WORLDS: No position changes in final round of seeding practice

0 Nov. 11, 2014, 5:15 a.m.

11/11/2014
By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC.com

Finally, after four rounds of seeding that capped off five days of practice in total, the 2014 IFMAR 200mm Worlds will move into qualifying on Wednesday morning with a fresh heat sheet of 11 races. The fourth round of seeding practice served more as a shakedown as the racers got into race trim, especially with the announcement that, according to IFMAR rules, the qualifiers would be reduced from ten minutes to five since there are over 100 entries. Only one driver in the top ten improved in the fourth round, and it wasn’t enough to help improve his position.

Teemu Leino’s seeding time from the first round was never matched throughout the rest of the day by anyone but himself, after improving again in round three. Comfortable with the pace of his HB R10, he made no changes in the final round and drove easily, pitting at 5:06 to check fuel mileage and saw he had plenty left in the tank. He’ll make no changes for tomorrow, not even to the painted shell seen here - it was just for photos during the opening ceremony.

“It was pretty good - decent,” said top American JJ Wang of his Mugen Seiki MTX-6, as he was the only driver in the top ten to improve his time even if only by .036 seconds. Wang had his fastest run since the first round, and he had reverted back to that setup “after trying stuff for the last two runs, but it didn’t work out.” Though he acknowledged that five minute runs would be easier on the drivers, he thought his car was better over a full ten minutes. Even still, he is confident that he’s good on run time, saying “Novarossi is the best!"

Fastest seeding times (three consecutive laps) after Round Three