Anderson goes top in qualifying at Montech NYGP
Kemp Anderson has gone to the top of qualifying at the Montech New York Grand Prix, the Awesomatix driver laying down a new fastest time for the AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class this morning in Q2 as he became the first driver to do 54 laps of the 360v2 track. Behind Xray’s Keven Hebert set the second fastest time improving on his time from last night’s opening qualifier but the Canadian still remains third overall. Opening qualifying with a TQ run, Max Mächler struggled with his Awesomatix this morning but still completed the Top 3 ahead of the CRC of Andrew Knapp, the American suffering a late mistakes that meant he also did not improve on his Q1 time.
Asked about his Q2 TQ run, Kemp said, ‘the car was good. I made a side spring change for that run. I think the set-up is still on the conservative side so we’ll go a little more aggressive for the next one.’ Asked how he would make the car more aggressive 2023 World Championship finalist replied, ‘I need to check my battery voltage, I think I need some more power in it and I need to find a lot more overall steering.’ Anderson would also TQ the second round of the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class bettering his time from Q1 with Hebert once again his closest challenger for the top spot.
Reacting to his opening effort on Day 2 of qualifier here in New York, Mächler said, ‘I didn’t get my saucing right. It was really hard to keep it on the lines. I crashed out a few times, the track fells a bit more gripped up than yesterday and it made it too hard to drive for me.’ He explained, ‘I ran the same sauce as yesterday but I didn’t do a practice run this morning to know the track has more grip I should have gone with the track evolution and I went the same as yesterday so basically my mistake.’ Asked if he went with the drag brake adjustment he planned after his Q1 TQ run, he said, ‘I went two clicks, it helped, but the car was so aggressive it was hard to know how good the change was’.
‘No improvement, the car was difficult to drive yet it still pushed so I am going to try find another direction for Q3’, was how Hebert summed up Q2. The reigning ROAR National Champion said, ‘I am probably going to soften the car. Just understanding the car a little bit is what I need so I need to find the direction to go, I haven’t found the right direction yet.’
Knapp summed up his run with, ‘you know my car was a lot better round 2 but I had one little mistake at the end, I hit a curb, so it kind of cost me my run but overall I am within 2/10ths of a second a lap of the rest of the drivers so I think the rest of qualifying should go really good.’ The Michigan added, ‘Yesterday my car was a little bit pushy, I was just working on getting some rotation and today I definitely got it rotating a little bit better. I haven’t run Mod in a couple of months so getting it all back together.’ Ask his plans for Q3, he said, ‘Couple more changes, we are going to make it a little more aggressive, little more rotation ands hopefully should have a good qualifier’.
In the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class it was Donny Lia who laid down a new TQ pace ahead of Q1 pace setter Mächler and Eric Anderson. Organiser of the NYGP, Lia had problems in Q1 and was lucky to make it out in time for Q2, and he put together a TQ run. The reigning Snowbirds Champion explained, ‘My goal that run after my troubles in the first run was just to get a run in so I wouldn’t re-sort down to the lower heat. The fact that I was able to TQ was even better. I was thrashing with scoring issues so I didn’t think I was going to be ready and I just barely made it out there on rerun tires and some other stuff wasn’t really how it should be. I was just trying to get a run in but the car came in pretty well, so that was a win win, I was happy to just make it out there.’ Asked about Q3 he said, ‘I think we can go faster. Tires is the big improvement we can make. These tires were just to get out there. The rears were tires I never ran yesterday but were sauced yesterday, the fronts were reruns that I practiced on yesterday so a hodgepodge of tires so first 3-4minute car was real difficult. The bottom line is just to be ready!’
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