Leino top seed for qualifying

Teemu Leino will be the top seed for qualifying at the 200mm World Championships in Bangkok, Thailand tomorrow after the fourth & final practice at the Huge RC Circuit showed no improvement on the HB driver’s CP3 pace. Bringing 5-days of practice to a close, it was Dario Balestri would would top the round but with JJ Wang the only Top 10 driver to better his time the line up for the top qualifying heat remains unchanged.  Behind Leino it was Nicholas Lee who ended the day second fastest, followed by Balestri and Mark Green making it four different manufacturers represented in the Top 4.

Never one to give too much away, when asked about his final run Leino said ‘everything seems to be good’ heading into qualifying tomorrow.  Posting the fifth fastest time in the final practice, the Top 5 separated by just 0.040 of a second over 3-consecutive laps, the Top Qualifier of the last World Championships said his final run was focused on checking run time and he was pleased with the mileage from his Novarossi engine.  Asked about the change from 10 to 5-minute qualifiers he said while its nice to get to run longer, in the end 5-minutes is what it is and he’s ready, saying his R10 is ‘good where it is at’ and he will make no changes for Q1.

Having struggled with a lack of engine power in CP2 & 3, Balestri was clearly happy to end the day by putting his Capricorn top of the time sheets for CP4.  Having topped open practice, the Italian said today something changed that effected his XRD engines and it wasn’t until the final practice that they got the performance back through a gearing and exhaust change.  Raising the rear hub camber link by 1mm, he said this also improved the car’s stability and helped rear rotation off power giving him a little extra safety should he find himself in a situation were he needs to input more steering.  Ending the day 6th fastest, team-mate Kyle Branson is set to follow Balestri’s lead and change his gearing for tomorrow.

Despite posting the second fastest time of the final practice, Yuya Sahashi said the high traction of the cooler evening run left his Picco powered Serpent struggling for power.  In addition he said the 748 suffered with understeer and trying to compensate for this through his driving it led to him catching a curb and rolling.  Not happy with how the car ran in the conditions, the first qualifier also set to be cooler he expects he will make changes for the morning.

Setting the third fastest time of CP4 but not improving on his 7th overall, defending World Champion Meen Vejrak said while his KM Racing HK-1 was maybe too easy to drive he think the set-up is good for a safe first run.  Adjusting his clutch in the search for more power, he said while it was an improvement he still needs more and he hopes to find that with a gear ratio change.

Although it didn’t change his final position of 8th overall, Wang said reverting back to his CP1 set-up for the closing practice gave him a car that easy to drive again.  The factory Mugen/Novarossi driver said having made changes for both CP2 & 3 to try & keep up with the changing track conditions he was ‘scared for a time’ they might have lost their way.  However going back to his base set-up he feels he is back on track and good for qualifying.

Posting the sixth fastest time in the final round, his best of the day, to end up 14th fastest, Serpent’s Dominic Greiner said while they found a little more steering his Max powered 748 is ‘still not safe’ for a 5-minute qualifier.  Having started off well in open practice, he said with traction now ‘much lower’ than previous days he would change his car completely and go back to his base set-up adding he didn’t have much else to try.

Greiner’s Serpent team-mate Mark Green would set the 7th fastest time but a strong CP3 time sees the British veteran end practice 4th overall. Testing a recommendation from Novarossi in the final round, this made his engine come up to temperature much quicker than before and he is confident that his package is all set and ready for qualifying.

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Leino improves pace in Bangkok

Albeit by just 0.004 of a second, Teemu Leino improved on his opening practice pace in the penultimate round to stay on top of the ranking ahead of Nicholas Lee and Dario Balestri.  Running a 3-consecutive lap time of 42.326 in CP3, the Finn topped the round ahead of Serpent’s Mark Green and defending World Champion Meen Vejrak, both drivers also producing their best times so far.  Overall the round made for little change at the top with Leino continuing to hold P1 from Nicholas Lee and Dario Balestri with Green the biggest mover, breaking into the Top 10 to go fourth overall.

Leaving his R10 unchanged, Leino put his improvement down to a change of Novarossi engine with the new unit having ‘more power’.  With the sun already starting to go down in Bangkok, the 2012 Top Qualifier said the track was also slightly better than CP2 due to the cooler conditions.  Planning to leave his car unchanged for the final practice of the sixth running of the 200mm World Championships, he said he wasn’t expecting much from the round.  With the enclosed Huge RC Circuit flood lights already on, he said a combination of the lights and the smoke, which in the evening conditions hangs in the air, this makes it very hard to see with the fumes also very hard on the eyes.  He said he hoped come qualifying, which have now been reduced to 5-minutes rather than 10, the timetable would mean they would not have to run in such conditions.

Taking over as the lead Serpent driver, demoting team-mate Yuya Sahashi to fifth, Green said he was just picking up after being thrown off track by a ‘worn part’ following ‘poor maintenance’ of his 748.  Having started off the event five days ago with a good car he said having begun to lose pace he then tried each of his team-mates’ set-ups.  First trying Dominic Greiner’s and then Alessio Mazzeo’s he said neither suited his 1:8 driving style.  Struggling to find a good set-up, last night the ‘worn part’ was discovered and replaced putting the British ace back on track today with some fine tuning each round giving him his CP3 pace.  Happy with the car and set to run it unchanged in the last practice, he will try ‘some engine stuff’ Novarossi have asked him to test.  Having been working towards 10-minute qualifiers today he said it was annoying to find out last minute that they would be 5-minute duration.  A rule sets out that the heats are reduced to 5-minutes if over 100 entries are received for the event. With just over 100 entries it was initially declared that qualifying would stay at 10-minutes but following some objections the rule was subsequently implemented to many drivers’ disappointment with it felt 10-minute qualifiers are what set the world championship apart from other major events.

Improving his time but falling one place in the overall ranking due to Green’s new speed, Vejrak said said new ‘smoother’ diffs further improved his KM Racing HK-1 ‘a little’.  Unfortunately clipping a curb, the Thai ace rolled leaving him to struggle for the rest of the run discovering afterwards that he had chunked a rear tyre.  Happy with that he is headed in the right way with the car set-up, he said with a bit more power for the next one he should be able to further improve and he hopes to get that ‘punch’ by setting his clutch more aggressive.

Changing only the Picco engine in his 748, Sahashi said his focus for the run was on checking his 5-minute run time.  Unable to better his fastest time he would record 4th for the round declaring himself very happy with how everything is running.  The round would see his 1:8 World Champion brother Tadahiko take his 8 Natrix to 6th but he would not improve on his CP2 pace which currently leaves him 14th.

Kyle Branson was fifth fastest for the round, again unable to improve on his opening practice pace.  The Capricorn driver said having followed Leino around at the start he is very happy with his car set-up but power is an issue.  Changing back to his CP1 XRD engine, having had trouble tuning the engine he used in the second round, he said after a good first two minutes the engine started to go off due to the heat.  For the final practice the British driver will run a third engine saying if he can get that to work he will be very confident going into qualifying.  Team-mate Balestri also struggled with power issues, the Italian only 7th fastest for the round almost half a second off his best time set in the first round.

Having impressed in the second practice, Lee said his Xray pushed too much in the third.  Having left his car unchanged since yesterday’s open practice, he said he is going to have to now make a change, with a rear suspension change on the cards.  Elsewhere the round saw the best times so far for former World Champions Kesuike Fukuda, the 2006 winner, and Jilles Groskamp, the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion and 2008 200mm Top Qualifier.  Fukuda posted the 9th fastest time of TP3 to go 17th overall while Groskamp was 13th fastest, moving him up to 19th overall.

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Chassis Focus – Dario Balestri

Chassis – Capricorn Lab C03
Engine – XRD F12 HT
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Matrix
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Savox
Body – Protoform P37
Remarks – Unlike many of the other drivers here, Dario Balestri has going softer in his setup than normal on his Lab C03 to combat the high traction. Running 6mm lower shock towers and big bore shocks they are fitted with very soft pink front and green rear springs from Capricorn’s electric car. The Italian has also removed the mounting screws from the front of the radio plate to increase flex and has reduced from 1 million to 500,000 oil in the front gear diff. A nice option is the tungsten battery plate which is 130 grams by itself, much heavier than the equivalent brass option.

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Video – Controlled Practice Rd2

Lee heads second practice to go P2

Although hotter conditions made for generally slower track with Teemu Leino remaining fastest with his time from the morning’s opening practice, Xray’s Nicholas Lee set the pace in the second timed practice to improve to 2nd in the overall seeding order.  Improving on his opening time by 3/10ths, the Singapore driver headed the times from Serpent’s Yuya Sahashi by 1/10th.  Having struggled to find form, the round would see defending World Champion Meen Vejrak make a huge performance leap as he posted the 3rd fastest time ahead of Leino to move himself into 6th overall.

Again running his NT1 unchanged Lee said he was ‘happy’ to top the round but continued to be critical of the consistency of his own driving describing it as ‘so so’.  Feeling that traction was for him higher this time round than in the morning, he said his set-up was again good adding he had no reason to make any changes and for the third of the four timed practices he would just make a switch of Novarossi engines for a comparison with regards to picking one for tomorrow’s qualifying.

Improving 2 places in the overall standings to move up to fourth with his improved time, Sahashi said his extra speed came from better gearing.  Changing to a higher first gear ratio on his 748 Natrix, the Japanese driver said the extra acceleration was an improvement on an otherwise unchanged set-up. Set to continue with the car as is the only thing he will do for the penultimate timed practice is a switch of his Picco engines.

A slightly relieved looking Vejrak said a change of shock set-up on his KM Racing HK-1 was a ‘big step forward’.  Changing the pistons & oil front & rear, he said the softer set-up together with added chassis weight made the car ‘super stable’.  Looking to build on his new direction of set-up, he will make a few tweaks for the next outing to try and get a little more overall speed.

Leino said while conditions made his HB R10 easier to drive, the understeer brought on by the hotter conditions made for a slower 3-consecutive lap time.  Over 4/10ths off his current seeding topping time, the Finn said the morning conditions while much trickier was when his car was at it best.  Set to leave his set-up unchanged and having used the TP2 to evaluate fuel mileage he will run another Novarossi engine for a comparison.

Although he didn’t improve on his time, Team Shepherd’s Dirk Wischnewski ran fifth fastest for the round.  Dropping one place overall to 8th due to Vejrak’s improvement, the former European Champion said his Velox V10 felt much the same but he will consider trying to get a little more steering.   Only 0.038 off his morning pace, he said the risk with such a change is that it could induce traction roll.  Completing the Top 6 times for the round but not improving his fastest time was Alexander Hagberg.

In the Capricorn camp, engine issues caused problems for both Dario Balestri and Kyle Branson.  Balestri, who was P2 in the first round but now drops behind Lee, would not complete the 10-minutes.  The Italian could only manage the 10th fastest time before his LAB C02 suffered a stripped gear with 2-minutes remaining.  Having changed engine for the round to get a second one ready for tomorrow, Branson could not get a good tune on the XRD engine and could only manage 17th for the round.

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