Matsukura takes first qualifier at Touring Car Worlds

Naoto Matsukura headed a Yokomo 1-2 in the opening round of qualifying at the Touring Car World Championships in Kissimmee, the Japanese driver 1.2 seconds faster than team-mate Ronald Volker over 5-minutes. The only other driver to run 18-laps of the Full Throttle RC Raceway track, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard completed the Top 3, finishing just 1/10th of a second off Volker. Having some issues with traffic and suffering a crash reigning champion Jilles Groskamp got his title defence underway with an 8th for Q1.

Happy to get qualifying underway with a TQ run, Matsukura said nerves got the better of him on the opening lap as he led away the field and if it wasn’t for Volker making a crash himself his team-mate would have easily topped the times. Having to push to make up for his first lap error, he said with a TQ run now in hand he should be more relaxed for tomorrow morning’s Q2 and happy with his BD7 2015 he will run the same set-up.

Setting the fastest lap of the round, Volker said he struggled with the corner at the timing loop. Hitting the paint there twice, this caused his LRP powered BD7 to get twitchy and he missed his line for the next corner resulting in his LRP powered BD7 jumping over the curb. Sticking with the same set-up as he ran in the final practice but with a new servo fitted after noticing the casing was cracked after contact with boards, he said with ‘Naoto gone’ he just focused on keeping the rest of the run clean. Having dropped to fourth he said a lack of communication there after from race control left him unaware as to how hard he needed to push but ‘luckily’ he did enough to get second ahead of Rheinard. ‘Still not 100% with the car’, Volker said while it is fast and on pace, he would like to find a little extra to make it more ‘comfortable’ to him.

Rheinard was frustrated at how close he was to Volker, but said as an opening qualifier it was a ‘good safe run’. Suffering a bad 3-laps in CP3 which determined the standing order of the reseeded heats, the newly crowned 1:12 World Champion said starting 8th and having to pass cars made it a little hard to get into his rhythm. Reverting to his CP2 set-up, he said his Muchmore powered TRF419 was better but after his contact with the boards coming onto the straight in the final practice he ‘took it easy’ adding he can find time there tomorrow.

1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion Meen Vejrak claimed fourth for Q1. Running in the second fastest heat, the Yokomo driver reverted to the set-up he ran in the morning’s opening controlled practice saying it gave the car good feeling again. In the last minute of the run, the Thai driver would struggle with a lack of braking resulting in a number of mistakes. The problem appears to have been caused by his motor getting too hot with Hobby Wing recommending he move his cooling fan from in front of the motor, where it is picking up the heat of the speedo, to behind it.

Setting the fifth fastest time Akio Sobue felt his Tamiya suffered from an imbalanced set of tyres. With the centre line of the tyres also different on each tyre, drivers not being permitted to trim it in anyway, the 20-year-old said this resulting in him having two mistakes. Hopeful of a better set of tyres for Q2, he is confident both he and his TRF419 can run better tomorrow.

‘Not too bad’ was how Atsushi Hara summed up his run to 6th in the first qualifier. Electric Touring Cars first World Champion, the Yokomo driver said he ws struggling with consistency through some of the corners. While overall his ‘car felt ok to drive’, the traction was very sensitive to both the position on the line and the throttle input. Having watched team-mate Matsukura’s qualifier he will try his younger fellow countryman’s set-up for Q2.

2010 World Championship runner-up Hayato Matsuzaki claimed a seventh for the first of the six qualifiers. The former 2WD Buggy World Champion, said the run was ‘good for me’ with things getting better the whole day. Pointing out he is not fast enough by highlight his fastest lap of 17.616 compared to team-mate Volker’s 17.108, he said his time came from good consistency over the 5-minutes. Reluctant to change his set-up as he feels the track conditions vary every time he goes on track he said for Q2 he will just try to be more aggressive at the start of the run when the tyres are at their best.

Groskamp said his time ‘should have been a little better’. Having to let Xray’s Bruno Coelho by only for the Portuguese driver to crash and then run behind him again before he himself crashed, he said he considered himself lucky to get 8th as the crash could easily have broken his car. Happy that the pace is there he said he is now a little more confident for tomorrow and hopefully he can open Q2 with a clean run. For Coelho, contact with the boards coming on to the straight on his last lap put his steering servo out of line causing his struggling T4 to drop to 45th.

Completing the Top 10 behind Singapore TRF driver Nicholas Lee, Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp said his car should have been a lot faster given the cooler conditions. Running behind Matsukura the German said he was losing a lot of time to him at the end of the straight. Talking to Kyosho/Orion team-manager Joe Pillars afterwards, he said they have to up the turbo on his Orion Speedo for Q2. Having ran safe lines, he also hoped to benefit from tightening up his driving for the next one.

The world debut of HB’s new PRO 5 chassis, JJ Wang just missed out on a Top 10 run posting the 11th fastest time ahead of fellow US racers Paul Lemieux and Rick Hohwart. With team-mate & former World Champion Andy Moore 14th, Wang said he is struggling with the car pushing at the end of the straight but having talked with his team about possible set-up changes he thinks they can improve that for the morning.

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Video – Controlled Practice Rd3

Matsukura tops final practice

Naoto Matsukura topped the final round of practice at the Touring Car World Championships in Florida recording both the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the day and the first 18-laps run of the Kissimmee track. The Japanese driver headed the third controlled practice from Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker with Xray’s Paul Lemieux third and defending World Champion Jilles Groskamp fourth. With the heats for qualifying already set after the first two rounds of controlled practice, Volker topping that, by setting the pace in CP3 Matsukura will lead away the top heat in this evenings opening round of qualifying.

Pleased with the ‘clean’ run, Matsukura said his ‘car was good’ and with the driver ‘feeling good’ he was looking forward to qualifying getting underway. With a car that seems to have an edge over team-mate Volker when the conditions are cooler, the 21-year-old is confident about his chances in the first of the six scheduled qualifiers which will bring Day 2 of the Kissimmee event to a close.

Volker felt his car was ‘a tiny bit better’ in the previous practice and said only Matsukura was a bit faster the rest of the field was bigger so all was still good. Planning to discuss with his engineer Yukijiro Umino if they can get the car to run as it did in CP2, the European Champion said he ran a clean 5-minutes and he was happy with that. For the opening qualifier he added he would ‘step up things a bit’ in terms of his driving.

While his three laps improved, Lemieux said he needs to improve for the first qualifier. Really good at the beginning, the RC America driver said he worked his tyres too much and he was struggling by the end. Not sure whether its the set-up or his driving which is at fault, for Q1 he will leave the car as is and try to drive differently with the big focus being to put in a clean 5-minutes so as to try and get a decent first round result.

‘Not too bad’ was Groskamp’s summary of the final practice. Suffering one crash that cost him 4-seconds, he said this allowed him to run behind Volker adding it was good to see the lines the German was running. Apart from the crash, he said this was the best he has driven so far in the event and he hopes to carry that through to qualifying.

Raising a few eyebrows with his P2 pace in the second controlled practice, Bruno Coelho backed it up with a 5th in the final practice. The Portuguese driver described the round as ‘so so’. A good first half the sun then started to effect his view causing his eyes to water up. Behind Coelho Tamiya’s Akio Sobue completed the Top 6 followed by team-mate Viktor Wilck.

Tamiya’s 3-time Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard would post the 10th fastest time. Mistakes on the entry to the main straight on the opening two laps ruined a good 3-lap time but the German said changes to his set-up for the run left the car not as good. While his driving improved for the rest of the run, his engineer Kiyo Suzuki will change the TRF419 back to the set-up used in CP2.

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Coelho stars in slower CP2

European Championship Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho caused a bit of a surprise in the second round of controlled practice with the Xray driver setting the second fastest time behind Ronald Volker. In general a slower practice, due to it taking place during the hottest time of the day, the Portuguese driver’s time was good enough to put him third overall in the reseed for qualifying. Topping the time sheets, Volker couldn’t improve on his CP1 pace due to the hotter conditions but also compounded by an issue of his opening lap starting early due to position of his car on the start line. Race officials have since moved and marked out a new starting line further back around the corner on which the loop is positioned.

Having not contested the last World Championships, Coelho found himself in Heat 1 of 12. Putting him at a disadvantage in CP1 this morning, it would play to his advantage in CP2 as he was able to run in slightly cooler conditions that those in the top two heats. None the less as very impressive drive from the 21-year-old, for whom this is his first every time to run at Full Throttle RC Raceway, he said his T4 has been good from the first time he put it on the track with learning the track being his biggest focus. Now set to run in the top heat he said running with cars all of a similar speed should help him further improve on his driving of the track.

Volker said while he had some issues with the loop on his first lap his goal for CP2 was always on running a 5-minute time. Running just 1-second slower than his morning total time, the 4-time Euro Touring Series Champion said he could feel the track was not as fast but still his lap time average was ‘good’.

Setting the fastest lap of the round with a 17.420, Naoto Matsukura would post the 3rd fastest time of the round which claim 5th overall in the seeding. Managing only 2-laps in CP1 due to making contact with the boards, the Yokomo driver would have a ‘spin out’ on his opening lap. Unlike team-mate Volker, Matsukura’s BD7 seems to be at it best in cooler conditions with the 21-year-old saying the track was too hot for his car this time round.

Tamiya filled fourth through to sixth for the round. Fourth and sixth respectively Viktor Wilck and Marc Rheinard failed to improve on their morning times but World Champion Jilles Groskamp was able to find over 3/10ths over his best 3-laps to book his spot in the top heat for qualifying. Reducing the turbo delay on his Orion speedo, he said this cut out the corner overshoots he suffered in the first round. Happy with the car’s improvement, the Dutch ace was also encouraged by the fact while others went slower he improved.

Another improver in CP2 was British National Champion Olly Jefferies. Only 22nd in the morning, the Xray driver posted the 7th fastest time of the second run. Copying the set-up of team-mate Alexander Hagberg, Jefferies switched over to Xray’s ARS (Active Rear Suspension) set-up which gave his T4 more steering. Pleased to have made a big step forward for the final practice he will make some small tweaks to get the set-up better suited to his driving.

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Volker tops first controlled practice

Ronald Volker topped the first round of controlled practice at the Touring Car World Championships in Florida, the Yokomo driver fastest over 3-consecutive laps from the Tamiya’s of Marc Rheinard and Viktor Wilck. Having set the pace in yesterday’s open practice Volker’s team Naoto Matsukura had a very short lived start to Day 2 as he managed only two timed laps before hitting the boards at the end of the straight and popping a tie rod.

Also recording the fastest 5-minute time, again Rheinard being his closest rival, Volker said he ‘wasn’t too happy with (his) driving’. Starting off with a ‘perfect lap’, he said he drove too aggressively resulting in him hitting the boards on lap 2 so that effected his outright 3-lap pace. Following the early error, the German said he switched his focus to running the practice like a qualifier but felt he ‘pushed too hard’. Very happy with the performance of his LRP powered BD7 2015, he said while they will just make some ‘tiny’ tweaks to the set-up for the second of the three controlled practices the big focus will be to work on his driving.

Rheinard said as an overall run ‘it was pretty good’ but a spin at the end of the straight on the first lap effected his 3-lap pace. The 3-time Touring Car World Champion believes the spin was due to his set of controlled Hot Race tyres slightly bigger than normal centre line. Not permitted to trim this before the run he said for the future he will need to consider doing some extra warm-up laps. Team-mate Wilck said while he was able to find a bit more steering than he had yesterday, his TRF419 was ‘a bit loose’. Putting this down to the hot temperatures for CP2 he will change shock oil.

Japanese TRF driver Akio Sobue set the fourth fastest time, the 19-year-old very happy with his 3-lap pace. Looking to make his car a little easier to drive for the second practice he will go up in with the front roll centre as well as going from 45 to 47.5 weight shock oil.

‘A lot better’ was how Alexander Hagberg summed up his run to the fourth fastest time. The Xray driver said his T4 was much better today but added he didn’t drive very well as it took some time to get used to the set-up change. Changing the cars rear suspension geometry this gave the car better high speed steering and the Swede was confident they were now ‘definitely going in the right direction’.

Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp completed the Top 6, the German saying his new car was fast but a little difficult to drive. Fourth fastest over 5-minutes, He changed to a thicker diff oil which during the run he felt he needed to change back but on reflection plans now to run it again and try to adapt his driving to ‘work with it’. Giving the car good steering but at the loss of rear traction he will instead make a rear end set-up adjustment to try cure that.

Seventh fastest, Yannic Prumper said he drove better than yesterday and it was just all about track time. Unlike his Yokomo team-mates, the German didn’t get to test at the Kissimmee track prior to the event, and he said he is still trying to get the lines perfected in particular which sections of blue painted curbing you can and cant drive on. In terms of his BD7 he said it was ‘pretty good’.

‘Think its OK’ was Paul Lemieux’s reaction to his 8th fastest time. The American said while he is working to make his Xray a little less sensitive, it was ‘mainly all about driving out there’.

In between Lemieux and Canadian racer Andrew Hardman, who completed the Top 10, Atsushi Hara said his Yokomo was not as good as yesterday. Re-adjusting his roll centres, the former World Champion said this was better but going to a softer shock spring made the car ‘too easy to drive.’ For CP2 he will revert back to the standard spring set-up he ran yesterday.

Defending Champion Jilles Groskamp could manage only the 12th fastest time behind Meen Vejrak. The Tamiya driver said’ for 3-laps not so good but overall no so bad’. The Dutch ace felt he ‘didn’t drive very well in the beginning’ and while he was faster at the end of the 5-minutes he needs to find more pace from his driving. Suffering a number of overshoots in corners he will change his Orion speedo profile to slightly less power for the next run.

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