Akimoto & Ootsuka win 4WD at Asia Offroad Champs

After yesterday’s running of the 2WD classes at the 2013 Asia Offroad Championships today the 4WD classes were run. The race schedule saw four rounds of qualifying followed by triple A-mains with the lower finals being run twice. The Modified class had Kohta Akimoto taking TQ three seconds in front of Masatsugu Ido and Kai Kikuchi, who was another second down on his fastest run. Shin Adachi came in fourth, Daisuke Sakamoto ended the qualifying in fifth position. The 13.5T Stock class had Daisuke Katou taking the TQ honours closely followed by Masahiro Outsuka and Masaru Takeda. Hiroki Katou was the last driver to score 15 laps, fifth placed Mami Hoshino lead the 14 laps club.

Come the finals of the Asia Offroad Championship, that saw the attendance of special guest and 2-times MotorGP World Champion Casey Stoner, Kohta Akimoto (Kyosho) was able to conserve his qualifying performance, taking A1 and A2 for an early overall win. Masatsugu Ido (Yokomo) had a mixed first and second A-main but a win in the last leg secured him the overall runner-up spot in front of Yokomo team mate Kai Kikuchi. Shin Adachi and Juliya Kajiware completed the top 5 result.

4WD Modified class result
1. Kohta Akimoto
2. Masatsugu Ido
3. Kai Kikuchi
4. Shin Adachi
5. Juliya Kajiwara
6. Daisuke Sakamoto
7. Satoshi Maezumi
8. Tatsuya Sanpei
9. Isaku Serizawa
10.Shunsuke Koike

The 13.5T class had excitement to offer till the very last leg with Masahiro Outsuka, Daisuke Katou and Masaru Takeda all battling for the overall win. The first A-main saw Daisuke walking away with the win only 0.6 seconds in front of Masahiro. Masaru came in third a lap down. A-main number 2 saw Masahiro taking the win in front of Daisuke and Hiroki Katou. Masaru Takeda came in fourth. The third and final leg would then decide the overall result but this time it was Masaru who stole the win from Masahiro and Daisuke. This meant the tie-breaker would decide the win as both Masahiro Outsuka (Yokomo) and Daisuke Katou (Tamiya) scored 19 points in total. With a better result in A3 the win was handed to Masahiro, final leg winner Masaru Takeda (Yokomo) completed the podium with 18 points on the list. Hiroki Katou and Kouki Katou ended in fourth and fifth position.

4WD 13.5T class result
1. Masahiro Ootsuka
2. Daisuke Katou
3. Masaru Takeda
4. Hiroki Katou
5. Kouki Katou
6. Takashi Yamaguchi
7. Mami Hoshino
8. Iori Akiba
9. Tsuyoshi Oomura
10.Hikaru Nagara

Overall the drivers were very impressed and satisfied with the track conditions, according to Hiroshi Suzuki, director of the Yatabe Arena. The 2015 IFMAR 1/10 Electric Offroad World Championships will be run at the same venue and preparations for the event already started to provide racers the best possible facility, service and environment to make sure the participants of the 2015 Worlds can experience the best racing experience ever.

Source: Yatabe Arena [yatabearena.com]