Pressure from Lia sees Anderson up pace in Q3
An impressive performance from Donny Lia in the penultimate round of qualifying at the Montech New York Grand would force Kemp Anderson to up the pace in Q3 to hold on to the top spot in the event’s AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class with another new fastest time in rocket round qualifying format. A non-starter in the second round of qualifying as he switches between racer and event organiser, Lia, boosted by his 1:12 Stock TQ run in Q2, would lay down a very strong run until a mistake was enough to put Anderson back on top of the timing screens, the pair separated by 0.328 of a second at the end of the 8-minutes. The only driver to manage 54-laps in Q2, he would better that time by almost 4.5-seconds with Lia becoming only the second driver to 54 laps of the 360v2 track. Behind, Josh Cyrul would take his Prodigy 12 to the third fastest time ahead Keven Hebert and Friday’s Q1 pace setter Max Mächler, the later two having difficult runs.
It was pretty good, I knew Donny was going to be really fast that run so I pushed from the very first lap. I had one mistake towards the end in the sweeper, I got a little bit loose but other than that it was a pretty clean run. I think he was faster throughout the whole run but he had two mistakes and I had one, that’s what pretty much decided it. My car started off really good but I had to drive super super hard at the end to stay ahead.’ Asked if the pressure is now on for the fourth & final qualifier, the 22-year-old said, ‘If he’s got a good car for the next it’s going to be hard again.’ Having added more power to his car for Q3 and made a ride height change, asked if he would make further changes for Q4 he said, ‘We’ll probably just add more power again.’
Putting on the sixth running of the Montech NYGP at his 360v2 track, summing up his Q3 performance Lia said, ‘The car was good but I definitely need to get it a little more comfortable especially in the sweeper, it was getting at little out of shape there so kind of hand to nurse it through there and lost my rhythm a little bit and made one little bobble. That was like my first kind of real run in Mod so definitely a good base line to go off of and we’ll try to get a good run here in round 4.’ Winner of the legendary Snowbirds Race in 1:12 Mod earlier this year, asked what set-up changes he would make for the qualifying showdown he said, ‘I don’t know I’ve got to think about it. Probably something in the back of the car, dampening maybe, go to a heavier dampening in the rear, something along those lines. Just got to tune it in, it was really like the first run, so with a few changes we can get try to get a little bit better’.
With his Top 3 time in Q3 putting him provisionally P5 overall, asked about his run Cyrul replied, ‘We are making a little bit of progress, it has been 7-years since I actually raced 1:12 Modified and it’s kind of like strapping on some ice-skates and going down a bobsleigh run for the first time ever. Man they have gotten really fast, last time I ran they were in blinky so they are really really fast and I am just trying to get used to it and comfortable’. Asked about his new Prodigy 12 chassis he said, ‘I think the grip has come up today, yesterday I thought the car was actually pretty good I just didn’t put in a good clean run. Today I have way too much steering and I am too old to hang on to that. At least I got a decent run in that one and now we’ll try to mellow it out and make it easier for racing tomorrow’.
Second fastest in each of the opening qualifiers, Hebert’s reaction to the penultimate round summed up his frustration, ‘Not pleasant to drive, that’s about it.’ He continued, ‘We need to keep digging. I have a second car so I might try that but we need to go with a completely different set-up.’ While his 1:12 run wasn’t good, the Canadian would finally hit the top spot in the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class as he lead home Q1 & 2 pace setter Anderson to lock in the new TQ time.
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