Hayato Matsuzaki dominates Asia Cup
Our good friend Scotty Ernst sent us the following report from Japan where he attended the 2010 Asia Cup. In the world of motorsport there are many places that stand out as historic venues, Le Mans, Monaco, Daytona, Indianapolis, all are historic venues and all with a rich past of history and tradition. In our world of racing, there is truly only 1 place that holds the history and past that our counterparts in full scale racing hold, and that place is Yatabe Arena in Japan. Yatabe, started back in 1989, has hosted and crowned more World Champions than any other venue in our world of racing and when you look at the names of the drivers who have raced here and have won World Championships here, you truly see the history that Yatabe has earned.
As an announcer/race director in our world of racing I have had the honor of being asked to announce in places all over the world, but there has always been 1 place that I have always dreamed of announcing an event and that was Yatabe. Last year I had the chance to announce the Reedy Off Road Race of Champions there, and now this year I have had the chance to be part of the 2010 Asia Cup held on the on road side of Yatabe. The Yatabe staff which is lead by Hiroshi Suzuki wanted to change things up this year at Yatabe. Known for their amazing indoor asphalt track, they wanted to give their customers a change. This change was in the form of laying carpet over the asphalt to bring Japan it largest carpet track ever. This has worked out to be a great idea and has brought many new racers to Yatabe.
The Asia Cup was designed to bring some of the top drivers from all over Asia to compete in this competitive but fun event. Drivers were here from Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and others and 4 classes were run, Stock and Mod Touring and Stock and Mod 1/12th. Drivers of all abilities were in attendance from 8 year old kids to much older, shall I say seasoned veterans. We ran 3 qualifiers and double A finals in this weekends program.
The featured classes were of course the Modified where it was the 2 young superstars of Japanese RC, former 2WD World Champion Hayato Matsuzaki and current 1/12th Scale World Champion Naoto Matsukura who were the stars of the show. Many of you know that Yatabe is the house that Masami Hirosaka built, being his home track and being a big part of the history that Yatabe has had. But these days Masami is there to help, having officially retired now, he was on hand to help out manning the Yokomo display booth, walking through the pits helping many racers and he was also my co referee in the A finals. Masami is still a huge part of Yokomo, but in a more behind the scenes capacity these days.
This weekend belonged to Hayato Matsuzaki who was on his game in both classes. Taking TQ in both and taking the overall win in both classes also. Naoto was able to challenge him in 1/12th, only falling to bad luck in A2 which took him out of any chance for the overall win and in Touring there was only 1 driver who was able to match pace with him and that was Tamiya TRF driver Takayuki Kono who paced the former World Champ lap after lap but was not able to find a way past.
In the Stock Divisions it was Akio Sobue who took the TQ Spot and overall win but the story of the race was Mifuyu Toki, a 13 year old girl, who gave these boys an amazing challenge. She qualified 3rd and brought home a 2nd place overall finish almost taking the win in the last final.
We had an amazing event this weekend which brought out hundreds and hundreds of spectators and families to watch the event. All of us would like to say thanks to Hiroshi Suzuki and everyone at Yatabe Arena and to Tom Yokobori, owner of Yokomo, for making this event possible.
TOURING UNLIMITED
1. HAYATO MATSUZAKI
2. TAKAYUKI KONO
3. NAOTO MATSUKURA
4. TAKEHIRO YAMAUCHI
5. KIYOKAZU SUZUKI
6. PAPHON CHANYASAK
7. KAZUYA MIZUKOSHI
8. MASAYUKI OYAIZU
9. SI CHANG SU
10. TAKASHI KATO
1/12TH MODIFIED
1. HAYATO MATSUZAKI
2. HIDEO KITIZAWA
3. MASAYUKI MURAI
4. KAZUKI ENDO
5. TAKAO MITSUMIZO
6. NAOTO MATSUKURA
7. TOSHIKI KUNIMOTO
8. MASAKI YAMAMOTO
9. HAYATO ISHIOKA
10. KIYOKAZU SUZUKI
TOURING STOCK
1. AKIO SOBUE
2. MIFUYU TOKI
3. JIN CHIBA
4. SYOZO MAKITA
5. TAKAO MITSUMIZO
6. NAOKI KASAHARA
7. TOMOTAKA IGUCHI
8. SATOSHI YAMAZAKI
9. TAKAKI ENDO
10. MIO HAKAMADA
1/12TH STOCK
1. KAZUMA MURAI
2. YASHUHIRO MATSUSHIMA
3. SYUJI MATSUNO
4. KOHEI MORITA
5. YUTA ARAI
6. SEIJI SIZUMA
7. HAJIME SAKISABE
8. HIROSHI SANO
9. NOBUAKI KURABAYASHI
Only 9 guys in stock
Thanks to Scotty Ernst for the report.
