Anderson opens Day 2 of quali with TQ run
Having knocked on the door yesterday, Awesomatix’ Kemp Anderson finally delivered a TQ run as he opened Day 2 of qualifying at the 1:12 World Championship by topping Q4 ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg. Opening qualifying yesterday at Beachline Raceway with a TQ, Michal Orlowski would be one of two big retirements in the 4th of the 6 scheduled qualifier as the Schumacher driver broke his car a minute into the run. Next to go was overnight TQ holder Marc Rheinard, the Awesomatix driver stripping a spur after riding curbs. This left the battle between Anderson and Hagberg, the Swede closing on the American in the closing stages, the gap just under a second at the end of the 8-minutes. Like Hagberg, getting promoted to the top heat grouping for Day 2, Donny Lia would run his fastest qualifier so far to complete the Top 3 ahead of fellow US racer Stuart Mason.
Laying down a new outright fastest TQ time, Anderson said his ‘car was really good’ but it was a tense run as he had to nurse the car to the finish after an early mistake. The reigning ROAR 1:12 National Champion explained, ‘I had a small mistake at the first chicane and the spur gear was missing half a tooth so I had to drive conservative to finish the run’. The 21-year-old continued, ‘Alex had a good run at the end but I was able to hold on.’ Looking to the penultimate qualifier, he said, ‘I’ll just fit a new spur gear and run the car the same. It is feeling really good now. I just need to do what I just did two more times’.
Having run in the second fastest group heating after a tough start to the event here in Florida, Hagberg summed up Q4 as ‘really good’. The record equalling European Champion said, ‘In the beginning the car was a handful up front and I had to back off the first minute but then it was really good and I was able to close on Kemp’. For Q5 he said, ‘we need to work on the balance for the start and we’ll be right there’. On being reseed into the top heat, having had traffic issues yesterday, he said, ‘It was definitely an advantage as I had no traffic but the big thing was I could pace against the top guys where as before I only had Donny to gauge against’.
Knocking out another P3 run to go with his one from Q2, Lia described his latest performance as ‘good’ but added ‘I just need to find some front grip’. Organiser of the annual MonTech NYGP in New York, he said, ‘I think with more steering I will be able to drive the car not as hard and that should then help me to be more consistent. The thing is finding more front grip without losing rear grip’. A 1:12 specialist, Lia, who was a finalist the last time the World Championship was held in the US, said, ‘Marc and Kemp are both fast and consistent’.
Explaining his first DNF of the event, Orlowski said, ‘We made a change to the car for the morning practice and it was very loose so we came back a bit on the change for the qualifier but it was still too much and we had way too much steering. When I crashed one of the screws on the rear pod sheared and I had to pull off’. Rheinard said the spur gear is quite exposed on the Awesomatix and riding the curbs, as he has been doing, the angle was obviously enough for the contact that stripped the teeth.
In the Spec Class, Max Machler made it 3 from 4. The overnight TQ holder, the Awesomatix driver became the first driver to go 39-laps over the 8-minutes. Behind on 38-laps, Xray driver Robbie Dodge got a second for the round ahead the Awesomatix of Q3 winner Mark Stiles.
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