Cragg TQs second round of 2WD

Neil Cragg has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the 1:10 2WD Offroad Championships, the Team Associated star becoming the first driver to knock defending champion Jared Tebo from the top of the time sheets in Japan.  While Tebo would have a run full of mistakes leaving the Kyosho driver only 8th fastest, Cragg would drive a faultless 5-minutes to claim the qualifier ahead of Ryan Maifield who made amends for his DNF in Q1.  Showing that his impressive P2 in the opening round was genuine pace Spencer Rivkin would complete the Top 3 despite Tebo’s car landing on his Associated while the teenager was on TQ pace.

Commenting on his TQ run Cragg said, ‘My car was dialled.  It was also in the first one only I had a big ass crash’.  Happy with the TQ, the British driver said, ‘I watched Heat 13  and there was chaos so I knew if I just kept the run clean I’d get a good result’.  The 2005 Champion added, ‘I don’t think I have the outright pace Tebo has but he’s crashing’ and this is something he is hoping will work in his favour.  Describing his modified B5M as ‘really easy to drive’ he said he doesn’t need to change anything for Q3 but just keep the thing on its wheels.

‘I got impatient’, that was Tebo’s reaction to the second qualifier.  Having made a set-up change to his Orion powered RZ6 with the car turning out to be the best its been he wanted to push really hard but ended up over doing it leading to mistakes.  Calling it ‘a wake up call to back off’, he said for Q3 he needs to do nothing to the car but instead ‘change (his) mentality’ and ‘get back to the plan’.

Breaking a ball cup after a ‘slightly weird landing’ after just a lap in Q1, Maifield said he ‘went out to not crash’.  Making a lot of changes to his TLR22 Development car the American said it had more speed than he expected but his focus was still on a safe run.  He said on the astro turf when you get a good set-up it feels like normal offroad but when you don’t its ‘a headache’.  With the car ‘by far the best its been’, Maifield is hoping to build on the performance in Q3.

‘Pretty good, there was a little less pressure after my result from the first one’, was Rivkin’s response to how he felt Q2 went. Describing his Reedy powered B5M as ‘really good’, the emerging Associated star said he had one mistake that cost him the ‘extra lap’. Contesting his first ever World Championships he added ‘I am happy with what I have accomplished’.

Setting the fourth fastest time having retired in Q1, Ryan Cavalieri said it was ‘nice to get a decent run’.  Changing ‘a few things’ after Q1, he said this led to a bobble early on as he adjusted to the improved car. With this allowing former team-mate Maifield passed he said running behind him cost a little time but still it was ‘a solid run’.

Completing the Top 6 behind Naoto Matsukura, the Japanese star laying down the early TQ pace until a number of errors, Elliott Boots was very happy with his improving pace.  Running in the second fastest heat, the European 1:8 Offroad Champion said the  improvement was ‘just me really’.  ‘Still getting into the track and how the car drives on the astro turf’, the Kyosho driver said he is getting faster every round’. Suffering one crash that cost him 3-seconds, he said ‘I don’t have the pace of the Top 2 but (I am) getting there’.  Happy with his set-up, he will leave unchanged for the next one.

View the overall standings after 2 rounds here (PDF).

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