2013 Asia Onroad Championship final round – Report
The final round of the Asian Onroad Championship produced by Scotty Ernst took place this past weekend at the historic Yatabe Arena. Yatabe know as the most historic venue in all of RC racing were welcome host to the final round. A total of 161 entries joined in the AOC from 12 different countries around the world and that made for a very international feel to the final round. 4 World Champions were in attendance: Andy Moore, Hayato Matsuzaki, Naoto Matsukura and Meen Vejrak and they all helped make this event exciting. The event saw the running of the standard AOC classes which include Stock Touring, Super Stock Touring, Modified Touring Formula 1 and FWD but including popular local classes in the form of 1/12 Stock, Modified and GT as well as Formula 1 foam.
In Modified Touring it was a field filled with World Champions but the man of the year Yokomo’s ace driver Ronald Volker was again the man to beat. In the first round of qualifying it seemed that Ronald would have his work cut out for him as it seemed the others had something to throw at him this weekend in Japan. But as we have come to expect with the German driver and his fantastic mechanic Umino he quickly took to the challenge given by the other drivers and worked his way to the top of the time sheets and secured the TQ position for the finals. In the finals it was perfect starts in both A1 and A2 from the pole position that allowed Ronald to slowly pull away from the field and secure the top spot on the podium which was then rounded out by Matsukura and Matsuzaki. Notable mentions in the Modified class would have to go to Kyosho driver from Australia Simon Nicholson who took a 3rd in A2 that helped him secure 5th overall.
In 13.5 Super Stock qualifying was very exciting. In the first 2 rounds it was dominated by Lady racer Mio Hakamata. She drove the first 2 rounds flawlessly. Not making one mistake in her first 2 rounds and this was against some very strong competition include Hot Bodies driver Toshihiko Hara and two great drivers from North America, Orca driver Keith Yu and TOP Racing’s EJ Evans. In the following rounds it was Hara taking rounds 3 and 5 and Evans taking round 4 giving the overall TQ to Hara. This close exciting qualifying showed that the finals were going to be thrilling. As the finals went on it was a back and forth battle between Hara, Hakamata and Evans as Yu had some bad luck and was not able to contend up front. In the end it was some superb driving by Toshihiko Hara that would earn him the top spot on the Podium with Mio and EJ rounding out the podium.
In 1/12th Modified it was a great fight between some of Japan’s top 1/12th racers. As all eyes were on 3-time World Champion Naoto Matsukura, it was the young driver Hayato Ishioka who stole the show taking the TQ spot after some brilliant qualifying runs. In the finals it was a disastrous start for Ishioka in A1 as he was hit on the first lap and that sent him from 1st to last. Showing great poise like a seasoned veteran he methodically worked his way back through the field and in the closing laps was able to retake the lead to the cheers of the crowd and earn a hard fought win in A1. Final number 2 was a fight also but not as dramatic as A1 and some perfect driving from the young driver earned him the win in A2 and gave him his first major Modified 1/12th scale win.
Source: Asia Onroad Chamionships [aocrc.com]
