Maifield tops final practice

Day 2 of the 2011 IFMAR Electric Buggy World Championship got underway in Vaasa, Finland this morning with a final round of practice that saw Ryan Maifield set the fastest time from Associated team-mate Ryan Cavalieri.  Having run 4-minute practice sessions yesterday with 12 cars per group, the final practice was the first opportunity to do a full 5-minute run with drivers running in the regrouped 10 car heat order that will be used for qualifying.

With yesterday’s timing based on a driver’s individual fastest lap, this morning the timing was based on the laps completed over the 5-minutes giving a more accurate indication of the form going into qualifying.  Covering the track with an impressive single piece tarpaulin the organising crew did a great job of protecting it from overnight rain however ground moisture meant traction was down on yesterday.

Setting the fastest lap of the morning practice with a 24.829, Maifield posted 12 laps in 5:07.392 compared with Cavalieri’s 5:08.304. Behind the AE stars it was two more US drivers with Kyosho’s Jared Tebo and Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans third and fourth fastest respectively.

The fastest non American was Japanese Kyosho driver Kohta Akimoto in fifth.  Fellow countryman Naoto Matsukura who topped the timing sheets yesterday with a blisteringly fast lap ended up 15th fastest over the 5-minutes, the Japanese Champion having a number of moments during his run.

Dakotah Phend backed up his strong showing yesterday with the sixth fastest time followed by Tamiya’s Lee Martin and Austrian Team Associated driver Peter Pinisch.  US Champion Mike Truhe and Steven Harston completed the Top 10.

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Matsukura tops Day 1 in Finland

Young Japanese ace Naoto Matsukura has ended Day 1 of the 2011 IFMAR Electric Buggy World Championships at the top of the times sheets after producing a blistering lap in the day’s final round of 2WD practice.  Quickest in the sixth practice session, only the Team Yokomo driver could better his own time doing so in P8 with a 24.222 second lap which left him 3/10ths clear of Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri who also produced his best time in the closing session of the day. With little appearing to phase the back to back 1:12 World Champion, Matsukura took his performance today in his stride saying he is looking forward to getting qualifying underway tomorrow.

With one final round of practice scheduled for the morning, drivers will run four of the five qualifiers tomorrow with Cavalieri not too concerned about the gap to the Japanese National Champion.  Also running a B4.1, with his having the new longer chassis, the American Pro said his average lap is better than Matsukura’s and over a full 5-minute heat its consistency that counts.

Ending the day 3rd fastest thanks to his time from P6, Team Durango’s Joern Neumann said he had trouble running a clean lap in the final two practices but is happy that his Speed Passion powered DEX210 will be ‘OK’ over 5 minutes and he has no plans to make any set-up changes once conditions stay the same. Unfortunately after two dry days in Vaasa the forecast for qualifying is giving a 50% chance of rain in the morning.

The leading driver from Warm-up race winners Team Losi Racing, young American teenager Dakotah Phend ended the day with the fourth fastest lap.  Having made a number of little changes to his TLR22 for P7 & 8 the up & coming talent said they did not give him what he was looking for and he will revert to the same set-up he used in the sixth practice when he set his 24.613 lap.  Team-mate Mike Truhe ended the day with his best time finishing up sixth fastest, the US Champion saying the car has been good all day and now the driver was starting to come good too.  Tipped as being a major contender for the title on Wednesday, Dustin Evans had a problem with a rear tyre insert in the final practice and ended up 15th fastest.  Working on his consistency rather than outright speed the American said ‘qualifying is about 5-minutes and not one lap’ and he is feeling positive about tomorrow.

In between the Losi’s of Phend and Truhe is early practice pace setter Jared Tebo. Doing his best lap in P8, which was good enough to end the day fifth, the factory Kyosho driver said he now feels ready to go racing.  More and more comfortable with the track and the set-up on his much modified RB5 he said it was a productive day.

Although he ended Day 1 with his fastest lap, Ryan Maifield did not appear overly happy with his opening day.  Describing it as ‘up and down’, the factory Associated driver said he found the day very long and being used to running multiple classes at big races he had too much time to think about set-up changes.  Unable to better his P5 lap time Steven Hartson ended the eighth fastest followed by two more long chassis B4.1s of former World Champion Neil Cragg and fellow Brit Paul Bradby who completes the Top 10.

Just outside the Top 10 setting the 11th fastest time in the penultimate practice session Lee Martin was as expected the best of the Tamiya Racing Factory squad with the TRF201 chassis.

Top 15 Practice Lap times
1. Naoto Matsukura – Associated – 24.222
2. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 24.521
3. Joern Neumann – Durango – 24.524
4. Dakotah Phend – Losi – 24.613
5. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 24.632
6. Mike Truhe – Losi – 24.714
7. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 24.739
8. Steven Hartson – Associated – 24.749
9. Neil Cragg – Associated – 24.813
10.Paul Bradby – Associated – 24.822
11.Lee Martin – Tamiya – 24.830
12.Peter Pinisch – Associated – 24.830
13.Keisuke Enomoto – Associated – 24.830
14.Tom Cockerill – Schumacher – 24.830
15.Dustin Evans – Losi – 24.921

View the full results here (PDF).

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Matsukura goes to the top

Team Yokomo ace Naoto Matsukura has gone to the top of the time sheets here in Finland after setting a new fastest lap of 24.279 in the sixth round of practice.  Driving an Associated B4.1, Yokomo being the Japanese distributors for AE, the 17-year-old changed the rear camber link position which gave the buggy very good forward traction allowing the Japanese Champion to be over 2/10th of second faster than the field.

Behind Matsukura, German National Champion Joern Neumann admitted he surprised himself a little with the second fastest time.  Running a DEX210 which features a carbon chassis and shock towers, he had found the chassis to be cracked after P5 which he believes may have happened during a heavy crash in an earlier run.  Fitting a new chassis for P6 and moving the battery mounting point from the rear to the middle it transformed the buggy, which is around 100grams lighter than the standard car.

Making his electric Worlds debut 14-year-old Dakotah Phend set the 3rd fastest lap.  One of Team Losi Racing’s future stars the American said a change to the camber link on his TLR22 had made a big difference with the buggy having much more corner speed.  Enjoying the Vaasa track, which he described as ‘really fast flowing’, Phend will try a few more changes in the penultimate practice round as he looks to get a little more traction and reduce the turn in which he said was a little hard.

Setting the fourth fastest time and now the leading factory Associated driver Ryan Cavalieri said he has been doing various tweaks to his set-up and has feels hes got it pretty good now.  Happy with the consistency of his long chassis B4.1, he plans to try one more set-up change for P7 which he hopes will leave him with a strong package for tomorrow’s opening qualifier.

Fastest after the first five practices Jared Tebo improved his time in P6 but the Kyosho/Orion star drops to fifth on the time sheets. Behind him Associated’s Ryan Maifield completes the Top 6 having just produced his best lap of the day.

Elsewhere Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard is currently 24th fastest with a time from P5 with 1:8 Buggy World Champion Cody King just four places behind him having improved his time in P6.  Reigning 2WD World Champion Martin Achter lies 74th 2.1 seconds adrift of current pace setter Matsukura.

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Tebo setting practice pace in Finland

After five rounds of practice Kyosho’s Jared Tebo tops the time sheets ahead of Japan’s Naoto Matsukura and fellow American Steven Hartson at the 2011 IFMAR 2WD Buggy World Championships in Vaasa, Finland. Driving his heavily modified Ultima RB5, Tebo set a fastest lap time of 24.698 in the fifth of the 4-minute practice sessions as the track continues to dry out following heavy rain in the lead up to the event.  Happy that he has found a good set-up for the track in P5, the American ace said there are still a few spots on the track that feel like ice as they are still damp but overall his Orion powered buggy feels good and he ‘just need(s) to drive her now’.

Current Japanese Champion Matsukura is please with his Associated B4.1.  The Team Yokomo driver who is the reigning 1:12 World Champion, is running the regular kit chassis and used P5 to try different front tyres.  Having to run JConcepts Double Dee tyres on the rear, the official controlled tyre,  the 17-year-old said he tried Rips on the front in P5 which he said he preferred over the Groovy he tried in the earlier sessions.

Associated team driver Hartson is pleased with his pace saying the track is different to what he is used to racing on.  Missing the warm-up race, he said he really likes the curbing but used to high bite tracks he said he is still getting used to the car drifting around.  Running the new long chassis on his B4.1 he said he has done nothing with the set-up he started out the day with instead focusing on his driving.  Just behind Hartson were his Associated team-mates Neil Cragg and Ryan Cavalieri.  Describing his car as feeling pretty good in P5 due to the improving track condition, Cragg said he hasn’t done much with his set up and is ‘trying not to crash’.

Along with Cavalieri, reigning US Champion Mike Truhe set his fastest lap in P3.  Sixth fastest overall the Team Losi Racing driver said the track was the best its been in P5 but he chose a more ribbed front tyre which while it made the TLR22 feel better it was to prove slower on the clock.

Driving a regular B4.1, Keisuke Enomoto set the seventh fastest time.  Only 14-years old, the Japanese nationals Top Qualifier is rated highly by the man who beat him in that race Matsukura describing Enomoto, who doesn’t speak English, as ‘very fast’.

Rounding out the early Top 10 here in Vaasa is AE’s Ryan Maifield, TLR’s Dustin Evans and the Tamiya of European Champion Lee Martin.

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