Hara takes damp 4th FEMCA Qualifier

Atsushi Hara took the fourth round of qualifying at the FEMCA Championship in Beijing as day 2 of qualifying got off to a damp start at Fengtai Raceway. Despite the slippery conditions, the Japanese ace backed up his Q1 topping performance to record a new fastest 10-minute run of qualifying finishing 12.5 second clear of overnight provisional TQ holder Dani Choi with Yuichi Kanai a further 7/10th off the 2008 World Champion’s pace.

‘Really slippery’ was how Hara summed up the conditions adding that it actually suited his driving as the track was a lot more consistent because now the surface was ‘slippery everywhere’.  Choosing AKA super soft Impact tyre he also made two set-up changes to the Mugen.  Changing from a 2.6 to 2.7 rear swaybar he also moved the rear upper camber links to the outside position which he said made the MBX-7 easy to drive on power.  Having test a 2.9 swaybar earlier in the event, which he found to be two hard, he said a 2.8 would probably be the best choice only he doesn’t have one!  For the penultimate round of qualifying Hara said the weather will determine what if any changes he will make but if it stays damp he plans to continue with the same set of tyres adding that they got better and better over the 10-minutes of Q4.

Choi said he went to a softer spring all round on his Kyosho but when he got out on track the surface wasn’t as wet as he expected and the rear of the MP9 was too soft.  Switching to Sweep’s Square Armor tyre in super soft compound he said this worked really well.  While it didn’t make the car any faster it did make it a little more consistent and easier to drive.  Planning to change to a harder rear spring, the Korean said any other changes will be dependent on the weather conditions.

Running super soft AKA Impact tyres on his RB powered Kyosho, Kanai said they gave him ‘perfect grip’ for the conditions adding that he didn’t in fact find the conditions that slippery.  Not planning to make any changes for Q5 he said that would of course depend on whether there was a big change in track conditions between rounds.

Setting the fourth fastest time, Chavit Saliguppa said it was good run except for a crash when he was coming into the pitlane for his fuel stop in which his Mugen got stuck costing him some time.  The Thai driver ran super soft AKA City Blocks which he said worked well adding that he plans to leave everything as is for Q5.  Fellow countryman and Q3 pace setter Meen Vejrak took his Mugen to the 5th fastest time.  The Nitro Touring Car World Champion said his run was really pretty good except for an incident with traffic while setting the lead pace dropped him back down the order.  On the tyre front Vejrak ran Procircuit’s Marathon tyres.

17-year-old Wataru Takashiro completed the Top 6, the Kyosho driver enjoying his best run so far a fact he put down simply to better driving.  Having missed the opening day’s practice, the talented Japanese driver has had to do much of his testing in the first day of qualifying.  The only driver along with Hara to post a 30-second lap for the round, he is confident he can now build on his Q4 run in the final two qualifiers as both he and his car have got better and better each round.  Running HB Megabyte tyre he plans to run them again in Q5.

Having TQ’d qualifying for the Chinese Nationals which took place this morning at the Fengtai Raceway track, Hu Wei Ping backed up his success with a strong FEMCA Championship qualifier posting the 13th fastest time in Q4.  Chasing his fifth Chinese National title, the finals of which take place tomorrow, the S-Workz driver said it was a difficult FEMCA qualifying run as it was actually raining during his heat but he was very happy with the result among the international field.  11th fastest in Q3 yesterday, he is hoping for another strong run saying the main change he plans for his next outing is to try a different tyre having used VP-Pro’s Blade EVO tyre in Q4.

Round 4 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:02.825
2. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:15.376
3. Yuichi Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:16.104
4. Chavit Saliguppa (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:19.482
5. Meen Vejrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:21.120
6. Wataru Takashiro (JPN) – Kyosho/OS Speed – 19/10:26.121
7. Charlee Phutiyotin (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:27.063
8. Dai Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 18/10:08.180
9. Tommy Chung (UK) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 18/10:08.528
10.Liu Man Yet  (MAL) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:11.951

View our event image gallery here.

Meen V TQs 3rd FEMCA qualifier

Reigning Nitro Touring Car World Champion Meen Veijrak ended Day 1 of qualifying for the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championship with a TQ run making him the third driver to top the times at the Chinese event.  The Thai driver took his Mugen to the fastest time of the day outpacing Q2 pace setter Dani Choi, who having finished all the qualifiers in the Top 2 holds the provisional overnight TQ honours, with Kyosho’s Yuichi Kanai completing the Top 3 with his fastest run of the day.  For Q1 pace setter Atsushi Hara Q3 would prove difficult with a series of crashes leaving the pre-event favourite only 14th fastest.

Having extended the wheelbase of his OS Speed powered MBX-7, 28-year-old Vejrak said the change gave him better traction and made the buggy more stable than it had been in the opening two qualifiers.  With the track getting more and more bumpy each round and with the Chinese Offroad National Champions for both nitro & electric set to run on the track tomorrow, he expects a much rougher track tomorrow even after overnight repair work is carried out.  As a result he said he plans to run a softer set-up for the first of tomorrow’s remaining 3 qualifiers which are set to get underway just before lunch local time.

Choi was very happy with how is day went but said brain failure in Q3 lead to a mistake and after that he found it hard to get back into his rhythm.  Switching from a 3 to a 4 shoe clutch in his Alpha engine he said it made the bottom end a little too aggressive and for tomorrow he will switch to softer springs to cure this.  Again running Sweep’s Exagon tyre which has performed extremely well throughout the day he will change to his employer’s Square Armor tyre tomorrow after Ryan Lee successfully tested it in his 3rd qualifier in which he posted the 6th fastest time.  Choi said the tyres will lose him a little corner speed but should make the buggy more consistent.

Moving his rear upper camber link to the outside position on the shock tower, Kanai said this gave his MP9 much better rear grip.  Having run medium compound AKA Impact tyres in Q2 he reverted back to the soft he ran in Q1 which he also found worked better allowing him to knock almost 4 seconds off his previous best time.  Overall the former World Champion said he was very happy to end the day with a Top 3 run adding he is really looking forward to Day 2 of qualifying.  Fellow countryman and Kyosho driver Dai Hiroki followed Kanai’s set up change and he too liked the result as he set the fourth fastest time.  Suffering just one mistake after a series of errors in Q2, the Kyosho Masters Champion said the plan for tomorrow is to leave his Reds Racing powered example of the MP9 as is and just drive a little harder.

Thai Agama driver Witsarut Rumlarp was a lot happier with his buggy in Q3 after he changed to harder shock oil and a softer compound Beta Vmax tyre.  Setting the fifth fastest time, the 27-year-old plans to try a softer insert for Q4 which he hopes will further improve the feeling of his Bullitt powered A8.

Describing himself as the tyre tester for Choi, Ryan Lee was very happy with his Q3 run and in particularly his lap times as he set the fastest lap of the race, himself and Hara the only two drivers to do a lap in 29-seconds.   Testing Sweep’s Square Armor he said the car felt good although he has recommended that Choi run one compound softer in Q4.  For himself Lee will use his fourth heat to test the Cubix tyre in the harder red compound with a view to building up tyre data for the Semi Finals for Choi.

Hara said his buggy actually felt good but changing to lighter swaybars on the front and rear of his Mugen had resulted in too much traction.  This combined with him slightly over-driving after some early crashes left him finishing well off the pace.  Planning to revert to the harder swaybars he ran earlier in the day so he can post a third Top 10 run and book himself a spot in the Semis, he said once he can get that done he will use the final two qualifiers to test adding that he is lacking track time with the new buggy.  Asking him how the Mugen compared to the HB D812 he said the difference between the too chassis is quite big with the MBX7 a lot more aggressive than he expected.  In terms of set-up he added that the Mugen is also a lot more sensitive to small changes.

HB driver Sheng Chie Huang set the 7th fastest time ahead of Charlee Phutiyotin with the Top 8 being completed by British driver Tommy Chung. Despite his Asian sounding name, this is Chung’s first time to China and after two less then perfect opening qualifiers he was much happier with his driving in Q3.  For tomorrow the Kyosho driver plans to copy the change made by Kanai and hopefully build on his Q3 time.

Round 3 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Meen Vejrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:04.065
2. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:10.363
3. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:21.375
4. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 19/10:25.192
5. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 19/10:27.112
6. Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:04.098
7. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 18/10.05.985
8. Charlee Phutiyotin (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:06.451
9. Tommy Chung (UK) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 18/10:06.847
10.Trin T (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:18.491

View our event image gallery here.

Choi takes Q2 in China

Korea’s Dani Choi took the second round of qualifying at the FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championships in China heading Q1 pace setter Atsushi Hara by 5.5 seconds with versatile Thai ace Meen Veijrak completing the Top 3. Choi said despite the track being a lot dustier than in Q1 his Sweep Exagon equipped Kyosho had better traction allowing him to improve his opening time by 5 seconds.  Describing the track as having got more bumpy in Q2, something he said he was able to drive around on this occasion, he said he will monitor the surface before Q3 to decide what changes he might need adding that he is pretty sure he will run a different spring on the MP9.  Running for the first time Alpha’s new Ryan Lutz exhaust to match up with the same named engine, he said it worked really well giving the engine a lot more bottom end power.

‘Car good, lap times good, just too many mistakes’ was how Hara summed up his second qualifier.  The 2006 World Champion said the spell of sunny conditions had made the track become very dusty.  Running AKA Impacts he said his tyres worked ‘OK’ considering the change and for Q3 he will hold off on making a decision on which compound of the Impact to run in the closing run of the day here at the Beijing Model Sports Association’s new track.  In terms of set-up, Hara said with three from the 6 qualifiers counting he wants to play it safe today and not change too much on the buggy which is overall working ‘well’ for him.  Planning a small change for Q3 in going for a lighter sway bars, he hopes this will get him his third good run so that he can use tomorrow’s three remaining qualifiers to test a few set-up ideas he has.

Despite describing traction in Q2 as being lower than the morning’s opening round, Veijrak said his decision to change from Procircuit’s Roadrunner to Hot Dice tyre worked well.  Still however the Nitro Touring Car World Champion was not happy with his driving as he again made a mistake that cost him a potential second for the round.  In terms of his Mugen set-up he plans to extend his wheelbase for Q3 in the hope it will make the car more suitable to the changing track conditions.   For team-mate Chavit Saliguppa who was fourth fastest in Q1, a series of driver errors meant he would only post the 13th fastest time.

Having switched from soft to medium compound AKA Impacts for Q2, Kyosho’s Yuichi Kanai said the hard tyre made his MP9 a little nervous at the start of the heat.  Setting the fourth fastest time, the famed 1:8 Offroad driver will make a call on his choice of compound nearer to the time of this evening’s final heat but in terms of his MP9 set-up will leave it as is.

Sheng Chie Huang took his Alpha powered D812 to the fifth fastest time, a result the Taiwanese driver was very pleased about.  Running soft compound HB Grid Lock tyres, he plans to switch to AKA Impact for Q3 along with changing from a 2.5mm to 3.0mm rear toe block.

Third fastest in Q1, Kyosho driver Dai Hiroki completed the Top 6 after a number of mistakes over the second of his 10-minute runs but says he is still happy with his MP9 and its just the driver that needs to be better.

Having suffered a flame out in his first qualifier leaving him only 17th, Charlee Phutiyotin posted the 7th fastest time in Q2.  Describing track condition as ‘super low grip’ compared to that of yesterday’s practice the fast Thai driver ran soft Procircuit Hot Dice but plans to switch to super soft for his next run.  Having just made the Top 10 in Q1, Sweep’s Ryan Lee improved his time by 5-seconds to set the 8th fastest time with Thai pairing Witsarut Rumlarp and Akarachai Boontham completing the Top 10.

Round 2 Top 10 Qualifying times
1. Dani Choi (KOR) – Kyosho/Alpha – 19/10:07.698
2. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:13.295
3. Meen Veijrak (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 19/10:18.697
4. Yuicki Kanai (JPN) – Kyosho/RB – 19/10:27.752
5. Sheng Chie Huang (TW) – HB/Alpha – 19/10.31.452
6. Dani Hiroki (JPN) – Kyosho/Reds – 18/10:00.961
7. Charlee Phutiyotin (TH) – Mugen/OS Speed – 18/10:03.972
8. Ryan Lee (KOR) – TLR/Alpha – 18/10:15.367
9. Witsarut Rumlarp (TH) – Agama/Bullitt – 18/10:17.296
10.Akarachai Boontham (TH) – Mugen/Alpha – 18/10:18.491

View our event image gallery here.