Rivkin surprises to TQ opening qualifier
Spencer Rivkin has taken a surprise TQ in the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the World Championships in China. Seeding 8th in the fastest heat after a disappointing 2WD campaign, the former champion took the first of the 5-scheduled rounds of qualifying from his 2WD World Champion successor Ryan Maifield, the American duo separated by half a second. Behind them, David Ronnefalk would recover from an early mistake to complete the Top 3 ahead of reigning champion Bruno Coelho, Ty Tessmann and Naoto Matsukura. Having topped yesterday’s seeding in Xiamen, Joern Neumann have a costly mistake that cost him 6-seconds as he waited on marshals leaving the German with a P12 for the opening round.
‘I was not expecting that. I didn’t think the car was capable of such a run’, was Rivkin’s reaction to his TQ, the Associated driver more surprised than anyone that he got a TQ run. Having failed to make the A-Main in his 2WD title defence, the just turned 20-year-old continued, ‘we changed something on the car and it paid off so I just drove it. I can definitely drive better for sure. I really didn’t have much confidence going in the heat’. Looking to Q2, having also posted the fastest lap of Q1, he said, ‘we have changed the car every run, now I’m going to leave it and work on my driving. I know I can do better on the steering inputs’.
Summing up his P2, Maifield declared it ‘not bad’ adding, ‘I had just one mistake at the beginning, well, I got a little loose and Naoto collected me’. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I also had some traffic. It wasn’t much of a problem it was more just nerve racking getting passed.’ Suffering another small mistake later in the run he said, ‘I had a bobble near the end, I hit the pipe and had to do a U turn but the car is working really well and I know what & where I am going with line choices so it looking good for the next one’.
‘Considering the start it was a good comeback at the end’, was Ronnefalk’s view of the opening qualifier. The HB Racing driver continued, ‘I also had a car blocking me for the last two minutes. It was Naoto. He was fast one lap and would then slow me down the next one so I could have gone faster if I didn’t have to worry about what he was doing. I said it to the referee after but he said he didn’t see it’. For Q2 the Swede said, ‘I will try to eliminate the mistake at the start and see if can find a way to make the car easy to drive out of the gate. It takes a couple of laps to get going but otherwise I’m happy with the car’.
Almost 3-seconds off Rivkin’s pace, Coelho declared his run as ‘not perfect’ but was happy that they ‘improved the car a lot from CP3 to now’. The Xray driver said he lost 5-seconds with mistakes early on admitting he was ’not very confident for the round’ but with a better set-up he ‘got better over the round’ and he is now more confident in the car and his driving for the next one. Declaring his XB4 as now working ‘good but still not perfect’ he concluded, ‘we are on the right way now so we just need to make small changes to get it better’.
Xray team-mate Tessmann was also happier with his car. The Canadian said, ‘we made a couple more changes after practice for this one and it was better. I made the jump section everytime’. Suffering ‘one marshal and one bobble’ he said, ‘we got the speed and just need to get rid of the crashes now’. Asked if he planned to adjust his car for Q2 he replied, ‘we will see how the track goes. It is very inconsistent so it hard to get around without crashing’.
Matsukura’s view on Q1 was to the point, the Japanese driver saying, ‘the car good, me no good’. The Infinity team driver added, ‘I had many many mistakes so I have to work on my driving, the car I will leave the same’. Behind Matsukura, Kyle McBride would finish get a P7 for the round from the second fastest heat ahead of Dakota Phend, Dustin Evans and Lee Martin.
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