Anderson is 1:12 Worlds Top Qualifier

After a thrilling final qualifier at the IFMAR 1:12 World Championship in Florida, Awesomatix’ Kemp Anderson is the overall Top Qualifier for the 21st running of the sport’s longest running electric category.  Having kicked off Day 2 of qualifying at Beachline Raceway with a TQ run in Round 4, Anderson would go into the sixth round vying for pole position against racing heavy weights Marc Rheinard and Michal Orlowski.  Top Qualifier at the last World Championship, Orlowski’s quest to repeat that result came to a spectacular end after just one lap as he wheelied his Schumacher, the impact breaking a body hanger.  Now it was just Anderson and defending World Champion Rheinard in the shoot out.  With two TQ runs to his credit, a third TQ run would give Rheinard the top spot.  Anderson on the other hand needed to TQ in a new fastest time.  A small mistake by Rheinard meant the German had to push hard to get back on terms with the rapid Anderson but that would lead to a much bigger crash that ended his challenge.  While rivals were no longer a worry, Anderson knew he was now against the clock needing a new fastest TQ time.  While the pressure was enough for his father and newly elected IFMAR President Eric Anderson to stay in the pits, the rest of the those attending the event lined up around the track.  Despite the intensity of the biggest moment of his racing career, Anderson delivered with a time 2.5-seconds quicker than the previous best set by Orlowski securing a very popular home TQ for the host nation.  With all three drivers having two TQ runs each, overall it will be Orlowski who starts second with Rheinard lining up P3 ahead of Alexander Hagberg with Donny Lia competing the top half of the grid.

Taking his TQ achievement in his stride, his father less so and understandably overcome with emotions, Anderson said, ‘I got lucky Orlowski crashed which meant I didn’t have that pressure.  Then when Marc had his mistake I knew it was up to me to get it done’.  Having struggled with a big drop off in rear end grip in the previous qualifier, the 21-year-old said, ‘after the last one we made a change and it was awesome.  I couldn’t have asked for any better’.  Looking to tomorrow’s triple finals, the reigning ROAR National Champion said, ‘1:12 Mod is always tricky at the start.  I am already happy with my week so we’ll see how it goes’.

‘I just made a wheelie, I don’t know how but I must have touched the kerb.  I was trying to make a clean first lap’, was Orlowski’s summary of his early exit.  Speaking from experience having started from pole in 2020 only to lose out on the title to Rheinard, he continued, ‘Starting second I am still happy because in 1:12 it very hard to lead.  Kemp is fast but so is Marc.  I think Marc and me are in the best positions.  All the pressure is on Kemp’.

Having held the overnight TQ taking 2 of the 3 qualifiers yesterday, Rheinard summed up today as a ‘useless day’.  Crashing out of Q4, having traffic issues in Q5 and then crashing out of the final round, he said, ‘the TQ is better for sure but I think 3rd is a good position.  It’s a different game for the finals.  Everyone is going to do small mistakes, they’re long finals’.  On his crash in the final shootout he said, ‘It was a stupid mistake at a corner it shouldn’t happen.  I was just trying to beat Kemp but after a little moment I then had to push to try come back and crashed, it happens’.

While he got a second for the final round, Hagberg said, ‘It was only because everyone else crashed’.  The 2018 World Champion and reigning 8-time European Champion explained, ‘We made some changes to the car and it was a little worse.  We are trying to figure out why because the changes didn’t do what we expected them to do’.  Asked about the finals, the Swede replied, ‘I finished all the runs today with no crashes.  I’m sure there will be a lot commotion in the finals so I hope to be in a position to pick up the pieces’.

In the 1:12 Spec class, Max Machler made it an Awesomatix double TQ.  Like Modified, the TQ battle came down to the final round with Machler facing up against his team-mate and 1:12 stalwart Mark Stiles.  With Machler opening the day by clocking up his 3rd TQ run, the British driver registered his second TQ in the penultimate round setting the stage for a potential winner takes all battle.  A early mistake put Machler out of contention for the round but now the pressure was on for Stiles to deliver a new fastest time.  While he got close just missing out on matching Machler’s 39-lap run from Q4, Stiles lost out on the tie-breaker and starts 2nd.  Behind the Europeans, Xray driver Robbie Dodge is the top American starting P3 with Raymond Darroch and Eric Anderson making up the front half of the grid that will decide the 2nd ever IFMAR 1:12 Spec World Champion.

View our event image gallery here.