Groskamp top seed for qualifying in Japan

Jilles Groskamp is the top seed for qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships, the Dutch ace again putting his Shepherd top of the time sheets in Japan in the second controlled practice.  Groskamp managed 3-laps in a time of 50.330 on the slower track his CP1 time some 8/10ths faster. Continuing to impress, Italy’s Raiola Carmine set the second fastest time in CP2, his Xray just 9/1000th off the European Championship pace.  Japanese National Champion Takaaki Shimo, the widely tipped event favourite, posted the third fastest time having struggled in CP1 with a lack of steering.

Describing the track as ‘a lot slower’, Groskamp said his Velox V8 still felt good adding he is looking forward to getting qualifying underway.  During the 10-minute run, the Electric Touring Car World Champion tried two different bodyshells to ascertain which is better for the hotter conditions.  Starting the run with Protoform’s 909, which he ran in the morning’s opening practice, he switched to their R18.  Describing the R18 as better for the current track conditions, it making the car more stable & easy to drive, he plans to run it for the first of today’s two qualifiers adding that while it is slightly slower it should be safer over the 10-minutes.

Having his most competitive run yet, Atsushi Hara set the fourth fastest time of CP2 posting an identical time of 50.707 to the similar Mugen of Takehiro Terauchi.  Having run soft springs on his MRX-5 throughout yesterday he ran Mugen’s hard white spring for the final practice which while faster made the car harder to drive.  Still to decide which spring to use for the opening qualifier he said he will probably go back to the grey spring as the white option is risky when the full 10-minutes are counted.  A former Electric Touring Car World Champion and this being only his second time to race 1:8, his last being the previous Worlds in Miami, he said he is still trying to get a good feeling with his clutch.  Hara made a point that he cant just ask his Mugen team-mates for their clutch set-up as they have a style of driving for 1:8 that is totally different to his. Describing his OS Speed as having ‘probably too much power’ he has tried 5 different clutch set-ups and now that hopes he can figure out the best option for Q1 adding he needs to also combine this with his gearing selection.  Despite his CP2 time it is the CP1 time that counted for the majority of drivers meaning Hara will run in the B qualifying group.

Former team-mate Andy Moore is another former Electric Touring Car World Champion who laid down his best run in the final practice, posting the 6th fastest time.  HB is a very welcomed new entry into the 1:8 Onroad market and the Japanese company has four of the brand new R8’s running here this week.  Having an off early on in CP1 which unknown to the team at the time had bent the stinger on his exhaust causing them to think they had an engine problem, Moore said CP2 was much better.  Making a mistake on the third of his counting 3-consecutive laps he said without this he would have run a Top 3 time.  In terms of his set-up, the British driver said a switch to softer springs in the final practice improved the car but it still feels like it has an overall lack of grip, something he said is more to do with the track conditions rather than the car.

Behind Moore, Meen Vejrak was again the fastest KM Racing driver setting the 7th fastest time of CP2 followed by Japanese driver Syoki Takahata and the Sahashi brothers, Tadahiko 9th fastest and Yuya 10th.

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Groskamp fastest in first controlled practice

Team Shepherd’s Jilles Groskamp got Day 3 of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships off to a flying start as he set the pace in the first of the two rounds of controlled practice.  The Dutch ace did a best 3-consecutive lap time of 49.524 over the 10-minute run outpacing by 2/10th of a second Mugen’s Takehiro Terauchi (49.857) and Serpent ‘s Yuya Sahashi.  The first sunny morning at the Keitune Racing Speedway since drivers arrived for the event, the warmer opening conditions caught out many drivers most notably pre event favourite Takaaki Shimo who said afterwards he had ‘no steering’ leaving him to post the 7th fastest time.

Surprised at how far he was ahead of his rivals, said Groskamp ‘If I look at my times the run was good, but if I was to judge it on the feeling of my car it was not super’.  The reigning European Champion said the track has changed a lot since yesterday due to the sunny conditions, the rising sun also causing him problems with seeing his car on some points of the track.  Feeling he might have pushed a little too hard, he believes if he was to be a little smoother he can go even quicker. Running Hot Race tyres on his Maxima powered Velox V8, he said that ‘maybe the warmer conditions are better’ for him as his set-up for a hotter track seems to work better than his rivals.

Having made an Ackermann change to his MRX-5 from yesterday, 22-year-old Terauchi said his car was a little better but added he feels he can further improve his set-up.  A finalist 2-years ago in Miami, he will run a different chassis plate on his Novarossi powered MRX-5 for the second controlled practice.  Fellow Mugen driver Shinnosuke Yokoyama took his OS powered example to the fourth fastest time.  The 21-year-old said the hot conditions made his ZAC tyres equipped car very tricky to drive at the start of the run but from then on it improved every lap.  Having lowered his ride height since yesterday evening’s final free practice he felt the change improved the car and should the conditions stay hot he will leave everything as is for the second controlled practice.

Despite posting the third fastest time Yuya Sahashi said he wasn’t happy with his morning’s run.  Describing the track conditions as tricky he said he got caught out by how warm it was for the run and his set-up left him with a lack of steering.  Planning a set-up change to stop the understeer he said he will also be trying to get a better tune of his Picco engine.  Setting the 6th fastest time was the second of the famous Japanese brothers Tadahiko.  He too said he was caught out by the track conditions adding that he also had to deal with his engine being set too rich.

While the race may be void of the big name Italian drivers, their National Champion Raiola Carmine is ensuring the home of nitro racing is being well represented.   Posting the 5th fastest time, the 22-year-old from Angri in southern Italy, said his Matrix equipped Xray RX8 ran perfectly this morning.  Declaring himself happy with the run, he said the problems he had yesterday with a lack of consistency from the engines has been solved adding that his Max engines were now running without any issues.

Fastest in yesterday’s closing free practice, Shimo said he went too far with a set-up change to make his OS powered Mugen more stable, the conditions catching him out.  Struggling to get the ZAC tyres equipped MRX-5 to turn in he was 6/10ths off Groskamp’s pace and for CP2 will try a totally different set-up to factor in the sunny conditions.

Fastest of the KM Racing team was Meen Vejrak, who took the new K8 to the 8th fastest time.  The reigning 200m World Champion, said the car was ‘pushing a little’ because of the weather but is confident he can rectify this for the final practice before qualifying.  Also suffering with his OS engine running on the rich side he said with those two small items sorted he is feeling pretty confident for qualifying.

Oliver Mack posted the 9th fastest time ahead of former double World Champions Adrien Bertin and Atsushi Hara who set identical times.  Mack said the ‘track was not good’ as he struggled for grip but the German seemed more concerned by his lack of run time.

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‘Race Control’ – Day 3

Today is Day 3 of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships and finally drivers have been greeted by a sunny morning at the Keitune Racing Speedway in Ichihara, Japan.  Today’s schedule kicks off with two rounds of controlled practice before we get down to the serious business of qualifying.  Each practice run will be of 10-minutes with the drivers 3-fastest consecutive laps counting towards the seeding of the qualifying heat order.  With drivers having been able to true their own tyres for the past two days of free practice, today they will have to use pre-trued tyres provided by the race organisers.   This is the first time the 1:8 Worlds has featured a controlled tyre albeit it from multiple manufacturers –  Matrix, Contact, ZAC Project, Hot Race and ULTI.   Drivers will receive their tyres as they pass through the enclosed tyre/fuel control area to line up for their respective runs.   Another key change to this year’s qualifying is that there will be no Direct Top 4 qualifiers, meaning that all drivers will have to race a Semi-Final from where they will graduate to the title deciding 1-hour Main.  While today’s weather is looking perfect, their is a high chance of tomorrow being a wet unraceable day so today’s adding extra pressure on the drivers for their Q1 & 2 runs.

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Shimo tops final Day 2 practice in Japan

Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo topped the final round of free practice bringing Day 2 of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Japan to a close. The Pre Worlds race winner managed a time of 49.515 over 3-consecutive laps in the sixth of the day’s 8-minute practice runs followed closely by Serpent’s Tadahiko Sahashi (49.564) and KM Racing’s Keisuke Fukuda (49.803).  Overall the fastest time of the day (49.207) was set by Team Shepherd’s Jilles Groskamp in the second of the cooler morning runs while in the final practice the Top European was his team-mate Oliver Mack who posted the 4th fastest time.

Shimo summed up his day with ‘getting better’ adding that he was happy that when conditions were either cloudy or sunny he was always in the Top 3.  Describing his OS Speed powered MRX-5 as ‘very good’ when he pushes it hard, he said when he tries to drives it at a more normal pace it doesn’t feel familiar to him.  With the car’s characteristics changing considerably between the two driving styles he said he will try a few changes in the mornings two controlled rounds of practice in the hope he can get a more consistent package.

The younger of the Sahashi brothers, Tadahiko said after a morning that was not so good he was pretty happy with with his pace by the end of the day. Making a lot of set-up changes since the morning, he said the biggest change came from running harder material rear arms on his Picco powered 977.  Already running the harder material on the front he said he did start out with the hard on the rear but in testing he found this to make the car too sensitive.  Deciding to try it in the afternoon he said it works well here adding he likes the feeling it gave.  Also working on his clutch set-up he said he found improvement in this area too.  Yuya, who was second in FP2 the fastest round of the day, choose a different Picco engine for the afternoon but the setting wasn’t as good.  Setting the 5th fastest time in the closing practice he said his 977 is ok but he needs to find something to give him a better feeling with the car.

Having not been happy with his car in the morning, Fukuda said things are slowly getting better and better each run but he is still looking to get more steering.  Running Picco engines, the former 1:10 World Champion said he doesn’t have a good feeling with his engines and hopes that in the morning’s 2-controlled practices he will be able to find a good one.

Not going to full distance in FP6 but still managing a 49.820 time, Mack said his Velox V8 was very fast but as the run when on it got difficult to drive developing oversteer.  Suspecting a crash at the end of FP5 may have tweaked the car, on rebuilding the car for Day 3 a bent front hinge pin was discovered.  Suffering a broken glowplug, the German said run time is his biggest concern for tomorrow as they struggle with safely running 5-minutes, crucial for the 10-minute World Championship qualifiers.

Shepherd’s European Champion Jilles Groskamp also had engine issues in the final practice. Switching to his planned race car, which is fitted with a transponder that the MyLaps timing system was able to count, he said the Maxima engine they tried was too lean cutting out at the end of the straight after which the struggled to get it to run right. Disappointed not to run for one last time the car he will tech for qualifying, he said it was the same car he posted the fastest time with in FP2 so he is pretty confident with it.  Having built a new car just for the event, he said the older car which he used for a lot of testing gave him a better feeling and that is why he has chosen to run that one for qualifying.

Completing the Top 6 was 21-year-old Shinnosuke Yokoyama, team-mate of Shimo.  The 2010 200mm World Finalist described his day’s performance as ‘not bad’ adding he had improvements every run.  Not entirely happy with the stability of his MRX-5 in the corners he will try a lower ride height for the opening controlled practice.  The 10-minute controlled practices will be used to reseed the heats for qualifying with each drivers fastest 3-consecutive laps determining that.

For 1:8 newcomers HB, it was Andy Moore who was best of their drivers in the final practice.  Setting the 7th fastest time, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion said he was happy with the balance of his Maxima powered R8 but would like to find steering.  Only his second ever 1:8 Onroad event, the KM Cup here at this track being his first, he said the lack of steering is really only an issue at the start of the run when on big tyres.  By the end of the run he said the overall package is pretty OK.  Having thought they had engine trouble in FP5, Moore said they found afterwards that the brake disk was rubbing the flywheel causing the engine to keep cutting, adding they could have done without the lost track time.  The set-ups team-mate Teemu Leino tried in the afternoon didn’t really work but he said that is what practice is for.  Planning to revert to the set-up used to set sixth fastest time in FP6, the last November’s 200mm Worlds Top Qualifier said it should be alright for qualifying.

Describing 1:8 Onroad cars as ‘still weird to drive’, Atsushi Hara said overall he ‘think(s) all is OK’.  Using the final day’s practice to run his fully assembled spare radio tray he said it wasn’t set right leaving his Mugen with too much left steering and not enough right steering.  Still playing catch-up with drivers who got to race at the Keitune Racing Speedway before the Worlds such as his former HB team-mate Moore & Leino, FP6 saw the legend of the sport run his famous colour scheme for the first time which he said felt good.

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Video – Free Practice Rd4