No surprise as Naoto TQs opening qualifier

There was no surprise in the opening round of qualifying for the 1:12 World Championships with Naoto Matsukura topping the 8-minute heat by a considerable margin from the CRC’s of Marc Rheinard and Simo Ahomiemi.  Like in yesterday’s practice, the reigning World Champion was the only driver to record a 39-lap run with his Yokomo once again setting the fastest lap with a 12.203 which was near on identical to his 12.202 record set in controlled practice.

Despite his rivals openly accepting that they are battling it out for the runners-up spot at these, the 16th running of the 1:12 Worlds, Matsukura said his Yokomo was a little difficult to drive as his steering to the left and the right were different.  Chasing a third consecutive world title here in the Netherlands he said his car felt a little loose something he put down to his set-up rather than the track conditions. Having had a control tyre additive in 2010, this year drivers are free to use any odourless additive and this has resulted in mixture of additives being used causing the track surface to be very oily with many of the top drivers struggling with the loose conditions.

Describing his run as ‘safe’, Rheinard said he lacked low end power with his prototype narrow chassis CRC very slow out of the corners.  Happy overall with how the car handled he said he will leave the set-up as is but change the settings on his Speed Passion speedo for Q2. Reverting back to the same set-up that saw him feature strongly in free practice, Ahomiemi said his ‘standard’ CRC felt really good but his driving could have been better.  Making a few small mistakes he said he will continue with the car as is for Q2 and focus on cleaning up his driving.

Setting the fourth fastest time Jilles Groskamp was on target to take P2 until he had a coming together with Tamiya Touring Car team-mate Elliot Harper.  Glancing the track boards Harper’s CRC bounced into the path of Groskamp’s Onpoint Racing car sending the Dutch ace into corner marker from where he needed marshaling.  Losing 5-seconds Groskamp said despite the incident, which he added was no fault of Harper, it was a positive first run as he was able to run a closer pace to Matsukura and with a clean run is confident he can be the quickest of those in the battle to become Vice Champion.

Xray’s Alexander Hagberg took a cautious approach to the opening qualifier and it paid dividends for the Swede as he set the fifth fastest.  Describing the run as ‘OK’ he said he is still too far off the pace but with a better starting position for Q2 he is confident that by ‘increasing the risk’ and driving harder he can close the gap.  Running in the second highest heat, he said he will leave his X12 set-up the same.

Completing the Top 6 was Corally’s Hideo Kitazawa.  The Japanese driver, who is only in the third highest heat, said his prototype chassis was very nervous to drive and this led to him making a mistake.  Planning to leave the car the same for his second qualifier he expects to try a different tyre additive to try make it more stable.

Elsewhere Ronald Volker, who was closest to Matsukura yesterday, pulled up after he got caught up in the Harper/Groskamp coming together that resulted in his Associated suffering a chunked tyre.  Third fastest yesterday. factory Associated driver Juho Levanen didn’t feature in Q1 ending up 42nd fastest.  The Finn switched to JRF tyres and ran them in the three minute practice round this morning in which he said they worked well but opting to run the same set in his first heat he said it was a bad call as the 11 minutes was too much running.

Round 1 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 39/8:10.594
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – CRC – 38/8:03.260
3. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:03.997
4. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:07.245
5. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 38/8:07.737
6. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:07.832
7. Markus Mobers (DE) – Onpoint – 38/8:08.324
8. Keven Hebert (CA) – Associated – 38/8:09.367
9. Toshiki Kunitomo (JP) – CRC – 38/8:11.531
10.Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:12.233

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Matsukura tops free practice

Defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura has got his ambitions of winning a third consecutive 1:12 title off to an encouraging start by putting his Yokomo top of the free practice time sheets both in terms of outright lap time and total laps completed over 8-minutes.  Recording a fastest lap of 12.211 and 38-laps in 8:04.488 in the third of the four free practice rounds, the 18-year-old set the pace ahead of his Yokomo touring car team-mate Ronald Volker with Onpoint’s Jilles Groskamp and CRC’s Simo Ahoniemi the only other drivers to manage 38-laps of the indoor carpet track.

Matsukura was pleased to top the opening proceedings of this the 16th running of the 1:12 World Championships but in FP4, in which he was outpaced by Ahoniemi, he said the track changed to what he described as ‘loose carpet’ with his Reedy powered prototype R12 suffering from slight understeer.  Moving now into two rounds of controlled practice, which will bring day 1 of the event to a close, the Japanese ace will try a different set-up for the first of the runs which he said should give him the turn in he lacked in the final free practice.

Volker, who is running an Associated chassis fitted with LRP electronics, said his car was also better in FP3 when he too recorded his best time.  Although easy to drive in FP3 he said the car felt slow but trying a different compound of Jaco tyre in FP4 he said the earlier combination was better overall.  The former European Champion plans to use the controlled practice rounds, which will only be used to reseed major discrepancies in the current heat order, to try fine tune the compound & diameter of tyre he will use for tomorrow morning’s opening qualifier.

Having only had one day of practice prior to today with his 1:12 chassis sponsor Onpoint Racing, Groskamp was pleased with his early pace.  Having made quite big set-up changes for each run the Dutch ace said he has found a set-up that is easy to drive and now plans to use the controlled practices to find the best compromise between making the car faster at the cost of it being easy to drive.  Having not raced 1:12 since last year, Groskamp said that lack of mileage makes running a faster but less stable car that bit more difficult over the 8-minutes which he said is highlighted by Matsukura’s pace.  Runner-up at the last World Championships, he said he and everyone else are again racing for the second spot.

Ahoniemi said his CRC was at its best in FP3 but a number of driver errors meant that was not reflected in the timing as he set a 37-lap run.  Breaking into 38-laps in FP4, the reigning European Champion said the conditions were strange with the car sliding while still having good grip.  Happy he has a good base set-up for his regular CRC chassis, he will use use the controlled practices to decide on which CRC tyre he will use for the first of the 6 scheduled rounds of qualifying.

Factory Associated driver Rick Hohwart was fastest of the drivers on 37 lap runs which put him fifth overall at the end of free practice.  With his R5 feeling very loose in the opening practice, the American said they worked on the front end set-up and continuing in that direction they have been able to make the car faster every run and he now feels quite comfortable at the controls.  Team-mate and reigning US National Champion, who set the pace in the opening practice, end FP 11th fastest.  The Canadian said the car feels decent but is not exactly where he wants it and for the final two practice runs this evening he plans to revert back to the set-up he started the day with.

Running a prototype Corally chassis, Japanese driver Hideo Kitazawa completed the Top 6 as he set his fastest run in the final free practice.  Finding the track very different and more tricky than what he is used to running on back in Japan, he said he was now starting to find his rythm.  Responsible for R&D at Futaba, his car fitted with a Futaba speedo, Kitazawa was upbeat that he can improve his pace further in today’s remaining two practices.

Elsewhere British driver Chris Kerswell was quickest of the Serpent team drivers with the 8th fastest time with team-mate Marc Fisher completing the Top 10 just behind former European Champion Juho Levanen whose Associated ended the free practice in 9th.

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Matsukura confident of 3rd consecutive 1:12 title

Reigning 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura says he is confident of securing a third consecutive title this week as the 16th running of the IFMAR 1:12 World Championships got underway in the sleepy Dutch town of Heemstede this morning.  Setting the fastest lap of the opening round of practice before contact with the boards resulted in a broken wheel bearing on his Yokomo, the young Japanese star is the pre-event favourite and should he pull off the feat will equal the achievement of legend of the sport Masami Hirosaka who had a run of success from 2000 to 2004.  David Spashett, who is a three time champion,  was the last non Japanese World Champion winning the last of his three World titles back in 2006.

Based on a track originally created for the r/c racing simulator VRC and then made a reality by the game’s founder Pieter Bervoets, who has done a superb job in presenting a track worthy of hosting the sports most important race, the feedback from the majority of drivers after the first 8-minute practice was very positive.

Setting the fastest pace of the full 8-minutes of that opening run of four scheduled rounds of free practice was reigning US Champion Keven Hebert who completed 37 laps. Describing the track as one of the best he has ever raced on, the factory Associated driver said his R5 felt really good and it was a very positive start to the event.  Finishing 9th at the last Worlds in Burgdorf, Germany, the Canadian said the traction in the opening practice was quite good and based on how much it came up after just one round of heats he thinks it should mean a high traction event which will suit his driving as that is what he is used to racing on in the US.

Behind Hebert was reigning European Champion Simo Ahoniemi who was the only other driver to complete 37 laps.  The Finnish driver said his car felt pretty good and he will leave it as is for his second practice as this should be a better indication of how the track will be for the rest of the event.  A team driver for CRC, who have come to the event with an all new and very impressive looking narrow chassis, Ahoniemi ran the regular chassis from the American manufacturer saying he didn’t want to risk changing from something he knows well and is comfortable driving but added if the other members of the team quickly find a set-up with the new car he may try it in a later practice run.

CRC have a large team here in the Netherlands including two new high profile signings for the event in Marc Rheinard and Andy Moore.  With 2008 podium finisher Hupo Honigl missing the event due to offroad commitments and Jilles Groskamp switching to Onpoint the way was opened for reigning Touring Car World Champion Rheinard and the 2006 Champion Moore to join the team as neither Tamiya or HB make a 1:12 car.  Rheinard’s last 1:12 outing was the last World Championships 2-years ago in Germany while Moore ran the class at last years IIC which after the worlds is probably the biggest 1:12 race there is.  Both are former 1:12 European Champions but didn’t have great opening runs this morning. Running the new narrow chassis Rheinard had a troubled run as his car kept shutting down due to a suspected receiver problem while Moore who is running the standard car said he could could feel his lack of 1:12 running in his driving.

Making his debut for Onpoint Racing, 2010 Worlds Runner-up Jilles Groskamp tried two different chassis in the opening practice and having been over a year since he raced 1:12 was happy with his early pace especially when compared to Matsukura’s lap times.  This is very much a home event for Groskamp as he grew up in the area and worked for a number of years at the events title sponsor MyLaps who are based just down the road. Now based in Thailand, Groskamp is one of the sponsors of RedRC’s coverage with his new venture JG Racing which will shortly release a range of products aimed at the pro racer.

Owned by Paul Ciccarello, this is the Worlds debut for Onpoint racing and for Paul himself who is a very capable 1:12 driver having finished on a the podium at the US Nationals earlier this year.  Also on the team is 1:12 specialist Marcus Mobers who has been responsible for much of the design work on the Associated R5 derived chassis.

Setting the third fastest 8-minute run was Ronald Volker. The star of Yokomo’s touring car squad, unlike Matsukura the German doesn’t run a Yokomo in 1:12 but an Associated chassis.  The Euro Touring Series Champion, who was Top Qualifier at last year’s 1:12 European Championship said the reason for running the Associated is nothing more than than that this was the car he ran before signing to Yokomo and Japanese company have been happy to allow him to continue to run it.  Just driving the car with his famed mechanic Umino Yukijiro and LRP’s Reto Konig preparing the car, something he said based on his last 1:12 outing at the IIC in Las Vegas is probably for the best, he was happy with how the opening practice went with the car particularly good in the second half of the run.

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