Matsukura tops Q3

It was very much a Japanese affair in the third round of qualifying at the Touring Car World Championship as newly crowned 3-time 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura set the pace ahead of Yokomo team-mate Hayato Matsuzaki and Team HB’s Atsushi Hara.  The top five times for the round were set using new tyres with Q1 & 2 pace setter Ronald Volker the best of the drivers using old tyres, the German setting the sixth fastest time.

The first driver to have held the Touring Car World title, Hara’s run suffered a bad last lap.  Suffering from a magnetic problem in his motor which reduced his braking power he said Matsukura was very fast and that made him push a little to hard to try keep pace with him and he messed up when he tried to carry too much speed through the sweeper. Behind the Japanese ace and one place ahead of 2006 World Champion Andy Moore, Yannic Prumper was top European setting the fourth fastest time despite two mistakes.  Having in fact used his second set of allocated tyres in Q2, the German used his 5-lap old Q1 tyres in the third round.

Putting on his remaining set of new tyres Viktor Wilck was on target to TQ the round but cut a corner too much in the infield which send his Thunder Power equipped Tamiya on to it roof and sliding into the grass. Needing to be marshaled the Swede lost 4.5 seconds and ended up a frustrated 7th one spot ahead of team-mate Jilles Groskamp.  Groskamp, along with defending champion Marc Rheinard are the only two potential contenders for the 7th Touring Car World title who have new tyres left and so should feature strongly when they do opt to run them. Rheinard, who was only 17th for the round, said on the third run with the same tyres the car is just loose everywhere and while he still has the chance of a TQ run due to having new tyres he believes should the finals go to the third leg it is going to be very difficult to actually race.

Winner of the Pre Worlds race at the MACH, American Team Xray driver Paul Lemieux said he is happy with his pace despite sitting 11th currently in the ranking list. Due to the tyre games being played he said things look a little worse than they are, but still to use his second set of tyres he is confident he is in with a chance of making the main event but he added that he is out of it in terms of going for the win.

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Q2 Update

Ronald Volker backed up his opening qualifying performance with another TQ run in Q2, the Yokomo driver’s gamble to use his second set of allocated tyres paying dividends as he secured another maximum points ahead of a surprise second fastest 5-minute run from Finnish driver Viljami Kutvonen who too had the benefit of running new tyres.  Best of the drivers on used tyres was Tamiya’s Jilles Groskamp who finished almost 6 seconds off Volker’s pace to take third for the round.

Volker said after his run that the plan was always to run new tyres in Q2 if they took the opening round so as to benefit from his No.1 starting order.  Had they saved the tyres for a later run he said they ran the risk of having to pass cars that may get to start ahead of him risking him not getting the best advantage of fresh rubber.

Only his second World Championships, Finnish National Champion Kutvonen was very happy with his heat saying after some small changes his LRP powered Awesomatix was easy to drive. Running in Group 11 of 14, the 20-year-old must now run the remaining four heats on used tyres but having been comfortable with the A700 in practice yesterday on old tyres he will leave the set-up the same for Q3.

Having only completed 5-laps in Q1, Yannic Prumper made the most of his partly used tyres to set the fourth fastest time but the ETS race winner had the pace for second.  Starting last due to his retirement from this morning’s run the computer announced the run was finished and so the German slowed but due to his late start he was in fact still on his last lap.  As a result he lost 4 seconds as he completed a 21.788 second final lap.

Juho Levanen, who is running one heat earlier, also had a problem with the automated computer announcement.  Having sat out his first run, the factory Associated driver posted a 24 second final lap but still managed to take fifth for the round.  The former European Champion said his TC6 is working OK but with the team having done a lot less pre-event testing the result was just a case of good tactics rather than outright pace.

Another to sit out Q1 was former multiple British National Champion Chris Grainger, his new tyres allowing him to take his Schumacher around in the 7th fastest time just behind Viktor Wilck, who was on old tyres, and ahead of Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp.  Defending Champion Marc Rheinard managed only the 9th fastest time just in front of Naoto Matsukura.

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Volker TQs important opening qualifier

Ronald Volker has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the Touring Car World Championships in the Netherlands, the Team Yokomo driver running 18 laps in 5:09.314 to top the round by just over a second from the HB of Atsushi Hara with Viktor Wilck’s Tamiya taking third.

Volker said afterwards the TQ was a very important one as his rivals have only one more opportunity to better the time when they opt to use their second set of controlled tyres, new rubber offering a distinct advantage over used.  The Euro Touring Series Champion said his prototype BD5 lacked a little traction over the first two laps, something he put down to the wait on the starting grid, but for the rest of the run he was very happy with the performance of the car.  The German had one ‘heart attack’ moment in the run when defending champion Marc Rheinard who on the previous lap let him by hit the rear of his car as they came in to the hairpin in front of the rostrum as he began his third last lap.  Volker got a little out of shape losing 4/10ths as a result but wasn’t overly concerned about the matter afterwards.

Rheinard, who was only fifth fastest, said he just took his normal line through the hairpin and had more speed than Volker.  Happy with how his Tamiya worked at the start of the run, the German setting the early pace for the round, he said the car gradually start to get loose over the run.  Asked what changes he plans for Q2, Rheinard replied that he is not sure as he was planning to run the same tyres again which will make the car very different anyway and that from here on in the rest of qualifying was going to be a tactical game as teams decide which drivers to put out on new tyres and when.

Atsushi Hara was very happy with the start of his qualifying saying after two years of having a tough time in touring car it was nice to be competitive from the start of the event.  Quite cool conditions for the opening round the former World Champion said he only changed his diff oil for the run opting to leave his shocks the same as yesterday when he felt they were a little too soft.  Having also reduced the boost on his Hobby Wing speedo he said the power was better now and other than freshening up the car he will run everything the same for Q2.

Although he’s Swedish, Wilck used a well known French word to sum up his first run through the chicane.  His Tamiya got out of shape and the Reedy Race Champion lost half a second, time that would have put him ahead of Hara for the round.  Happy with the car for the rest of the run he said his biggest decision for Q2 is to decide whether to gamble his second set of tyres or wait to til later in the day when the hotter conditions better suit the Tamiya.  Team-mate Jilles Groskamp, who was fourth fastest, was pleased with his run saying his car is very consistent.  Still unable to run a 16-second lap the former European Champion is looking forward to running on used tyres as unlike most of his rivals he spent much of pre-event testing working on a set-up to get the most from them.

Surprise of the opening qualifier was French National Champion Loic Jasmin, the Yokomo driver setting the sixth fastest time ahead of factory Kyosho driver Christopher Krapp and 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura.  The ETS regular said his LRP powered BD5 has had good 5-minute pace since the event started and so he knew a good run was possible however he admitted finishing in the top 6 was a little better than he expected. Krapp described his 7th as a solid run but after a frustrating final practice yesterday the ETS race winner was a lot happier with his car and thinks he has something good now to build on.  Making a ‘big mistake’ on the final lap which lost him 2 seconds, Matsukura said he was just pushing too hard.

Two notable retirements from Q1 where Yokomo team-mates Yannic Prümper and Hayato Matsuzaki who completed just five laps each. Both finalist at the last Worlds, Matsuzaki the runner-up in Germany, the Japanese driver made a mistake at through the sweeper which saw his car need marshaling while Prumper hit something on the track which caused him to have a moment. Afterwards it was discovered whatever he hit gorged a groove out of the rear of his chassis.  Both will be looking to capitalise in Q2 from their still pretty fresh tyres.

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Wilck tops final practice

Tamiya Racing Factory’s Viktor Wilck has topped the official timing for final practice at the Electric Touring Car World Championship as he took his prototype TRF417 around the high speed MACH track in the fastest three consecutive laps ahead of Ronald Volker and Atsushi Hara although over 5-minutes it was Volker who ran the fastest time with 18 laps in 5:09.745.

Having made further changes to the set-up of his Thunder Power motor which he said gave him more overall power than he had in CP1, Wilck said as a 5-minute run it was not very good as he made two big mistakes but over three laps he was very happy with his pace.  Knowing from pre-event testing that Volker’s Yokomo works best in cooler conditions while their car is more suited to running in higher temperatures, Wilck said he thinks he is in good shape for tomorrows qualifying.

‘Really really good’ was how Volker described his car and the run showed they have very good pace over the full length of a run.  The Euro Touring Series Champion had an incident with Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp in the early laps which he said cost him any chance of the fastest 3-laps but the most important thing was that over 5-minutes they had a good advantage over the rest of the field. With his fastest three laps being set in CP1 and good enough to end the day third, the German will start second on the road in the opening qualifier as second fastest driver Atsushi Hara drives in the second highest heat.

Factory HB driver Hara was pleased with his day saying his TCX was ‘really good’ although he thinks for tomorrow he will try a slightly heavier shock oil and lighter diff oil to further improve the balance of the car.  Running a fresh battery for the first time in CP2, having used old packs up to now, the former World Champion said he had a little bit too much power and he will reduce the boost for the morning.  One of the legends of the sport, the Japanese ace said the key to qualifying is going to be keeping pace consistent after 10 laps when the tyres start to drop off.  Team-mate Andy Moore, the third of the drivers competing here to have held the World title, said he is struggling with the balance of his Hobby Wing powered example by the end of the run with the change from start to finish being far too much.  The fourth of the drivers to have been Touring Car World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya is not present this year as he had to stay in Thailand to await the arrival of a new baby.

Ending up fourth in the official timing but closest to Volker over a full run, defending Champion Marc Rheinard said his Tamiya dropped off power after three minutes.  Using a brand new battery for the final run of the day he said it needed an extra charge cycle but overall he said the car feels OK and he thinks when the times really start to count he should be not to far off Wilck and Volker.  Team-mate Jilles Groskamp, who many have tipped for the win here as it is his local track, said he is struggling to get the car to turn in over the opening laps but then it feels good and is very consistent till the end.  The Dutch ace set the sixth fastest 5-minute run but was a little frustrated a not being able to run faster than a 17 second lap.

Fifth fastest, 3-time 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura said his Yokomo BD5 suffered from a little understeer but overall it was OK.  Planning to fine tune his set-up for Q1 to get that fraction of steering he is missing the 18-year-old thinks with this sorted out he should be good for qualifying.  Team-mate and fellow teenager Yannic Prumper made it three Yokomo’s in the Top 4 over 5-minutes, the winner of the ETS finale earlier this month officially 7th fastest behind Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg who was also a winner this year in the ultra competitive Euro Touring Series.

After practice was completed the IFMAR international jury held a meeting to discuss tomorrow’s qualifying where it unanomiously voted to revoke the early decision to reduce it to five rounds and so the drivers will now have six round by round point scoring heats, of which the best three are to count.  It was also voted that tech inspection will only be done pre race with battery voltage and weight checked everytime with other elements only being checked at random which it is hoped will make for the smooth running of tomorrow’s action.

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