Matsukura tops first controlled practice in Florida

Naoto Matsukura has topped the first round of controlled practice at the 1:10 200mm World Championships in Florida.  Making his 200mm race debut at the event, the Infinity drivers was quickest over 3-consecutive laps by almost 2/10ths of a second from former World Champion Meen Vejrak and the reigning champion Dominic Greiner.  Despite yesterday evening’s rain, that forced the final practice to be cut short Matsukura was able to match his pace from yesterday which was the fastest of the day.  The first of four seeding rounds on today’s schedule, behind the Top 3 Tadahiko Sahashi would set the fourth fastest time ahead of Lamberto Collari and a much improved Toni Gruber.

‘Not so bad’ was Matsukura’s reaction to topping the times, however the Japanese driver admitted his car was ‘difficult to drive’.  He continued, ‘I don’t know if it is all the car or not or whether the traction is low but I think it is a bit of both.  I would like to get the car more stable for the next one but I will wait to see how the track is doing before deciding what to change’.  The former Electric Touring Car World Champion, a title he won in Florida,  added, ‘yesterday there was more wind on the track but today it is not so bad which makes things much easier’.

Vejrak was pleased with his opening run saying, ‘the car is better than 2-years ago in Gubbio.  I was only 30th or something in controlled practice but now I’m in the Top 10’.  The Thai driver continued, ‘I drive this track before in 1:8 but with 1:10 it is completely different.  Even since practice has started the track is completely different because of the rain’.  On his car’s performance, the Maxima team driver setting the fastest lap of the round, he said, ‘I need a little more rear grip for better forward traction.  My engine and power are a lot better than Gubbio and for the car I will try a different wing in the next one to see if it helps the rear grip’.

‘So so.  There is a little bit less traction I think because of the rain’, was Greiner’s reaction after CP1.  Picking up a pipe from his pit table, the Serpent driver explained, ‘I spun one time and Naoto hit me and my pipe got smashed.’  He continued, ‘I added more weight to the front of the car which was better but I made another change that was not better so I will go back to what I had before’.  He concluded, ‘I think the next one we will be better’.

Reporting the traction as ‘different’ today, Infinity driver Sahashi said his car was not really set-up for the lower traction and having left it unchanged from yesterday he would adjust his set-up for CP2.  Speaking through the translation from Matsukura, like the majority of the drivers, the former 1:8 World Champion said he needs to find more rear end traction.

Off to a strong start to his first attempt at a 1:10 200mm World Championship, Collari summed up the his first controlled practice as ‘good’.  The Italian legend of nitro onroad racing continued, ‘we just made a few adjustments for less traction.  We left the chassis the same and changed the rear diff and the feeling was good’.  Asked how much the traction had changed from yesterday before the rain, he said there was ‘not too much difference but there was a little’.  He concluded, ‘In the evening the track will be back to the same as yesterday’.

Reacting to his Top 6 time, 2017 European Champion Gruber said, ‘the last 3-days of practice was really difficult.  We totally don’t find the set-up for the track.  For the last one yesterday we made changes but because of the rain we couldn’t drive.  We decided to test it today and the car works better.  Now it was possible to run 18-second laps’.  Looking to the rest of the day, the factory WRC driver said ‘now we need to get consistency’.  Behind Gruber, reigning 1:8 World Champion Dario Balestri was 7th fastest ahead of JJ Wang, reigning European Champion Teemo Leino and newly crowned ENS Champion Jilles Groskamp.

View the complete event results here.

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Rain halts final practice at 1:10 World Championship

Rain halted the final round of practice at the 1:10 200mm World Championship in Florida.  A heavy shower stopped proceedings at Homestead RC Raceway half way through what was to be the drivers fourth practice of the second official day of the event.  Having also ran 4 rounds of practice yesterday, officially it is Mugen’s Robert Pietsch who has produced the fastest time of practice ahead of reigning World Champion Dominic Greiner and Jesse Davis.  With overnight rain washing away traction built up during the International Practice Days and yesterday’s first round of official practice, today’s times were slower.  After respraying the track with sugar water this morning it was Greiner who was fastest in the first round from 200mm rookie Naoto Matsukura.  The Japanese driver went to the top in the next round ahead of team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi while what was to become the last run of the day for the leading drivers produced an Infinity 1-2-3 led by Lamberto Collari from Matsukura and Sahashi with Greiner fourth.  For the day it was Matsukura’s FP6 time that was the fastest of the day registering a 53.890-seconds 3-consecutive lap time compared Pietsch’s 53.668 from the previous day’s rocket round FP4.

Commenting on his day, Greiner was frustrated to miss out on the fourth run having struggled with his car as the grip came up over the day.  The Serpent driver said, ‘today was very strange.  We had less grip because of the rain overnight (and in the first practice) my car was OK.  I was fastest and it was consistent but over the day the balance changed completely’.  He continued, ‘I had too much steering.  I changed it to make the it more stable in the rear but it got worse.  Now we have rain again when the last practice was going to be important for me as I was going to try a big change.  I’m a little frustrated because my car has oversteer but others in the team with the same set-up have understeer.  I think it’s the practice tyres so we will see tomorrow when everyone is on handout tyres.  It should be the same for everyone tomorrow but the traction is gone again with the rain so it’s going to be a new game’.

At the track where he took his biggest career win, the 2011 1:8 Onroad World title, Pietsch said, ‘yesterday was good but they had to spray the track today and it was different.  In the last run we did, it was almost the same conditions as yesterday but my driving today was not decent’.  Top Qualifier when the 200mm Worlds was last held in the US in 2010, the German hopes organisers have learnt from last night’s overnight rain experience saying, ‘they have some experience of the rain now so I hope they spray earlier because it was not completely dry when we started.  In my opinion they should run one free practice round before starting the controlled practice’.  On his car he said, ‘the car & engine are good so I will keep it the same for tomorrow and see what happens with the track conditions’.

Making his 200mm race debut in Homestead a year on from an impressive 1:8 Onroad debut at the Worlds in France last year when he won Super Pole to qualify into the final, Matsukura was very upbeat about the 200mm class.  The multiple Electric World Champion said, ‘It was first race in 200mm and it’s not bad.  I like it especially because it’s racing on foam tyres’.  After suffering ‘some problems yesterday in the first 3-rounds’ he summed up today’s performance as ‘very good’.  Having tested here last week, excluding him from doing IPD, the Japanese driver said ‘we went to the set-up from last week for today and I had a much better driver feeling but we still need to find more in the set-up.  I need to make a little more stable in the rear and get a little more steering’.  Asked what he thought of the track he replied, ‘It is more Japanese style, I like it.  You have to drive tight and there is a black line that is very important to stay on, because off it there is little grip’.

Not a track he has fond memories of in 1:8, his fourth consecutive title coming to an end here in 2011 when he retired from the Semi Finals, Collari summed up his practice performance as ‘not bad for my first important race in 1:10’.  Having made his 1:10 race debut in the opening round of the Euro Nitro Series this season, the 9-time 1:8 World Champion said his car was working good having had ‘some days (testing) here’ prior to the event along with some of his Infinity team-mates.  The Italian added that the testing had ‘improved my experience with the adjustments of the car’. Looking to tomorrow’s four rounds of controlled practice, two to count towards seeding for qualifying, he said, ‘the set-up of the car is good after today but it depends on the conditions in the morning so we might just change the diff oil if needed’.

Another former 1:8 World Champion in the mix today and making his international debut for Infinity at the event along with brother Yuya, Tadahiko Sahashi said he still needs to work more on the set-up but ‘today the result is good’.  Having tested at the Homestead track back in August, he said the track had more grip but part of the issue now is the handout tyre is of a harder shore.  Like fellow countryman Matsukura, he also likes the track’s similarity to Japanese tracks having to drive tight to the corners.  Something that requires a lot of bottom end power he said the 100m long straight then presents a challenge as top end power is also important.  During tomorrow’s controlled practice he will work on trying to get the car’s rear end more stable.

View the complete event results here.

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Track Focus – Homestead R/C Raceway

Track Name – Homestead R/C Raceway
Hosts – Franco Desiderio and Jose Sanchez Jr
Country – United States
Location – Homestead, Florida
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt

Seven years on from it hosting the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, IFMAR has returned to the Homestead R/C Raceway in Florida to for the 8th running of the the 1:10 200mm Onroad Worlds.  Situated at the back of NASCAR hosting Homestead-Miami Speedway’s main grandstand, the track is the typical US style parking lot set-up with boards determining the layout and the infield highlighted by green paint.  Featuring a 100m long straight the track has changed ownership since the 2011 Worlds with Franco Desiderio & Jose Sanchez Jr now in charge having taken over 3-years ago.  Both competitors in the event, the final entry expected to be around 120 drivers, in addition to being partners in running the track, Desiderio & Sanchez Jr are the Picco distributor for the US and dealers for Infinity through RC1 Racing.

Here to defend the title he won in Italy 2-years ago at the World class Gubbio circuit, Dominic Greiner described the HRCR track as more challenging than it looks saying, ‘It seems not so difficult but it is difficult’.  Liking the layout, the Serpent driver added it has a ‘good flow but the traction is low and we are also running a hard (handout) tyre’.  With any traction built up in the International practice days and the first official practice day washed away by overnight rain, the German also added that ‘very high wind’ was adding further to the challenge making it ‘not easy to be consistent’.  Asked the key features of the clockwise track’s layout he replied, ‘You must drive it tight but with this you risk hitting the rubber (boards).  There are dots in the chicane and you have to ride them to save some metres but they unsettle the car’.

Winner of the 1:8 World title here and featuring strongly in 1:10 practice having topped the first day of official practice  yesterday (Sunday), Robert Pietsch believes the track is better to drive with a 1:10 car.  The Mugen driver said, ‘The track suits better 1:10 than 1:8’.  He added, ‘the layout is good but grip is low and these low levels (of grip) means the car is not so easy to handle. The balance is not always perfect and so you are fighting this all the time.  Like Greiner, he also agreed that the chicane was a key place to making up time on a lap if the car ride the dots cleanly but it was also a place to very easily unsettle the car depending on how the car hit the dots.

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