chunked tyre. Third fastest yesterday. factory Associated driver Juho Levanen didn’t feature in Q1 ending up 42nd fastest. The Finn switched to JRF tyres and ran them in the three minute practice round this morning in which he said they worked well but opting to run the same set in his first heat he said it was a bad call as the 11 minutes was too much running.
Round 1 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 39/8:10.594
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – CRC – 38/8:03.260
3. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:03.997
4. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:07.245
5. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 38/8:07.737
6. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:07.832
7. Markus Mobers (DE) – Onpoint – 38/8:08.324
8. Keven Hebert (CA) – Associated – 38/8:09.367
9. Toshiki Kunitomo (JP) – CRC – 38/8:11.531
10.Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:12.233
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Day 1 of 1:12 Worlds just a formality for Matsukura
Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura stamped his authority on the opening day of the 1:12 World Championships in the Netherlands, the reigning champion topping the time sheets in controlled practice with the only 39-lap run of the day. Making today’s practice look like just a formality in his quest to securing a third consecutive World title, the closest challenger to the Japanese star was his Yokomo touring car team-mate Ronald Volker, while a strong final practice saw a big improvement from 2010 European Champion Juho Levänen who ended the day third fastest.
Setting the fastest run time and a new outright fastest lap of 12.202 in the first of the two controlled practices, Matsukura couldn’t improve on his pace in the final 8-minute run as a change of set-up left his Yokomo difficult to drive and lacking steering. Suffering a number of heavy crashes, that left the front end of his bodyshell featuring a number of extra holes, he eventually pulled up just before the 7-minute mark. Despite this, the 18-year-old said he is very confident for tomorrow’s qualifying as reverting back to his CP1 set-up will give him a car that is quick and which he is also comfortable with driving.
Volker, who backed up his 8:02.694 in CP1 with a 8:02.883 in CP2 said his LRP powered Associated R5 was a little more difficult to drive second time round after he tried a different tyre compound. Feeling there is potential to better his current pace the German ace said it was a matter of finding the limit at which the car’s improved speed is out weighed by it becoming too difficult to drive and making the risk of crashing too high for any advantage to be gained.
Having made just small gradual set-up adjustments over the day factory Associated driver Levänen said his Reedy powered R5 got better every run. The Finn, who was runner up at the 2008 Worlds, described the car as being decent in the last run but added he should be able to improve it further tomorrow. Having sourced sets of the same JFT tyres that Matsukura and Volker have been using he hopes this will further help him to reduce the gap.
Ending the day fourth fastest, within his CP1 time, was Jilles Groskamp. The Dutch ace said his Onpoint Racing chassis was better in CP2 after changes gave him more steering, but more difficult to drive, a mistake costing him almost 5-seconds meaning he failed to improve his overall pace. Knocking over a 1/10th off his best lap time in CP2, he said he will leave his set-up unchanged for the opening qualifier and try instead to adjust his driving to the better cope with the extra steering.
Having not featured in free practice, new CRC signing Marc Rheinard found good form in the first controlled practice to break into the Top 10 for the first time with the 5th fastest time ahead of British National Champion Olly Jefferies who enjoyed a clean run in CP2. Having started the day with a single cell speedo the former European Champion switch to a regular Speed Passion speedo for the controlled practice which he said was more to his liking. Running the new narrow chassis which CRC are debuting at the Worlds, the German said switching the battery position from running the length of the car to mounting it across the chassis made it more comfortable to drive. Trying a harder tyre in CP2 he said it was the wrong direction to take as it made the car very twitchy and he will revert back to the compound he ran earlier. His first 1:12 race since the last Worlds 2-year-old ago in Germany, Rheinard said one of the most important things in qualifying is going to be getting in a clean error free run.
Having featured strongly in four rounds of free practice, reigning European Champion Simo Ahoniemi could only manage 11th in controlled practice just in front of Team Associated’s Rick Hohwart. The CRC team driver said he tried different tyres in both controlled runs and the car was not nice to drive but the Finn is confident that by switching back to the tyre selection he used to top FP4 he should be at the sharp end of the times sheets for the opening qualifier.
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Video – Free Practice Action Rd3
Matsukura tops free practice
Defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura has got his ambitions of winning a third consecutive 1:12 title off to an encouraging start by putting his Yokomo top of the free practice time sheets both in terms of outright lap time and total laps completed over 8-minutes. Recording a fastest lap of 12.211 and 38-laps in 8:04.488 in the third of the four free practice rounds, the 18-year-old set the pace ahead of his Yokomo touring car team-mate Ronald Volker with Onpoint’s Jilles Groskamp and CRC’s Simo Ahoniemi the only other drivers to manage 38-laps of the indoor carpet track.
Matsukura was pleased to top the opening proceedings of this the 16th running of the 1:12 World Championships but in FP4, in which he was outpaced by Ahoniemi, he said the track changed to what he described as ‘loose carpet’ with his Reedy powered prototype R12 suffering from slight understeer. Moving now into two rounds of controlled practice, which will bring day 1 of the event to a close, the Japanese ace will try a different set-up for the first of the runs which he said should give him the turn in he lacked in the final free practice.
Volker, who is running an Associated chassis fitted with LRP electronics, said his car was also better in FP3 when he too recorded his best time. Although easy to drive in FP3 he said the car felt slow but trying a different compound of Jaco tyre in FP4 he said the earlier combination was better overall. The former European Champion plans to use the controlled practice rounds, which will only be used to reseed major discrepancies in the current heat order, to try fine tune the compound & diameter of tyre he will use for tomorrow morning’s opening qualifier.
Having only had one day of practice prior to today with his 1:12 chassis sponsor Onpoint Racing, Groskamp was pleased with his early pace. Having made quite big set-up changes for each run the Dutch ace said he has found a set-up that is easy to drive and now plans to use the controlled practices to find the best compromise between making the car faster at the cost of it being easy to drive. Having not raced 1:12 since last year, Groskamp said that lack of mileage makes running a faster but less stable car that bit more difficult over the 8-minutes which he said is highlighted by Matsukura’s pace. Runner-up at the last World Championships, he said he and everyone else are again racing for the second spot.
Ahoniemi said his CRC was at its best in FP3 but a number of driver errors meant that was not reflected in the timing as he set a 37-lap run. Breaking into 38-laps in FP4, the reigning European Champion said the conditions were strange with the car sliding while still having good grip. Happy he has a good base set-up for his regular CRC chassis, he will use use the controlled practices to decide on which CRC tyre he will use for the first of the 6 scheduled rounds of qualifying.
Factory Associated driver Rick Hohwart was fastest of the drivers on 37 lap runs which put him fifth overall at the end of free practice. With his R5 feeling very loose in the opening practice, the American said they worked on the front end set-up and continuing in that direction they have been able to make the car faster every run and he now feels quite comfortable at the controls. Team-mate and reigning US National Champion, who set the pace in the opening practice, end FP 11th fastest. The Canadian said the car feels decent but is not exactly where he wants it and for the final two practice runs this evening he plans to revert back to the set-up he started the day with.
Running a prototype Corally chassis, Japanese driver Hideo Kitazawa completed the Top 6 as he set his fastest run in the final free practice. Finding the track very different and more tricky than what he is used to running on back in Japan, he said he was now starting to find his rythm. Responsible for R&D at Futaba, his car fitted with a Futaba speedo, Kitazawa was upbeat that he can improve his pace further in today’s remaining two practices.
Elsewhere British driver Chris Kerswell was quickest of the Serpent team drivers with the 8th fastest time with team-mate Marc Fisher completing the Top 10 just behind former European Champion Juho Levanen whose Associated ended the free practice in 9th.
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