Can anyone stop Matsukura?

With three rounds of qualifying for the 2010 IFMAR World Championships complete Naoto Matsukura is looking very strong to retain his World title here in Burgdorf.  The factory Yokomo driver has been fastest in all three rounds, being the only driver to record a hat trick of 37 lap runs. Although it was his slowest run of the day the Japanese teenager was still well clear of his rivals with Ronald Volker closest to him for the round with a fast 36 lap round.  Asked about the track conditions Matsukura (37/8:11.076) said his Nosram powered R12 felt very loose and that conditions had become very difficult, something that he put down to the rise in temperature here in the sports hall.

Volker (36/8:00.092) said his Associated did not feel right at the start with a lack of steering in the left hand corners but 2 or 3 minutes in the problem mysteriously went away.  With the car working again, Volker said he made a strong push for his second 37 lap run of the day but with the time lost in the opening laps meant he just missed out by .092 of a second.

Andy Moore (36/8:01.986) enjoyed his fastest run with the third fastest time for Q3. The factory Hot Bodies driver who is running a privately entered Associated chassis was on target for a 37-lap run but faded in the latter half of the 8 minute heat.  The former Touring Car World Champion said for the first four minutes the car was really good, but in the 2nd part of the run it didn’t feel as dialed in. For Q4 he plans to try smaller diameter tyres in an attempt to make the car more consistent over the full distance of the qualifier.

Simo Ahoniemi (36/8:02.167) continues to show strongly setting the fourth fastest time with his factory Corally.  The Finnish National Champion had a scare as he lined up for the run when his car got a glitch which sent the car crashing into the track boards.  Luckily no damage was done and Ahoniemi was able to make the run.  Happy with the set-up of his SP12X, Ahoniemi is still playing around with tyre diameters and the timing of his additive.

Jilles Groskamp (36/8:03.816) and Marc Rheinard (36/8:04.746) completed the Top 6 for Q3 despite both making costly mistakes.

Full results can be found here.

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Q2 Update – Matsukura again

Naoto Matsukura was again at the top of the qualifying sheets for Q2 but the World Champion failed to better his opening time managing 37 laps in 8:10.317.  The Yokomo driver made a costly mistake during the run which saw his R12 needing to be marshalled.  Closest to the Japanese driver this time round was Marc Rheinard who becomes only the fourth driver to break into the 37 laps with a 8:11.100 run.  Third quickest for the round with the fifth fastest time overall so far was Corally team driver Simo Ahoniemi with a 36 lapper in 8:00.611.  Josh Cyrul made it four different cars in the Top 4 taking his CEFX around the carpet track in 36/8:01.801.  Next up was Andy Moore (36/8:02.043) with Serpent’s Markus Mobers, who was disqualified from the first qualifier for his rear tyres failing tech inspection, sixth fastest for the round with 36/8.05.414.

Elsewhere Jilles Groskamp, who was third fastest in the opening qualifier, failed to finish his heat after he mistakenly put the battery of his team boss Frank Calandra into his CRC.  Unfortunately it was one the American had just used himself for his second qualifying run.  For Vice World Champion Juho Levanen his day took a turn as he had his Q2 time disallowed after his rear tyre width was deemed to wide and then the Finn was late for marshalling which will mean he will lose his best qualifying time.  For top Japanese driver Hideo Kitazawa he will play no further part in the event after IFMAR disqualified him from the event for not charging his batteries in the mandatory LiPo Charging bag.

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Matsukura tops opening qualifier

Defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura has topped the opening round of qualifying for the 2010 IFMAR 1:12 World Championship.  The Japanese star set the pace with a 37 lap run in 8:06.802 which was almost 4 seconds up on his closest rival Ronald Volker.  The only other driver to record 37 laps for the first of six qualifiers was Dutch driver Jilles Groskamp.

Matsukura, who won his World title in Thailand from pole, also recorded the fastest lap for the opening round of heats here in Germany with a 12.82 but Yokomo team boss Robert Itoh wants to see less mistakes from the 16-year-old. Running Yokomo’s new R12 chassis Itoh said they are really happy with the performance of the car and are more focused on honing their young charger’s driving.  Ever run his every move on the track is being watch from the grandstand by 1:12 legend Masami Hirosaka who is looking after his protege.

Volker described his run to second as a good starting point but said he was unable to match Matsukura pace.  The German National Champion was not fully happy with the balance of his LRP powered Associated and will make a few adjustments for Q2 in the hope of closing in on his Japanese Yokomo touring car team-mate.

Groskamp was pretty happy with his opening run but said the gap to Matsukura is too big. The factory CRC driver made a number of mistakes catching corner markers but also believes there is time to be gained from running used tyres.  Having opted for a new set for the opening qualifier he said the car didn’t feel as good at the start of the run as it did on used tyres in the final practice and he now plans to run his Q1 tyres again in Q2.

Fastest of those drivers recording 36 laps and setting the fourth fastest time was European Champion Juho Levanen.  The Associated team driver, who was the runner up 2 years ago, changed front tyres for the opening heat but said this caused the RC12R5 to understeer a little. Having a better balance in the final practice he will switch back to the same fronts used then for Q2.

Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard, who is contracted to Yokomo for 1:12 but running an Associated chassis here due to the late arrival of the new R12 chassis, managed the fifth fastest time.  The German said his car is getting better but is still suffering understeer.  Running a similar pace to Matsukura in the early part of the run he said he pushed too hard to try and keep up but with the car pushing he made a mistake.

Marc Fischer was the fastest Corally setting the seventh fastest time ahead of team-mate Simo Ahoniemi.  The German said he needs more speed and plans to change his gearing while Ahoniemi, a finalist in Bangkok, said he used too much additive on his front tyres which cause the car to oversteer.

The only other non European in the Top 10 was America’s Josh Cyrul with the 9th fastest time slotting in between Andy Moore and Elliot Harper. Driving his own CEFX chassis the US National Champion said he drove a safe run despite forgetting to connect the damping tubes on his Griffin chassis which resulted in it being edgy to drive.  Cyrul said he plans another safe run so as to get a good base qualifying time.

Qualification Rd1 results
1. Naoto Matsukura (Yokomo/Nosram) – 37L 8:06.802
2. Ronald Volker (Associated/LRP) – 37L 8:10.698
3. Jilles Groskamp (CRC/Team Orion) – 37L 8:12.148
4. Juho Levanen (Associated/LRP) – 36L 8:01.024
5. Marc Rheinard (Associated/Speed Passion)- 36L 8:01.873
6. Marc Fisher (Corally/GM) – 36L 8:03.275
7. Simo Ahoniemi (Corally/GM)- 36L 8:03.428
8. Andy Moore (Associated/Nosram) – 36L 8:04.004
9. Josh Cyrul (CEFX/Speed Passion) – 36L 8:04.043
10.Elliot Harper (CRC/Speed Passion) – 36L 8:04.229

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