Matsukura is Top Qualifier in Kissimmee

Naoto Matsukura is Top Qualifier for the Electric Touring Car World Championships in Florida, the Yokomo driver claiming his second overall TQ off the event having secured pole position for the 1:12 Worlds earlier in the week. With the sixth & final qualifier at the Kissimme track a three way Top Qualifier showdown between Matsukura, Ronald Volker and star of the event Bruno Coelho it was the Xray driver who would top the concluding round as both Yokomo drivers crashed. Making a last lap mistake himself, even without this Coelho’s time would not been quick enough to secure the top spot as all three drivers ended up on 2-points with 2 x TQs and a second as their counting 3 of 6 rounds. Setting the fastest run of qualifying in the opening round of qualifying two days earlier it was this time that would give Matsukura his fourth World Championship TQ, with Volker’s Round 5 pace securing him second ahead of Coelho. For defending champion manufacturer Tamiya, Marc Rheinard will head their challenge from fourth on the grid with Champion Jilles Groskamp taking up the rear of the grid in 10th position.

Pleased to claim his first Touring Car Worlds TQ, Matsukura said he was forced to push hard by Coelho, describing the Portuguese driver as ‘very fast’. Battling with Coelho for the TQ of the round, he would get out of shape coming onto the straight with the time lost putting him out of contention to TQ overall with the perfect score. Having originally expected his greatest challenge to come from team-mate Volker he acknowledged Coelho is a real potential challenger for the finals. Starting out front and looking to achieve something his mentor & RC Legend Masami Hirosaka never did in winning the Touring Car title, he said his approach for the finals would be drive a clean race. Asked about the opportunities for overtaking on the Full Throttle RC Raceway track he said it would not be easy but added there are opportunities there.

Confident the track conditions wouldn’t allow for anyone to better his fastest 5:15 Q5 pace, Volker said the only way he could better his starting position was to take the round. Pushing hard on lap 6 he would turn too early and make contact with the boards popping a shock off his car. Making a set-up change to his BD7 for the final qualifier he said the car didn’t feel as good as previous runs adding this was something they need to work on for the practice final. Changing a number of things the German said they will return some of the adjustments back to how the previously ran them and combined believes his car should improve. Four time consecutive champion of the highly competitive Euro Touring Series, he said Coelho is going to be a factor in the race but said speed is only one thing but making the right judgements would be key.

Impressing the World with his pace on this his Touring Car Worlds debut, Coelho said his last lap discrepancy was caused by nerves. Setting the fastest lap of the round and the only driver to run 18-laps, the 21-year-old said he knows his Nosram powered T4 is fastest enough to take the battle for the win to the two Yokomos starting in front of him. Asked what his approach for the finals would be, the European Championship Top Qualifier said simply ‘Maximum push’.

Having tried a set-up change in the morning’s free practice and liked it, Rheinard said it didn’t work as well in final qualifier as the temperature came up. Despite his TRF419 being loose on power, the German still claimed his best qualifying performance with a second. Planning to try a different set-up in the practice final, he said looking to actual races he thinks crashes are going to be the key to the outcome adding he hopes to be able to get through such crashes that happen ahead of him. Behind Rheinard, team-mate Viktor Wilck will start 5th, the Swede saying for how their car is in the hot conditions this starting position is the best he could have expected.

Posting the third fastest time of the final qualifier, former Champion Atsushi Hara will start sixth on a grid that contains five RC World Champions. The Yokomo driver, who has been running in Heat 9 of 10 with clouds covering the sun having a huge effect on track condition between groups, said he believes on the same track at the same time he has competitive speed for the final. For the practice final he will try a thicker diff to get more traction for the hotter conditions of the actual triple A-Mains.

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Video – ISTC Qualifying Rd5

3-way showdown to decide overall TQ in final qualifier

The final round of qualifying at the Touring Car World Championships in Florida will be a three way showdown between Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura & Ronald Volker and surprise of the event Bruno Coelho. Bringing Day 3 of the Kissimmee event to a close, the penultimate round of qualifying saw Matsukura throw away an almost certain overall TQ as he put his BD7 into the wall at the end of the straight just before the halfway mark while on target to top the times for a third time. This allowed team-mate Volker to TQ the round ahead of Coelho’s Xray and a much improved Atsushi Hara. Overnight it is Matsukura who holds the provisional TQ thanks to a faster time for the first of his two TQ runs meaning that Volker needs to TQ the morning’s final qualifier while Coelho needs to do so with the fastest time of the six rounds.

After his Q5 topping run, a somewhat disappointed Volker said, ‘I should be more happy that I got the TQ but I didn’t manage to get the 5-minute time I needed’. Only half a second off the tie breaking fastest time that gives Matsukura the top spot in the overnight ranking, the European Champion said both Matsukura and Coelho each had a better pace than he did. Seeing his team-mate crash and Coelho have a mistake however he said while he pushed for a fast time he didn’t want to over do it and throw away a TQ run by making a mistake himself too. The German said with a Yokomo 1-2 with just one round to go he is happy for the team saying its one of their best recent World Championship performances.

Commenting on his heavy crash which broke his BD7, Matsukura said the mistake was completely his own doing and while the car was ‘so good’ the driver was ‘so shit’. Running yet another fastest lap for the round, only Volker joining him on a 16-second lap, he said the feeling of his car is really good and he know he is quicker than his team-mate adding he just needs to keep things clean for 5-minutes. Having tried to drive more safely, the Top Qualifier of the 1:12 Worlds held earlier in the weekend said the car starts to understeer, as it is set-up to be driven with his aggressive driving style. With the pressure more on Volker and Coelho for the final qualifier, Matsukura said tonight he was going to enjoy a good dinner and relax and all would be good for the morning.

Losing time after riding the curb just after the loop, Coelho said his Nosram powered T4 was ‘super good’. His first electric Touring Car World Championship, having previously raced the event in 1:10 & 1:8 Nitro and 1:8 Offroad, the 21-year-old said the event is exceeding the expectations he had before flying out from his home country of Portugal. Taking the impressiveness of his performance in his stride, he said the plan for tomorrow is to try to do do pretty much the same thing as he did today.

Running his first Top 3 time, Hara said ‘finally he had found a good feeling’ with his Yokomo. The former champion, taking the categories first world title in 2000 at the controls of a Yokomo, said ‘having watched this Bruno guy and see how he could drive his car we had a small meeting with Umino’. Figuring out a few things he would use his qualifier to test these and they worked really well with Volker expected to run them for Q6. Able to close the gap to the lead pace, Hara is ‘really confident for tomorrow’, when he hopes to be able to improve to 5th on the grid a position that is provisionally being held by Viktor Wilck.

For defending Champion Tamiya, the penultimate qualifier proved difficult. Having been third in every round before, Marc Rheinard would only post the 9th fastest time, one place in front of champion Jilles Groskamp. Wilck would be the fastest TRF419 taking fourth for the round with Akio Sobue sixth. Rheinard said ‘it was a round to forget’. Changing his shock oil he said the change was not very good but the biggest problem was the sun. Covered by a cloud for Heat 9 he said this gave those drivers an advantage both in terms of cooler track conditions and visability. Groskamp also said the conditions changed so much after 1-minute of the run with the sun making it warmer and harder to see. Going into the final qualifier Groskamp sits 8th on the grid behind Hara and infront of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg.

Fifth in Q5, Paul Lemieux is one of three drivers currently outside the Top 10 who still has a chance of making it into the A-Main with a good final qualifier. Sitting 11th, the Xray driver is the only hope of a home driver being in the World Championship deciding encounters. Two others still in with a chance of making it are current 200mm World Champion Meen Vejrak and Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp, who setting the 7th and 8th fastest times respectively in the day’s final qualifier, sit 12th and 13th overall.

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