WORLDS: Matsukura topped seeding as Rheinard's struggles continued

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com 

Just two former IFMAR world champions in the 1/12-scale class are competing this week in Beijing, and after controlled practice was completed they’re having very different experiences so far. Three-time champion Naoto Matsukura set the fastest seed time in the first round and it held up for the rest of the morning, while Marc Rheinard had to improve from 42nd in round one to seventh overall in the second round just to make the ‘A’ heat after the resort.

Naoto Matsukura’s seeding time from the first round of practice held up as the fastest three consecutive laps, but he’s still chasing the best possible setup for his Roche prototype. “My car is good. The last run I made many mistakes,” said Matsukura, who made adjustments to the front end of his car after the first round of controlled practice to gain steering but went too far, so he’s going to change it back. “In the first round, I’m going to try to get a smooth start and then push harder later in the race,” he said.

Canadian driver Keven Hebert was very happy with his Team Associated 12R5.2 after the last round of practice, in which he recorded the second-fastest seed time of the morning. “I ran a stiffer center spring and it really woke the car up,” he said, “It’s super easy to drive now. I’m over-driving, but if I take it easy I think I have a good car for the eight-minute run.”

The top Yokomo driver after seeding practice, Toto Ebukoro said his YRX-12 is getting better - and that he didn’t plan on making any further changes for the first round of qualifying. “The whole left side of the track is really difficult,” said Ebukoro. He admitted the other drivers might be faster for a single lap, but that he will focus on consistency.

Futaba designer Hideo Kitazawa, the third-place finisher from 2014, ran harder tires than what he ran yesterday and said his car improved. He hopes that running larger tires in the first round of qualifying will give him more traction for the final two minutes of the race.

Former Japanese national champ Hayato Ishioka was fifth-quick, and commented that the low grip and tight corners made the track very difficult. Rather than make further changes to his CRC Xti-WC, he’ll simply try to put in a good, clean run.

Defending champion Marc Rheinard sarcastically described his morning as “wonderful!” before admitting that his car is consistent, just not as fast as he would like. Struggling with the high rate of tire wear, the German is trying to find a tire that will maintain grip for the entire run. “I’m going to try a little bit bigger tire in the first round and try for no mistakes,” said Rheinard, “but it’s going to be hard.”