Chassis – Xray x4F’26
Class – FWD by 1up Racing
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro G2
Motor – R1 Wurks V30 25.5T
Battery – Team EAM 42000mAh
Tires – Jaco
Radio/Servo – Futaba 10px / Futaba CT701
Body – PIP Aero E-TCR
Notes –
Andy, who is the owner of Sortafast, is running his brand’s titanium screws, turnbuckles and hybrid ceramic bearing set.
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Awesomatix’s Sam Isaacs is the Top Qualifier of the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class at the 7th annual Montech NYGP. Winner of his latest ROAR Touring Car National title earlier this year at the 360v2 track in New Rochelle, he would secure pole for the track’s blue ribbon event with his time from the 3rd of the 4 rounds of qualifying. While he would lose out on the TQ in 1:12 Mod to Donny Lia in the final qualifier, track conditions for Q4 of Touring Car, the final heat of qualifying, would see no one improve on their times. Isaacs still topped the round 3.5-seconds ahead of NYGP debutant Lucas Urbain and Kemp Anderson, a driver who has attended every running of the Donny Lia organised race. For tomorrow’s A-Main starting grid it will be Anderson who starts second ahead of Urbain with Xray duo Jan Ratheisky, another NYGP first timer, and Drew Ellis completing the Top 5.
Pleased to secure the TQ having missed out in 1:12, on his final effort, the pace 1.5-seconds off his best, Isaacs said, ‘I think the track was a little bit off so I couldn’t match the Q3 times but a clean run none the less.’ Still happy with how his car worked on the slower track, asked if he would do anything different for the Main, the 31-year-old said, ‘I think I will mostly leave the car and just try to have a clean run. It should be a good race, it’s been a great event.’
Summing up qualifying, Anderson said, ‘The car feels ok I just made another mistake in the last one. Since the AC was off and it was so hot in here we knew no one was going to go faster so the last round was kind of a throw away. Asked about the final, the Tennessee finishing second to Xray’s Keven Herbert in last year’s Touring Car final, he said, ‘The car is easy to drive and I think it’s a pretty good race car so I’ll probably just leave it. I think the pace is ok.’ On racing and opportunities to make a pace he said, ‘Anything can happen but it will probably be pretty hard with the curbs and there is no where to tap out so it will be a little harder.’
Describing his first experience of a US carpet race as ‘unfinished business’ ask how qualifying rounded out for him, Urbain said, ‘For Q3 I kinda copied Sam’s set-up but it barely made any difference if I am honest same problem. For Q4 I made a radical change. I lost a wheel on the warm-up, prime time in front of everyone, go me, but the change felt better but the gap is still big 3, 4 seconds ish I am not even sure. It was slighty better but still not up there so maybe I go further in that direction. There is some more practice possible tonight or in the morning to figure it out and we’ll go from there in the main.’ Asked if he was battling for the final step on the podium the French National Champion said, ‘pretty much unless they tangle up front which can happen but other than that I have to settle for third because I can’t challenge on pure pace. It’s lacking grip and mostly steering. I want to understeer in slow speed and doesn’t rotate I have to go full lock everywhere, I can’t really let the car move around or dance. I cannot throttle it hard enough.’
Debuting Xray’s new X4’26 here this weekend and putting its durability to the test with a big off in the sweeper that ended his final qualifying attempt, Ratheisky said, ‘The track was very greasy and then I got charged from my team-mate Drew (Ellis) who seemed to have good traction so I tried to pull away but I hit the sweeper because I took a little bit to much risk and crashed unfortunately’. On his P4 on the grid, the German who also lines up P3 in the Jaco 21.5 Super Stock Touring Class, said, ‘Everyone wants to finish higher but actually I am OK with 4th, I am still testing with the new car on this car but I think I can go in attacking mode in the final. With traffic in his final two laps of Super Stock qualifying denying him the TQ, the former European Champion still topping the round but 0.17 of a second off Craig Xavier TQ time, he said his ‘car is great’ and he is confident for the Main.
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Chassis – Excelerate Prodigy 12
Class – 1:12 Super Stock by Excelerate RC
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro 1S HD
Motor – R1 Wurks V30 13.5T
Battery – Excelerate Ion 8500mAh
Tires – Excelerate
Radio/Servo – FlySky Noble Pro+ / MKS HV50
Body – Excelerate Mach-S
Notes –
As the designer of Prodigy 12 Josh said he is running ‘little trinkets’ on the care here at the NYGP such as new bushing and new camber pieces.
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It may have taken him a while to find his rhythm, but when it counted most Awesomatix’s Donny Lia delivered the perfect run to secure the overall TQ in the AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class at the Montech NYGP. With multiple NYGP Champion Sam Isaacs going into the provisional pole position with his Q3 run, Lia would become only the second driver to run 57-laps of the 360v2 track bettering Isaacs time over the 8-minutes by 2/10ths of a second. Laying down a new fastest lap of 8.356, Lia would take the fourth & final round ahead of Isaacs, who could not better his previous time, with CRC’s Ollie Payne completing the Top 3. Overall however behind Lia and Isaacs it will be defending Champion Anderson, fastest in Q1 but bettering that time in Q3, who will line up 3rd with Payne 4th and Excelerate’s Josh Cyrul completing the Top 5 grid order for tomorrow single A-Main.
Taking a hugely popular TQ, on his run Lia said, ‘Definitely a good run but it was kind of going soft at the end so I didn’t know if we were going to make it but luckily we had just enough to get it done. We were just creeping up on it all week you know, it’s going to be a tough race in the Main, Sam, Kemp and Ollie are just so good.’ Asked what he found that he was missing earlier in the event, the multiple World Championship finalist said, ‘It was just fine tuning. Tyre combo, adjusting camber, sauce time, sauce amount, so many little things that we were just tuning in. Tweak settings and not even tweaking the car flat, we’re tweaking it a little off set. Just all kinds of things.’ Looking to the final, in which he started and finished P2 behind Anderson, he said, ‘I got to pull some power of the car. I don’t even know what I am doing is helping me power wise. A little less power I might go faster, it’s easy to overdrive so we’ll change the speedo settings. Working with respected 1:12 mechanic Shawn Rayfield for the first time this event, Lia said, ‘I want to thank Shawn, it was nice to TQ pretty much our first race meeting working together. It’s nice to get something done like that.’
Reacting to his final qualifier, Isaacs said, ‘the car wasn’t as good that time, it was pushy and also hard to drive at the same time so exactly what you don’t want. Donny was coming fast so I had to get out of his way and he was on a great run so good for him.’ On his car set-up for the final, the 31-year-old said, ‘I have got to come up with some changes for tomorrow. I think I went too far with the changes after Q3, it was definitely a step back from the third round.’ We are all really close and in Mod 12th scale anyone can make a mistake at any time and anything can happen so just because you TQ it almost doesn’t matter much. I have seen people win from fifth so anything can happen, just hopefully it’s a clean decent race.’ Asked if he preferred to lead out or chase, he replied, ‘I’d rather chase, it’s 8-minutes so it’s a super long race and you can see if you shake it down at the end if something happens.’
With the last round a rough one for Anderson, he explained, ‘I made a mistake and hit the curb coming on to the straight away and did a back flip and messed the body up and then it got caught in the sweeper (resulting in a huge off).’ With very little between the Top 4, asked his thoughts on the final the 23-year-old Awesomatix team driver said, ‘It’s super close and it kind of depends how many cars are in the main. If they do a full 10 car main it will be really hectic so we’ll have to see how traffic works out but I think I have the pace to keep up with Donny and Sam.’
After his tyre issues in the previous qualifiers, on his Q4 performance which would be his fastest run, Payne said, ‘I switch to a different brand of tyre which stayed super consistent throughout the whole run but it meant my car pushed a little bit more but at least know I can work on that and dial a bit more steering in but at least it stay consistent.’ On his Q4 starting position, the European and British Champion making a return to the NYGP this year after last competing at the annual New Rochelle event in 2022, the 26-year-old said, ‘In Modified 12th scale it always open no matter what. As long as you are in the ball park, within a couple of seconds, then anything can happen in the main. I will make some changes tonight and try get back some of my steering and general pace but I am still in it.’ With the final size of the A-Main to be decided, Payne said, ‘If we run it as an 11 car main then it will be a survive the main rather than race the main but it is just 5 or 6 of us then it will be a very very good race.’ Securing the TQ in the Excelerate RC 1:12 Super Stock class ahead of defending Champion Lia, Max Mächler, and Andrew Knapp, Payne said his ‘everything has been pretty much perfect since I got here. I made very little changes, just small minor details. I am very happy with that.’
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Chassis – Xray x4’26
Class – Modified Touring by Speedzone
ESC – Hobbywing XR10Pro G3X
Motor – Motiv MC5 5.0
Battery – Motiv 4800mAh
Tires – Jaco (handout)
Radio/Servo – KO Propo EX Next/ KO Grasper II
Body – Xtreme Twister
Notes –
Drew new X4’26 is built using a titanium screw set from Sortafast and he has opted for Xray’s optional 1.6mm top deck.
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Sam Isaacs has moved into the TQ position of the AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class at the Montech NYGP, the Awesomatix driver setting down a new fastest time in the third & penultimate round of qualifying. Having come close to bettering Kemp Anderson’s Q1 time in the second of yesterday’s qualifier, Isaacs became the first driver to run 58 laps of the 360v2 track as he took a hard fought Q3 from a much improved Donny Lia and Anderson, all three bettering their previous times and the only drivers to finish the top heat. On target for a new TQ pace CRC’s Ollie Payne would again have tyre issues with the British driver deciding to pull off early. Currently P4 with his Q2 time, he plans to switch tyre brand for the final qualifier. 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Mächler would retire after his motor came loose in his Awesomatix.
Visually pleased with his TQ run, Isaacs said, ‘That was a good run, just clean. I didn’t think my car was perfect but it is very consistent and stays the same for the whole run and I was able to put it all together that time.’ Looking to the final qualifier, the NYGP running FTQ format, the reigning US Champion said, ‘I will probably try to add some steering to it without trying to make it too hard to drive. It’s a tough line between having a drivable car that makes it around corners and one that spins out, so it’s a fine line but I’ll probably make some changes.’
After if he got the good night sleep he said he needed yesterday, Lia replied, ‘I’m a totally different driver today’. The man responsible for the NYGP, this the seventh edition of the race, he said, ‘We probably had something for TQ there but we started losing grip about half way through and I was kind of hanging on for the last 4-minutes and just trying to nurse it home. We just need to make a couple of small tweaks, we have a problem that is only on right hand turns so it’s just a matter of figuring that out. We might be a little heavy on camber on one side or something, literally it will be tiny adjustments to keep the car good for 8-minutes.’
Dropping from holding the overnight provisional TQ to 3rd despite going faster in the first of today’s two qualifiers, asked about his Q3, Anderson said, ‘The car was pretty good, real easy to drive but just a little pushy. Probably going to add some steering in it for Q4 and see if we can go any faster.’ On his own driving the 23-year-old World Championship Top Qualifier said, ‘I had a couple of bad laps. I got on the curbs a couple of times and got a little squirrely.’
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