Coelho tops practice in Xiamen
On the completion of free practice at the 2WD World Championships in Xiamen it is Bruno Coelho who appears to have the early advantage, the Xray driver heading a European trio at the top of the time sheets. Having set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the four practice rounds, the reigning 4WD Champion showed his pace was genuine when he topped the final practice with an identical time with a 1:15.929 compared to his FP2 time of 1:15.911. Having not really featured in early practice, sitting P17 after two runs, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would go fastest in FP3 with his 1:16.002 time leaving him second fastest overall. Also finding a big improvement in FP3 was David Ronnefalk with his time good enough for 3rd overall, the HB Racing driver the only one to match Coelho with a 24-second lap of the challenging track. The fastest driver counting his time from the final practice, Kyosho’s Kohta Akimoto would end P4 with Ryan Mayfield the best of the offroad power house that is North America in 5th followed by Ty Tessmann.
‘Everything is OK’ was the calm reaction of Coelho to topping practice. Despite his pace he added, ‘we are still trying to improve the car and make it more easy to drive because making the least amount of mistakes over 5-minutes is going to be the most important thing on this track’. Agreeing the track has contrasting left and right layouts, he said, ‘the right side is more onroad and I really like this and it is here I am making most of the time’. On the left side he said, ‘I was just saying to Martin (Bayer) that every time you enter the doubles section it is like it is your first time driving through there. There are so many bumps it makes it unpredictable. It a very very hard section and everyone is making mistakes even the true offroad drivers. Qualifying is going to be very hard’.
Orlowski summed up his performance as ‘pretty good’. The Polish driver continued, ‘we changed almost nothing in the set-up and instead I tried to learn the track limits. Now I am feeling more comfortable with the car and electronics’. Asked about the track layout, the EOS Champion said, ‘you have a big jump section on the left side and then the right side is like touring car. Get the jumps right its good but if not its annoying because of the marshals’. With organisers having supplied marshals, their slow response to stranded cars has been frustrating many drivers so much so that drivers have asked to marshal and so for controlled practice the drivers with take over marshalling duties. In terms of his car, Orlowski said for the final practice he tried ‘a bigger’ LRP battery but this left the car ‘less responsive’ so he will go back the smaller pack for CP1 feeling with this in the car it also jumped better’.
‘I’m up there and the car feels good’, was Ronnefalk’s feeling on his free practice performance. Going into the final practice on second run tyres, having only had three sets for the four runs, he said the tyres were ‘almost bald going out’ but still he could feel set-up changes had improved the car with it having ‘good speed out of the gate’. Having to stop when he hit the track piping requiring the steering link to be put back on, he said he then felt his car was down on power but afterwards found out it was drops of rain on the track and not electrics related. Describing the track as ‘hard’, the 1:8 Offroad World Champion concluded, ‘I just need to keep the car on its wheels’.
The only Kyosho in the Top 10 with Jared Tebo ending up P16, Akimoto described his FP4 pace as ‘very good’. The Japanese driver said, ‘In Rounds 2 and 3 I made many changes but ended up going back to my original home set-up for Round 4. Running the match of the handout rear Sweep tyre on the front of his car for CP4 he said he feels he has now also found the right front tyres for the track’. Describing the track as ‘difficult’ he plans to leave his car unchanged for the first of the 2 controlled practices that will determine the line-up for qualifying which gets underway in the morning. He concluded, ‘I hope I can run consistent for 5-minutes’.
While having improved considerably on the P27 he found himself after FP2, Maifield clearly wasn’t happy with the event. Making his first World Championship appearance as a Yokomo driver, he said , ‘this track is not a race track. Why do they bring us to these countries and make us run on a shit tyres. I have never seen a track more impossible to drive’.
Completing the Top 6, Tessmann said, “it could have went smoother, I’ve had a lot of mistakes’. Making his Worlds debut as an Xray driver, he continued, ‘We are still trying to figure out the set-up. Mine is different to Bruno’s because of our different driving styles but we’ll get there’. Describing his 3-consecutive lap pace as ’surprising’, the reigning US National Champion said, ‘everyone is struggling a little, it is a difficult track’. Behind the Canadian, Jorn Neumann improve in FP3 to end up 7th fastest followed by Dakotah Phend, Ryan Cavalieri and Renaud Savoya while reigning champion Spencer Rivkin could only manage 11th.
View our event image gallery here.
