Ongaro continues to set pace in Vegas to top first seeding round
Davide Ongaro continues to set the pace in practice at the 1:8 World Championships in Las Vegas, the talented young Italian opening Day 3 of the event by topping the first of the seeding rounds of practice. Having shot to the top of the time sheets in yesterday evening’s third round of practice, Ongaro proved that time was on merit as he again topped the times from Elliott Boots, the separation 6/10ths of a second. Behind them US National Champion Spencer Rivkin found a big improvement when it counted as he managed to get inside the Top 20 for the first time with 3rd for the round ahead of Round 1 pace setter Jared Tebo. For reigning World Champion Ty Tessmann a part failure at the start of the 10-minute run would result in the HB Racing driver ending up only with the 21st fastest 3-consecutive laps.
‘Amazing like this’ was Ongaro’s reaction to again topping the times sheets. Backing up his impressive improvement in yesterday’s third round of practice, he ran his LRP powered MBX7R unchanged with just a fresh set of the same Procircuit Claymore tyres he ran throughout yesterday. Asked about today’s track conditions, the 15-year-old said, ‘it is a lot bumpier than yesterday and it took the track longer to dry because of the temperature’ With the extra bumps in mind, he plans to change to a wider rear end to make the car more stable and get better traction, his overall goal to make the car ‘safer to drive’.
For Elliott Boots reverting back to a lower roll centre left the European Champion more happy with his Red Racing powered MP9. His mechanic Mike Cradock, made the change after seeing his driver struggle with the right side of the track in P3 yesterday evening. With the car now more aggressive to drive, a style Cradock says his driver prefers, he said the big benefit is that he can now get the car where he wants it which is important for negotiating the bumps and ruts that are appearing more and more each round. For the final practice Cradock said ‘we might leave the car the same but try a different tyre. It still very dusty for a Holeshot tyre’ adding the ‘track is so changeable, it has good grip and then completely changes with the dust’.
‘The car & I are getting better’ was how Rivkin summed up his latest practice. Running early in the round in Heat 4 of 18, he felt his pace was helped by track conditions, him saying, ‘I think the track is a little better for the first few races (of the round)’. The 1:10 2WD World Champion also thinks there is better to come saying, ‘I thought I could have drove better’. Running JConcepts Triple Dees on his MX powered RC8, he plans to ‘make a few changes (for the final practice) and see how they stack up’. Asked what he was looking for from the set-up changes he replied, ‘I want to get it a little easier to driver so I can run an overall Top 10 run and not just 3-laps’.
Setting the second fastest lap behind Ongaro, Tebo said, ‘the speed is there but the rear is not comfortable’. The former Electric Offroad Word Champion said, ‘the car was just super loose, I had not traction at all’. Planning a rear set-up change with different suspension arms for final practice, the American said with this change he’ll ‘be right there for the last one’.
Posting the 5th time, Round 2 Practice pace setter Ryan Cavalieri said his first seeding run ‘went alright’. The Associated driver said his ‘oils were a little thick for the temperatures and it didn’t get good til the end’. Expecting the temperatures to remain low he will ‘drop the oil for the next one’.
Completing the Top 6 for the round, Team Associated’s Steven Hartson said, ‘It didn’t feel that good but I guess I got a few good laps together’. The 2013 1:10 4WD World Champion continued, ‘the car feels good but I just need to work on a good full run rather than 3-laps’, him feeling there is a lot to be gained from him improving how he is driving his RC8. Having made ‘a lot of changes yesterday (to his car set-up)’ he said he is ‘now almost back to the set-up he started out with’ and for now the only changes he will try will be tyre compounds. Running JConcepts Reflex in blue compound he had planned to try the harder red version but with the temperature today ‘so cold’ he wouldn’t have been able to test them so he again ran with the blue compound.
It was to be rough start to seeding for Tessmann. Just as his heat started the Canadian suffered a C-hub failure on the step down saying ‘it wasn’t a hard landing’. With his team-mates running to get a replacement for a running repair so as he could complete some laps and register 3-laps, he adding ‘it wasn’t the same part and had a different setting so the car didn’t feel great’. Describing the car as having ‘felt really good on the first lap’, he is confident they should be good for a competitive 3-laps in the final practice.
With today the first time the ‘Race In’ competitors got World Championship track time, bringing the total number of heats up to 18, it was Mike Truhe who would be quickest of them putting his Mugen into the Top 10 with the 9th fastest time. For ‘Race In’ winner Lee Martin it wasn’t a good run as he managed only the 62nd quickest time.
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