Welcome to my World (Quali Day 1) – Marcus Kaerup
After 8 rounds of practice over 3 days with the emphasis being on 3-laps, the time finally arrived for racing proper to start with 3 rounds of qualifying making up Wednesday’s schedule. Placed in Group 13 of 15 after Tuesday’s seeding, Ruddog Racing’s Marcus Kaerup kicked of the first of the 6 rounds of qualifying with 9th place just behind Dakotah Phend. Bigger mistakes in his second effort however meant he stopped the clock in the 15th fastest time but the 16-year would go on to closing out the day with a 12th for the third round. With his Ruddog RNX22.3 powered Associated RC8B4.1 doing what he wants it to do, the big take away from the day for this Danish talent is the need to tidy up his driving and charge his headset!
‘We started out great with a pretty decent qualifying in the first round, 9th with some mistake so it could have been a lot better. Second qualifying I was pretty confident going into it after the first one but once again a stupid mistake, also on the last lap, so two mistakes and that was pretty annoying with still 15th for the round. In the last one the car felt really good but coming up to the left on the 180 on right side I hit the pipe and rolled over, so a stupid mistake again and I needed to be marshalled’. Asked about his mistakes and if it was from the pressure of the occasion or just his determination to prove a point, he said, ‘it is just over doing it, clipping a pipe or shorting a jump, just basic things that are not supposed to happen’.
Asked about his car he said, ‘I haven’t been doing much to the car really, no changes, I am really just checking screws after each run to make sure they are tight’. On track conditions Marcus said, ‘It has been pretty consistent, for sure the last heat had the most grip of the day’. Looking to Day 2’s qualifying action, three more rounds on the cards around the challenging RC Redovan track, he said, ‘We will probably just change tyre component for the different times of the day but I think the car is good so we don’t need to change it’. Asking his stand in pit man Brent Thielke how his driver was doing, the Team Associated Team Manager said, ‘he needs to remember to charge his headset’. The American having to revert to good old shouting up at his driver as a form of communication for Q3 due to a dead headset.
