Balestri to defend World title as Top Qualifier

Dario Balestri will defend his 1:8 Onroad World Championship title as the Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s final at Steel City RC Speedway in California.  The Infinity driver secured his fourth consecutive World Championship TQ when he topped the sixth & final round of qualifying ahead of Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner.  With the first five qualifiers seeing 4 different drivers post TQ run, the final qualifying was a four way shoot out. Running in the second fastest heat Greiner did all he could to set the provisional TQ time while the other three contenders, Balestri, Naoto Matsukura and Kurzbuch set off in reverse order in the top heat.  The first to post a second TQ run when he topped the morning’s Q5, Matsukura would unfortunately crash out at two and half minutes, leaving the battle between Balestri and Kurzbuch, their predicted pace up on the time set by Greiner.  In the end Balestri had it under control finishing with 4/10ths on Kurzbuch. Overall Matsukura qualified 2nd followed by Kurzbuch, Greiner and Jesse Davis.

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Matsukura first to TQ for a second time at 1:8 Worlds

After an opening day of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships yesterday that produced four different TQ drivers, this morning Naoto Matuskura became the first driver to go fastest for a second time. Having TQ’d Q1 in cool morning conditions, the Infinity driver repeated the result on what is again a cold morning at Steel City RC Speedway.  Pursuing top seed and team-mate Dario Balestri, a slight mistake from the Italian in the final minute of 4-minute run was enough for Matsukura to move to the top where he would stay to the end.  Finishing 9/10ths ahead of Balestri who held on for another P2, the Q5 result means the honour of Top Qualifier at the 22nd running of Championship is looking like a two horse race between the defending Champion Balestri and the reigning 1:10 Champion Matsukura, although former champions Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner still have a chance.  For the round, Greiner set the third fastest time followed by JJ Wang, Jesse Davis and Kurzbuch.

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Infinity International RC Speedway awarded 2021 World Championships

The 2021 1:8 Onroad World Championship is going to Japan, with the newly opened Infinity International RC Speedway having been awarded the blue ribbon event of RC Racing’s original and oldest class.  News of the decision by the sport’s governing body IFMAR came at the 22nd running of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships which are currently taking place at Steel City RC Speedway in Fontana, California.  Built by Infinity owner Kenji Taira and having hosted its grand opening just two months ago, the track is located close to the famed Suzuka Formula One circuit.  Before becoming Infinity International RC Speedway the track previously existed as the Hokusei Circuit and was run by the Sahashi family, a well known name in World Championship circles because of the famous racing brothers Tadahiko and Yuya.  Tadahiko became World Champion the last time Japan hosted the 1:8 World Championship in 2013.  With Rody Roem winning his World title there in 1985, this will be third time the land of the rising sun will host the Championships and while the date for 2021 is still to be decided it is expected the month of October will be chosen.

World Champion Balestri finally gets TQ run in Q4

Defending 1:8 Onroad World Champion Dario Balestri finally produced a TQ run setting the fastest run in the final qualifier of the day at Steel City RC Speedway.  Having topped seeding, the Infinity driver became the fourth different driver to top qualifying today seeing off Q2 pace setter Simon Kurzbuch by just 5/100ths of a second.  Continuing his improving results, JJ Wang claimed the third quickest time to finish just ahead of a much improved performance from his Mugen team-mate Shoki Takahata.  Also finishing out today’s action with his best run, two more qualifiers to run tomorrow following yesterday’s wind cancellation, Francesco Tironi set the 5th fastest time ahead of Infinity team-mate Jeffrey Rietveld.  After posting a TQ run in Q3, Dominic Greiner’s follow up attempt was full of driver errors leaving the Serpent driver 10th fastest.  Having opened qualifying with a TQ run, Naoto Matsukura had a disappointing finish to the day as a crash in Q4 put him out.

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Greiner hits the top at World Championships

We might have had to wait an extra day for the qualifying action to start at the 1:8 World Championship but the first three rounds have certainly delivered variety with Dominic Greiner the latest driver to put in a TQ run.  Having not even featured in Q1 with the 22nd fastest time, in Q2 the Serpent driver made a huge leap forward with a P2 thanks to the set-up of team-mate Jeff Hamon and now the former 1:10 World Champion has become the third different driver to TQ.  While he topped the fastest group, top seed Dario Balestri again had to settle for second with team-mate Jesse Davis completing the Top 3.  JJ Wang improved on a strong showing in the morning to set the fourth fastest time, his best so far, followed by Hamon and Dutch driver Rick Vrielijnck. Having TQ’d the previous qualifier, Simon Kurzbuch return to form was short lived as he would suffer a stripped belt after just two laps.  Impressing in seeding putting himself in the fastest heat, young Italian Jonathan Gandin looked set for a Top 3 run as he swapped times with Balestri until he ran out of fuel on his final lap.

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Kurzbuch finds his groove to take Q2 at Steel City

Simon Kurzbuch appears to have finally found his groove after taking the second round of qualifying at 1:8 World Championships in California.  Only 5th in the opening round, the Shepherd driver would pass Q1 winner Naoto Matsukura on track to top the times by 8/10th over his long time Worlds rival Dario Balestri who again had issues with engine tuning.  The second of today’s 4 round of qualifying would also see a marked improvement from Dominic Greiner who from the second fastest heat set the third quickest time ahead of Matsukura.  Backing up their impressive Q1 performances Jeff Hamon and Jesse Davis ran the 5th and 6th fastest times respectively.

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Matsukura from Balestri in opening Qualifier

Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships at Steel City RC Speedway.  After high winds forced the cancellation of the start of qualifying yesterday, the first of the now reduced to 4-minutes qualifiers saw an Infinity duel for top spot.  Shadowing his Infinity team-mate & top seed Dario Balestri throughout the run, Balestri having about half a second advantage, Matsukura was handed the TQ run when the reigning Champion started to run out of fuel on the final lap.  Running the second fastest heat, Jesse Davis would make it an Infinity Top 3 followed by fellow Australian Jeff Hamon who also ran in Group 11 of 12.  While crossing the line third fastest in the top heat, Simon Kurzbuch had to contend with a P5 for the first of his 6 qualifying attempts with Mugen’s JJ Wang completing the Top 6.

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