Anderson top seed at Montech NYGP
Kemp Anderson is the Top Seed at the Montech NYGP, the Awesomatix driver fastest in both Modified 1:12 and Touring Car after the two seeding rounds. The 6th running of the event at 360v2 in New Rochelle, New York, the US driver topped the AbsoluteHobbyz Modified 1:12 class from the Xray of Keven Hebert, the Canadian having set the pace in the first seeding round and unable to improve in SP2. Making a return trip to the NYGP having missed last year’s edition, Max Mächler would complete the Top 3. Based off drivers’ fastest 3-consecutive laps, New Yorker John Themelis would take his Excelerate RC Prodigy 12 to the fourth fastest time ahead of Josh Cyrul, the veteran US racer also at the controls of his newest design project. In the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class it was a similar story with Hebert taking the first round before Anderson upped the pace in the second one, the gap between the two rivals 2/10ths of a second.
Commenting on his 1:12 car’s performance in seeding, Anderson said, ‘It was good, I made a couple of changes for the second seeding round and it was good but I stripped a spur (gear) so I’ll have to replace that.’ He continued, ‘I am still trying to find more steering but overall it feels pretty balanced and not too hard to drive’. Asked about changes for Q1, four rounds of rocket round qualify on the schedule, he said, ‘I’ll change something else and replace the spur and see what we can do.’ On his Touring Car performance he said, ‘I made another change that time to get more steering in the 180s and it helped quite a bit there, the car overall feels pretty good.’ Asked about track consistency between runs, the 22-year-old said, ‘It pretty good. This morning after the track sat overnight it got a little tacky but now it’s back to feeling how it did at the end of the day yesterday.’
Reacting to his seeding performance, Hebert said, ‘It was a good first seeding. I was able to top the run by surprise because I haven’t had much time on the car yet. It was a good start for sure as we only came out with this car 2-weeks ago. I tested a little bit over the summer but I still need to fine-tune the set-up so every run I am trying something new to find what I like.’ Aiming to get a little more rear traction for SP2 as half way through the first run he lost a lot of rear grip, asked if he achieved that he replied, ‘Not quite, car didn’t have enough steering. (The set-up change) wasn’t the right direction so I need to back it down and go back to the set-up I had in Seeding 1 and also make another change to get better steering’. On his touring car, he said, ‘I just needed a little more steering still. I left the car the same as I didn’t have time to change it so now I am going to make some other change for Q1, I am going to make a shock oil change.’
Summing up his seeding attempt Mächler said, ‘It was pretty interesting. It’s big fun out there but hard to manage for a Stock guy but it’s fun with 3.5 turn over here and boost & turbo. I’m enjoying it.’ Asked if he has been doing much to the car in terms of set-up the German replied, ‘Actually no, I had a start set-up from Kemp and it feels pretty decent. I am right there with hot laps but it’s hard to manage consistent laps because it is very easy to overshoot and then you are directly losing 3, 4 tenths. The car is plenty fine, the driver needs more experience and practice’. Opting not to race Touring Car due to the upcoming World Championship, the 1:12 Spec World Champion is also racing in the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class in which he is seeded second fastest behind the similar car of NYGP host Donny Lia. He said, ‘It’s going fine. I am testing something different every run with the car just to get more knowledge with the new car on this carpet.’
View our event image gallery here.
