Video – 1/12th Qualifying Rd1

Matsukura opens 1:12 Worlds with TQ run

Defending Champion Naoto Matsukura opened qualifying at the 1:12 World Championship in Florida with a TQ run, the Yokomo driver setting the pace over fellow Japanese driver Hideo Kitazawa and Masatsugu Ido. Having convincingly stamped his authority on practice yesterday to be top seed for qualifying, an early crash put Alexander Hagberg out of contention, the Xray driver eventually ending up 11th at the end of the first of the six 8-minute qualifiers.

Having struggled to match Hagberg’s pace yesterday, Matsukura said both an improved car and better track conditions made for an improved package today and he was pleased to open his title defence with a TQ run. Going for a fourth consecutive title, the 21-year-old had one mistake over the run and having had to deal with a little understeer on his Yokomo Double Pink shod R12 C3.1 he will make a small set-up tweak for Q2.

Running a Morotech chassis, Kitazawa described his P2 run as ‘so, so’. The Futaba employee said he didn’t get the timing right with his tyre sauce, all drivers now have to use Gravity RC sauce in a controlled area, and for the first 2-minutes he had to deal with very aggressive steering. Describing the track as ‘good but very narrow’, he will extend the sauce time of his ULTI tyres for Q2 together with trying to eliminate crashes – the opening qualifier seeing a lot of crashes from the top drivers.

Only racing 1:12 for four months, having a back ground in 1:10 Offroad, Ido was pretty pleased with his opening qualifier. The 20-year-old team-mate to Matsukura said his goal was to run a clean run and up until the end that was going to plan before a late mistake. ‘Pretty happy’ with his R12 he said he will run it the same and again focus his attentions on keeping the run clean.

Driving for CRC, Tamiya Touring Car ace Marc Rheinard posted the 4th fastest time despite tweaking his car at the end of the opening lap. The German said his car felt really good off the start but coming onto the straight for the first time he clicked the boards heavily. A run full of ‘small errors’, he said while he would make some small changes including his Much More Speedo settings, the focus was more on getting rid of mistakes as that was where most time was to be gained.

British National Champion Olly Jefferies said the qualifier felt a lot longer than 8-minutes as he just tried to focus on not crashing his Xray ‘as much as everyone else’. Happy with the performance of CRC shod X12 at the start of the run he said after 4-minutes it started to get loose. Planning to tweak his tyre prep as well as his body shell, he will change the set-up of his LRP speedo as he looks to get a better feeling through the throttle stick of his Sanwa radio. Team-mate Hagberg, who surprised everyone yesterday with his pace said while his mistakes didn’t help he ws struggling for rear traction towards the end of the run. Setting the fastest lap of the round, with a 8.916 lap, the European Champion will change the tyre prep of his Hot Race tyres for his second qualifier.

Completing the Top 6 was Japanese National Champion Hayato Ishioka. The 18-year-old CRC driver described the run as ‘a little rough’. Running Kimihiko Yano tyres and describing the track layout as ‘really fun’, he plans to leave everything the same for Q2 and just work on tidying up his driving.

Next up was Markus Mobers. Setting the 7th fastest time the On-point owner said he was ‘getting there’ as he finally found rear traction. With the Mobgums shod OPC12 ‘super good’ for the first two minutes he said it then started to push due to improved rear traction but happy to have that the German said they can now adjust the set-up to cure the understeer and he is more confident for Q2. Unfortunately team driver and Tamiya’s reigning Touring Car World Champion Jilles Groskamp it was a very short lived Q1 as he stripped a spur gear at the first corner. The Dutch ace said a heavy crash in the morning practice looks to have moved his Orion motor slightly with him not noticing it as he prepared the car for the first qualifier.

Donny Lia headed the home challenge taking his TOP Rebel to the 8th fastest time. Making ‘a lot of mistakes’ he said the driver was ‘quite a mess’ and he needs to work on that. Happy to get a Top 10 for the round, he said having figured out his BSR shod car it felt really good and for Q2 he will run it the same and just ‘settle down’ his driving.

Runner-up at the 2012 World Championships in the Netherlands, Andy Moore struggled to the 13th fastest time. Again racing for CRC, the HB Touring Car team leader, made a tyre change for Q1 which he said was alright for the first 2-minutes before the ‘traction just disappeared’. For Q2 the British driver will change to the same CRC Pro Cuts tyre as used by CRC team-mate Rheinard to get a P4 out of Q1.

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Track Focus – Minnreg Hall

Track Name – Minnreg Hall
Organiser – George Martinez
Country – USA
Location – Largo, Florida
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – CRC Carpet

The 17th running of the IFMAR 1:12 World Championships takes place at Minnreg Hall in Largo, Florida, a site that is no stranger to World events having previously hosted the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in 2003 on a grass site at the rear of the building. Originally set to be hosted at the outdoor asphalt Full Throttle Raceway in Kissimmee, where 1:12 legend Masami Hirosaka won the last of his World titles in 2004 and which hosts the Touring Car Worlds later in the week, the hall is a 2-hour drive from Kissimmee. A temporary track, the hall which is used for a range of local events & exhibitions, it was picked due to it being Florida’s only indoor carpet racing site with two r/c events held here each year – The Minnreg Turkey Shoot and a round of the FSEARA (Florida State Electric Auto Racing Association) Championship.

Designed by local racer Mike Bean, the track laout covers an area 96 feet wide by 44 feet deep and is constructed using the same boards that are used for the building of the famous Snowbirds track – that race’s organiser Mike Boylan playing a big behind the scene part in putting on these 1:12 Worlds. With only 44 racers making the trip to Largo, race host & Full Throttle Raceway owner George Martinez said putting on a carpet race was only made possible thanks to the support of 1:12 protaganist Frank Calandra whose CRC company sponsored a fresh supply of its industry leading Ozite racing carpet.

In terms of driving the track, which visually doesn’t look very challenge, defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura gave the layout a thumbs up. Liking the feeling of the track, the Yokomo ace who is chasing a fourth consecutive title said while the right side of the track is very fast & straight forward the left side is a ‘little difficult’ to get right every lap. European Champion Alexander Hagberg, who stamped his authority of Day 1 of practice, said while he was expecting a ‘more technical’ track he likes driving the ‘typical US track’. Like Matsukura the Xray driver said the left side is the key to a good lap with a good line through the sweeper allowing you ‘to pick up a lot of time’.

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