Hagberg TQ’s again in Q2

Having taken a surprise TQ in the opening round of qualifying at the 200mm World Championships, Alexander Hagberg showed it was on merit as he again topped the times in the day’s second round of qualifying.  Despite the warmer conditions of Q2, the Team Xray driver set an almost identical time to his morning pace being just 0.123 slower over the 5-minutes.  Running in the same heat, Mugen driver Jeff Hammon would be closest to the Swede 1.9 seconds off with Mark Green again fastest in the top seeded heat to complete the Top 3.  Again the round was a troubled one for a number of potential contenders for the 6th running of the championships with defending WC Meen Vejrak again making a mistake late in his heat which would leave him 22nd.  Top seed after practice Teemu Leino would roll his HB, suffering an engine cut as a consequence while Capricorn’s Dario Balestri would retire with engine problems after his car stopped just before the 3-minute mark.

Describing his NT1 as ‘perfect’ and the run as having gone ‘very very good’, Hagberg said while it was slight his only complaint was that his Orcan engine was set a little too rich.  Feeling with a better tune on the engine he could have improved on his Q1 time, in terms of the car the Swede said with it ‘very easy to drive’ the plan for the day’s concluding qualifier, three more qualifiers making up tomorrow’s schedule, was just to again repeat what he did in Q1 & 2.

Australian driver Hammon, who was on 29th in Q1, put his performance improvement down to ‘just better driving’.  Making a caster change to his Novarossi powered MTX-6 for Q2, he said he couldn’t feel any difference but he would leave the set-up as is for the next one.  Looking to play the ‘safe game’ now, for Q3 will make a bodyshell change swapping the one colour white Protoform P37 he has been using for an identical one that has been painted up in his colours.  He will also make an engine change just to ensure he has two race engines at his disposal.

‘Just a clean run’ was how 3-time back to back British 1:10 & 1:8 National Champion Green summed up his qualifier.  Having had some traffic issues in Q1, the Serpent driver said this time ‘everyone got out of the way or traction rolled out of the way’.  With this year’s World Championship using qualifying points rather than FTD he said one roll can be very costly so his plan is just to drive within his 748 and go for consistency.  Unfortunately for Green’s team-mate Dominic Greiner, who was second in Q1, a roll in the warm-up left him with an unnoticed chunked tyre for the qualifier leaving him to struggle to 46th for the round.

Having changed his set-up for Q1 which was not good and then ran out of fuel, Nicholas Lee was able to turn things around for Q2 to post the fourth fastest time.  Reverting to the set-up which he used to take P2 in timed practice, the Xray driver from Singapore also cured his run time issue by changing Novarossi engine, the second one fitted with a different carburettor.  Making contact with Vejrak on the penultimate lap, costing him 1/2 a second and a Top 3 for the round, the 23-year-old will leave his car as is for his next one.

Changing his diff set-up to that being used by team-mate Hagberg, Bruno Coelho took his NT1 to the sixth fastest time.  The star of last month’s electric touring car World Championships in Florida, the Portuguese driver said the lighter diff oil gave him more steering without any problems of traction roll.  Making two minor mistakes he said overall it was a ‘much better run’ and planning to leave the car the same for the third one he hopes to build on that performance.

Having cured the imbalance in his Mugen, different shock lengths from left to right the problem, Surikarn Chaidajsuriya would complete the Top 6.  The Thai driver saying the MTX-6 was ‘now very good’ but ‘just needs more punch’.  The Huge RC Circuit owner said he will hopefully get this from adjusting the clutch spring on his Maxima tuned Novarossi engine.

After a bad opening qualifier, a marshalled car making contact with his car, Francesco Tironi would claim 8th for the round.  The 2012 podium finisher, who famously became the 11th starter of that World Championship final, said reducing the droop on his Shepherd gave the car a very good feeling. Admitting to being not the fastest and not a TQ contender, the TQ the only direct qualifier to the 1-hour Main, he said the car is easily good enough for a top starting position in the Semis.  Behind Tironi was his Shepherd/Novarossi team-mate Simon Kurzbuch.  The Swiss ace said Q2 was a little better than the opening round, changes to both his Velox V10 and clutch giving the car a better feeling.

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Video – Qualifying Heats 10 & 11 Rd1

Leino top seed for qualifying

Teemu Leino will be the top seed for qualifying at the 200mm World Championships in Bangkok, Thailand tomorrow after the fourth & final practice at the Huge RC Circuit showed no improvement on the HB driver’s CP3 pace. Bringing 5-days of practice to a close, it was Dario Balestri would would top the round but with JJ Wang the only Top 10 driver to better his time the line up for the top qualifying heat remains unchanged.  Behind Leino it was Nicholas Lee who ended the day second fastest, followed by Balestri and Mark Green making it four different manufacturers represented in the Top 4.

Never one to give too much away, when asked about his final run Leino said ‘everything seems to be good’ heading into qualifying tomorrow.  Posting the fifth fastest time in the final practice, the Top 5 separated by just 0.040 of a second over 3-consecutive laps, the Top Qualifier of the last World Championships said his final run was focused on checking run time and he was pleased with the mileage from his Novarossi engine.  Asked about the change from 10 to 5-minute qualifiers he said while its nice to get to run longer, in the end 5-minutes is what it is and he’s ready, saying his R10 is ‘good where it is at’ and he will make no changes for Q1.

Having struggled with a lack of engine power in CP2 & 3, Balestri was clearly happy to end the day by putting his Capricorn top of the time sheets for CP4.  Having topped open practice, the Italian said today something changed that effected his XRD engines and it wasn’t until the final practice that they got the performance back through a gearing and exhaust change.  Raising the rear hub camber link by 1mm, he said this also improved the car’s stability and helped rear rotation off power giving him a little extra safety should he find himself in a situation were he needs to input more steering.  Ending the day 6th fastest, team-mate Kyle Branson is set to follow Balestri’s lead and change his gearing for tomorrow.

Despite posting the second fastest time of the final practice, Yuya Sahashi said the high traction of the cooler evening run left his Picco powered Serpent struggling for power.  In addition he said the 748 suffered with understeer and trying to compensate for this through his driving it led to him catching a curb and rolling.  Not happy with how the car ran in the conditions, the first qualifier also set to be cooler he expects he will make changes for the morning.

Setting the third fastest time of CP4 but not improving on his 7th overall, defending World Champion Meen Vejrak said while his KM Racing HK-1 was maybe too easy to drive he think the set-up is good for a safe first run.  Adjusting his clutch in the search for more power, he said while it was an improvement he still needs more and he hopes to find that with a gear ratio change.

Although it didn’t change his final position of 8th overall, Wang said reverting back to his CP1 set-up for the closing practice gave him a car that easy to drive again.  The factory Mugen/Novarossi driver said having made changes for both CP2 & 3 to try & keep up with the changing track conditions he was ‘scared for a time’ they might have lost their way.  However going back to his base set-up he feels he is back on track and good for qualifying.

Posting the sixth fastest time in the final round, his best of the day, to end up 14th fastest, Serpent’s Dominic Greiner said while they found a little more steering his Max powered 748 is ‘still not safe’ for a 5-minute qualifier.  Having started off well in open practice, he said with traction now ‘much lower’ than previous days he would change his car completely and go back to his base set-up adding he didn’t have much else to try.

Greiner’s Serpent team-mate Mark Green would set the 7th fastest time but a strong CP3 time sees the British veteran end practice 4th overall. Testing a recommendation from Novarossi in the final round, this made his engine come up to temperature much quicker than before and he is confident that his package is all set and ready for qualifying.

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Leino improves pace in Bangkok

Albeit by just 0.004 of a second, Teemu Leino improved on his opening practice pace in the penultimate round to stay on top of the ranking ahead of Nicholas Lee and Dario Balestri.  Running a 3-consecutive lap time of 42.326 in CP3, the Finn topped the round ahead of Serpent’s Mark Green and defending World Champion Meen Vejrak, both drivers also producing their best times so far.  Overall the round made for little change at the top with Leino continuing to hold P1 from Nicholas Lee and Dario Balestri with Green the biggest mover, breaking into the Top 10 to go fourth overall.

Leaving his R10 unchanged, Leino put his improvement down to a change of Novarossi engine with the new unit having ‘more power’.  With the sun already starting to go down in Bangkok, the 2012 Top Qualifier said the track was also slightly better than CP2 due to the cooler conditions.  Planning to leave his car unchanged for the final practice of the sixth running of the 200mm World Championships, he said he wasn’t expecting much from the round.  With the enclosed Huge RC Circuit flood lights already on, he said a combination of the lights and the smoke, which in the evening conditions hangs in the air, this makes it very hard to see with the fumes also very hard on the eyes.  He said he hoped come qualifying, which have now been reduced to 5-minutes rather than 10, the timetable would mean they would not have to run in such conditions.

Taking over as the lead Serpent driver, demoting team-mate Yuya Sahashi to fifth, Green said he was just picking up after being thrown off track by a ‘worn part’ following ‘poor maintenance’ of his 748.  Having started off the event five days ago with a good car he said having begun to lose pace he then tried each of his team-mates’ set-ups.  First trying Dominic Greiner’s and then Alessio Mazzeo’s he said neither suited his 1:8 driving style.  Struggling to find a good set-up, last night the ‘worn part’ was discovered and replaced putting the British ace back on track today with some fine tuning each round giving him his CP3 pace.  Happy with the car and set to run it unchanged in the last practice, he will try ‘some engine stuff’ Novarossi have asked him to test.  Having been working towards 10-minute qualifiers today he said it was annoying to find out last minute that they would be 5-minute duration.  A rule sets out that the heats are reduced to 5-minutes if over 100 entries are received for the event. With just over 100 entries it was initially declared that qualifying would stay at 10-minutes but following some objections the rule was subsequently implemented to many drivers’ disappointment with it felt 10-minute qualifiers are what set the world championship apart from other major events.

Improving his time but falling one place in the overall ranking due to Green’s new speed, Vejrak said said new ‘smoother’ diffs further improved his KM Racing HK-1 ‘a little’.  Unfortunately clipping a curb, the Thai ace rolled leaving him to struggle for the rest of the run discovering afterwards that he had chunked a rear tyre.  Happy with that he is headed in the right way with the car set-up, he said with a bit more power for the next one he should be able to further improve and he hopes to get that ‘punch’ by setting his clutch more aggressive.

Changing only the Picco engine in his 748, Sahashi said his focus for the run was on checking his 5-minute run time.  Unable to better his fastest time he would record 4th for the round declaring himself very happy with how everything is running.  The round would see his 1:8 World Champion brother Tadahiko take his 8 Natrix to 6th but he would not improve on his CP2 pace which currently leaves him 14th.

Kyle Branson was fifth fastest for the round, again unable to improve on his opening practice pace.  The Capricorn driver said having followed Leino around at the start he is very happy with his car set-up but power is an issue.  Changing back to his CP1 XRD engine, having had trouble tuning the engine he used in the second round, he said after a good first two minutes the engine started to go off due to the heat.  For the final practice the British driver will run a third engine saying if he can get that to work he will be very confident going into qualifying.  Team-mate Balestri also struggled with power issues, the Italian only 7th fastest for the round almost half a second off his best time set in the first round.

Having impressed in the second practice, Lee said his Xray pushed too much in the third.  Having left his car unchanged since yesterday’s open practice, he said he is going to have to now make a change, with a rear suspension change on the cards.  Elsewhere the round saw the best times so far for former World Champions Kesuike Fukuda, the 2006 winner, and Jilles Groskamp, the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion and 2008 200mm Top Qualifier.  Fukuda posted the 9th fastest time of TP3 to go 17th overall while Groskamp was 13th fastest, moving him up to 19th overall.

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