Ronnefalk top seed for qualifying
Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk will be the top seed when qualifying for the 1:8 Offroad World Championships gets underway in Sicily tomorrow. Second fastest in the opening controlled practice, the European Champion upped the pace in the final practice to top the time sheets ahead of Ty Tessmann who also improved on his morning time. Having set the pace in the first of the two practices defending champion Robert Batlle failed to improve but based on a points system over the two rounds rather than outright fastest time he ends the practice classified second overall. Although he set the second fastest time of the day, Tessmann completes the Top 3, the names of which have been very consistent over the last four days of practice at the Naxos World track.
Continuing a Kyosho trend at the World Championships, Elliot Boots the top seed in 2012 and Jared Tebo top seed in 2010, Ronnefalk said despite some traffic issues he was able to put together three good laps and it was nice to be going into qualifying as the top seed. Going up in the diff oils on his Orion powered MP9, the Swede said the change made the car feel more safe with him able to carry more corner speed. Feeling the track had more traction than in the morning run he said while almost everyone was a little faster he was able to run more 36-second laps, posting 4 such laps with his 36.718 the fastest lap of the day. Looking to tomorrow when the first two rounds of qualifying make up the schedule he plans to leave everything as is for Q1 and ‘go from there’.
‘On time not so good but actually not bad’, that was how Batlle summed up his final practice in which he was 9th fastest. The Mugen driver used the track time to test the tyres he expects to use in the final, running a set of Procircuit’s Marathon tyres on his Novarossi powered MBX7R. Suffering ‘a few mistakes’ on the double before the straight, a corner which all drivers are finding challenging, he said in terms of the tyres he was happy with how they ran. ‘Ready for qualifying’, the Spaniard said setting a 10-minute time is a totally different game to the 3-laps which has so far been used to gauge where everyone is at.
Having went with a wrong tyre compound for the opening run, Tessmann said his HB was ‘better this time’. Describing it as a good run and being the only other driver to match Ronnefalk with 36-second laps, the Canadian said he tried to drive it like a qualifier. Happy with the performance of his D812/OS Speed/Pro-Line package he will leave it as is for tomorrow including running the same set of tyres he used in the final practice and ‘just drive it’ with the focus for Q1 being on putting in ‘a clean run’.
Behind Tessmann was Mugen’s Lee Martin. The British driver was third fastest for the round, his improved time moving him ahead of Dakotah Phend for fourth overall. ‘Another solid run’, Martin said the important thing was that his time was again very good over the full timed 5-minutes. Describing ‘everything (as) looking good’ for qualifying he said one area he would need to improve on was his entry & exit of the pit lane. With the entry proving a difficult due to the bar at the top of the ramp he said the high grip surface of the exit made it very twitchy and he needs to find the right balance between being too hasty and over careful.
Top Qualifier in Argentina but having been off the pace for much of qualifying here in Italy, a diff change put Boots right into the picture. Changing to an LSD in the front of his Reds Racing powered MP9 and going up in diff oil the British was able to put together three good laps to claim the fifth fastest time overall. Also improving the car by adding 10-gram wheel weights to the front he is much happier now going into qualifying.
Making a shock absorber change on his TLR 8ight, Phend said together with changing to a harder compound tyre it was ‘not very good’ with the car ‘not very easy to drive’. Unable to improve on his morning time the American teenager dropped two places to sixth overall both in outright time and the final ranking. Set to change back to the set-up he ran previously he said he knows what the car is capable of and everything is good going into qualifying.
Tebo topped off his practice with his fastest run of the event to end up 7th overall. The 2010 Worlds Top Qualifier and podium finisher was pleased to continue to improve the speed and consistency of his Orion powered MP9 recording the 5th fastest 3-laps in CP2. Trying a different tyre for the run, switching to AKA’s Grid Iron, he said they were good but he preferred the Catapult and will go back for the opening qualifier.
Only a tenth slower than his morning time, Tebo’s sparring partner Maifield ended up 8th overall. Admitting he can’t run 36-second laps, the quietly confident looking new Team Losi Racing signing feels he has a really good car for long runs. Saying the three consecutive laps don’t count for much he declared himself to be in good shape once he ‘can keep (his) head on’ adding he has a lot of JConcepts Diamond Bars scrubbed in ready for qualifying.
Changing tyre compound and making a shock set-up adjustment allowed Italian National Champion Alex Zanchettin to end practice in the Top 10. Switching from Pro-Line’s X2 compound Fugitive to X1 along with going up in the front shock oil on his Novarossi powered TLR, the 19-year-old posted the sixth fastest time for the round to claim 9th overall. With more traction and able to carry more corner speed as his 8ight was less edgy he will carry that set-up into the first qualifier targetting a ‘safe run’.
Completing the Top 10 for controlled practice was Drew Moller. The first time the American has travelled outside his home country the 18-year-old said the final run was a combination of his driving and set-up all coming together allowing him to post the seventh fastest time of the second practice. A very different type of layout to what he would be used to racing on he said limiting the droop and lowering the front ride height on his LRP powered MBX7R gave him more corner speed. For the opening qualifier he plans to ‘go with what (he’s) got’ and continue to work on adapting his driving to the track.
View our event image gallery here.
