Rheinard just misses 39-lap Q3 run

Marc Rheinard just missed out on becoming the only driver other than defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura to complete a 39-lap run at the 1:12 World Championships in the Netherlands when he took his Speed Passion powered prototype CRC to a 38/8:00.858 run in the third round of qualifying.  While Matsukura produced his third TQ run of the day with a new fastest time and outright fastest lap, all the attention is on the battle behind him which is building up between regular Touring Car rivals Rheinard, Jilles Groskamp, Ronald Volker and Alexander Hagberg.

Having run out of battery in Q2 and afterwards also finding that his car was tweaked, Rheinard reduced the boost on his speedo for the run and had no such problems in his third heat describing his car as being ‘much better’.  The Touring Car World Champion, who hasn’t raced 1:12 since the last World Championships in Germany 2-years ago, lost 1.5 second early in the run when himself & Jilles Groskamp, who set the third fastest run, made contact.  Feeling he reduced the boost too much he will increase it slightly for his next qualifier along with a slight set-up adjustment as he would like to have a little more steering.

Lying last after the opening two rounds of qualifying Ronald Volker finally managed to finish a heat which was good enough for the 4th. Running an Associated, Yokomo’s big hope for the Touring Car World Championships which take place later in the week, Volker said changes to his Associated chassis for Q3 to try and get more steering left him with a very edgy car.  The German lost a lot of time in the opening part of the run as he adapted to the handling and so plans to revert to the set-up he used early.

Despite loosing one of the side springs from his OCRA powered Xray during Q3, Hagberg set the fifth fastest time improving his previous best by 7/10th.  The Swede said his X12 is not the fastest but is very easy to drive allowing him to put in clean runs and this is a huge benefit as others drop time due to mistakes.  With two solid times to his credit, each drivers best two runs from six are added together to determine the grid for the finals,  Hagberg will try some small set-up changes for Q4 to see if he can improve the cars speed.

Behind Hagberg were 2008 World Championship finalists Hideo Kitazawa and Andy Moore.  Moore was on a very fast run with his CRC but on his last lap he got caught up with a moment that Xray’s Paul Lemieux was having which cost the British driver almost 4 seconds and dropped him to 7th fastest.

Round 3 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 39/8:08.694
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – CRC – 38/8:00.858
3. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:01.554
4. Ronald Völker (DE) – Associated – 38/8:01.886
5. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 38/8:02.229
6. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:05.028
7. Andy Moore (GB) – CRC – 38/8:06.710
8. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:07.696
9. Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:09.906
10.Markus Mobers (DE) – Onpoint – 38/8:11.417

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Q2 Update

The second round of qualifying saw another TQ run from Naoto Matsukura but the Yokomo driver’s time was slower than in Q1 after a mistake on the last lap left him just shy of another 39 lap run. Behind the World Champion, Jilles Groskamp was second fastest, the Dutch ace improving his Q1 time by 4.5 seconds.  Having run a cautious first qualifier Alexander Hagberg drove a more aggressive second heat which resulted in the factory Xray driver setting the third fastest time for both the round and overall.

Having retired from Q1 with a chunked rear tyre Ronald Volker again failed to go the full 8-minutes, this time ‘light contact’ with the track boards causing his motor to move.  As a result of the two non-finishes the Euro Touring Series Champion currently sits in 92nd and last position in the qualification ranking. The German, who was top qualifier at last year’s 1:12 European Championships, said the set-up they tried in Q2 felt really good so he is confident he can move up from the bottom spot in Q3.

Second fastest in Q1 Marc Rheinard was another who failed to finish the second qualifier after his CRC ran out of battery power in the closing minute of the heat.

Round 2 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 38/8:00.732
2. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:02.773
3. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 38/8:02.945
4. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:04.420
5. Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:05.667
6. Andy Moore (GB) – CRC – 38/8:06.992
7. Elliot Harper (GB) – CRC – 38/8:08.223
8. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:09.375
9. Markus Mobers (DE) – Onpoint – 38/8:09.584
10.Juho Levänen – Associated – 38/8:09.614

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No surprise as Naoto TQs opening qualifier

There was no surprise in the opening round of qualifying for the 1:12 World Championships with Naoto Matsukura topping the 8-minute heat by a considerable margin from the CRC’s of Marc Rheinard and Simo Ahomiemi.  Like in yesterday’s practice, the reigning World Champion was the only driver to record a 39-lap run with his Yokomo once again setting the fastest lap with a 12.203 which was near on identical to his 12.202 record set in controlled practice.

Despite his rivals openly accepting that they are battling it out for the runners-up spot at these, the 16th running of the 1:12 Worlds, Matsukura said his Yokomo was a little difficult to drive as his steering to the left and the right were different.  Chasing a third consecutive world title here in the Netherlands he said his car felt a little loose something he put down to his set-up rather than the track conditions. Having had a control tyre additive in 2010, this year drivers are free to use any odourless additive and this has resulted in mixture of additives being used causing the track surface to be very oily with many of the top drivers struggling with the loose conditions.

Describing his run as ‘safe’, Rheinard said he lacked low end power with his prototype narrow chassis CRC very slow out of the corners.  Happy overall with how the car handled he said he will leave the set-up as is but change the settings on his Speed Passion speedo for Q2. Reverting back to the same set-up that saw him feature strongly in free practice, Ahomiemi said his ‘standard’ CRC felt really good but his driving could have been better.  Making a few small mistakes he said he will continue with the car as is for Q2 and focus on cleaning up his driving.

Setting the fourth fastest time Jilles Groskamp was on target to take P2 until he had a coming together with Tamiya Touring Car team-mate Elliot Harper.  Glancing the track boards Harper’s CRC bounced into the path of Groskamp’s Onpoint Racing car sending the Dutch ace into corner marker from where he needed marshaling.  Losing 5-seconds Groskamp said despite the incident, which he added was no fault of Harper, it was a positive first run as he was able to run a closer pace to Matsukura and with a clean run is confident he can be the quickest of those in the battle to become Vice Champion.

Xray’s Alexander Hagberg took a cautious approach to the opening qualifier and it paid dividends for the Swede as he set the fifth fastest.  Describing the run as ‘OK’ he said he is still too far off the pace but with a better starting position for Q2 he is confident that by ‘increasing the risk’ and driving harder he can close the gap.  Running in the second highest heat, he said he will leave his X12 set-up the same.

Completing the Top 6 was Corally’s Hideo Kitazawa.  The Japanese driver, who is only in the third highest heat, said his prototype chassis was very nervous to drive and this led to him making a mistake.  Planning to leave the car the same for his second qualifier he expects to try a different tyre additive to try make it more stable.

Elsewhere Ronald Volker, who was closest to Matsukura yesterday, pulled up after he got caught up in the Harper/Groskamp coming together that resulted in his Associated suffering a chunked tyre.  Third fastest yesterday. factory Associated driver Juho Levanen didn’t feature in Q1 ending up 42nd fastest.  The Finn switched to JRF tyres and ran them in the three minute practice round this morning in which he said they worked well but opting to run the same set in his first heat he said it was a bad call as the 11 minutes was too much running.

Round 1 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 39/8:10.594
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – CRC – 38/8:03.260
3. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:03.997
4. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:07.245
5. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 38/8:07.737
6. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:07.832
7. Markus Mobers (DE) – Onpoint – 38/8:08.324
8. Keven Hebert (CA) – Associated – 38/8:09.367
9. Toshiki Kunitomo (JP) – CRC – 38/8:11.531
10.Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:12.233

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