Kaerup takes Q1 ahead of Batta in Australia

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup picked up where he left off in Australia yesterday, the Dane taking the opening round of qualifying today at the IFMAR 1:10 2WD Buggy World Championships.  Topping seeding practice yesterday Kaerup would go head to head with his AE team-mate Davey Batta in the first of the 5 rounds of qualifying at the Hills RC Off Road track.  After a less than perfect start, Batta would come back strong over the heat setting the fastest lap to get within 6/10ths of a second of Kaeup as both drivers found themselves in traffic for the final two minutes of the run.  With Orlowski the biggest challenger to Kaerup yesterday, it was to be his team-mate Daniel Kobbevik who lead the Schumacher charge this morning.  Running in the second fastest heat, which he topped ahead of 2-time World Champion Spencer Rivkin, Kobbevik’s time was good enough for third overall ahead of Orlowski and Japan’s Kouki Kato with Davide Ongaro completing the Top 6 ahead of Rivkin.

Reacting to his TQ run, Kaerup said, ‘It was pretty good, we made some changes to the car from the practice this morning and it paid off, the car was a lot better.  I think we are still lacking some steering but it was good enough to keep up with Batta and we had a great battle for the TQ.’  Asked about the traffic in the second half of the run, 5 cars running in a pack, the 17-year-old said, ‘It was a bit hard because you didn’t want to push too much because you didn’t want to get tangled so it was kind of like a waiting game but it worked out in the end so it was not too bad.’  Regarding Q2 and any changes to his buggy, the 1:8 eBuggy World Champion said, ‘I think I am going to discuss with Andrew and Joona about how to get more steering and then we are going to go forward’.  Asked about the changing track conditions over the day as the sun moves around the tree shelter dirt track, he said, ‘the track changes a lot especially from the first one to now when there is a lot more grip in the track and I think it is going to keep getting more and more with the more rubber we get down so it’s changing every time.’

Asked how his run, Batta explained, ‘I had some bobbles the first couple of laps and then Marcus was behind me.  I didn’t feel I was holding him up too much and then my tyres started coming in a little bit more and I wasn’t holding him up at all so I just kept pushing and ended up getting a little closer there at the end.’   Feeling that with a cleaner run he is right in the mix, the 20-year-old American said, ‘Hopefully the next round I can try keep it clean the first few laps and see how it goes.’  Planning to ‘probably leave it the same’ (his buggy set-up) for Q2, he said while he expects the grip to come up his buggy ‘should still be good.’

‘The best so far’, was how a pleased looking Kobbevik summed up Q1.  The Norwegian continued, ‘ I just tried to drive without mistakes because it’s so close so you can’t afford any mistakes and at the same time your pushing really hard to get the car around the corner and drift a bit and grip up for the straights.  The car was good and no traffic for me except I had one car I was lapping and he was really slow in one corner and didn’t want to let me by, then for the double double he was in front of me and on the second one I cased it, so that was my only mistake really’.  Asked about his car’s performance, the 20-year-old factory Schumacher drivers said, ‘we have been quite close I feel.  I have been losing a bit of grip or losing steering and I have been complaining about the steering all the time, I want more steering, but I guess it is the same for everybody.’

Summing up his opening effort, Orlowski said, ‘It was OK, a few bobbles I guess throughout the run but we need to find a little more speed. With the track changing all the time it’s really hard to find it cause you make a change but the track also changes but it’s a solid start so I’m happy about that.’  Asked if with a clean run he could take the fight to Associated the Pole said, ‘I think a slightly cleaner would be better but probably not TQ, I think we are still missing a little speed but it also depends on the time of the day.  In the morning we are really quick, in the afternoon we are really quick and then in the middle of the day we are missing a bit.  It is definitely a lot better than yesterday and it’s nice to see Daniel went fast so we know the car is good and it’s all down to small details in the set-up and good driving.’

Kaerup tops 2WD seeding at World Champs

Marcus Kaerup has topped seeding at the IFMAR 1:10 2WD Offroad World Championships, the Team Associated ace delivering the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Hills RC Off Road track as Day 1 of the action in Sydney concluded under the lights.  The 40th anniversary of the championships, a very tight timetable consisting of 15-groups per round would see the schedule fall behind resulting in the two seeding rounds being reduced to 4-minute runs.  Fastest at the conclusion of the four 5-minute free practice rounds, Kaerup couldn’t carry that form into the opening seeding round managing only the fourth fastest time as Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski found his form again to go fastest ahead of Team Associated’s Davey Batta and Xray’s Bartek Zalewski.  With it now dark at the track, the very vocal cockatoos finally quietening down and roosted in the surrounding trees for the night, Kaerup would shine under the lights on a much faster track with the newly crowned eBuggy World Champion topping the times by a tenth of a second over Orlowski.  A further 2/10ths of a second back, an impressive Kouki Kato completed the Top 3 ahead of the similar cars of Aydin Horne, Lachlan Donnelly, Davide Ongaro and Batta.  The only driver making the top heat of qualifying with their CP1 time being Zalewski who was best of the Xray drivers on what was a challenging day for the Slovakian manufacturer with their star drivers David Ronnefalk and Dakotah Phend seeding 15th and 49th respectively.

Summing up his pace topping run, Kaerup said, ‘It was really consistent, I found rhythm early on clocking in some fast laps, then I got kind of too excited and I wanted to push even more so I lost my rhythm in the middle of the heat.  I got my head down again and kept it calm for the last minute or so.’  With the attention now turning to 5-minute runs for qualifying, asked about his consistency over a full run the 17-yer-old replied, ‘throughout all the practices I haven’t done a roll yet and didn’t need a marshal so I am feeling pretty good, I can drive this car 5-minutes so I am super excited for tomorrow.’  On driving the last round under lights he said, ‘when I got on the rostrum I was like what the hell because I couldn’t really see what was going on but I focused and my eyes adjusted so it was alright.’

‘It was good to come back to good speed and nice not to top seed the practice’, that was Orlowski’s thoughts on seeding.  The reigning 1:12 Onroad World Champion continued, ‘To be competitive we were trying small things every run and trying to get the car nice & safe, consistent, and fast on the 5-minute pace.’   Asked if they improved the car after the fall off in performance for Round 3 & 4 of free practice or if the track conditions had just come back to them for seeding, the Polish driver replied, ‘I think we found stuff in the set-up compared to what we had in the middle of the day so tomorrow we will see what happens in the morning and early qualifying but we have a good base.’  Asked about driving the final seeding round under the spot lights he said, ‘It’s more difficult than when the sun is out but its definitely better than without them!’

Having ended free practice as the closest challenger to Kaerup over 3-laps, Kato said he left his car set-up unchanged instead focusing on pushing his driving for a strong seeding result.  Adjusting his steering servo settings for the last run of the day, the 19-year-old said this made it ‘more easy to drive’.  On qualifying, the Japanese National Champion said, ‘I’m excited and confident for tomorrow.’

Horne was happy to end his day strong saying it was ‘A pretty good day’ and adding ‘we had our ups & downs and I had a fair share of blow outs as well but we were able to kind of clean it back up at the end working with the team guys and talking to my good friend & team-mate Davey Batta cause he was super fast all day.  We were able to get on the same page there and it showed up in the end so I am pretty pumped.’ Asked what he had been struggling with initially, the 23-year-old explained, ‘the track is a pretty loose surface compared to what we’re more accustomed to and there are definitely some bumps and holes developing along the way so just the stability and overall traction is pretty tough to navigate.  So the more of those two features you can get the easier life is for sure.’  Looking to tomorrow’s qualifying, he said, ‘I think the program is in a good spot so we’ll have to see what the new day brings but I am looking forward to it.’  Asked about his 5-minute form, he replied, ‘I felt good with my consistency, I didn’t really feel like I was too on the edge but you never really know what the race is going to bring.  I’m sure the intensity is going to be high and nerves are going to be up so we are going to try to lock it in for sure.’

A very pleased & relived looking Donnelly after CP2, the Australian said, ‘That was a pretty good end to my day, that was the best position of my whole day.  I started with two sixs and then we kind of got a bit lost in the middle of the day.  We have never kind of seen the track this grippy before, at the warm-up it was a lot slippier and we tried a few things today that didn’t work so we got together with the team and seen what was working for them and we put that on for the last three runs and it was miles better.’  He continued, ‘Front tyre choice is pretty important and I am using a JC tyre, some people are using the Dirt Web and and some people are using the Rips, for me with the Rips it definitely gives smoother steering.  The 21-year-old concluded, ‘It’s good for the confidence going into tomorrow, it was a bit shaky in the middle of the day but now I am pretty happy how the day has ended.’

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Kaerup tops practice in Australia

Practice at the IFMAR 1:10 2WD Offroad World Championships is complete with Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup setting the fastest time in the fourth & final round at the Hills RC Offroad track in Sydney.  With Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski the early benchmark with the fastest time after the opening two rounds, the second half of free practice would see Associated drivers come to the fore as Orlowski struggled with the latest track conditions.  In the third round it was American driver Davey Batta who set the pace ahead of team-mate Kaerup before the Dane switched that order in the final practice with both the fastest 5-minute run and 3-consecutive laps.  2.5-second off, Batta was second fastest with former double World Champion Spencer Rivkin completing the all B7 Top 3.  Over 3-laps Kouki Kato was closest to Kaerup, the Japanese driver’s 5-minute time not representative of his true pace as he missed the first lap because his Associated wasn’t switched on when the cars left pit lane.  A driver on his first ever visit to Australia, French National Champion Clement Boda wrapped up an impressive practice by posting the fastest lap of Round 4 and fourth fastest over his 3 best laps behind team-mate Davide Ongaro.

Reacting to his final free practice run Kaerup said, ‘The last one was very good, we did some changes to the car to get more steering and we tried a different tyre but for some reason it didn’t do what we thought it would do but it was faster.  The run before was also good, really consistent, just wasn’t fast enough but the changes we made definitely made the car faster now.’  Asked what front tyre he tried, Kaerup replied simply with, ‘not a pin tyre’.  Asked what it didn’t do he said, ‘I wanted more steering but I feel like the tyre we tried carried more speed instead of scrubbing but it had the same amount of steering which is pretty weird.’  Planning to make some set-up changes the team have in order to get the tyre to work better, he plans to stick with it for the first seeding round.’  Asked how the track is evolving and holding up, the 17-year-old said, ‘I think it’s pretty good right now, it has grooved up and there is a black line so there is a lot of grip.’

Multiple Japanese 1:10 National Champion Kato, who is normally representing Infinity in 1:8 Buggy but is here representing Team Associated’s Japanese distributor Team AJ, was pleased with his showing in practice on the track he described as ‘beautiful’.  Happy with his 3-lap pace but slightly embarrassed by missing the start of the run because his buggy wasn’t powered on, the newly crowned Asian Buggy Championships Champion said his car was working ‘very nice’.  In terms of front tyres, having started with a pin in Round 1, he switched to Rips from Round 2 and says he is happy to stick with these.’

Reacting to his final two practice runs in which he laid down the 3rd fastest 3-consecutive laps Ongaro said, ‘We were always in the Top 5, Top 6, which is good for me, we just need to find some small things that help me with the power settings.’ He continued, ‘We are testing different front tyres, I was using the bar tyre in the front that one but they are all working pretty much similar so I just need to find the right confidence with one, overall I’m happy and it’s not too bad.’  Asked about the power setting, the Hobbywing sponsored driver said, ‘we are working on the brake feeling, I want more feeling but all is good’, Salton Dong going through the settings for his star Italian driver.  Summing up free practice, the reigning 4WD World Champion said, ‘right now it’s all good and hopefully it will continue or get better but I’m happy.’

Asked how he felt about his performance, recent 1:8 eBuggy World Championship finalist Boda replied, ‘pretty good, pretty good’.  He explained, ‘we tried another set-up in the last one and the car was much better so we need to try change it again to see if it is better or not for tomorrow’s qualifying.  But for now we are happy with the work we make together with Davide (Ongaro) and all the Associated team.  It’s getting better and better so we are happy for our first time in Australia.’  Running JConcepts’ Dirt Webs front tyre in the final free practice, the 20-year-old said he tried a different front tyre each round because he has no reference on how the tyres work on this track adding that France has nothing similar to this but he loves the dirt surface and layout here.  Planning to try another front in the first controlled practice, he feels the track will be most consistent in terms of conditions between the day’s final two evening time controlled practice rounds.

Here for the Pre-Worlds back in April, Batta explaining, ‘my stuff wasn’t that good at that race.  I came back home, knew what the conditions felt like, and I found the track near by me that was most similar and then just lived there for a month, and it seems to be paying dividends.’  Asked how he felt practice had gone, the 20-year-old said, ‘it’s going good now as the car is starting to come around.  I have just been breaking in tyres.’  He continued, ‘I feel like the car is easy to drive but it’s feeling a little pushy right now so I think there is some more speed in it if I just find a little bit of steering and get the car to rotate a little quicker.’  He concluded, ‘The hardest part was finding the grip so now I just gotta get the speed back.’

‘Just getting slower and slower’, that was Orlowski’s reply when asked why he wasn’t in the mix over the final two practice runs.  The Polish driver added, ‘we are trying small things but it looks like the car doesn’t work in the way the track is developing at the minute.  Some cars are going well in the team so we will just talk about the differences of the different cars and hopefully find a good lap time with my car as well.’  Asked if the car feels slower to drive or if their rivals have gotten faster he said, ‘It feels weird to drive, and inconsistent through the corners.’

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Racers settle in in Sydney ahead of 1:10 World Championship action

Officially the opening day of the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships, while there was no track action today in Sydney the pits were busy with drivers completing their registration, gluing tyres and making final preparations to their buggies ahead of tomorrow’s first laps on the new layout at the Hills Off Road RC track.  With the official duties of Day 1 concluding with the opening ceremony, a huge Australian team, which make up over half the entry kicking it off, and the United States, the biggest visiting nation, concluding the presentation of countries, drivers had plenty of talk about after their long journeys Down Under.  In terms of the longest journey time to get to here, this year the 40th anniversary of the first 1:10 Offroad World Championships, that honour goes to Xray’s Bartek Zalewski, the young Polish talent enduring a brutal 61-hour journey!  There were travel dramas for many drivers including 2-time 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin and Schumacher’s Broc Champlin, flooding in Phoenix causing their original flight to be cancelled.  Driving to LA to get a new flight, they finally arrived but without their original baggage.  Luckily carrying their buggies and radios as hand luggage, Rivkin was able to stop at his home to repack tools etc. from his 1:8 gear bags.  Newly crowned 1:8 Electric Buggy World Champion Marcus Kaerup is another without his baggage, which went awol on his stop over in Istanbul.  While a headache for Team Associated team manager Brent Theilke to have two drivers without their bags and some equipment, he said they won’t be stuck for anything while Kaerup joked he had plenty of team-mates he could ‘rob stuff from’.

Talking to the various team representatives, Sworkz a notable absentee of these Worlds, it seems teams have come with new parts more than all new cars.  Team Associated have their new the new 3-gear transmission for the 2WD, providing the new set-up to all the drivers using their buggy here.  Talking to Kaerup he said he hasn’t run the set-up before but he did try it in testing here previously in Lachlan Donnelly’s car and he liked how it felt.  In 4WD, Theilke said their buggy ‘just has some new parts’.  In the Schumacher camp designer Trish Neal said their 2WD has some modified front end parts which they previously ran at the Warm-up race.  Running a new 4WD prototype car then, that has since gone into full production, he said it’s nice to be able to hit the track with that standard car.  Asking Martin Bayer if they had anything new, the man responsible for Xray’s offroad programme, smiled and said ‘of course’ but gave little else details however they are using a different length chassis on the 2WD.  Mugen Seiki, whose efforts here will be led by Burak Kilic, are running their standard 2WD and will run their prototype/close to preproduction 4WD.  Speaking to designer Shin Adachi, he said the buggy is the same as what Kilic raced at the European Championship at the start of August at the Hudy Arena, adding they haven’t had much opportunity to test it since then as the don’t have any tracks like Hills Offroad RC in Japan.  Kyosho, who are here with factory Japanese driver Fuma Saito, have said they are running a pretty standard 2WD but designer Yoshiyuki Chikuba said they have brought a 4WD that features some new design developments, which we suspect are the basis of a new 4WD kit from the iconic Japanese manufacturer. 

Aside from the car manufacturers, Jason Ruona said after attending the warm-up race JConcepts saw some opportunities to rework their 2WD body for better aerodynamics to suit the dirt track conditions here.  With a wider rear end, the body is set to go into full production after the words.  Bringing a painted display example of the new body, that has now become a race body for Kaerup whose race bodies are in his missing baggage.  With the host club doing a great job presenting the track & facility, a huge marquee meaning plenty of space in the pits for all the drivers, the action gets underway in the morning (Tuesday) with the first round of free practice off at 07:30 local time

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