CP2 Update – Groskamp fastest

In the second round of controlled practice for the Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Bangkok, Jilles Groskamp posted a blistering time to become the first & only driver to complete three consecutive laps of the RC Addict track in under 45 seconds.  With a qualifying set-up on his Capricorn, the Dutch ace ran a time of 44.984 to bump CP1 pace setter Atsushi Hara back to second, the Hot Bodies driver unable to improve on his morning time.  Describing his LAB C-02 as ‘really good’, Groskamp felt he could have gone even quicker had the tuning of his Maxima engine not been off.  Based on a Novarossi engine, and hand modified by Maxima who are the official fuel supplier at this year’s Worlds, he said the engine was not as fast as he was expecting but having had a look at it after the run his mechanic believes a bad plug was the cause for the slight lack of power.

While none of the Top 6 from CP1 could improve on their times second time out, 17-year-old local racer Chavit Sirigupta managed to knock almost half a second off his time to go third fastest.  Also finding a chunk of time was Thailand’s most famous rc racer Surikarn C., the former Electric Touring Car World Champion setting the fourth fastest time. Changing his set-up from the morning when he posted the 17th fastest time, Surikarn said his Xray was much better but overall it was still only ‘OK’ as it was very close to traction rolling especially on the left side of the track.

Another Xray to improve in CP2 was Dirk Wischnewski who having followed the same direction as team-mate Alex Hagberg in running softer springs set the fifth fastest time.  A finalist at the World Championships in Portugal in 2008, US National Champion Paul Lemieux set the 28th fastest time in CP2 but the RC America driver says he is working to his own plan and actually feels quite happy with his Max powered NT1.  Being realistic about his chances of qualifying in the Top 4, who will go directly into the Main final, he said when up against the likes of Groskamp and Hara its too big of an ask and so he is focusing on getting his car good for 30-minutes hoping he can make the main from the Semi finals.

Top 15 after Controlled Practice 2
1. Jilles Groskamp – Capricorn/Maxima – 44.984 (2)
2. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed – 45.073 (1)
3. Chavit Sirigupta – Mugen/Maxima – 45.082 (2)
4. Surikarn C – Xray/Max – 45.122 (2)
5. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Orcan – 45.139 (2)
6. Teemu Leino – HB/LRP – 45.269 (1)
7. Dario Balestri – KM Racing/Novarossi – 45.298 (1)
8. Andy Moore – HB/Maxima – 45.366 (1)
9. Takehiro Terauchi – Mugen/Novarossi – 45.410 (1)
10.Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Orcan – 45.468 (1)
11.Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 45.507 (2)
12.Alessio Mazzeo – Serpent/Max – 45.520 (2)
13.Francesco Tironi – Capricorn/Capricorn – 45.533 (2)
14.Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Novarossi – 45.542 (1)
15.Biagio Spataro – Xray/G-Mar – 45.553 (2)

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Hara fastest in first controlled practice

In the first round of controlled timed practice at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Thailand it was HB’s Atsushi Hara who was fastest from team-mate Teemu Leino with KM Racing’s Dario Balestri completing the Top 3.  Fastest in free practice Capricorn’s Jilles Groskamp set the 11th fastest time but once again the Dutch ace was using the track time to work on a set-up for the finals.

Bettering Groskamp’s free practice pace by .133 over three consecutive laps, Hara ran HPI silver springs for the first of today’s three scheduled runs with his long time mechanic Masayuki Miura also fitting a larger holed piston to the shocks.  While the result was a faster time, the Japanese star said he did not like the feeling of the new piston which made the handling more nervous.  A much more overcast day than yesterday when rain interrupted the third round of practice, Hara who has for the past number of years lived in Bangkok said he thinks there is a good chance of rain later today and with this in mind and the clouds making for a cooler track he will revert to his ‘Happy Hour’ set-up for the second controlled practice.

Leino, who yesterday bent the chassis on his LRP powered example of the R10, said with the new chassis plate fitted the car was much better today.  The Finn also ran one of his good race engines which he said was a big improvement of the previous unit he was running.  Planning to try a different shock set-up for CP2 he said he wants to try to get a different feeling from the car which he added still has room for improvement in terms of the overall set-up.  Setting the fourth fastest time the third of the factory HB line-up Andy Moore reverted back to a set-up very similar to what he was running on the opening day of practice and immediately found better pace.  The nitro novice said over the 10-minutes of the run his Maxima powered R10 changes too much developing understeer and so for the next round he will try a different front tyre and additive.

Behind Moore 2010 World Championship runner-up Takehiro Terauchi set the fifth fastest time, the Japanese driver once again being fastest Mugen having ended free practice with the 5th quickest time. Mugen designer and 2010 Top Qualifier Robert Pietsch who was only 14th fastest yesterday took his Novarossi powered MTX5 to the 10th fastest time.

Having only managed the 23rd fastest time in free practice, Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg made a huge step forward this morning taking his Max powered NT1 to the sixth fastest time.  The Swede said the run didn’t feel any faster than yesterday but the switch to softer springs made a big difference to his lap times.  Describing the car as ‘a bit edgy at the start’ of the run and hoping to further improve it for CP2 he thinks over the full 10-minutes which the qualifiers are all about they a lot closer to the pace.  With many drivers describing the conditions here at RC Addict as ‘strange’ Hagberg added that how quickly the track conditions change from run to run makes deciding on set-up very tricky.  Team-mate and former European Champion Dirk Wischnewski made it two Xray’s in the Top 10 posting the 9th fastest time.

Running large diameter tyres on his Maxima powered LAB C-02, electric Touring Car World Champion Jilles Groskamp said he was now happy that he had a set-up suitable for finals and now he will rebuild his car in preparation for qualifying which starts tomorrow including transferring the brake over from his spare car.  Having done a lot of runs on big tyres while others have chased pace over 3-consecutive laps, in CP1 he managed better laps time that he managed in all his pre-event testing with large tyres so he was confident that he can now switch his attentions back to qualifying set-up for the all important Top 4, who directly qualify for the 60-minute title deciding Main.

One of the few team’s who did not come to test ahead of this year’s World Championships, Serpent said today they made a lot of progress.  Fastest of the S747 drivers with the 13th fastest time Mark Green said considering their lack of track time he was very happy with his CP1 run and that of the rest of the team.  Having chased the track on the first day of practice he said that was a mistake but since yesterday they have gotten better with each run and now the have a good base set-up allowing them now to switch their attentions to just some fine tuning and the preparation of the tyres.  Getting closer to the pace the British National Champion said the closer you get the harder it gets to find time but he said the team have worked really closely together and considering their rivals experience as well as the knowlegde that Groskamp and Hara have of the track he feels they had done well to get to where they are now but added he hopes the can improve further over the final two practice runs.

Serpent team-mate Paolo Morganti, who is battling hard with jetlag with there being a 12 hour time difference between here and home, said he ended up changing his 747 completely to what he uses back home and then slowly returned to it as he has got his head around the track conditions.  Setting the 25th fastest time in CP1, Morganti was the fastest of the three US drivers competing in Thailand, US National Champion Paul Lemieux posted the 38th while JJ Wang suffered a run away car early in his group. Running softer dampening than what he would race with in the US he said tyres were now his biggest challenge but he said he will just continue to work away at it along with Green and Michael Salven. Serpent designer Salven said he ran a similar set-up to Green in CP1 and while it was better he said he needs to fine tune it to suit his own driving style.

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