The drivers have figured out the pattern of the weather changes and their effect on the conditions at Huge R/C Project. In the morning, when the weather is a bit cooler and the humidity is at its highest, there’s more grip than ever. In the middle of the day, when the temperature rises and the air dries a bit, the cars push more due to lower grip. In the third round of the day, when the temperature starts to drop again and the humidity returns to its highest point, the track is somewhere in the middle. None of that mattered to Teemu Leino in the third round, as he got by the line for the first 22-lap run of the week.
“It was good,” said Leino with a smile. With a near-perfect run aside from bicycling up on two wheels in the first hairpin after the finish line, which he saved, the Finnish driver said the grip level is what makes the track so difficult. “You can go the same speed into a corner two laps in a row, and one of the laps it might flip,” said the HB driver, who hasn’t changed his R10 since the start of qualifying. Leino knows that, while he and Hagberg both have two zeroes each, Alexander’s next-best run is a 5 whereas his is a 13, so his plan for the fifth round is simple: “Just try to keep it on four wheels!”
Running the same setup on his XRAY NT1 2015 as he did yesterday, Singaporean sensation Nicholas Lee drove to the second fastest time with a clean run and no major mistakes. His three top-ten runs at the moment have him near a semi-qualifying position, so Lee’s approach to Q5 is just to stay calm and put in another clean run.
Dominik Greiner’s fourth round started in a disaster, as he crashed so hard in warm-up that his power switch turned off. Once his mechanic found the issue, he discovered his chassis was badly tweaked and, as the German said, his Serpent 748 Natrix was, “horrible after that.” Pleasantly surprised to score as well as he did despite the issue, Greiner was not at all happy with his setup and needs more and easier steering, so he’ll make a few changes for the fifth round including lowering the front camber link, adding more weight to the front, and adding more caster in addition to changing the chassis.
Top American (of two) JJ Wang put in a safe run after a rough three rounds on Wednesday. “Yesterday was such a bad start to qualifying, but it’s a new day today.” The Mugen Seiki driver ran thinner front diff oil to make his MTX-6 easier to drive, and won’t make anymore changes to his car. “I need two more good runs to get into the semi,” said Wang.
Defending champion Meen Vejrak said his run was “just okay,” but acknowledged the improvement over the first three rounds. “I think my driving style is too safe,” said the Thai driver, who added, “but my first three rounds were not quite good, so I don’t have the chance to make anymore mistakes and keep the lap times more stable.” Vejrak planned on laying down the front shocks for more steering and trying to put in another clean run.
Top 16 - Round Four
Driver - Country (Car/Engine/Controlled Fuel Choice/Body)
1. Teemu Leino - FIN (HB/Novarossi/Maxima/PROTOform) - 22/5:13.770
2. Nicholas Lee - SGP (XRAY/Novarossi/Maxima/PROTOform) - 21/5:02.617
3. Tadahiko Sahashi - JPN (Serpent/Picco/Cosmo/PROTOform) - 21/5:03.277
4. Dominik Greiner - DEU (Serpent/Max/Maxima/SRC) - 21/5:03.562
5. Jilles Groskamp - NLD (Shepherd/Maxima/Maxima/PROTOform) - 21/5:04.202
6. JJ Wang - USA (Mugen Seiki/Novarossi/Maxima/PROTOform) - 21/5:04.560
7. Meen Vejrak - THA (KM Racing/O.S./Cosmo/PROTOform) - 21/5:05.104
8. Surikarn Chaidajsuriya - THA (Mugen Seiki/Maxima/Maxima/PROTOform) - 21/5:05.175
9. Takaaki Shimo - JPN (Mugen Seiki/O.S./Cosmo/PROTOform) - 21/5:06.080
10. Mark Green - GBR (Serpent/Novarossi/Maxima/Xceed) - 21/5:07.221
11. Chavit Sirigupta - THA (KM Racing/O.S./Cosmo/PROTOform) - 21/5:07.919
12. Yamada Hayato - JPN (Mugen Seiki/Novarossi/Cosmo/PROTOform) - 21/5:07.950
13. Francesco Tironi - ITA (Shepherd/Novarossi/Maxima/PROTOform) - 21/5:08.143
14. Dirk Wischnewski - DEU (Shepherd/ORCAN/Maxima/SRC) - 21/5:09.485
15. Keisuke Fukuda - JPN (Mugen Seiki/Picco/Maxima/PROTOform) - 21/5:09.716
16. Andy Moore - GBR (HB/Maxima/Maxima/PROTOform) - 21/5:09.757
11/12/2014
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