Levanen & Matsukura untouchable

Day 2 of the IFMAR Electric Onroad World Championships has come to a close and yet again the final 1:12 scale qualifier of the day saw Juho Levanen and Naoto Matsukura crush the opposition.  The Associated duo managed a 1-2 in Heat 4 despite both of them dumping at the end of the run.  Producing the fastest lap of the event with a blistering 11.675 second lap during the heat, Levanen put his dumping down to the increased traction but the Yokomo team pointed blame for their young star dumping down to the pair battling throughout the heat for the TQ.  Running 40 laps in 08:07.965 the Finn was a little under a second ahead of his Japanese team-mate despite nursing their cars to the line but such was their advantage that third placed Jilles Groskamp was too far behind to capitalise and end the RC12R5’s reign in Thailand.

Groskamp described his run as decent when you take the dominating AE drivers out of the equation.  The Dutch driver was happier with his CRC, in which he is running a 4.5 turn Speed Passion motor, in the cooler conditions and was happy to record his first 40 lap run.  The only other driver to break the 40 laps today was Hideo Kitazawa who has a 5.5 Speed Passion motor installed in the rear of his Hot Bodies Cyclone 12X.

Viktor Wilck enjoyed his first decent run so far clocking up 39 laps in 08:06.340.  The Swede has been struggling to get his car to work but isnt quite sure if its the car or tyres that are the problem.  Encouraged by his fifth position he is hoping he can continue on a similar pace in tomorrow’s final two qualifiers as he needs two good runs if he is to have any chance of securing a spot on the grid for the A Mains.  Hupo Honigl, who is running in the second last group of heats, was annoyed that he got collected by back markers twice on his way to topping the group.  The CRC driver eventually took sixth overall for the round.

Xray driver Steven Weiss was very pleased with his run to 9th making him the fastest of those running the new prototype XII.  A change of tyre compound resulted in a big improvement in the cars handling and allowed the German to claim his best run ahead of fellow Xray driver Paul Lemieux.  Elsewhere Marc Rheinard was on for the 3rd fastest time when a rear tyre parted company with the wheel, while Atsushi Hara’s bad luck continued as a chunked tyre ended his run for a second time today.

Two more qualifiers await the 49 drivers tomorrow morning before the finals get underway and the 14th 1:12 World Champion is crowned.  Our live coverage, which is supported by Speed Passion and LRP, continues tomorrow when we will see if anyone can respond to the Associated domination.

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Levanen TQs Round 3

Juho Levanen has TQ’d Round 3 of qualifying with the first and so far only 40 lap run of the 2008 IFMAR 1:12 Worlds.  The Finn recorded 40 laps in 08:12.355 to beat a much improved Atsushi Hara who made 39 laps in 08:05.640.  Levanen who is running a 5.0 turn version of LRP’s new X12 motor described his RC12R5 afterwards as near perfect as he maintained Associated’s reign at the top of the time sheets.  Only his second big 1:12 race this year, his other outing being the IIC in Vegas, the 23-year-old will leave the car the same for Round 4 but may try running his tyres for a second time. Hot Bodies team leader Hara said his change of tyres was an improvement but his car was still not super fast and he plans to try another compound for the final heat of the day.  Hideo Kitazawa completed the Top 3.

Top Qualifier in Round 1 & 2, Naoto Matsukura’s great run came undone when he made a mistake while swapping the TQ time with Levanen.  The protege of 5 times World Champion Masami Hirosaka, the Japanese driver reported his car as suffering from slight understeer.  Using Nosram electrics the youngster is running a 4.5 turn motor with the speedo set to the lowest power setting so as to save his tyres.

Normally touring car team-mates at Tamiya, Marc Rheinard, at the controls of a Hot Bodies, and Jilles Groskamp, driving for CRC, completed the Top 6 for heat number 3.  Groskamp’s team-mate Hupo Honigl who was third in the two earlier heats struggled, eventually crashing out with an ill handling car.  For defending World Champion manufacturer Corally, Simo Ahoneimi was fastest of the SP12X WC Edition runners in 8th while fellow Scandinavian Alexander Hagberg was top Xray in 10th.

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Associated continue to rule

It’s a case of who can catch Team Associated here in Thailand as Naoto Matsukura and Juho Levanen again topped the time sheets by an impressive margin in the second qualifier.  Matsukura narrowly missed out on a 40 lapper recording 39 lap in 08:00.902 while Levanen considerable narrowed the gap to the young Japanese star stopping the clocks at 08:03.632.  While the Finn was able to close the gap on his fellow RC12R5 driver thanks to the sharing of tyre information, behind them the field have their work cut out if they are to do anything about stopping the duo.  Hupo Honigl took his CRC again to third but the IIC Champion was 10 seconds, or 3/4 of a lap, off the TQ time and admitted that it was almost impossible to match the pace of the back to back Japanese Champion who has the distinct advantage of regularly racing on asphalt.

Starting to show better form with fourth fastest in Heat 2 was Marc Rheinard.  Driving his Speed Passion powered Hot Bodies, the European Champion is far from happy with his pace so far and appears to be struggling to get a good feeling with the car, a complaint shared by his 1:12 scale team-mate Andy Moore who with 38 laps was seventh.

Running Futaba’s new prototype ESC in his Cyclone 12X, Hideo Kitazawa recorded fifth in Heat 2 but the Japanese driver is not feeling well suffering from a suspected cold.  Completing the Top 6 was Jilles Groskamp with his Speed Passion/CRC combination.  The Dutch ace is a lot happier with his car now after trying different additive which is turning out to be the key to getting a car to work right on the asphalt surface which is being used for the first time at a Worlds.  One just has to look around at the huge selection of tyres some of the teams have turned up here with to see the importance that has been put on the black foam.

Elliot Harper headed the Xray challenge in Heat 2 with eight place just ahead of team-mate Alexander Hagberg.  Atsushi Hara rounded out the Top 10 suffering from two much front end grid on his Orion powered Hot Bodies.  Hara will switch compound for Heat 3 and admitted to being relieved that its three of the six heats that will decide the final qualification ranking.

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Matsukura tops first Qualifier

Naoto Matsukura has made his intentions clear here in Thailand by topping the time sheets when it counted most, as qualifying for the 1:12 IFMAR World Championships got underway at the RCS in Bangkok.  The 14-year-old Yokomo star driver is running an Associated, due to Yokomo’s Japanese distribution links with AE, and put in a 39 lap run in a time 08:02.244 which was some 8 seconds faster than second placed Juho Levanen who made it a 1-2 for the RC12R5.  In the final practice Matsukura had run a 40 lapper but believes increased wind at the track made for a slower run time in the first heat.

Levanen was very pleased with his run.  The Finn said it will be hard to improve the car but in an attempt to match the pace of his fellow Associated driver he will try using the same additive as the young Japanese star.

Hupo Honigl was really surprised with his run to third which could very easily have been second if he had not got caught up with another car while lapping.  Yesterday the Austrian Team CRC driver couldn’t get his car to work but a simple change to the application of tyre additive has transformed the LRP powered Gen X Black Art Edition car, allowing him to run 39 laps in 08:10.716.  Unfortunately for his team-mate Jilles Groskamp today has seen his car the opposite way – great yesterday and a handful today.

Shin Adachi was fastest of the world class Hot Bodies team line-up in the opening qualifier as he gets better and better with each outing.  The Japanese driver, who is driving 1:12 for the first time in six years, said his Cyclone 12X is working better today but hopes that more is still to come.  Behind him was another Hot Bodies with fellow countryman Hideo Kitazawa setting the fifth fastest time.  Their Hot Bodies team mates didn’t have such a good run. Atsushi Hara, who is the pre-event favourite, chunked a tyre during his run and Andy Moore is still not happy with the feel of his car making a number of mistakes on his way to 9th fastest for Round 1.

Team Corally lead driver Simo Ahoneimi was pleased with how is car was working but was not so happy with the final result for the heat as his car started to dump in the last minute of the run.  The two times European Champion said that track conditions are much better today which is really suiting his car and that sixth is not a true indication of his pace.  Daisuke Yoshioka was the final driver to record 39 laps with the seventh fastest time.

Xray made a big impression yesterday with their prototype XII with Teemu Leino surprising his rivals with very fast runs.  Leino couldn’t repeat the performance this morning saying the car doesn’t feel as good which he is putting down to tyres which on asphalt are key to a good car.  This left his team-mate Alex Hagberg to head the Xray challenge in eight position.  The Swede was really pleased with his run and the car but will try a different compound for Heat 2 in an attempt to close the gap to the pace setters.  Elliot Harper, who is making his asphalt 1:12 scale debut, appears to be getting to grips with the new surface as he completes the Top 10 for round 1.

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Leino surprises rivals in Thailand

Teemu Leino has surprised his rivals in Thailand by recording the fastest time in controlled practice as day one of the 1:12 scale World Championships comes to a close.  The flying Finn is debuting Xray’s new XII and was the only driver to record 39 laps over 8 minutes with his closest rival being Speed Passion driver Jilles Groskamp who just missed out on 39 laps recording 38 in a time of 8:00.644.

Commenting on his day’s performance Leino, who took 1:12 victory at this year’s Snowbirds, said he was really surprised himself at how the day had gone.  Asked what changes he had made to the car the Xray factory driver said other than changing the bodyshell earlier in the day, he had done little to the car saying the track conditions were coming to the car.  He feels it is not super fast but is very consistent over the entire run.  In terms of lap times Leino managed a best time of 12.227 which was the third fastest lap time of day so the package is proving itself to be a force to be reckoned with here in Bangkok.

Marc Rheinard ends the day with the third fastest run despite breaking the rear motor pod on his Hot Bodies after jumping the chicane.  Behind the German ace are two more Hot Bodies with Shin Adachi pulling off a great final run for the day to go 4th fastest.  Adachi, who last raced a 1:12th scale six years ago, said both himself and the car were improving as the day progressed and he was happy with his Day 1 performance.  For Andy Moore the last run was a little better than earlier but the Englishman says the car is still not right. Very nervous to drive he unable to get in a good rythm.  Hupo Honigl rounded out the Top 6 with his LRP powered CRC Gen X Black Art edition.

Atsushi Hara made radical changes to his Cyclone 12X for the second controlled practice to try and make the car smoother to drive but it had the opposite effect.  Although the 1:8 Off Road World Champion managed a new fastest lap for the event, setting a time of 12.136, for the final controllled practice tomorrow morning he will revert to his old set up.  One of the pre-event favourite for 1:12 honours, Hara admitted to being surprised by Leino’s strong pace in 1:12 but believes tomorrow his Hot Bodies team mates, who have not enjoyed as much testing as him with the 1:12 scale will be a stronger force.  Sandwiched between Hara and Leino in terms of lap times is Yokomo hot property Naoto Matsukura, the 14-year-old clocking a 12:216 but the Japanese driver failed to finish the final practice.  Another driver to put in a quick lap time to make it four different manufacturers in the Top 4 of the official ranking issued by race officials, which is based on fastest lap times, is Team Associated’s Juho Levanen.  Although the Finn suffered a problem with run time after trying a different motor set-up he was happier with the consistency of car and feels tomorrow will be better.

So Day 1 of the 2008 IFMAR Onroad World Championships has been completed here at the RCS in Bangkok and we have seen a number of surprise but its tomorrow when all the times really start to count as we have the first four of six qualifiers that will decide the starting positions for Tuesday’s finals.  Our live coverage, which is supported by Speed Passion and LRP, continues tomorrow morning.

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