Martin gets it done in Q2

Tamiya Racing Factory’s Lee Martin has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the World Championships in Chico, California. Having suffered a problem with his slipper clutch in Q1, leaving him to post the fourth fastest time, the British ace had no such issues in the second 2WD qualifier, posting a new fastest time .9 of a second up on Q1 non-finisher Ryan Maifield and fellow countryman Darren Bloomfield.  For Q1 pace setter Jared Tebo a wrong choice of shock oil left the Kyosho driver to struggle, a mistake ultimately leaving him to finish outside the Top 10.

Martin, who finished 7th overall at the 2011 Worlds, was pleased with his run commenting that he has just ‘got to do it again now in the next one’.  The multiple former European Champion said the track felt a little different from Q1 but still his TRF201 XM felt good and the plan is to leave everything as is and just try to repeat the run in Q3.  Finishing the run with his fastest lap of the 5-minute run he said this was encouraging showing the car is consistent from start to finish.

‘Better’ was how Maifield summed up his run to second having broke his Centro converted B4.2 on the opening lap first time of asking.  With a retirement on the board he said he ‘cruised’ looking to get a solid result from Q2, a driver’s best 3 of 5 rounds determining the grid for finals.  Commenting on his mid motored buggy, Maifield said he would like to find more mid corner steering and to try & achieve this will fit new drive parts for Q3. It was a decent round for Associated who managed to get all three of their star drivers in the Top 5 with current champion Cavalieri posting the 4th fastest time 18/1000 in front of former Champion Neil Cragg.

Having moved the location of his rear shocks which resulted in his TLR22 rolling less in the corners, Bloomfield was pleased with his run to third adding that he plans to stick with that set-up for his next one.  Team-mate Mike Truhe set the 6th fastest time describing it as a ‘clean solid run’.  While his buggy is ‘not a rocket ship’ he said he is happy with the 5-minute pace and the plan for the next one is just to ‘fit new tyres and charge it up’.  ‘Just one bad crash is all it takes’ is how Dustin Evans summed up his run to the 9th fastest time behind his teenage team-mate Dakotah Phend who also suffered ‘one bad crash’.

After his DNF in Q1, HB’s Ty Tessman said he maybe drove a little to cautiously on his way to 7th in Q2.  The Canadian said he wasn’t too comfortable with his Kyosho RB6 which he described as ‘not super fast’ adding it felt loose.

Commenting on his run to the 15th fastest time, Tebo said his shock oil was too light for the hot air temperature of Q2.  Planning to go up 2.5 in oil weight for Q3 he said even with the buggy soft a Top 3 would have been on the cards if he hadn’t have made his mistake in front of the drivers’ rostrum.  One of the worlds most famous offroad racers but still void of a 2WD World title, Tebo wasn’t to be put off by his Q2 run adding everything should be fine for the next run.

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