Lia snatches 1:12 Mod TQ at Montech NYGP
It may have taken him a while to find his rhythm, but when it counted most Awesomatix’s Donny Lia delivered the perfect run to secure the overall TQ in the AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class at the Montech NYGP. With multiple NYGP Champion Sam Isaacs going into the provisional pole position with his Q3 run, Lia would become only the second driver to run 57-laps of the 360v2 track bettering Isaacs time over the 8-minutes by 2/10ths of a second. Laying down a new fastest lap of 8.356, Lia would take the fourth & final round ahead of Isaacs, who could not better his previous time, with CRC’s Ollie Payne completing the Top 3. Overall however behind Lia and Isaacs it will be defending Champion Anderson, fastest in Q1 but bettering that time in Q3, who will line up 3rd with Payne 4th and Excelerate’s Josh Cyrul completing the Top 5 grid order for tomorrow single A-Main.
Taking a hugely popular TQ, on his run Lia said, ‘Definitely a good run but it was kind of going soft at the end so I didn’t know if we were going to make it but luckily we had just enough to get it done. We were just creeping up on it all week you know, it’s going to be a tough race in the Main, Sam, Kemp and Ollie are just so good.’ Asked what he found that he was missing earlier in the event, the multiple World Championship finalist said, ‘It was just fine tuning. Tyre combo, adjusting camber, sauce time, sauce amount, so many little things that we were just tuning in. Tweak settings and not even tweaking the car flat, we’re tweaking it a little off set. Just all kinds of things.’ Looking to the final, in which he started and finished P2 behind Anderson, he said, ‘I got to pull some power of the car. I don’t even know what I am doing is helping me power wise. A little less power I might go faster, it’s easy to overdrive so we’ll change the speedo settings. Working with respected 1:12 mechanic Shawn Rayfield for the first time this event, Lia said, ‘I want to thank Shawn, it was nice to TQ pretty much our first race meeting working together. It’s nice to get something done like that.’
Reacting to his final qualifier, Isaacs said, ‘the car wasn’t as good that time, it was pushy and also hard to drive at the same time so exactly what you don’t want. Donny was coming fast so I had to get out of his way and he was on a great run so good for him.’ On his car set-up for the final, the 31-year-old said, ‘I have got to come up with some changes for tomorrow. I think I went too far with the changes after Q3, it was definitely a step back from the third round.’ We are all really close and in Mod 12th scale anyone can make a mistake at any time and anything can happen so just because you TQ it almost doesn’t matter much. I have seen people win from fifth so anything can happen, just hopefully it’s a clean decent race.’ Asked if he preferred to lead out or chase, he replied, ‘I’d rather chase, it’s 8-minutes so it’s a super long race and you can see if you shake it down at the end if something happens.’
With the last round a rough one for Anderson, he explained, ‘I made a mistake and hit the curb coming on to the straight away and did a back flip and messed the body up and then it got caught in the sweeper (resulting in a huge off).’ With very little between the Top 4, asked his thoughts on the final the 23-year-old Awesomatix team driver said, ‘It’s super close and it kind of depends how many cars are in the main. If they do a full 10 car main it will be really hectic so we’ll have to see how traffic works out but I think I have the pace to keep up with Donny and Sam.’
After his tyre issues in the previous qualifiers, on his Q4 performance which would be his fastest run, Payne said, ‘I switch to a different brand of tyre which stayed super consistent throughout the whole run but it meant my car pushed a little bit more but at least know I can work on that and dial a bit more steering in but at least it stay consistent.’ On his Q4 starting position, the European and British Champion making a return to the NYGP this year after last competing at the annual New Rochelle event in 2022, the 26-year-old said, ‘In Modified 12th scale it always open no matter what. As long as you are in the ball park, within a couple of seconds, then anything can happen in the main. I will make some changes tonight and try get back some of my steering and general pace but I am still in it.’ With the final size of the A-Main to be decided, Payne said, ‘If we run it as an 11 car main then it will be a survive the main rather than race the main but it is just 5 or 6 of us then it will be a very very good race.’ Securing the TQ in the Excelerate RC 1:12 Super Stock class ahead of defending Champion Lia, Max Mächler, and Andrew Knapp, Payne said his ‘everything has been pretty much perfect since I got here. I made very little changes, just small minor details. I am very happy with that.’
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