Bayer & Ronnefalk top 1st buggy practice at DHI Cup

Team Xray’s Martin Bayer and new HB signing David Ronnefalk set the buggy pace in the first timed practice at the DHI Cup in Denmark. The fourth year offroad has run at the famous Touring Car event, Bayer topped 4WD from defending champion Joern Neumann while Ronnefalk also topped the German in 2WD.

‘It is just practice but its going pretty good’ was how Bayer summed up his early form.  The Czech driver, who was runner-up last year, said this year’s track was much better in terms of its layout and the change of carpet also made for a lot better traction and he liked how it felt to drive.  In terms of working on his car he said he has just been making small shock adjustments and working on his tyres pins between runs.  Fourth fastest in 2WD, he said while the car feels ok he is ‘missing some speed’ but he hopes to rectify this with some tuning of his shocks and slipper.

Running without a chassis sponsor following Durango’s decision to stop its factory race team at the end of the 2014 season, Neumann said his 4WD was pretty good.  Having started the day with a standard DEX410 for the first timed practice he switched to his World Championship TQ prototype car which he said lands better and for now he will continue with that. Running a Team C chassis in 2WD, he described the car as ‘so so’.  While second fastest, he said out of the corner it had no power with it felt like one tyre is spinning.  For the final practice he will try running a stiffer suspension and also move the shocks more to the outside.

Also running a Team C chassis in 2WD as HB dont have a buggy yet, Ronnefalk said the TM2 ‘is so easy to drive and it suits his aggressive style’.  He said while the quality of the parts are a little weak he said with a 2WD HB buggy in mind he has learned a few things already from running it.  Describing the track layout as ‘super fun to drive’, he said while he ‘drove bad’ in the first timed practice his new D413 is ‘super fast’ although for the last practice they will make some changes to try and make it a little more easy to drive.

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