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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Balestri TQ’s opening qualifier in Japan

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan.  Top Qualifier at the last Worlds in 2019, the Italian took the round ahead of Capricorn’s Dominic Greiner as Simon Kurzbuch ran out of fuel on his last lap.  The Top Seed after timed practice Kurzbuch looked to be carrying that form into Day 1 of qualifying but having admitted yesterday that the 4-minute run time would be close, this morning it was to cost him the TQ run.  Having hinted at his pace in the final practice when he was fourth fastest, Infinity’s Jessie Davis would complete the Top 3 for the first of the 6 rounds of qualifying 0.579 ahead of Toni Gruber.  One of the four drivers to top timed practice yesterday, Naoto Matsukura didn’t have a good start to qualifying as he needed to pit after the first 1-minute to have his engine tuned.

The number 3 seed for qualifying, Balestri was much happier with his car set-up today saying, ‘We seem to get the balance good again this morning and so we could get back to work.  I had some trouble at the end with traffic but at the end the result was good’.  The 2017 World Champion continued, ‘Like I told you yesterday I was confident with the fuel and I could do 2-laps more.  This is good for the finals’.  Looking to Q2, three rounds of qualifying on today’s schedule, he said he only plans to ‘just adjust the engine a little bit’ but leave the car unchanged.

Running in the second fastest heat having ended up 11th in seeding,  an upbeat Greiner summed up Q1 with ‘It was good’. Having struggled with tyre consistency in controlled practice, the German driver said with more consistent tyres in timed practice they found their way with the set-up ending the day with a P6 run over 3-consecutive laps.  A confidence boost ahead of qualifying, he said, ‘long distance is always better for me than 3-laps and over 4-minutes it felt good, so I knew we could go well today’.   Making a small change to his car for Q1, he said ‘it was not better’ and he will go back to the previous set-up for Q2.  Asked about run time, the former 1:10 World Champion said, ‘I made an extra lap so it looks good, it was better than expected’.

‘A good solid first run’, was Davis’ reaction to his P3 for Q1.  The Australian, who started 3rd on the grid at the last Worlds in the US, said he knew yesterday he had good car and four minute pace so he ‘just put in a good engine for today and made fuel’.  An O.S Engines team driver, he said, ‘I got an extra lap so we are pretty set for fuel’.   For his next qualifier he plans to leave his IF18 III the same adding ‘hopefully I’ll have better traffic this run’.

Gruber summed up his opening P4 effort as ‘overall not a bad run’.  The newly crowned 1:8 GT World Champion continued, ‘for sure it was difficult to know how the fuel is so I drive a little easy but everything worked’.  He would have a last lap moment that cost him a potential Top 3 but explained, ‘Simon ran out of fuel and was on the racing line, Dario was right behind me so I opened the door for him to save my run’.  Looking to Q2 he said, ‘we had a lot of fuel left so I can push a little bit more now that we know the fuel consumption.  I also hope for no traffic.’

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