Matsukura is Touring Car World Champion

Naoto Matsukura is the new Electric Touring Car World Champion. Just days after relinquishing the 1:12 World title he held for six years, the Japanese driver becomes the sixth winner of the sport’s biggest accolade achieving something that eluded his mentor & RC legend Masami Hirosaka. The 8th running of the championships, four drivers went into the third A-Main at the Kissimmee track in contention for the title. Despite an intense challenge from pre-event favourite Ronald Volker, Matsukura took the A3 win and with it his fourth IFMAR World title. Finishing the leg third behind the Yokomo team-mates, Xray’s A1 winner and star of the Florida event Bruno Coelho would finish second overall leaving a disappointed Volker to complete the podium.

Continue reading this report here or our full event coverage here.

LRP Touring Car Masters 2015 – Announcement

The 2015 edition of LRP’s Touring Car Masters will take place from the 23rd to 25th of January. While the 18th running of the event is set for a much earlier date in 2015 there will also be some other changes such as double points for the LRP-HPI-Challenge classes, starting in two different classes will be allowed, there will be triple finals for all classes and the organisers also provide a new and improved carpet. Also new is an updated tyre rule with every driver being allowed to use an unlimited amount of hand-out tyres. More information (in German language) about the race, that will be run in a Touring Car Modified class beside five different LRP-HPI-Challenge categories, can be found here (PDF file).

Matsukura takes straight forward A2 win

Top Qualifier Naoto Matsukura took a straight forward tone to tone victory in the second A-Main of the World Championships with the title set to be decided among four drivers in A3. Setting the fastest lap of the race, the Yokomo driver led home team-mate Ronald Volker and A1 winner Bruno Coehlo, the Top 3 finishing as they started. A much faster encounter, the winning pace a full lap quicker than the opening leg thanks to better track conditions, for defending Champions Tamiya the race saw their main contender Marc Rheinard have a tough race with the 3-time Champion coming together twice with former Champion Atsushi Hara, the pair finish 9th & 10th respectively.

Continue reading this report here or our full event coverage here.

Coelho wins A1

Bruno Coelho has won the opening A-Main at the World Championships in Florida, an early coming together between the Yokomo’s of Top Qualifier Naoto Matsukura and Ronald Volker handing the Xray driver a lead that would never be challenged. Some distance behind the Portuguese sensation, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard would finish second from fourth on the grid with Matsukura recovering for third ahead of Volker. The opening final of the 8th running of the IFMAR event, a loose track made for a difficult race with many drivers critical of the decision to run the Main race first rather than at the end of the opening round of lower finals. Just how bad conditions were was highlighted by the fastest lap of the final qualifier and first A-Main, both set by Coelho, with him posting a 17.2 in Q6 and only a best of 18.4 in A1.

Continue reading this report here or our full event coverage here.

Matsukura is Top Qualifier in Kissimmee

Naoto Matsukura is Top Qualifier for the Electric Touring Car World Championships in Florida, the Yokomo driver claiming his second overall TQ off the event having secured pole position for the 1:12 Worlds earlier in the week. With the sixth & final qualifier at the Kissimme track a three way Top Qualifier showdown between Matsukura, Ronald Volker and star of the event Bruno Coelho it was the Xray driver who would top the concluding round as both Yokomo drivers crashed. Making a last lap mistake himself, even without this Coelho’s time would not been quick enough to secure the top spot as all three drivers ended up on 2-points with 2 x TQs and a second as their counting 3 of 6 rounds. Setting the fastest run of qualifying in the opening round of qualifying two days earlier it was this time that would give Matsukura his fourth World Championship TQ, with Volker’s Round 5 pace securing him second ahead of Coelho. For defending champion manufacturer Tamiya, Marc Rheinard will head their challenge from fourth on the grid with Champion Jilles Groskamp taking up the rear of the grid in 10th position.

Continue reading this report here or our full event coverage here.

3-way showdown to decide overall TQ in final qualifier

The final round of qualifying at the Touring Car World Championships in Florida will be a three way showdown between Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura & Ronald Volker and surprise of the event Bruno Coelho. Bringing Day 3 of the Kissimmee event to a close, the penultimate round of qualifying saw Matsukura throw away an almost certain overall TQ as he put his BD7 into the wall at the end of the straight just before the halfway mark while on target to top the times for a third time. This allowed team-mate Volker to TQ the round ahead of Coelho’s Xray and a much improved Atsushi Hara. Overnight it is Matsukura who holds the provisional TQ thanks to a faster time for the first of his two TQ runs meaning that Volker needs to TQ the morning’s final qualifier while Coelho needs to do so with the fastest time of the six rounds.

Continue reading this report here or our full event coverage here.