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Aug. 20, 2016, 5:36 a.m.
By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com
Three-time former champion Naoto Matsukura had the fastest seed time in Saturday's practice sessions, making him the favorite heading into qualifying. Behind him, though, the talk in the pits was dominated by the track surface - with many drivers commenting on what seemed to be unusual conditions for such a popularly used carpet material. Tires wore at a rapid pace, changing the cars' balance over the course of the 8-minute runs.
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Driving a new Roche prototype, Matsukura’s fastest three consecutive laps was .685 seconds faster than the rest of the field. “It’s so good,” said the Japanese driver about his new car, adding, “The track is super difficult, but the car is super easy to drive.” Matsukura said the chicane through the left side of the track and coming onto the back straightaway is the most difficult part of the course, and that he’s planning on running larger tires in tomorrow’s opening round in an attempt to make the car easier to drive.
Despite being second-quick, Swedish driver Alexander Hagberg was rather unhappy with the performance of his car. He described his XRAY X12 ’17 as “hard to drive and inconsistent,” even after spending the day experimenting with tires and different tire sizes to adjust the car’s balance. “The track seemed to get slower at the end of the day,” said the former European Champion, “so I’m not sure which direction to go.”
Defending world champion Marc Rheinard was also less-than-thrilled with the performance of his Yokomo YRX-12. “It understeers,” said the German, “and it does not feel that great. Actually, I feel a bit lost.” Like Hagberg, Rheinard tried different tires throughout the day looking for the best front-to-rear balance. “The track is low grip and makes for a lot of tire wear - pretty straight for 1/12-scale.” Rheinard said the first chicane on the right side of the track is really risky, and although it’s a very nice track he feels it may be too tight for racing.
Japanese driver Akio Sobue was more optimistic about the handling of his CRC Xti-WC, planning only routine maintenance and some small setup changes for more steering before tomorrow’s first qualifying round. “It’s good - it’s very consistent, but I need a little bit more steering,” said Sobue. He was among the drivers worried about how much tire wear throughout the race duration changed the balance of his car. “For the first five minutes it’s okay,” said Sobue, “but then the tires get very small and in the final three minutes it’s very loose.”
Canadian Team Associated driver Keven Hebert rounded out the top five with his RC12R5.2, which he feels comfortable with heading into tomorrow’s all-important qualifying. “It was okay,” said Hebert, who added, “It wasn’t very fast, but it’s easy to drive.” The multi-time North American champion made changes to his car throughout the day and feels that comfort level will be important, given how difficult the track is. “It’s very hard to make a consistent run, and everyone is crashing so much,” he said, “I made a lot of progress today and I’m excited for tomorrow.
Here are the overall results from practice:
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