Coelho tops practice as Matsukura closes gap

At the end of practice at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships at the Yatabe Arena its Xray’s Bruno Coelho who is proving to be quickest, the Xray drivers P3 time still standing at the top of the times sheets. With none of the Top 3 after P3 improving their times, the two big movers in the final practice would be Naoto Matsukura and Michal Orlowski. 6th & 7th after three rounds, they both improved their 3-consecutive lap times to move ahead of Yusuke Sugiura and Lee Martin with Mastukura’s Kyosho reducing Coelho’s advantage to 3/10ths.

Having originally planned to leave his car unchanged, Coelho said they tried ‘some different things’ in the set-up of his XB4.  Describing the results of the changes as ‘not an improvement’ he added it ‘was about the same in terms of pace’.  Despite the car being ‘still super good’, the Portuguese driver will go back to his P3 set-up for the first controlled practice and focus on driving more consistent adding he wanted to achieve this not just for 3-laps but the entire run.

Looking for more traction from his Lazer ZX6 after P3, pre-race favourite Matsukura said a rear shock change had improved this but added he ‘still need(s) more’. Feeling he is starting to find his way, the 22-year-old improving his outright lap time to record the second fastest lap behind Coelho, he said finding more rear traction would require a different set-up change other than further adjustments to the shocks.  Dropping to fourth, team-mate and fellow countryman Sugiura describing his P4 as ‘so so’.  Having lowered the ride height he said while it made the car easier to drive it was also slower.  Also creating problems over the whoops, he will go back to his previous settings for CP1.

Having made changes to his Schumacher for the third round to get rid of rear traction but the change being too much, Orlowski said going to 2.5 degrees of toe made the CAT K2 ‘good’.  ‘Much easier to drive’, the 14-year-old reigning European Champion will leave everything the same for controlled practice but aired some caution about qualifying.  Expecting the grip to get higher tomorrow, he said changes will be required to keep pace with the track but for now he would leave it.

Unable to improve on his P2, Martin said his Yokomo YZ-4 was ‘pretty easy to drive’.  Describing it as ‘consistent’, he said it was ‘not the outright fastest on lap times but (he) can drive it easy lap after lap’.  For controlled practice the EOS Champion will try another rear end change and ‘see what happens’.

Dropping one place to complete the Top 6, despite bettering his previous time in P4, Tebo said his ‘car set-up feels great’ but again he found his brakes to be ‘too soft’.  Running a slipper in P4 for the first time he said it was better but for CP1 he will fit a new speed controller in the hope of finding more brakes.

One of the early surprises of practice, Travis Amezcua dropped to 7th.  Having fitted new electrics to his Durango, he said the run was all about getting used to them.  While still setting the same fastest lap time he will adjust the speedo set-up for his next run.

After the highs of winning the 2WD World title with Spencer Rivkin and as defending 4WD Champions, the second half of the week long event has not started out very well for Team Associated.  Neil Cragg best of the B44’s in 18th with 3-time Champion Ryan Cavalieri clear frustrated by his car’s lack of steering.  Reigning Champion Steven Hartson took the drastic measure of running his 2WD car in P4 and managed to better his previous 3-consecutive lap time.   The American said ‘it felt better for me’ but added he needed to ‘figure out the front tyres to get it smooth enough but overall it was better (than his 4WD already)’.

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Video – 4wd Free Practice Rd4

Coelho continues to set pace at Yatabe Arena

Bruno Coelho continues to set the practice pace at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Japan, the Xray driver setting a new fastest 3-consecutive laps in the third round.  Behind the Touring Car World Championship runner-up, Kyosho driver Yusuke Sugiura and Yokomo’s Lee Martin complete the Top 3 on the times despite both drivers not bettering their times from the second round.

‘Super good’ was how Coelho summed up how his first electric offroad Worlds was starting out in 4WD.  Having made some changes to his LRP powered XB4, the Portuguese driver said it was now landing much better and was suffering less from traction roll on the astro turf Yatabe Arena track.  The 22-year-old said with the ‘car working really well’ he now only needs to work on improving his consistency over the length of the run.  Over half a seconds faster than his closest rival,  Coelho has also recorded the fastest lap with a 17.184.

Former Japanese National Champion Sugiura said his Kyosho is ‘so good’ adding its ‘easy to drive but still fast’.  The 19-year-old said having suffered with oversteer, a change to a harder front spring had made the car much better.  For the fourth & final practice before the event moves into two rounds of controlled practice which will seed the heats for qualifying, the Warm-up Race podium finisher plans to lower his ride height.

‘Not too bad’ was how Martin summed up his performance so far although the British ace admitted a change for P3 was ‘not so good’.  Feeling the change to his Muchmore powered YZ-4 was the wrong direction for the next run they will go in the opposite way with the set-up.  Martin said one big problem due to the speed of the track is getting clear laps.  Saying ‘a few people have the track figured our’ he said ‘Bruno is the standard for now’.  A driver he battled with for victory at the EOS season opener only two weeks ago, he said Coelho and his Xray team are one step ahead at the moment but he was confident they can catch up by the end of the day.

Travis Amezcua finds himself an impressive fourth at the end of three rounds.  Travelling 2-hours away to the GB Circuit yesterday where he was joined by HB’s Ty Tessmann, the Team Durango driver said having found a good set-up there he hasn’t had to change his car this morning.  Only trying different preparations of the handout front Schumacher tyre,  he said with the car already good he just needs to work on the consistency of getting on the power and braking so that he is doing it the same lap after lap.  For his next practice Amezcua will change motor and speedo.

Fourth fastest, Jared Tebo said things were going ‘alright’ adding ‘it could be better, it could be worse’.  The Kyosho driver and Warm-up Race runner-up said his Orion powered ZX6 is good but he had issues with braking in the last run.  Runner a new design centre diff in P3 he said this left him with not enough brake.  Having to stay on the brakes too long as a result he said this was causing him to flip as he turned in.  Planning to ‘mess around with motors’ he said he still hadn’t run the car with a slipper yet.

Competing the Top 6 ahead of the Schumacher of European Champion Michal Orlowski, Naoto Matuskura said his performance so far was ‘so, so’.  The warm-up Race winner is looking for more traction from his Kyosho.  The reigning Touring Car and multiple 1:12 World Champion will make a number of changes for P4 and liking the track layout he is confident he can improve on his current pace.

New 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin finds himself only 17th, the best Associated being Neil Cragg in 14th.  The 16-year-old said ‘we’re getting a little better’ adding the ‘car was more consistent that one’.  Planning to gear up his Reedy motor for the next run, he said ‘we might not have the fastest car but its not a problem at this stage, its only practice’.  Senior team-mate Ryan Cavalieri is currently 15th fastest.

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Video – 4wd Free Practice Rd2