Clean sweep for Naoto Matsukura at 2011 IIC
This weekend saw the annual IIC take place in Las Vegas, with a record entry of over 400 participants making their way to the Riviera Hotel for this carpet on road event. In the blue ribboned events, modified TC and modified 1/12th, it was Yokomo factory driver Naoto Matsukura who took top honours in qualifying in both classes against a World Class field including 3 TC World Champions and a whole host of other top talent from Europe, Asia and of course North America. In TC it was Naoto from Ronald Volker, with Marc Rheinard, Alexander Hagberg and Vikto Wilck completing the top 5, while in 1/12th it was Naoto from Juho Levanen, Ronald Volker, Keven Hebert and Paul Lemieux. In the TC final Naoto was never challenged, setting the fastest lap on the way to the win by just over 2 seconds from Yokomo team mate Volker, with Taniya team driver Viktor Wilck claiming 3rd. In the 1/12th scale class, as back to back World Champion Matsukura again showed a clean pair of heals to the rest of the field as he won the 8 minute encounter by nearly 6 seconds in front of the Associated pairing of Keven Hebert, who briefly held the lead, and Mike Blackstock, the pair separated by just 3 tenths of a second.
Source: Yokomo [facebook.com]