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JJ Wang dominates AOC season opener
With a very strong performance in A2, LRP driver JJ Wang has taken overall victory at the opening round of the AOC held at RCI V2 in Shanghai. In a straight up battle with Ronald Volker the local ace took a decisive win over the German, ending the Yokomo driver’s 100% winning record at the AOC. Jan Ratheisky improved upon his A1 finish by taking 3rd place after another incident involving Naoto Matsukura, this time with Jilles Groskamp, allowed him to get through. Naoto would recover from 6th to 4th after a very late incident between the Dutch driver and local driver Rocket Zhang.
‘Super happy’, JJ Wang noted that he has improved his position at the China stop of the AOC over the last 3 years to take the biggest win of his EP career. Very tight at the beginning between himself and Volker, once he found his rhythm he was able to pull a small gap and stay ahead until the end, a little touch of the dots on the second last corner caused by being ‘a little excited’ not enough to deny him the clean sweep of the event. Saying his car was working really well, JJ will now sit out the final A-main leaving the others to battle for the final podium positions.
Volker said he ‘tried everything to match JJ’ but lacked steering in the sweepers and so there was nothing he could do to put pressure on him. Complimenting the Chinese American driver he said it was a ‘well deserved win for JJ even if it is his home track he still drove very well’. Ronald’s BD7 was well balanced after having switched to older tires and with the 2nd spot still up for grabs they will try some more small changes to get the car to turn better.
‘Happy because I’m lucky’, Jan Rathiesky said he could just about follow in the beginning but it was too risky to try anything on the pros ahead of him as he didn’t want to ruin anyone else’s race. When Jilles and Naoto took each other out ahead of him, Jan was promoted up to 3rd and controlled his pace from that point to keep the position safe. Now in with an outside chance for the podium he will take it super easy to hold his place and not let anyone from behind him through and see if those ahead of him make some mistakes. The German wrapped up the overall wins in 13.5 blinky, 13.5 boosted and Formula classes with A2 wins in all 3 classes to back up his A1 victories.
Current WC Naoto Matsukura took full responsibility for the crash with Jilles saying he is a ‘beginner driver today’, having had a coming together with Ronald in the first A-main. In the warmup for the final his car was really good but once he started it was very loose, a check after showing that his right rear tire had come off the wheel. With his car not performing at its best he went wide in front of the driver stand and when turning back in tucked the body of Groskamp which allowed Rocket Zhang and Ratheisky to get ahead. It wasn’t all bad for the 4 time World Champion as he took the overall in the 1/12th mod class, the Japanese ace using the event as a test on ETS carpet, which will be used at the Worlds later this year.
Jilles Groskamp was very disappointed with the incident with Naoto who he said he had a clean pass on and ‘he then hit me’. With his car much better after having changed the front caster blocks to a softer material he was able to find the steering he had been searching for. Being stuck behind Rocket for 3 minutes following his body tuck he couldn’t find a way passed despite being quicker and on the last lap touched the back of the Chinese driver’s car which allowed Matsukura back up to 4th.
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Chassis Focus – Ronald Volker
Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2016
Motor – LRP X20 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow
Batteries – LRP 5600 mah “LCG”
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Highest
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Factory Yokomo driver Ronald Volker is running a close-to-standard, 2016 version of the BD7 from the Japanese manufacturer. His car sports a soft top deck, aluminium chassis, titanium turnbuckles and a set of aluminium screws.
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Chassis Focus – Naoto Matsukura
Chassis – Roche P12
Motor – Muchmore Fleta ZX 3.5T
ESC – Muchmore Fleta Pro
Batteries – Muchmore 8000mah
Tires – GXX/JFT
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Xpert
Bodyshell – Protoform AMR-12
Remarks – Three time World Champion in the class, Naoto is racing 12th scale at the AOC running a P12 from the Hong Kong manufacturer. Using the event to test on the same carpet that will used at the World Championships in China later this year the car is pretty close to standard, only equipped with an aluminium chassis, hard compound suspension arms and a floating servo mount.
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Video – Modified A-main Leg 1
JJ Wang takes easy A1 in Shanghai
Local ace JJ Wang has taken a clear win in the first Modified A-main at RCI V2 in Shanghai, taking the hole shot and never being challenged, also helped by an early incident between Ronald Volker and Naoto Matsukura that allowed him to build an early gap. The beneficiary of the incident was Jilles Groskamp, who managed to sneak passed the carnage and up into 2nd. A mid race pass on 4th place finisher Jan Ratheisky gave Chinese legend Motor King the 3rd position.
The ‘race was good’ said the Chinese American, who once again set the fastest lap of the race on his way to taking A1. Following Volker’s crash and subsequent exit from the race JJ just controlled the race, keeping it clean and steady and ‘on all 4 wheels’. Having had some scary moments with traffic on this tight layout he managed to get through without incident. For A2, with Ronald back in the race Wang thinks it should be a fun race and says it will be harder with the multiple ETS Champion just behind him.
2012 World Champion Jilles Groskamp was happy to take 2nd, starting from 4th he could get passed in the 3rd lap thanks to the crash between Volker and Matsukura. Giving credit to Ratheisky, who was behind him, for his mature driving as he himself was being held up by the reigning World Champion, he could pull clear once in 2nd. With JJ nearly 3 seconds ahead at that stage he focused on driving smooth and running his own race and was very happy with his lap times. Starting with new Sweep tires, he ran a lot of warmup laps and said they felt very good and should have newer tires than his competition in the 2nd final. Having changed a lot on the car for the final, he said he couldn’t see any change in lap times and will again try something different for A2.
Chinese Yokomo driver Motor King was delighted with 3rd in the main having started 7th. Knowing he was ‘super lucky’ to find himself 4th on lap 3, he later made a pass on the Xray of Jan Ratheisky to take the spot and after that he just drove his own race. For A2 he is hoping for some more luck and is just planning to go out and try his best.
German Xray ace Ratheisky claimed he was ‘for sure lucky but could have been 3rd’. Feeling his car was sliding around a little on new tires he says he will need more luck to finish in the top 4 and for the next main he will ‘just drive, have fun’. In his 3 other classes he continued to dominate, however it was a little more difficult in the formula class as his car stepped out on the first corner and dropped him down the order, meaning he had to work harder than normal to take the win. The reason for the car breaking away on him was that the rear tires are worn out and he doesn’t want to spend the money to get new ones and so for A2 will apply the sauce for much longer and use less on the front to help make the car push. In stock touring he was just driving safe without much pressure, despite finding the tire on his boosted car is damaged.
‘Didn’t go as planned’ was how Yokomo factory driver Volker described the opening final. His take on the incident was that he went a little wide into the first corner and pulled it back onto the line for the following apex however Naoto saw a gap and went for it, hitting the German’s BD7. The Japanese driver saw it differently saying that he stayed on his line and Ronald cut across him. The crash caused the sensor in his LRP motor to come loose, eventually coming off completely on the next lap and so with no power he retired. Not feeling the new set of tires was good he will also change back to his previous set for the next main.
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