Batlle tops first controlled practice

As things start to get official at the 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Sicily defending Champion Robert Batlle topped the times for the opening round of controlled practice.  The 10-minute run of which the drivers’ 3-fastest consecutive laps over the final 5-minutes are counted saw the order of the Top 3 from yesterday’s open practice reversed with David Ronnefalk second fastest and Ty Tessmann third.

‘Very good’ was how Batlle summed up his performance in the first of the two controlled practices which will be used to determine the seeding of the heats for qualifying which gets underway tomorrow.  Making quite a big change to the set-up on his Novarossi powered Mugen, the Spaniard said this ‘worked out really well’.  Going for a stiffer suspension package he said while his MBX7R had similar traction to yesterday it was a lot more comfortable to drive making it easier for him to push harder. Continuing on Procircuit’ Hot Dice tyre, for the final practice of this extended event he said they will not make as big a change to the set-up as last night but he expects his team will make some fine adjustment.

Having made a big set-up change for the final open practice and found it improved his Kyosho a lot in certain areas of the track, Ronnefalk ran a combination of two set-ups from yesterday.  The Swede said his Orion powered MP9 ‘feels really good’ with him ‘able to drive it as I want too’.  A really consistent run, him unofficially running the fastest 5-minute time, he said he felt while he had ‘some small mistakes here & there’ he has a slight edge in terms of consistency. Running AKA’s Catapult tyre, he said other than fit a fresh set of tyres he will leave the car the same for his final run.

Setting the outright fastest time of open practice, Tessmann said his first controlled run ‘wasn’t overly good’.  The HB driver ran a set of Pro-Line Suburb tyres in X2 compound but said they were too soft.  Planning to go for a harder compound he will also switch pattern to the Fugitive but in terms of his OS speed powered D812 set-up he will leave it as is.

Setting the fourth fastest time Team Losi Racing’s Dakotah Phend was very upbeat about his run saying they are now ‘sitting pretty good’.  Making changes to the shocks on his Orion powered 8ight, the 17-year-old said the car was a lot better and he was able to ‘run a lot of good clean laps’.  Running Pro-Line’s X2 Suburb tyre, for the next they will possibly make a further change to the shocks.

‘Really happy’, that was the message coming out of the Lee Martin camp, the Mugen driver posting the 5th fastest time.  Rebuilding his Beat powered MBX7R last night in preparation for official proceeding including fitting a new chassis plate and plastics they were very happy with their 5-minute pace with mechanic Jon Dell recording his driver as being second fastest to Ronnefalk.  ‘All set to go’ for qualifying, for the final practice they will leave the car unchanged and switching just to a harder compound tyres having run X2 Suburbs.

Completing the Top 6, Ryan Maifield felt he put together a ‘solid run’ with ‘no mistakes over the 5-minutes’.  Running JConcepts Diamond Bars tyre on his Novarossi powered 8ight, the newly signed factory TLR driver is confident he has a competitive car for long runs, the qualifiers being 10-minutes long. Planning to make some minor adjustments before his next run, he is happy with where his package is at with qualifying now on the horizon.

Setting the 7th fastest time was 2010 Worlds Top Qualifier Jared Tebo.  The Kyosho driver made some small changes for the run allowing him to post his fastest three consecutive laps of the event with team manager Joe Pillars saying his drivers’ speed is coming good at the right time.  For the final practice, the reigning 2WD Buggy World Champion will go for changes that made his Orion powered MP9 just a little more aggressive which he hopes will result in faster lap times.

Behind Tebo it is the other one of America’s fast Ryan’s, with Cavalieri taking is new Team Associated to the 8th fastest time.  Another driver to run a different set-up to yesterday, the multiple 1:10 Offroad World Champion said while overall the changes didn’t feel much better his prototype RC8 was able to corner just a little quicker.  Describing his brakes as being a ‘little notchy’ adding good brakes were ‘really need(ed)’ around the Naxo World track, he said they hoped to sort this by scuffing in them better before the start of the next run.  In terms of set-up he has no plans to make any changes for now. Behind Cavalieri young Italian Mugen driver Davide Ongaro and Xray’s Renaud Savoya completed the top 10.

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