Orlowski fastest in 4WD practice
Reigning DHI Cup Champion Michal Orlowski set the quickest time in 4WD practice, the Schumacher driver leading the times from Karri Salmela and Jesper Rasmussen. Second fastest behind David Ronnefalk in the earlier 2WD practice, Orlowski would end 4WD with 6/10ths of a second advantage over Salmela while Ronnefalk, the only other driver in the Top 8 to improve his time in the final practice, ended up P4.
Running the same prototype car that he raced at the World Championships but which has undergone a number of parts tweaks, Orlowski said ‘the car felt good from the first practice and given I have not had much running with this car I am happy with the pace’. With Schumacher doubling the weight of its factory team for 2018 with the signing of Joern Neumann, Orlowski highlighted the fact that he has been trying to help Joern Neumann get familiar with the prototype. Asked about the sharing of set-up info, the Pole said, ‘we are running similar set-ups to one another but our driving styles are very different’. Having switched to a thicker roll bar and softer spring he said this ‘worked real good’ and the plan for Q1 tomorrow is to leave it unchanged concluding, ‘I don’t know what more to change because the car already feels good’.
‘Surprisingly good’ was how Salmela summed up setting the second fastest time. The Team Associated driver continued, ‘we finally have a good track in Finland and maybe that is why it so good here’. Having spent two weeks helping with the completion of his home club’s new indoor track he then spent the week ahead of the DHI getting in practice. While also using the EOS carpet which the DHI is using for the first time this year, he said his home track’s carpet is older and has less grip but the higher grip in Odense wasn’t much of a problem so much so ‘I haven’t done anything to the 4WD since getting here’.
Having set the fifth fastest time in 2WD, Rasmussen summed up his P3 pace in 4WD as ‘better than 2WD’. The Dane said having started out with his base set-up on his Associated, it proved too soft. Improving the car by changing to thicker oil, he said that other than that how to cut the pins on the tyres was the only other thing he needed work on adding ‘I think we are on the right way now’.
‘So, so’ was how Ronnefalk summed up his pace, the Swede being over a 1-second off Orlowski on his best 3-consecutive laps. The HB Racing driver continued,’ the car was very difficult to drive in the first few rounds so I tried to adapt the set-up for the track’. Having, like Salmela, used his local track to test for the DHI he also found the grip levels higher in Odense. Describing his car as having ‘got better in the last one’ he concluded, ‘we still need to improve quite a lot to match Orlowski’s pace. The car is nervous to drive and wants to flip easy so we will see what can be done for qualifying’. Behind Ronnefalk fellow countryman Elias Johansson set the fifth fastest time with David Hassel completing the Top 6.
For Neumann, P8 was the best he could manage as his final practice lasted just two laps due to a loose pinion in the car’s prototype drivetrain. Engineer Tristram Neal put his hand up for the German’s lost valuable track time but Neumann said even with the short run the car ‘already felt better’ over the previous runs. He concluded, ‘I am still learning but the car works very good, Michal shows it has the pace’.
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