AOC Rd1 – Seeding & Qualifying updates

The 2017 Asian Onroad Championship is underway with round 1 being held at RCI V2 in Shanghai, China. In it’s 5th year being a part of the AOC, RCI V2 has consistently increased the level of competition inviting some of the world’s finest to take part. From Paul Lemieux in the early days to current IFMAR ISCT World Champion, Ronald Volker, all have enjoyed the delights of RCI V2 and the fine mix of fantastic racing and fun atmosphere. The AOC is more than just a race event, it’s filled with wonderful friendship, culture, and life experiences.

This year’s event has attracted top TC racers from Creation Model’s team like Akio Sobue, Naoto Matsukura, and Andy Moore. Also making this year’s trip to highlight the competitive field is Xray’s Jan Ratheisky, Alexander Hagberg, and JJ Wang. Representing team Serpent is Sweden ace, Viktor Wilck along with Hong Kong’s Felix Law and Stick King. Yokomo has sent over a cast of young drivers to gain experience like World’s finalist Toto Ebukuro and super brothers Yoshi and Toshi Yasagisawa, who excels in 1/12th scale modified. Also on hand from Destiny is Jin and Shin Sawada making a field of competitive racers from Asia and Europe.

After the seeding practice round, in the Modified TC class it was Creation Model’s Naoto Matsukura setting the fastest 3 consecutive laps by .07 of a second over Xray’s Alexander Hagberg. 3 drivers would post a 31.2 second top 3 time with Creation Model’s Akio Sobue .09 seconds behind the 5 time world champion Matsukura. Moving into qualifying round 1, Matsukura will start off first giving him some clear track on this tight circuit that could make all the difference for TQ.

1/12th Modified was led by the Yokomo youngsters with Yoshi Yanagisawa leading the way ahead of Toshi Yanagisawa and Toto Ebukuro.

Stock TC saw Xray’s Jan Ratheisky lead the way with a .4 second cushion over Hobbywing’s Salton Dong and Yokomo’s Heng Heng.

Source: AOC [aocrc.com]