‘Race Control’ – Day 3

Today is Day 3 of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships and finally drivers have been greeted by a sunny morning at the Keitune Racing Speedway in Ichihara, Japan.  Today’s schedule kicks off with two rounds of controlled practice before we get down to the serious business of qualifying.  Each practice run will be of 10-minutes with the drivers 3-fastest consecutive laps counting towards the seeding of the qualifying heat order.  With drivers having been able to true their own tyres for the past two days of free practice, today they will have to use pre-trued tyres provided by the race organisers.   This is the first time the 1:8 Worlds has featured a controlled tyre albeit it from multiple manufacturers –  Matrix, Contact, ZAC Project, Hot Race and ULTI.   Drivers will receive their tyres as they pass through the enclosed tyre/fuel control area to line up for their respective runs.   Another key change to this year’s qualifying is that there will be no Direct Top 4 qualifiers, meaning that all drivers will have to race a Semi-Final from where they will graduate to the title deciding 1-hour Main.  While today’s weather is looking perfect, their is a high chance of tomorrow being a wet unraceable day so today’s adding extra pressure on the drivers for their Q1 & 2 runs.

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Shimo tops final Day 2 practice in Japan

Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo topped the final round of free practice bringing Day 2 of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Japan to a close. The Pre Worlds race winner managed a time of 49.515 over 3-consecutive laps in the sixth of the day’s 8-minute practice runs followed closely by Serpent’s Tadahiko Sahashi (49.564) and KM Racing’s Keisuke Fukuda (49.803).  Overall the fastest time of the day (49.207) was set by Team Shepherd’s Jilles Groskamp in the second of the cooler morning runs while in the final practice the Top European was his team-mate Oliver Mack who posted the 4th fastest time.

Shimo summed up his day with ‘getting better’ adding that he was happy that when conditions were either cloudy or sunny he was always in the Top 3.  Describing his OS Speed powered MRX-5 as ‘very good’ when he pushes it hard, he said when he tries to drives it at a more normal pace it doesn’t feel familiar to him.  With the car’s characteristics changing considerably between the two driving styles he said he will try a few changes in the mornings two controlled rounds of practice in the hope he can get a more consistent package.

The younger of the Sahashi brothers, Tadahiko said after a morning that was not so good he was pretty happy with with his pace by the end of the day. Making a lot of set-up changes since the morning, he said the biggest change came from running harder material rear arms on his Picco powered 977.  Already running the harder material on the front he said he did start out with the hard on the rear but in testing he found this to make the car too sensitive.  Deciding to try it in the afternoon he said it works well here adding he likes the feeling it gave.  Also working on his clutch set-up he said he found improvement in this area too.  Yuya, who was second in FP2 the fastest round of the day, choose a different Picco engine for the afternoon but the setting wasn’t as good.  Setting the 5th fastest time in the closing practice he said his 977 is ok but he needs to find something to give him a better feeling with the car.

Having not been happy with his car in the morning, Fukuda said things are slowly getting better and better each run but he is still looking to get more steering.  Running Picco engines, the former 1:10 World Champion said he doesn’t have a good feeling with his engines and hopes that in the morning’s 2-controlled practices he will be able to find a good one.

Not going to full distance in FP6 but still managing a 49.820 time, Mack said his Velox V8 was very fast but as the run when on it got difficult to drive developing oversteer.  Suspecting a crash at the end of FP5 may have tweaked the car, on rebuilding the car for Day 3 a bent front hinge pin was discovered.  Suffering a broken glowplug, the German said run time is his biggest concern for tomorrow as they struggle with safely running 5-minutes, crucial for the 10-minute World Championship qualifiers.

Shepherd’s European Champion Jilles Groskamp also had engine issues in the final practice. Switching to his planned race car, which is fitted with a transponder that the MyLaps timing system was able to count, he said the Maxima engine they tried was too lean cutting out at the end of the straight after which the struggled to get it to run right. Disappointed not to run for one last time the car he will tech for qualifying, he said it was the same car he posted the fastest time with in FP2 so he is pretty confident with it.  Having built a new car just for the event, he said the older car which he used for a lot of testing gave him a better feeling and that is why he has chosen to run that one for qualifying.

Completing the Top 6 was 21-year-old Shinnosuke Yokoyama, team-mate of Shimo.  The 2010 200mm World Finalist described his day’s performance as ‘not bad’ adding he had improvements every run.  Not entirely happy with the stability of his MRX-5 in the corners he will try a lower ride height for the opening controlled practice.  The 10-minute controlled practices will be used to reseed the heats for qualifying with each drivers fastest 3-consecutive laps determining that.

For 1:8 newcomers HB, it was Andy Moore who was best of their drivers in the final practice.  Setting the 7th fastest time, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion said he was happy with the balance of his Maxima powered R8 but would like to find steering.  Only his second ever 1:8 Onroad event, the KM Cup here at this track being his first, he said the lack of steering is really only an issue at the start of the run when on big tyres.  By the end of the run he said the overall package is pretty OK.  Having thought they had engine trouble in FP5, Moore said they found afterwards that the brake disk was rubbing the flywheel causing the engine to keep cutting, adding they could have done without the lost track time.  The set-ups team-mate Teemu Leino tried in the afternoon didn’t really work but he said that is what practice is for.  Planning to revert to the set-up used to set sixth fastest time in FP6, the last November’s 200mm Worlds Top Qualifier said it should be alright for qualifying.

Describing 1:8 Onroad cars as ‘still weird to drive’, Atsushi Hara said overall he ‘think(s) all is OK’.  Using the final day’s practice to run his fully assembled spare radio tray he said it wasn’t set right leaving his Mugen with too much left steering and not enough right steering.  Still playing catch-up with drivers who got to race at the Keitune Racing Speedway before the Worlds such as his former HB team-mate Moore & Leino, FP6 saw the legend of the sport run his famous colour scheme for the first time which he said felt good.

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Video – Free Practice Rd4

Vejrak fastest in FP4

While Jilles Groskamp’s time set in the morning’s second practice remains the fastest time, it was KM Racing’s Meen Vejrak who topped Day 2’s fourth round of free practice at the 1:8 World Championships in Japan. The 200mm World Champion set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in a time of 49.687 with FP3 pace setter Tadahiko Sahashi (49.759) second fastest.  Posting identical times (49.897) Team Shepherd’s Oliver Mack and Mugen’s Takaahi Shimo posted the third fastest time followed by KM Racing’s Adrien Bertin.  Transponder problems meant Groskamp failed to register a time in both FP3 & 4 but the Dutch ace was still happy with his Shepherd and in particular in FP4 during which the sun finally broke cover over the Keitune Racing Speedway.

Running AMB’s RC2 transponders in his OS based Maxima engined Velox V8, in FP3 Groskamp thought a faulty transponder was the reason for his lack of times.  Changing to a second RC2 personal transponder he said he couldn’t believe it when his time again failed to register but on taking up the issue with race control he was informed the latest decoder software from MyLaps (where he used to work when the company was known as AMB) no longer supports the RC2 transponder.  Feeling the hotter conditions of the latest run have made the track around 1/10th of a second a lap slower he said he could feel the rear end getting a little loose as a result but looking forward he said this was a good test for later in the event.  All round the European Champion said apart from his transponder issues eveything was still going well.

Team-mate Oliver Mack said a harder set-up on his Sonic powered Velox V8 had made it a lot more consistent adding the set-up was ‘nearly perfect’.  The German said his focus for the remaining two practice runs today is his engines. Not a full time racer, a baker by profession, he said a lack of time prior to the event meant he had to bench run in his engines and this is causing him some problems.  While the engines run fine he said compared with track run in engines they are loosing their edge much faster.  Having got an engine from Eduardo Picco, who is here to support the Shepherd team for whom they make the Sonic engine line, and which was track run in by Alberto Picco, Mack will run this for his next practice after which they will work on maximising its run time in preparation for qualifying.

Posting the fifth fastest time Bertin said ‘its not perfect but getting pretty close’.  The only former 1:8 World Champion contesting this year’s event, the French ace said his K8 is working good with parts KM produced for the KM Cup race here which he was unable to attend making the car a lot better than when he raced it the European Championships.  Head of Orion’s engine programme, he said his engine set-up is now the area he needs to work on.  Having too much bottom end power he made it less aggressive for FP4 which made a big difference and the plan is to further smoothen out the power delivery for the next run adding the he also needs to get a better tune on the engine as it was not cleaning out properly.

While Xray have no official presence at these World Championship, Paul Lemiuex having put one of their RX8s in the final in Miami on the cars Worlds debut, FP4 did see a good run from Raiola Carmine.  Setting the 8th fastest time, the current Italian National Champion said he is happy with his car. Finishing second to Shimo at the KM Cup which was held here last month the 22-year-old is using the same set-up today but it is his engine that is causing him some problems.  While happy with the power he said the tune is not stable, with it keeping going rich, and so for the next practice run he will change to another one of his Max engines.

Elsewhere Michael Salven, having struggled to get any feeling from his Serpent, copied the set-up of the Sahashi brother for FP4.  The 1:8 onroad veteran and Serpent designer said it was a lot better adding that he expected it to be really loose but it wasn’t.  A good base set-up to work from he said for him it lacked a little steering but the German said he had lots of options to cure that and he is now much more confident for the remaining practice runs.

A finalist at the last world Championship Motonica team driver Robin D’hondt is not having a good event so far.  7th in Miami, the Belgian said he is struggling for a set-up with the car both unstable and lacking steering.  This being his first visit to the track he said a lack of practice is hindering him but he hope running a narrower front end will improve the car. In yesterday’s practice the 24-year-old broke the radio plate and a receiver in a heavy impact crash captured by the Red RC video camera.

From the host Nation of the last World Championship, there are five US drivers in attendance here in Japan.  Serpent’s Paolo Morganti said things are getting better the more he learns the track.  This being his first time to the Japanese track he said the left side and right side have to be driven totally different.  Having to avoid the paint on the right side of the track he said on the left you have to go on it and that takes getting used to.  Having run a carbon chassis plate on his Novarossi powered 977 in the morning he has switched to the more tradition aluminium chassis saying the carbon chassis is not good for this track and is something that is better suited for use back in the US.

Fellow US driver JJ Wang declared himself happy with how things are going so far.  The 15-year-old Mugen driver, who just missed the main at the Pre World’s when drivers where permitted to use additive, said he is working on trying to get his Novarossi powered MRX-5 to turn in better while keeping rear traction, in particular in the left side of the track.

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