No change at the top in hot Q5

With an almost clear blue sky, conditions for the fifth & penultimate round of qualifying at the Nitro Touring Car World Championship were too hot to see any of the Top 15 drivers improve on their overnight times, the highest placed improvement coming from 2010 Worlds Runner up Takehiro Terauchi who bettered his previous best to move up from 33rd to 16th putting him in a Semi final qualifying position.  In terms of times for the morning run it was Capricorn’s Jilles Groskamp who set the pace ahead of HB’s Atsushi Hara and KM Racing’s Dario Balestri.

Running 39 laps in a time of 10:05.229, which is over 3-seconds off his current best that puts him second overall behind HB’s Teemu Leino, Groskamp was very pleased with the time he achieved in the hot conditions. Having lacked a little pace compared to his rivals when running on a warmer track, the Dutch driver said he has now reached a good set-up for such conditions and this depending on the timing of the running of the 60-minute Main on Saturday could prove vital.

Hara, said while conditions were a lot warmer than he was expecting for the morning run he said the track actually had better grip then he expected but it was still too low to allow a ‘rocket round’ run.  With Groskamp cautious over Q6 being a Rocket Round saying conditions could still be too hot, Hara now too has doubts that the final qualifier which should run at around 16:30 local time will be the ideal conditions for a TQ run.  HB team-mate and provisional TQ holder Leino once again didn’t have the perfect set-up on his LRP engine and used the track time to tune it.

While running a faster time in Q5 was a tall order a number of drivers came undone as they tried to improve.  Mark Green, who is the best placed Serpent driver and currently holds the final qualifying spot for the Semi Finals with the 18th fastest time, rolled his Novarossi powered 747 six laps into the run which cost him 9 seconds in time.  Marc Rheinard, team-mate of Groskamp, clipped a kerb at the end of the straight and with the front of the car in the air he could get turned in for the corner resulting in his Capricorn hitting the wall for an instant retirement.

For three of the four Xray drivers currently inside the Top 18, Q5 proved fruitless with Alexander Hagberg, Dirk Wischnewski and Biagio Spataro all failing to finish the 10-minute qualifier.  Sitting 8th fastest overall and the highest placed Xray, Hagberg ran out of fuel on his in-lap for his fuel stop.  Former European Champion and Texas finalist Wischnewski had a clutch problem which caused his Orcan engine to over rev leading to a broken plug.  Spataro used the run to test a finals set-up, as they expect conditions for Saturday to be similar, but the Italian eventually pulled up as the NT1 was too difficult to drive.

Top 18 after Round 5 of Qualifying
1. Teemu Leino – HB/LRP – 39/10:01.512 (3)
2. Jilles Groskamp – Capricorn/Maxima – 39/10.02.182 (2)
3. Meen Vejrak – KM Racing/Novarossi – 39/10:04.019 (4)
4. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed – 39/10:04.710 (4)
5. Andy Moore – HB/Maxima – 39/10:06.779 (2)
6. Dario Balestri – KM Racing/Novarossi – 39/10:07.158 (3)
7. Keisuke Fukuda – Mugen/Picco – 39/10:07.537 (2)
8. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Orcan – 39/10:08.265 (4)
9. Surikarn C – Xray/Max – 39/10:09.556 (4)
10.Biagio Spataro – Xray/G-Mar – 39/10:10.845 (2)
11.JJ Wang – Mugen/Novarossi – 39/10:11.166 (4)
12.Takaaki Shimo – Kyosho/OS Speed – 39/10:11.229 (2)
13.Mongkolplan Lomrose – Mugen/Maxima – 39/10:612 (2)
14.Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Novarossi – 39/10:12.177 (2)
15.Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Orcan – 39/10:12.649 (3)
16.Takehiro Terauchi – Mugen/Novarossi – 39/10:13.092 (5)
17.Marc Rheinard – Capricorn/Capricorn – 39/10:13.099 (4)
18.Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 39/10:13.104 (3)

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Meen V tops Q4, Leino still holds TQ

KM Racing’s Meen Vejrak set the pace in the fourth round of qualifying at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championships just ahead of HB driver Atsushi Hara but the time was 1.5 seconds off the that set in Q2 by Teemu Leino who for the second day will leave the RC Addict track In Bangkok holding the TQ honours ahead of Jilles Groskamp.

Having set the third fastest time in Q3 to move up to 10th overall, Vejrak said switching to a harder tyre along with running a softer front anti-roll bar had improved the steering on his Novarossi powered H-K1.  Also running a shorter wheel base, the Thai driver knocked over 7.5 seconds off his previous best to move into third overall and into the magical Top 4.  Despite this Vejrak said he is still not 100% comfortable with his car and he plans to make a number of small adjustments for tomorrow’s final two qualifiers.

Having had issues with run time in Q2 & 3, which it was discovered was due to a broken fuel tank lid, Hara was pleased with his Q4 run as he too improved his time and moved into a Top 4 direct qualifier position. Just under 7/10ths off Vejak’s pace, the Japanese driver said he expected the second of the days qualifiers to be slower due to it taking place in the middle of the day and he sauced his front tyres differently.  Having only applied additive to 25% of the front tyres in his previous run he went to 40% for Q4 and this combined with freshly rebuilt shocks gave him a really good car over the 10 minutes.  With just two of the 6 rounds of qualifying remaining Hara believes he still has a chance at taking the TQ at what is his home track.  With Q5 starting with Group 4 and running in reverse order Hara, who is in the Top heat number 13, said the conditions should still be cool enough for a potential 40 lap run.

Hara’s HB team-mates Leino and Andy Moore had troubled runs.  Confident that the track would be slower than this morning Leino changed LRP engines to save his good unit for tomorrow morning’s Q5.  The tuning of the second engine was not very good and so the Finn had no choice but to pit and have his mechanic adjust the carb settings.  Moore said he just didn’t have a good feeling with his R10.  Starting out a little edgy to drive, the 2006 EP Touring Car World Champion said it quickly lost tyre traction, something he is not sure is being caused by his set-up or the way in which he is preparing his tyres. Despite this the British ace, for whom this is only his second ever nitro race, set the fifth fastest time for the round.

Third fastest but unable to improve on his best time which was set in Q2,  Groskamp said he struggled a little with rear traction.  Able to run with Hara in the first half of the run the Capricorn driver said in the second half he lost pace compared with his great electric touring car rival.  Believing he now knows what to do in terms of his set-up for hotter conditions, Groskamp is looking forward to Q5 as like all the cars the performance is better but in the case of his Maxima powered LAB-C02 he feels the advantage for him is greater than that of his rivals.

Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg set the fourth fastest time of Q4 improving his time by over 4 seconds to move up to 8th in the qualification standings making him the Slovakian manufacturer’s best placed driver.  Also entering the Top 10 for the first time was Thailand’s only IFMAR World title winner Surikarn C who took his NT1 to the seventh fastest time promoting himself to 9th overall.  The only other driver in the Top 15 to improve their time was Mugen driver JJ Wang who moves up to 11th maintaining his position as the top US driver with Paul Lemieux and Paolo Morganti failing to improve in Q4 leaving them 20th and 45th respectively.

Top 15 after Round 4 of Qualifying
1. Teemu Leino – HB/LRP – 39/10:01.512 (3)
2. Jilles Groskamp – Capricorn/Maxima – 39/10.02.182 (2)
3. Meen Vejrak – KM Racing/Novarossi – 39/10:04.019 (4)
4. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed – 39/10:04.710 (4)
5. Andy Moore – HB/Maxima – 39/10:06.779 (2)
6. Dario Balestri – KM Racing/Novarossi – 39/10:07.158 (3)
7. Keisuke Fukuda – Mugen/Picco – 39/10:07.537 (2)
8. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Orcan – 39/10:08.265 (4)
9. Surikarn C – Xray/Max – 39/10:09.556 (4)
10.Biagio Spataro – Xray/G-Mar – 39/10:10.845 (2)
11.JJ Wang – Mugen/Novarossi – 39/10:11.166 (4)
12.Takaaki Shimo – Kyosho/OS Speed – 39/10:11.229 (2)
13.Mongkolplan Lomrose – Mugen/Maxima – 39/10:612 (2)
14.Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Novarossi – 39/10:12.177 (2)
15.Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Orcan – 39/10:12.649 (3)

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