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| JMRCA 1/8th GP OFF-Road CHAMPION SHIP 2010 |
2010 "1/8 GP Off-Road All Japan Championship" Grand Final - 7 of 10 machines advanced! |
| ■ October 24th, Sunday, 2010 Futaba Buggy Track |
 October 22nd - October 24th, 2010: The JMRCA 2010 1/8 Fuel Off-Road All Japan Championship was held at the Futaba Circuit in Chiba, Japan. A total of 72 drivers were selected from all regional championships and gathered for All Japan Championship. 32 of them were Kyosho drivers, and they are all focused on winning the All Japan Championship. Shinnosuke Adachi, Atsushi Kawamoto, and Kazuya Tanaka from TEAM KYOSHO were among those competing for the Japanese national title.  The sky cleared up for the first day, even though it was raining the day before. In the morning, the drivers had time to practice, which is also used to seed the qualifying heats. During the practice run, the driver's best lap times would determine their heat and starting position for the 10 minute qualifying heats. Each driver chose "slick tires" for the wet surface. Shinnosuke and Atsushi from TEAM KYOSHO INTERNATIONAL, Kazuya from KYOSHO JAPAN and all other drivers continued working on the set-up of their machines in preparation for qualifying in the afternoon.  The track conditions were the same as practice. The drivers had to deal with new track conditions during first round due to the weather. All drivers had trouble adapting to the conditions because it was a unique high grip surface which is very rare for the Futaba Circuit, and the complex track layout made navigation even more difficult. Itaru Kawamoto had a good set-up for the conditions since resulting from the practice run earlier in the morning. He won the first round of qualifying and put his Kyosho MP9 in the top spot. Track conditions became a little more stable in second round and drivers were able to achieve a faster pace than in the first round. Hara, last year's defending champion, set the fastest time of the second round. Itaru, who set the fastest time in round one, took second place in round two. As a result, Hara and Itaru were tied on points at the end of day one. It set the stage for some exciting competition for day two of qualifying, and there were many other competitive Kyosho drivers that also finished well on day one and were within striking distance for the latter rounds.  The qualifying schedule was re-sorted based on the result of the first two rounds. All drivers started practicing early in the morning. While they had to race on the wet surface during day one, the surface was becoming dry by the start of qualifying on day two, which made for more slippery conditions requiring set-up changes for all the competitors. The track surface became somewhat dusty and sandy, which was in direct contrast to the conditions during the first day. All of the drivers were having a little difficulty adapting to the new surface, and Adachi seemed to make the best adjustment, setting the fastest time for round three. Rounds four and five would prove crucial to qualifying as three different drivers set the fastest time in each of the three rounds. Tanaka, who steadily improved his result with each round of qualifying, set the fastest time in round four with the previous frontrunners finishing in the middle of the pack. This meant that a win in the final round would most likely determine the top qualifier. Adachi fought hard and finished 0.9 seconds back in second place, just behind Hara. The win in the last round secured the TQ position for Hara. Both Kazuya and Shinnosuke won the grand final seed with same points in a total of 3 rounds. But, using the fastest run as a tie breaker, Kazuya made better time than Shinnosuke. This meant that Shinnosuke had to make his start as fastest qualifier of the 1/2 final race.  At the conclusion of the semi-finals, the drivers that advanced to the finals included seven Kyosho MP9 pilots - a dominating performance, but there was still the most important race to contest. Weather would again play a factor as it started to rain before the final. By the time the final was ready to start, the track was wet from heavy rain, which would challenge all the finalists to find the right set-up all over again.  At the start of the final, Adachi was hit from behind, which would cause an accident that would put him well behind the leaders. Making matters even more difficult was the weather, which would cause constantly changing track, conditions. During the early running, the order was Hara, Osaka, Kazuya and Itaru. The racing was very close in spite of the conditions, and each driver would challenge Hara for the lead, which resulted in many different leaders. Around 20 minutes into the final, Osaka from MUGEN had mechanical trouble and retired from the race. With just two seconds separating Hara and Kazuya, the running order stabilized over the next ten minutes. By the 20-minute mark, the track surface had become quite slick again, which started to take a toll on the competitors. Hara experienced mechanical trouble which meant an extended pit stop, which would see him lose five positions. The top 5 cars were now all Kyosho machines. When Hara rejoined the race, however, he had switched to slick tires, which proved to be quite an advantage. With only 15 minutes left, Tanaka had also changed to slick tires. Kawamoto inherited the top position during Tanaka's tire change, and kept the top position without changing his tires. But nine minutes from the finish, Tanaka showed enough speed to pass everyone and re-take the lead. He won the All Japan Championship for his first time, followed by Kawamoto in second, and Itaru in third. All top three positions were Kyosho MP9.  Congratulations to Tanaka for his first time victory. Kyosho also thanks all 32 drivers who campaigned with the Kyosho MP9. |
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 ■How was the race? "It was very important to have a good pit man. This time, I had very good communication with him, and it led to my victory. When I heard announcement of the faster lap times that resulted from the slick tires, we changed tires very quickly. We had good communication throughout the event and it contributed to my success for sure." ■Please comment about World Championship. "I heard they have a very difficult course layout. I will do my best…." |
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No.31785
1/8 GP 4WD Racing Buggy INFERNO MP9 TKI2 （Team Kyosho International 2） |
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Kazuya Tanaka
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Atsushi Kawamoto
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Itaru Kawamoto
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Makoto Mogi
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Shinnosuke Adachi
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Hideki Kobayashi
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Wataru Takashiro
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