Ronnefalk sets early 4WD pace at World Championships
David Ronnefalk has set the early pace at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in China as the 17th running of the event switches to 4WD. With a day off following the crowning of Ryan Maifield as the 2WD Champion, today’s action sees 4 rounds of free practice followed by two rounds of controlled practice in between which there will be a 2-hour break for the official opening ceremony. Having secured 5th overall in 2WD despite taking the win in A3, Ronnefalk would set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the free practices with the track now running in the opposite, clockwise direction to that used in 2WD. Behind the HB Racing driver, Xray’s Ty Tessmann was second fastest being just over 1/10th of a second slower with Maifield kicking off his 4WD campaign much stronger than 2WD with the third fastest time. TLR’s Dakotah Phend made it four different cars at the top of the times sheets with Bruno Coelho and Renaud Savoya completing the Top 6 with Ryan Cavalieri the fastest Associated driver in 7th.
‘The car is great, we changed quite a lot on the set-up and the pace was really good for the second one’, was Ronnefalk’s reaction to topping the times. The Swede continued, ‘we saw the traction was different to what we expected after watching some of the earlier heats of the first round and made changes. The car was alright but I had too much power and too much brakes. We also changed a bunch of things on the car set-up to suit the track for the second one and now we just need to do some fine tuning’. Asked what he would specifically like to improve on his car, the base for the upcoming D4 18, the 2015 podium finisher said, ‘the car is fast and easy to drive but we will try to get a little more speed out of it without taking away the consistency that’s there’. On the reversed track layout he said, ‘I like it this way, I think its fun’.
Asked how he felt the opening two practices had went, Tessmann said, ‘It’s started off a lot better’, a reference comparing it to his 2WD campaign in which the Canadian just missed the A-Main cut. The US National Champion continued, ‘we made a couple of changes to the shocks and it was better on the landings, there are flat landings everywhere’. Describing his XB4 as ‘easy to drive’ he added, ‘I hope nothing changes with the track like rain or something’. Currently rain is being forecast for Saturday, which is officially Finals day here in Xiamen. For FP3 he will make ‘just small changes but nothing crazy’. On driving the track in the opposition direction to 2WD, he said, ‘the jump section is a lot easier but the rest is not a lot different in terms of the flow’.
‘Started out ok so far’ was Maifield’s summary of early practice. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘we are just making small changes and getting used to the different direction and so far it is going decent’. On the track switch the American said, ‘It feels a little more fun. With the resurfacing I think they did a pretty good job. It’s got more traction compared to the last day of 2WD but its not too much like the start of the 2WD. It a nice medium’. On his YZ-4’s performance he said, ‘the rear end is wishy, washy I guess so we need to get more side support’.
Setting the fourth fast time Phend summed up his morning as going ‘good so far’. Describing the clockwise direction as ‘ok’ he added, ‘It not quite as fun but it works. It pretty hard to make it work both ways, they didn’t change any of the piping’. On his TLR 22-4, the American said, ’It’s working pretty good. We are just making small changes. The set-up we came here with was pretty good and we are just trying to improve on that. It is easy to drive but we are trying to get a little more corner speed in the corners’.
Coelho said his Xray was ‘very good’ but felt he ‘drove just ok’ admitting he made a few mistakes too many over the 5-minute runs. Having set the pace in free practice in 2WD ending up qualifying P5, the reigning 4WD Champion added, ‘I think I prefer the layout the other way. The jumps are even more difficult now but overall I think we have a good car’.
Sixth fastest, Savoya was happy with his start to 4WD proceedings. Feeling he went safe with the set-up, the French driver plans to go for a more aggressive set-up for the next run and also plans to add ‘a little bit more power in the speed control to have more punch out of the corner’. A driver better known for his 1:8 Offroad exploits having been a multiple European Champion and World Championship podium finisher, on the track layout he said, ‘the jumps section is still really tricky as well as middle section too but the rest is really good’.
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