August 20, 2016

Chassis Focus – Naoto Matsukura

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Chassis – Roche Prototype
Motor – Muchmore Fleta ZX 3.5T
ESC – Muchmore Fleta Pro
Battery – Muchmore 8000mAh
Tires – Team Bomber
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Xpert
Body – Protoform AMR

Remarks – 3-time 1/12th World Champion Naoto Matsukura is running a prototype chassis from Roche. Having also tested in Korea on the ETS carpet the Japanese driver has since changed his setup upon arriving here, making the side springs harder for faster response from the car. Also suffering from high tire wear, he will look at running larger diameter tires so he will have some rubber left at the end of the run. Struggling a little with understeer Naoto has changed up his saucing routine, going from 10 minutes for the front tires and an hour on the rear to 30 minutes on the front to help gain more steering.

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August 20, 2016

Matsukura sets early pace in China

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3-time 1/12th World Champion Naoto Matsukura set the early pace in free practice at the 1:12 World Championships in Beijing, China. With 6 of the 8 practices runs that make up the opening day of the 18th running of the championships completed, the Roche driver was fastest over three consecutive laps from reigning European Champion Alexander Hagberg and defending World Champion Marc Rheinard.  While the track layout is proving popular with drivers, the big complaint is the lack of traction something that isn’t being helped by the low 56 entry count.

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With the fastest times of the Top 5 drivers all posted in P4, fastest man Matsukura summed up his earlier runs by saying, ‘the track is a little difficult because of the low traction and the layout too, there are many chicanes’.  Adding ‘the track is big but good’, the Japanese driver said the traction levels are not showing much signs of significant improvement.  Running gold compound Team Bomber tyres on his prototype Roche he said due to the low traction the ‘tyre wear is high’ but happy with their performance in the early part of the run he will try to make the car more stable through a setup change.

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‘Struggling a little bit’ was Hagberg’s reaction to getting to within 6/10ths of Matsukura over 3-laps.  Running the production version of the prototype X12 2017, he used to win his 3rd consecutive European Championship this year, the factory Xray driver said he ‘runs out of grip at the end of the run’.  Getting 9-minutes of practice time each practice, the Swede wants to ‘preserve the rear tyres’ adding the traction is ‘surprisingly low’.  Running Hot Race tyres, he will try a different tyre size for his next practice as well as adjusting his tyre prep.  A fan of the 30 X 24 metre track which he described as ‘really big’, he added ‘it’s bigger than I’m used too, it’s nice’.  Feeling he needs ‘work on consistency’, he will make a small set-up change for the remaining 2-practice rounds.

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A 1/10th of a second off Hagberg’s pace, Rheinard described his performance as ‘so, so’.  The Yokomo driver said, ‘I am still trying to find the right set-up and the right tyres, the grip is a bit strange’.  With ‘traction not really good’, the German said ‘over the run the pace drops a lot’ as the rear of the standard YRX12 becomes ‘loose’ so we ‘need to find grip’.  Asked about not improving on his P5 & 6 time he said, ‘Heat 4 was good but in the next two it was slower again for some reason’.

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Running a prototype CRC, the brand with which Rheinard won his 2014 title, Tamiya Touring Car team-mate Aki Sobue posted the 4th fastest time.  The Japanese star, who finished 4th at the Japanese National Championship earlier in the year, said for 5-minutes the car is good but then it gets loose adding his CRC tyres are ‘maximum small’ by the end of the 9-minutes.  A driver more focused on his touring car efforts when asked about planned changes for the final two free practice run he replied, ‘I will let my mechanic decide’.

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Running a prototype Morotech which features a different carbon weave that makes it a lot stiffer with side aluminium braces running under the front suspension arms adding further rigidity, 2014 podium finisher Hideo Kitazawa described his opening performances as ‘so, so’.  Running YR compound Morotech tyres all round, the Futaba employee is like everyone else having a ‘problem with rear tyre grip’.  For the final two practice runs the Japanese driver plans to try a different rear tyre to improve his consistency over the run.

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Completing the Top 6 with a time from his opening practice, Keven Herbert said he was ‘doing ok’ adding ‘it could be better, it could be worse’.  The Team Associated driver who is running a standard car continued, ‘I can do ok laps but its a little difficult to drive’.  Running JFT tyres, S30 on the rear and S35 on the front, the Canadian is looking to ‘find more rear grip’.  Planning to test a harder rear tyres on his next run, he feels if he can get the car ‘more consistent, it will be alright’. Behind Herbert, Yokomo driver Toto Ebukuro was 7th fastest ahead of newly crowned Japanese National Champion Hayato Ishioka. Chinese American driver JJ Wang would post the 9th fastest time with his Xray ahead of 2012 Vice World Champion Andy Moore at the controls of a Roche.

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August 20, 2016

Chassis Focus – Marc Rheinard

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Chassis – Yokomo YRX12
Motor – Muchmore Fleta ZX 3.5T
ESC – Muchmore Fleta Pro
Battery – Muchmore 8000mAh
Tires – Yokomo
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Xpert
Body – Protoform AMR

Remarks – Reigning World Champion in the 1/12th scale class, Marc Rheinard is racing the YRX12 chassis from Yokomo here in Beijing. Having tested on ETS carpet in Korea back in July in preparation for this race, he says the traction is lower here as the carpet is new and this is causing the car to slide around which means tire wear is high. Focussing on tire diameters to find the perfect balance, once that has been sorted he will move onto the perfecting the car’s setup.

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August 20, 2016

Track Focus – Fengtai Sports Center

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Track Name – Fengtai Sports Center
Host –  Car Modelling Association of China
Country – China
Location – Beijing Fengtai
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – ETS Carpet

RC Racing’s biggest prize is to be decided in the world’s biggest economy for the first time as China plays host to the 18th running of the 1:12 IFMAR World Championships.  Held in the Fengtai district of Beijing, the indoor race, which will be followed later in the week by the outdoor Electric Touring World Championships, is taking place at the Fengtai Sports Centre.  Built originally to house the softball stadium used during Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games, the centre is also home to the Fengtai Science, Technology and Sports building in which the Car Modelling Association of China have built an superbly presented temporary carpet track.  Such is the level of organisation for the Fengtai government funded running of the World Championships there is a staff of 30, half of whom are volunteers, to look after the 56 entries which is actually a 25% increase on the entries for the last 1:12 World Championship which were held in the USA.

Under the guidance of the Race Director Max Lim, the 6-day build has resulted in a meticulously detailed track that covers and area 30 metres wide by 24m deep. Positioned 4 metres in front of the driver stand, the layout was penned by Lim who said much of the track’s influence was based on driver feedback who favoured ‘a more technical’ layout. Using ETS black carpet, which they had brought in especially from the Netherlands, Lim said the considerable depth of the track has allowed the layout to also be ‘really fast’.  As a structure, the track sits 15 centimetres off the ground with each square metre of the track standing on 4 feet.  As lane dividers the track uses locally made plastic box piping which has been screwed into place.  Cut to 1-metre lengths Lim said this allows for quick & easy replacement should they get damaged by cars, him adding ‘we used this material so it takes the impact rather than breaking the cars’.   With the hall having 5 rows of sky lights providing natural light, this also presented a shadowing problem.  With the addition of banks of lights not a option as the building’s roof is not certified for the weight load, two star shaped light balloons hang above the track instead.  With two 2kw bulbs in each they provide a well defused light.

Giving his first impression of the track, reigning World Champion Marc Rheinard described it as, ‘a pretty nice track and it’s a good size’.   With the early fastest lap times in the region of late 12-seconds, the German continued, ‘the layout is tricky, there are many chicanes and everyone is crashing.  I think consistency is the focus rather than being fastest over a lap because every time you crash you risk tweaking the car’.  Thinking further ahead, he concluded, ‘its missing some passing points for the finals’.

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