Rain forces early end to Day 2 of qualifying

With the rain still falling here at the Gulf Coast Raceway the race organisers of the IFMAR 200mm World Championships have canceled the third round of qualifying which was due to take place this afternoon.  With the forecast for tomorrow and the rest of the week giving good conditions for the Houston area, Race Director Bob Ingersoll has just informed team managers that no more racing will be run today and instead they will try to get the final two rounds of qualifying underway in the morning.  Bringing the start forward an 1-hour to 08:30, Group 4 will get proceedings underway followed by 3, 2, 1 and then 14 back to 5.  The second half of the day will again start with Group 4 back to 1 followed by Group 5 through to 14.

Due to the rain, which also effected the opening day of qualifying, only half the scheduled four rounds of qualifying have been run with 17-year-old Xray driver Shinnosuke Yokoyama holding the provisional TQ honours from European Champion Dirk Wischnewski.

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No change at the Top in Q2 – And the rain is back

The second round of qualifying here at Gulf Coast Raceway produced little change at the top of the time sheets with Shinnosuke Yokoyama’s time from this morning still the time to beat.  The Xray driver was again fastest for Q2 but in a slower time of 34 laps in 10:03.868 due to the hotter track conditions.  The biggest improvement in Q2 came from Italy’s Giuseppe D’Angelo who set the second fastest time.  Having failed to finish Q1 due to radio problems, the factory Reds Racing driver took his Mugen around in a time of 34 laps in 10:06.991 which puts the Italian National Champion 8th fastest overall.

Third fastest for the round and another driver to break into the Top 10 overall was Japanese teenager Takehiro Terauchi.  The factory Mugen driver, who is running ZAC Project tyres, said he ran too small a diameter tyre in the opening qualifier but with the correct size on for Q2 everything went well and he plans no changes to his Novarossi powered MTX-4R for the next qualifier.

Electric Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard was much happier with his Shepherd Velox V10 in Q2 and managed the 4th fastest time to move into 10th overall.  The German, who broke his car in Q1, said considering the hotter track conditions it was OK but they are still some bit away from a good overall balance.

Second fastest this morning, Dirk Wischnewski was 5th fastest with his Orcan powered Xray.  The German said changing the rear roll bar had made his NT1 very different to the morning but it was slightly better however overall he wasn’t happy with his own driving, making a number of mistake during the 10-minutes.  Fellow Xray driver Ralph Burch completed the Top 6 for the round with a time that puts him 12th overall behind Team Magic’s Dario Balestri.

Having watched the first of the groups in Q2, defending World Champion Daniele Ielasi saw the track was slower and opted to use his run to test different wheels. Having run IDM carbon rims in Q1 he tried harder Matrix disc wheels but plans to revert back to his own brand of wheels for Q3.

Unfortunately just minutes after the completion of Q2 the forecasted rain arrived and we now have a very wet track.  The staff of Gulf Coast Raceway are busy trying to clear the circuit of the water but it look like we will have a repeat of yesterday and will see further changes to the schedule.

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Yokoyama Top Qualifier after opening round

Young Japanese driver Shinnosuke Yokoyama is the current early pace setter as the first full round of qualifying for the IFMAR 200mm World Championship has been completed here in Texas.  The 17-year-old Xray driver was on target for the only 35 lap run of the round until his OS engine ran out of fuel on the last lap but he still managed to top the round with 34 laps in 9:58.355.  Yokoyama said his objective for the round was just to stay calm and that approached paid off despite him not being entirely happy with the set-up on his NT1 which lacked steering out of the corners.

Making it an Xray 1-2 after the first of the five scheduled qualifiers, Germany’s Dirk Wischnewski was second fastest with 34 laps in 10:00.624.  Running in the first group of the day, the European Champion said he drove a safe run as being first out on track after yesterday’s rain the track conditions were loose. Running Matrix tyres on his Orcan powered NT1 he plans to change the rear roll bar for the next round.

Setting the fastest lap of the round and the third fastest run was factory Kyosho/OS driver Takaaki Shimo.  The Japanese ace, who is running an updated car which features a new radio tray and rear shock tower, said the car was very good but his driving was not.

Fastest of the Mugen drivers was Robert Pietsch despite the plug coming loose on his Novarossi engine. The German said his run to fourth was due to consistency rather than outright pace, the European 1:8 Champion admitting his MTX-4R is not as fast as that of his rivals.  Running in the same heat as Yakoyama, he had led for much of the round but a mistake on the last lap cost him 2 seconds and a 35 lap time.  Asked if he plans to change anything for Q2 he replied other than tightening the plug we will leave everything else the same.

Sweden’s Alexander Hagberg lost 2 seconds due to a mistake on his out lap after refuelling but said both his Max engine and Xray felt really good.  Running Matrix tyres, the majority of driver here are running 32 shore fronts and 35 on the rear, he still managed the 5th fastest time but feels with no mistakes he has the pace to TQ the next round.

The winner of the Pre Worlds, Paolo Morganti was the sixth fastest and top Serpent.  The American said he ran a safe run due to the track being a little loose and reported afterwards that the conditions had resulted in the greatest tyre wear of the event so far.  Happy to leave the set-up on his 733 as is for Q2 he plans to adjust the clutch settings on his Novarossi.

Running in the slower A group of heats 2008 Worlds Top Qualifier Jilles Groskmap sits in 7th position.  Having run his opening two qualifiers yesterday before the rain arrived, the Dutch ace is the top Team Shepherd driver at the moment.  Team-mate and defending World Champion Daniele Ielasi was on a good run until he hit gearbox problems in the later part of the run ending up only 24th fastest while EP World Champion Marc Rheinard had throttle problems and broke his Velox V10.

Elsewhere Chris Tosolini lost a front wheel off his Serpent 733 which the American said was due to him running lexan discs on his wheels. DJ Apolaro recorded the seventh fastest time but was to have that disallowed later after the fuel tank on his Serpent failed scrutiny.  Team Shepherd’s Josh Cyrul was also disqualified for the same infringement. Mugen’s Mike Swauger failed to start the round after suffering throttle servo problems.  2006 World Champion Keisuke Fukuda was 19th fastest while 2004 Champion Adrien Bertin retired his Kyosho just before the four minute mark.

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Qualifying postponed until morning

The opening day of qualifying for the 2010 IFMAR 1/10th 200mm World Championships is over early with race director Bob Ingersoll making the call to postpone the opening round of qualifying for the B Group of drivers until the morning.  At a team-manager’s meeting Ingersoll said that while the rain has stopped and the track staff have cleared most of the water it would be another 3 hours before it would be suitable for racing and this would leave it too late to get the two rounds of qualifying completed under natural light.

Group B, which is made up of the fastest 7 heats, will now start at 08:30 in the morning starting with Heat 14 and running back to Heat 8.  This will be repeated and then for the second half of the they will run straight through from Heat 1 to 14.  The readjusted time schedule means that drivers will now have 5 rounds of qualifying rather than the original 6 but with more rain been given tomorrow this could be further reduced.  IFMAR rules state that only two rounds of qualifying need to be completed to determine the grids for the finals and with the weather showing good for Thursday that should be possible.

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Rain halts action in Houston

Just as the first drivers from the faster B Group of heats took to the track the rain arrived once again over the Gulf Coast Raceway leaving race director Bob Ingersoll no choice but to suspend racing.  The dark black clouds, which also brought with them thunder and lightning, passed after around half an hour and now the track staff are busy trying to clear the standing water in the hope that they can resume action today but the rain still has not fully cleared.  In the earlier A Group of heats it was Team Shepherd’s Jilles Groskamp who set the pace with a best run of 34 laps in 10:05.531 from German Kyosho driver Patrick Gassauer who was over 9 seconds adrift.

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