Mächler takes opening qualifier in New York
Max Mächler has capped off the first day of competitive action at the Montech New York Grand Prix by taking the opening round of AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified qualifying. Third fastest in seeding, the 1:12 Spec World Champion took his Awesomatix to the fastest time around at the 360V2 track ahead of Xray’s Keven Hebert and top seed Kemp Anderson, the German’s advantage at the end of the 8-minute run 2.2-seconds. Owner of the track and the man behind the Montech NYGP, which is now in its sixth edition, Donny Lia would post a P4 run for the round ahead of the CRC of Andrew Knapp and Prodigy of Josh Cyrul. Mächler would complete a TQ double by also taking the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class first round ahead of Steven McNichols.
Admitting the being out front for 8-minutes felt like an eternity, Mächler summed up his 1:12 Mod TQ run with, ‘It was crazy and totally expected’. He continued, ‘Thanks to Kemp for the whole set-up and everything because as you know I normally do Stock and just Modified for fun sometimes so I came here and he gave me the full set-up before and I copy when he sauces his tyres because it is quite different to Stock so I am following his lead and it worked out this run. I think he got his car a bit too edgy this time and mine was easy to drive from my side at least.’ On the run he said, ‘After 6-minutes it felt like OK we could stop now, cause 2 more minutes is hard to manage but it worked out somehow.’ Looking to tomorrow second qualifier he said, ‘I will not change anything, I will try to stick with the same program, just reset and double check everything. There is still room to improve because I have some lap times in between that are like shotgun so I try to get this more consistent. Maybe will do a small change on the speedo and do a bit more drag brake which will help me because the Stock driver always overshot the corners so with a bit more drag brake it should help me to stop a bit earlier. That is the only thing I plan to do, car wise no change’.
Summing up his run the second fastest time Hebert said, ‘I drove a really good race but the car just didn’t have the pace. The car was too hard to drive, I went too soft with the front spring and the car was just not super easy to drive. I just drove the best I could with what I had and it was a good run but just not enough.’ Looking to tomorrow’s second of four qualifiers, the ROAR National Champion said, ‘I will go back to the front stiffer spring and I’ll have to think about other changes to make trying to learn the car a little bit more. It didn’t keep corner speed in the sweepers where I was struggling the most so I need to fix that and think about some other changes to do for the morning.’
Asked about his Q1 effort, Anderson said, ‘the car was good after but the first 15-laps it was hooking in the sweeper and I think it was because the body was ticking.’ Asked if he changed bodyshell he replied, ‘No same body, I went softer springs so maybe the car was rolling more in the sweeper that run than before and it was just hitting on the tyres. After I got sorted out I caught up to Keven but just could get passed him to improve my position.’ Also the Top Seed in the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class, Anderson would maintain his form and TQ the opening round with Hebert again his closest challenger.
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