Neumann top seed for 4WD Qualifying

Joern Neumann is the top seed for qualifying at the 4WD Electric Buggy World Championship in Chico, the Durango driver posting the fastest two consecutive lap times in the first controlled practice with team-mate Ryan Lutz making it a 1-2 for the DEX410.  Such was Neumann’s new found pace the German was a full second faster than Ty Tessman who set the third fastest time.  For reigning champion Ryan Cavalieri it was a disastrous controlled practice as he completed just two laps before breaking a front arm on his Associated.  This left the American 24th fastest.  Although he put in some surprisingly fast Top 10 lap times in free practice with his Xray, the surprise of CP1 was A-Main Hobbies team driver Tyler Vik who ended up 4th quickest ahead of Lee Martin, Ryan Maifield and three time touring car World champion Marc Rheinard.

Having started to feature on the lap charts in the final free practice after motoring down his Orion powered prototype DEX410, said that he drove a lot better and smoother in CP1 and this was contributed to his two blistering laps.  Having used full size rear foams in his front tyres for the full 5-minute run he said this improved the car a little adding that the biggest single improvement over the day came from his motor change.  Happy with how Day 1 of 4WD has worked out and with how his buggy is now working he said he will leave everything as is for tomorrow as the track conditions means that its ‘more about the driving than the car now.’

Better than expected, lets hope we can keep it that way for the rest of the week, was Lutz’s response to his pace in controlled practice.  Having started the day with Durango’s standard production DEX410, he found good form when he switched the the prototype car but in FP8 he managed to break the car.  Bending the aluminum chassis, of which the team only have one per car, he had to revert back to his standard car for the final free practice giving him just 5-minutes to get it dialed in for the controlled run.  Happy with the speed of the standard car Lutz said the key difference is that it doesn’t land as good as the prototype, joking that he can be trusted to break something when there is only one available.

Controlled Practice 1 – Top 10 times
1. Joern Neumann – Durango – 54.434
2. Ryan Lutz – Durango – 54.883
3. Ty Tessman – HB – 55.448
4. Tyler Vik – Xray – 55.452
5. Lee Martin – Tamiya – 55.574
6. Ryan Maifield – Assocaited – 55.716
7. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 55.836
8. Neil Cragg – Associated – 55.895
9. Mike Truhe – TLR – 55.956
10.Kody Numedahl – Associated – 56.021

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