Orlowski sets early pace at Offroad Worlds

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has set the early pace at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship, the 2WD action getting underway on a lovely sunny morning here in Sydney, Australia.  With the first of the four timed practices more a break in of the new track layout and and opportunity for drivers to get their bearings, over half the track in the shade of the trees, the second practice was a much more telling run.  Orlowski would set the fastest lap with a best of 29.032 with the Team Associated of Davide Ongaro closest to that on a 29.112, that order the same over the best 3-consecutive laps.  On outright pace it was the Xray of David Ronnefalk who completed the Top 3 but over the full 5-minutes the early bragging rights went to newly crowned 1:8 eBuggy World Champion Marcus Kaerup with US drivers Aydin Horne, 1.6-seconds off, and Broc Champlin making up the Top3.

Asked to sum up his start to these World Championships, Orlowski said, ‘the track is really nice, it is a really nice layout for racing and for all levels of driver to enjoy’.  The former European Champion continued, ‘The surface is new but we have been here for the warm-up and we know how drastically the track changes as the day goes and also as the event goes on.  I mean it is going well now but the track will change so much for later in the event.  So we are not changing much and trying to just drive around but it’s nice to see we have good pace but it doesn’t mean anything at this stage.’  Backed by Elceram who just launched their new Generation 2 ESC yesterday evening, Orlowski said, ‘I am running it for the first time and it going really well so far, so I am happy about that.’  In terms of his buggy, he explained, ‘it is pretty much what we ran here at the Warm-up.  We stayed for many days after the race and put a lot of effort in to testing so at the minute we are running this with small tweaks here and there from what we learned through the Summer season racing and testing on dirt.’  With the Raw Speed supplied rear tyre controlled in 2wD, on the open front tyre Orlowski tried JConcepts Ribs for the second practice.  Asked if that was his preferred choice he said, ‘it depends on the car set-up, driving style, and time of the day.  I think once you settle on the tyre it will be your choice for the whole day even when the lap times drastically change.  I just need to settle on one tyre which is now the JC but we are still looking at different options and seeing what’s best.’

The only defending 1:10 World Champion here, the reigning 2WD Champion Tater Sontag not making the trip Down Under, Ongaro summed up his first taste of the track by saying, ‘I have never been here so for sure the team helped me a lot with a good base set-up.  The second run was much better for me but I still need to work on the best line on the left side of the track because it was still a little bit wet.’  Asked about the track, the 1:8 Buggy World Champion replied, ‘the layout is good, lets say it is like an 1:8 track but smaller scale.’  Running the older 3-gear configuration on his Associated, for more weight in the rear, the Italian said for now he just needed to keep building his confidence with the track.  On front tyre choice, he has tried both pins and ribs but with the conditions of each run very different however he said, ‘right now I prefer the rib, it was faster of course because of the track, so I will try the pins again and see which is faster.’

Returning to 1:10 Offroad World Championship action having not raced in Arizona 2-years ago as he only had a 1:8 programme with Mayako, summing up his first laps Ronnefalk said, ‘For sure the outright speed is there but I think the first round I was struggling a little bit.  I found some stuff I forgot to put on the car from the Warm-up like my best (set-up) here so for the second round I adjusted these things on the car.  I found that time around it was a lot better, obviously the track was a lot faster too, but I felt the car was now more similar to what I remember from July when I was here testing.  Definitely have the outright speed just didn’t have time to follow the temperature change because I was changing the car so didn’t go up in shock which I would have needed to do to be able to go at a more consistent pace.  I have the outright speed but wasn’t able to go close to that lap time too many times just because the car was moving around too much due to the shock oil being to soft.’   The reigning European 4WD Champion continued, ‘the track is going to be improving and I think is moving towards what works well for our stuff.’  Trying different front tyre options, he said he still hasn’t decided what to go for but he thinks we might see drivers using different tyre in the morning to when the track dries out.  ‘Obviously a lot of driver were on the ribs that time and I think we are going to see a lot of drivers choosing the ribs for when it is dry and then maybe pin tyres in the morning.’  In terms of his buggy compared to what he ran in pre race testing here, Ronnefalk said, ‘it is not too much different, a couple of small things that we learned we might need when I was here testing.  I came back to Xray and sent them the report and we talked about what stuff we needed to make to improve from our ideas.  There is not many parts at all, just small things here and there.’

‘The track layout is absolutely amazing, a nice flow in it when you hit the lines’ was how Kaerup described the new Hill RC Offroad track layout.’  He continued, ‘The car is really consistent, I think we are just lacking some one lap speed but I am pretty happy with how it is working it.’  Regarding front tyres, the Dane said, ‘we are working on the pin tyre, I know all of the other guys besides me, Donnelly and Jared are on the ribs or something that is not a pin tyre.  It’s just about feeling and I think we are going to get there.  I just think the pin is more consistent through out the run, I just feel it gets to darty with other tyres.  If it is necessary to run the other tyres we are going to do that.’   A previous visitor to the track having raced at the Pre-Worlds, asked about the track characteristics at different times of the day and if they are changing much for this he replied, ‘We are doing some stuff, we have the Donnelly’s and we are doing some great team work, he (Lachlan) is giving us a lot of information on how the track evolves so we have a great idea of what to change so I am sure we will be right there with great team work’.