Matsukura is 1:12 World Champion

Naoto Matsukura is the 1:12 World Champion for a fourth time.  The Japanese ace, who burst onto the international r/c scene when he won his first World title in 2008 aged 15, took back the sport’s biggest prize with an impressive recovery drive to make it 2 wins from 2 in the second A-Main in Beijing.   Starting P2, China being his first Worlds not being the Top Qualifier, Matsukura came out best from a third lap pile up involving the Top 3 to go to the lead but almost immediately threw it away with a mistake of his own dropping back to fifth. With Sobue the new leader, Matsukura set about his recovery with his Roche clearly the fastest car on the track.  On the limit trying to keep his lead and under pressure from Matsukura, Sobue would too lose the lead with a mistake and once passed Matsukura took complete control of the race to win ahead of Rheinard to put himself into the history books as the first driver to hold both the 1:12 and Electric Touring Car World titles simultaneously.  A win of a very entertaining A3 would give Rheinard the overall runner-up spot with 1:12 Worlds debutant Sobue completing the podium for the 18th running of the championships.

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