Tadahiko Sahashi is Worlds Top Qualifier

Team Serpent’s Tadahiko Sahashi is the Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Japan.  The 24-year-old claimed the honour thanks to his time set on the opening day of qualifying as yet again conditions for the sixth & final qualifier left the Keitune Racing Speedway slower than Tuesday evening’s Q2 rocket round.  With Mugen’s Takehiro Terauchi the only driver to run 36 laps in Q6, there was no improvement from the top 24 drivers with top US racer Paolo Morganti the biggest mover for the round with a time that moved him from 39th to 25th to book himself a place in the 1/4 finals.

Delighted to claim his first World Championship TQ honours on home soil, Tadahiko said he knew it was going to be a tall order for his rivals to better his 36/10:03.890 in the final qualifier and so he used the run to work on the tune of his Picco engine & clutch for the Semi finals.  Unfortunately having never made a Worlds final before, this year is the first time that the Top 4 qualifiers wont directly get a place in the main, but he is confident in his package for the 30-minute Semi.  Describing tyre wear as being less that normal for this track after IFMAR ruled that the track could not be sprayed as it usual is, he said he hasn’t decided yet whether he will change tyres or not in the race.  Very happy with the feeling he has with his 977 he will not making any set-up changes adding that he will instead change his driving style for the longer race.

With the 10 drivers who will get to battle it out for the 19th World title of IFMAR’s oldest class having to come through Semi-final, qualifying second overall will mean Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo starts on pole for his 30-minute encounter.  Having made the final at the last two World Championships, he said considering Q2 was the only round that counted he was OK with qualifying second.  Feeling he has improved his OS Speed powered MRX-5 since discovering a problem with the car while rebuilding it last night.  While suffering a problem with oil from a new bearing causing his clutch to slip in Q6, he said his car feels good and he is confident for his Semi.  With the introduction of controlled tyres for this year’s event, he said there are ‘no tactics’ this time round as all drivers will start with the same diameter tyres for the race. Winning the Pre Worlds when tyre additive was permitted, he said the track conditions this week mean tyre wear is not going to be a big issue.

Qualifying third, European Champion Jilles Groskamp used Q6 to run the set-up that he plans to race with in the Semi-final in 2-Days time.  Setting the fastest lap of the top heat, he said his Shepherd was the best it has felt so far. Getting the Velox V8 up on two wheels this cost him being fastest for Q6, but in terms of handling he said it was very consistent and easy to drive.  Changing the clutch set-up on his Maxima engine to be less aggressive he said this helped fuel economy allowing him to do two extra laps over his rivals before making his pitstop.   Running Protoform’s 909 bodyshell in Q6 he said he will run this in the final as it suits his driving style better than the R18 as well as giving better tyre wear.  With only his R18 painted up in the Electric Touring Car World Champion signature paint scheme, he said unfortunately he will be racing with a while shell.

Running out of fuel in Q6, like the majority of drivers with only 3 cars making the full 10-minutes, KM Racing’s Meen Vejrak is the fourth qualifier.  Part of the huge PRC team from Thailand, the 200mm World Champion felt he could have been faster had the track presented the same conditions as Q2.  Testing a set-up for his final in Q6, with the timing of the final heat the same as when the Semi will be run, he said it wasn’t as stable as he was hoping for so they need to work on something else.  Despite his running out of fuel, he said he has no concerns as it was due to his OS engine having been set rich.

Terauchi, who just crossed the line before the 10-minutes and then ran out of fuel but got fired back up to complete the round in the fastest time, feels he has a better car now than what he had when he set the fifth fastest time in Q2.  The 22-year-old was happy with his Novarossi powered Mugen in Q6 adding that he plans to run it as is for his Semi Final.  A finalist at the last Worlds in Miami, he said his run time is still very tight but with the only option of making it safe giving him less power he will stick with the ‘risky’ option.

One of three European drivers to directly qualify into the Semis, Italy’s Raiola Carmie claiming 8th overall, former Champion Adrien Bertin was very happy with his Q6 performance.  Setting the 3rd fastest time, the French ace said his car was finally good and he had a really good feeling with it.  Adding that the qualifier was a boost for his confidence which was not so high coming to the track this morning.  Ending qualifying 10th fastest, the head of Team Orion engine development, said he believes he can further improve his KM Racing K8 for the Semi final.  Unlike his rivals he feels tyre wear is pretty high adding that he thinks it will be hard to run 30-minutes without stopping.  While finishing the race on a single set of tyres may be possible he said the drop of in pace over the final 10-minute to be too great a penalty to make it a viable option.

While three of the drivers who made the final in Miami 2-years ago making the Semi, of the 8 drivers who have traveled to Japan the other 5 will start their title hopes in the 1/4 Finals.  Finishing 6th at the USA event, KM Racing’s Shinya Shimazaki ended up 18th fastest just ahead of Serpent designer & 1/8th veteran Michael Salven.  Finishing just behind the Japanese driver in 2011 having made the final at the last two world Championships Motonica’s Robin D’hondt has qualified 24th.  The Belgian failed to finish the Q2 rocket round setting his best time in Q3.  Making his World’s Final debut last time as the only Shepherd in the final, Swiss driver Simon Kurzbuch has ended up 20th fastest.  Signing a last minute deal to contest the event Atsushi Hara, who was a direct qualifier on his 1:8 debut two years ago, had to count on his Q1 time which left him 21st and will see him start in the same 1/4 final as is his former HB team-mate and 200mm Worlds Top Qualifier Teemu Leino.

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Final Qualifying times

1. Tadahiko Sahashi – Serpent/Picco – 36/10:03.890
2. Takaaki Shimo – Mugen/OS – 36/10:04.329
3. Jilles Groskamp – Shepherd/Maxima – 36/10:04.734
4. Meen Vejrak – KM Racing/OS – 36/10:07.327
5. Takehiro Terauchi – Mugen/Novarossi – 36/10:09.267
6. Yuya Sahashi – Serpent/Picco – 36/10:11.281
7. Shinnosuke Yokoyama – Mugen/OS – 36/10:14.258
8. Raiola Carmine – Xray/Max – 35/10:03.414
9. Keisuke Fukuda – KM Racing/Picco – 35/10:04.124
10.Adrien Bertin – KM Racing/Orion – 35/10:05.162
11.Michihiro Takayasu – HB/OS – 35/10:06.236
12.Syoki Takahata – Kyosho/OS – 35/10:06.292
13.Charlee Phutiyotin – KM Racing/OS – 35/10:06.586
14.Kazuya Yuruki – Mugen/OS – 35/10:06.895

Top 14 directly qualify into the Semi-Finals

‘Race Control’ – Day 5

Today is the final day of qualifying for the 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Chiba, Japan.  Day 5 of the event, drivers have had the opportunity to have an extra two hours in bed with the sixth & last round of qualifying due underway at 09:00 local time rather than the previous 07:00 starts. Despite it being a rather overcast morning, it is already shaping up to be a very hot day at Keitune Racing Speedway with temperatures set to be in the range of 30 degrees unfortunately meaning not much is expected to change at the top of the time sheets over the final 10-minute qualifier.  With qualifying complete, in the afternoon the first finals of the 19th running of these World Championship will get underway running through to the 1/32 Finals.

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Tadahiko just one run away from being Top Qualifier

Tadahiko Sahashi is just one qualifier away from securing the honour of Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships and based on today’s qualifying the Team Serpent driver can already get the glasses ready for the champagne to celebrate.  After yesterday evening’s rocket round, today’s hot conditions meant no one came near to challenging Sahashi with the Top 16 remaining unchanged from yesterday.  The highest placed driver to post their quickest time today was HB’s Hideo Kitazawa who holds 17th position.  With the top drivers using today’s three qualifiers as a test run for the finals, it was the Sahashi brothers who still locked out the top of the time sheets.  Having posted the fastest time in the days opening & third qualifier, when the only 36-lap runs were recorded, Tadahiko also ended the day with the fastest time of Q5 & the day albeit it over a full lap of his TQ pace. In Q4 his brother Yuya took his Serpent 977 to the fastest time again a full lap off the Q2 topping time.

The highest placed European sitting 3rd overall, Jilles Groskamp was the closest to Tadahiko in Q5 although had he not had an incident during his fuel stop he may well have become the first non Japanese driver to top a round of qualifying.  The Dutch ace lost around 3-second when his pitman put his car into the path of another in pitlane spinning his car around.  With the change of running order between Q4 & 5 giving the Team Shepherd/Maxima driver 4 hours to work on his car he used to the time to completely rebuild the Velox V8 and then using the final qualifier as a shakedown.  Commenting that as he lined up for the heat that Pre Worlds winner Takaaki Shimo even joked with him that it was ‘another practice run’, the reigning Electric Touring Car Champion said maybe its time for a change of the qualifying format to something similar to touring car where irrespective of the track conditions your position for the round counts for something.  Noting that some qualifiers finished with only 4 cars still running, he said with everyone knowing that improving the time wasn’t possible it was a very relaxed day but said that’s not the way to run a World Championship.  He said the qual points system would make things a lot more exciting.

While the Q5 times counted for nothing, like in Q4 it was Mugen/OS driver Shinnosuke Yokoyama who was third fastest.  Behind him KM Racing’s Meen Vejrak posted the fourth fastest time ahead of Italian National Champion Raiola Carmie’s Xray and the Mugen of 2011 Worlds finalist Takehiro Terauchi.

The only 1:8 World Champion competing at Keitune Racing Speedway this week, 1999 Champion Adrien Bertin said while the fastest time qualifying system has always been used it is probably time for a change adding that a points system would be more fair.  Having won his title in Clermont Ferrand, France, when there was a similar situation where just one round pretty much determined the qualifying outcome, he said overall he thinks World Championships should be decided over multiple races.  The head of the Team Orion engine programme, who has also been World Champion in 200mm Touring Car, said the current format favours local drivers too much.  Although he contested the Warm-up race, adding that a lot of development work since then meant his KM Racing K8 is now very different and he is having to start again from scratch, he said the locals still have too much of a home advantage.  This year’s Worlds is the first time that there will be no Top 4 direct qualifiers, everyone having to race through from the Semi-finals, which is something Bertin thinks is not a good change.  The Frenchman, and Red RC fully agree with him, saying that becoming Top Qualifier should have a reward and that should be a place in the final to compete for the World title.

Tomorrow’s schedule will get underway 2 hours later than normal with the final round of qualifying set to start at 09:00 local time.  Following this the lower finals up to and including the 1/32 will be run.

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