Additive switch transforms 1:12 Worlds

Day 2 of the IFMAR 1:12 World Championship at Burgdorf, Germany, has a new air of excitement after it was decided this morning to allow a second tyre additive to be used.  Yesterday the cars didn’t look good on track and drivers complained of a complete lack of traction. Despite a full day of running on the CRC carpet no black line appeared raising concerns about the batch of controlled additive provided by the race organisers.  Following a team managers meeting IFMAR made the decision to allow the use of a second additive and immediately the results could be seen with a black line appearing after just two groups of drivers completed 4 minutes each on the track.

With the grip coming up almost instantly the lap times tumbled with Ronald Volker setting a new fastest lap time of 12.603 compared to the 13.493 set in yesterday’s final practice by defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura.  After the short round of 4-minute practice Volker described conditions as ‘Totally different’ saying it now ‘feels like proper 1:12 racing’.

As a result of the completely different track conditions facing the drivers today Dutch Race Director Frans Heinsbroek has amended the timetable to give the 65 drivers extra track time to prepare for qualifying.  An additional round of 4-minute free practice has been added and what was to be the opening qualifier will now be untimed.  To ensure drivers still get six rounds of qualifying, tomorrow’s Finals day will now open with the sixth & last round of heats.

Behind Volker in terms of lap times it was Corally’s Simo Ahoniemi who was second fastest this morning with 12.704 followed by Josh Cyrul’s CEFX on 12.788.

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Perfect start for World Champion Matsukura

Defending 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura has ended the opening day of the 2010 IFMAR World Championships here in Burgdorf in the perfect position by putting his new Yokomo at the top of the time sheets ahead of Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard.  Both drivers really upped the pace in the final round of controlled practice recording 3 consecutive laps in 40 seconds.  Having set the pace in the opening controlled practice Marc Fischer failed to improve on his time but made three different cars in the Top 3.

Matsukura, who does not speak much English, described his car as still loose but that was the general statement of the day. The big talking point is the lack of traction even after a full days running.  65 drivers have had six eight minute runs each on the track but tonight there is no black line on the industry standard CRC Fasttrak carpet.  The majority of the drivers believe this is due to the mixture of the batch of controlled tyre additive drivers must use.  While it should be the same for everyone, many of the drivers and manufacturers are concerned that the temptation is there for a driver to run a very similar additive, something that would be very difficult to detect yet would give a major performance advantage.  Marc Rheinard has been very vocal about the additive saying that the cars don’t feel anything like a 1:12 to drive and has urged IFMAR to drop the controlled additive.  By allowing drivers to run their regular additive he believes it will make for far better racing and speaking to many of the team drivers in the pits here this evening they are all in agreement with the former European 1:12 Champion.

Providing the most positive quote for the day was LRP team leader Ronald Volker. In the company of England’s Elliot Harper the German said, ‘It been a really good day.  We beat England 4-1’.  Finishing the day fourth fastest Volker said from a racing point of view he was happy with his day and is confident for tomorrow’s qualifiers.  Day 2 of the 1:12 World Championships is scheduled to start with a single round of four minute practice runs in the new reseeded heat order. This will be followed by the more serious business of qualifying with the drivers two best heats added together to determine their starting position for Tuesday’s finals.

Top 10 after practice
1. Naoto Matsukura (Yokomo/Nosram) – 3L 0:40.495
2. Marc Rheinard (Associated/Speed Passion)- 3L 0:40.957
3. Marc Fisher (Corally/GM) – 3L 0:41.178
4. Ronald Volker (Associated/LRP) – 3L 0:41.265
5. Hideo Kitazawa (Corally/Speed Passion)- 3L 0:41.552
6. Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo/Nosram) – 3L 0:41.580
7. Juho Levanen (Associated/LRP) – 3L 0:41.624
8. Simo Ahoniemi (Corally/GM)- 3L 0:41.628
9. Josh Cyrul (CEFX/Speed Passion) – 3L 0:41.680
10.Paul Lemieux (Xray/Trinity) – 3L 0:41.732

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