Red RC » Events

July 23, 2012

Matsukura is Top Qualifier at 1:12 Worlds

Naoto Matsukura will for the third 1:12 World Championships in succession start from pole position after his rivals failed to run the magical 39-laps in the penultimate qualifier this evening in the Netherlands. With three 39-lap heats to his credit and two rounds counting towards the grid, the young Japanese star’s combined time can’t now be beaten despite one round of qualifying remaining in the morning. Like in Q4, when Rheinard was challenging Matsukura TQ pace, Q5 saw the Yokomo driver face another strong and more surprising challenge from factory Serpent driver Marc Fisher. Unfortunately for the German as the heat came up on 5-minutes his electrics overheated causing the car to shut down.

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July 23, 2012

Rheinard just misses 39-lap Q3 run in Holland

Marc Rheinard just missed out on becoming the only driver other than defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura to complete a 39-lap run at the 1:12 World Championships in the Netherlands when he took his Speed Passion powered prototype CRC to a 38/8:00.858 run in the third round of qualifying. While Matsukura produced his third TQ run of the day with a new fastest time and outright fastest lap, all the attention is on the battle behind him which is building up between regular Touring Car rivals Rheinard, Jilles Groskamp, Ronald Volker and Alexander Hagberg.

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July 23, 2012

No surprise as Naoto TQs opening qualifier

There was no surprise in the opening round of qualifying for the 1:12 World Championships with Naoto Matsukura topping the 8-minute heat by a considerable margin from the CRC’s of Marc Rheinard and Simo Ahomiemi. Like in yesterday’s practice, the reigning World Champion was the only driver to record a 39-lap run with his Yokomo once again setting the fastest lap with a 12.203 which was near on identical to his 12.202 record set in controlled practice.

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July 23, 2012

Long, Kimbrow & Morganti sweep Timezone GP

Last weekend the Timezone Grand Prix was held in Battle Ground, Washington. Held in 1/8th Open and Masters, 1/10th 200mm Sedan and 1/8th GT the race saw a huge attendance with several high and even World class drivers. In qualifying Andrew Wells TQ’d the 1/8th Nitro Masters class with Scott Kimbrow taking the 200mm Sedan top spot and Paolo Morganti excelling in 1/8th GT. In the 1/8th Masters A main Serpent’s Tim Long was able to finish some 9 laps ahead of Dana McKee and Mark Day taking the overall win while in 200mm Sedan Scott Kimbrow battled down Mike Swauger who finished five laps down after the 45 minutes final. The third place on the podium went to Brian Bodine. In 1/8th GT Paolo Morganti finished took home an impressive win 14 Laps ahead of Mike Todd with third placed Mike Lyday was down another two laps.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]

July 22, 2012

Day 1 of 1:12 Worlds just a formality for Matsukura

Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura stamped his authority on the opening day of the 1:12 World Championships in the Netherlands, the reigning champion topping the time sheets in controlled practice with the only 39-lap run of the day. Making today’s practice look like just a formality in his quest to securing a third consecutive World title, the closest challenger to the Japanese star was his Yokomo touring car team-mate Ronald Volker, while a strong final practice saw a big improvement from 2010 European Champion Juho Levänen who ended the day third fastest.

View our complete event coverage here.

July 22, 2012

Daniel Carlsson wins Rd5 of Swedish Cup

Round 5 of the Swedish outdoor series was held at the flat and grippy Trollhattan track. With a round by round system to count Daniel Carlsson set the early pace and set TQ after the 2 first rounds with the second and third position to be decided in the last qualifier with Mattias Johansson taking 2nd and Göran Persson 3rd. The first final was anything but exciting, Daniel made a gap and could easily win by 7 seconds. The second final saw some really nice battles between Daniel and Mattias throughout the race, it ended up with Daniel (Yokomo/LRP/Thunder Power) taking the win by just 6 tenths of a second and wrapping up the overall win. The third final saw Daniel win by 4 seconds, in cooler conditions which suited the Yokomo car perfectly. Mattias Johansson (Xray/LRP/LRP) took 2nd overall with Andreas Johansson (Tamiya/SP/SP) 3rd.

Thanks to Daniel Carlsson for the report.

July 22, 2012

Matsukura tops free practice

Defending World Champion Naoto Matsukura has got his ambitions of winning a third consecutive 1:12 title off to an encouraging start by putting his Yokomo top of the free practice time sheets both in terms of outright lap time and total laps completed over 8-minutes. Recording a fastest lap of 12.211 and 38-laps in 8:04.488 in the third of the four free practice rounds, the 18-year-old set the pace ahead of his Yokomo touring car team-mate Ronald Volker with Onpoint’s Jilles Groskamp and CRC’s Simo Ahoniemi the only other drivers to manage 38-laps of the indoor carpet track.

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July 22, 2012

Matsukura confident of 3rd consecutive 1:12 title

Reigning 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura says he is confident of securing a third consecutive title this week as the 16th running of the IFMAR 1:12 World Championships got underway in the sleepy Dutch town of Heemstede this morning. Setting the fastest lap of the opening round of practice before contact with the boards resulted in a broken wheel bearing on his Yokomo, the young Japanese star is the pre-event favourite and should he pull off the feat will equal the achievement of legend of the sport Masami Hirosaka who had a run of success from 2000 to 2004.

View our complete event coverage here.