Matsukura from Balestri in opening Qualifier
Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships at Steel City RC Speedway. After high winds forced the cancellation of the start of qualifying yesterday, the first of the now reduced to 4-minutes qualifiers saw an Infinity duel for top spot. Shadowing his Infinity team-mate & top seed Dario Balestri throughout the run, Balestri having about half a second advantage, Matsukura was handed the TQ run when the reigning Champion started to run out of fuel on the final lap. Running the second fastest heat, Jesse Davis would make it an Infinity Top 3 followed by fellow Australian Jeff Hamon who also ran in Group 11 of 12. While crossing the line third fastest in the top heat, Simon Kurzbuch had to contend with a P5 for the first of his 6 qualifying attempts with Mugen’s JJ Wang completing the Top 6.
‘Lucky’ was Matsukura’s reaction to his TQ saying, ‘he was empty so I could take him on the last lap but before this he was 0.5 in front’. The reigning 1:10 World Champion continued, ‘my car was pretty good but a little nervous. I think the traction will be higher the next one so we need to change the car for this and also for to make it easier to drive. My engine was very good.’ Happy to have run a very clean 4-minutes, the Japanese ace concluded, ‘I need two more TQs but I have to keep my driving clean and make sure I get more points’.
Explaining his Q1 drama, Balestri said, ‘the conditions changed to day. It is super cold this morning. We opened the carburettor and start too rich, too safe, and I need to push a lot to go fast. This finished the fuel and we lost everything on the last lap’. With the temperature now starting to rise, the Italian concluded that other than re-tuning his engine we will ‘leave all the same’ for Q2.
Summing up his strong start to qualifying, Davis said, ‘I just drove nice and smooth to get a good first result. I didn’t expect to be that high up’. He added, ‘I always felt the car was had a good consistent pace. I was not the fastest over 3-laps but I knew it would be good for 4-minutes’. Looking to Q2 he said, ‘I’m going to leave the car the same and with a safe one in the books I’m just going to drive a bit harder’.
Commenting on his impressive P4 time, Hamon said, ‘It was good. I made a mistake on the first lap but apart from that it was nice and easy. I was surprised when they were calling me in second’. A new signing for Serpent this season, the 2017 Semi Finalist added, ‘the car was awesome. I had a couple of moments in the warm-up on big tyres but after that it was really good. I ‘m really proud of myself on the body front. I’m running Protoform’s X15 and my set-up is working pretty well with this combo’. Asked if he planned any changes for Q2, he replied, ‘I’m in two minds but I might put in what I think is my good engine. The engine I just used wasn’t so good the last time I ran it but I changed the clutch and it is working good now’.
‘It was OK’, was how Team Shepherd’s Kurzbuch summed up Q1 adding, ‘the car was now a bit pushing so I just tried to get a clean run. One and a half seconds off Matsukura’s time, the former World Champion and 2017 runner-up said, ‘The car was too safe now which is OK for Quali as you need your points but we will look at what we can change to see if we can attack for the TQ’.
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