McBride exploits drying track to head Kyosho 1-2

Kyle McBride exploited a drying track to TQ the fifth round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships, the Australian heading a Kyosho 1-2 from team-mate Elliott Boots. A wet start to the final day of qualifying in Sicily, the round starting with Group 11 to 14 and 1 back through 10, running together in Heat 5, the last of the fast groups, McBride and the 2012 Worlds Top Qualifier took advantage of an ever improving track to put their MP9s top of the times, a much anticipated TQ challenge from Agama’s Jeremy Kortz in Heat 10 on a completely dry track failing to materialise.  With the changing conditions producing a completely unpredictable Top 16, a third for the round sees the ever consistent Lee Martin move into the provisional TQ position counting four rounds with one qualifier left to run.  The man to beat on a dry equal conditions track bagged three TQ runs from the opening three rounds, Ty Tessmann would again suffer badly with the timing of his heat, the rain returning for the start of his Heat 3, leaving the Canadian with only the 23rd fastest time.

A driver who burst onto the scene at the 2010 World Championships finishing 4th in the Main, McBride said while he ‘got a bit lucky’ he felt it was still a good run.  The 18-year-old whose best previous round was 5th in Q1, said he put in a ‘smooth run with no mistakes’ and he was ‘pretty happy’ with how it worked out.  Switching from Pro-Line’s Suburb to Holeshot tyre in X3 compound for the conditions he said they suited the track well allowing him to set the fastest lap of the round. He added, the car was ‘good to drive’ as the reduced traction took away the risk of ‘tipping over’, a problem all drivers have faced in the dry on the highly abrasive track.

Admitting it was a much needed result, Boots said as a stand alone run it was a ‘pretty good’ drive from him.  The 21-year, who like McBride switched to Pro-Line’s Holeshot tyre, said he could have done with going down in diff oils on his Reds Racing powered MP9.  Leaving them the same as he was running in dry conditions they weren’t ideal for the conditions but knowing the track was getting faster he said he just concentrated on cruising around for a clean run.

Switching to his ‘traditional wet set-up’, Martin said while his MBX7R wasn’t perfect for the conditions he felt he drove well to make the most of the conditions.  Suffering one mistake when he took out the Live RC pitlane camera, he said the rest of the run was good.  While conditions are continuing to dry up, but with the treat of future rain, he said they will tweak the set-up they ran and have it ready should it be needed.

A title contender for the last three World Championships taking the win in 2008, Atsushi Hara would benefit hugely from the track conditions to claim the fourth fastest time.  Running in the same heat as McBride and Boots, the S-Workz driver summed up the run by saying ‘Slow man, but not too bad’.  Admitting that compared to the last three Worlds his target for qualifying this time round is low saying his Q5 time was only possible because he didn’t stop for fuel and on the slower track he ‘made less mistakes’.  Having tried to run with no stop in the dry,  fuel mileage from his OS Speed engine having been one of the Japanese ace’s strengths in the past, he said he has been unable to achieve it here, running dry after attempting it in Q3.  Targeting the 1/8 or possibly the 1/4 finals he said he still has faith that his long time & trusted mechanic Masayuki Miura will figure out something for the Mains.

Recording his first Top 10 qualifier, Renaud Savoya was relieved to feature towards the top of the times saying ‘finally’.  The Xray driver said you got to take what you can and he felt he made the most of the conditions for the timing of his heat.  Running in the same heat as Martin, the 3-time European Champion said that switching to a completely soft set-up made his Sweep Battle Star equipped XB8 a totally different race car adding he couldn’t have gone any faster for the conditions.

Serpent’s Mike Truhe, who was Top Qualifier at the 2008 World Championships, completed the Top 6. The American said it was ‘good’ run with the wet track feeling more normal to the style he is used to rather than the ‘nervous onroad style’ it has in the dry.  Changing the diff oils on his TOP powered Cobra 2.0 to what he called ‘normal’ he said this worked well for the conditions. Choosing Pro-Line’s Blockade tyre in M3 compound he said he probably would have been better to have run on a set of Holeshots.

Behind Truhe Italian National Champion Alex Zanchettin took his TLR to the seventh fastest time with World Champion Robert Batlle eight.  Batlle said he was happy to top his heat ahead of French National Champion Jerome Aigoin who he said is a master of such conditions.  Running a wet set-up the Mugen driver said one plus from the run was that he knows they have a good car should such conditions return.

‘Sucks’, that was Tessmann’s reaction to the round, the HB driver having hoped he could have wrapped up the overall TQ early. Finishing his heat second, 2-seconds behind Ryan Maifield, after suffering one spin out on the tile section, he said the track didn’t dry enough for a quick run but in terms of his D812 it felt good and well balanced. Having TQ’d Round 4 yesterday evening, a round that was also effected by rain, Xray’s Martin Bayer could only manage 48th.  The Czech driver said his car had good pace but he had two costly mistakes on the double before the straight without which he feels he would have ran a Top 10 time.

View the complete ranking after 5 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.