Ongaro fastest as 4WD gets underway in Australia

Defending World Champion Davide Ongaro has set the early pace as the 4WD action gets underway at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Australia.  Having just missed the A-Main cut in 2WD, after two rounds of 4WD free practice it was the Italian who leads the way from 2WD Top Qualifier & Team Associated team-mate Marcus Kaerup.  With the first practice more a sighting run for the drivers on the freshly prepared track, racing now running in the anti-clockwise direction and the jump surfaces reworked for that change, the second round was more indicative of form and it was good to see Xray, after their struggles in 2WD, back in the mix.  Dakotah Phend would post the 3rd fastest time based off 3-consecutive laps with team-mate David Ronnefalk managing 5th fastest.  In between them, Daniel Kobbevik led the Schumacher team as team-mate & newly crowned 2WD World Champion Broc Champlin was brought back down to reality with only the 18th fastest time.  Describing his opening two practice runs as ‘alright’, Champlin said they are ‘still trying to get the car into a better window’.

Summing up his morning Ongaro said, ‘We are working good on set-up right now so we are changing stuff, not big changes, because we know the track from 2WD that it will evolve more.’  The 3-time back to back 1:8 Buggy World Champion continued, ‘We did a few changes and they worked so we will write them down and try something different in the next one.’  A fan of the new Hills RC Off Road track layout he said, ‘I feel like it reminds me of the layout at the Philippine Masters were you go down and there is a left side corner down with a double so I like it.’

‘The track layout is amazing, I love the double triple section and just the rhytym of the track is really fun to drive’, that was Kaerup’s initial impression of the 4WD layout.  On his car the Danish teenager said, ‘the car is fast, not the most comfortable to drive right now but we try to make that happen, but I am pretty happy with the speed.’  On how he expects the track to develop over the day he said, ‘I think it is going to be like 2wD, now it’s kinda damp and soft ground and it is going to be hard and sandpaper like towards the end of the day.’

An upbeat Phend summed up early practuce by saying, ‘A new day, a new start, for sure it’s important to reset and I feel comfortable with 4WD and the track.’  He added, ‘I have a couple of lines I can work on and I think we can mess with the car a little bit but I think we are in the ball park.’  On the new track direction, the reigning North American Champion said, ‘I think it’s fun, I think it’s going to be hectic racing with the triple and that little step up 180 jump at the back, there is definitely going to be some aggressive passes and moves there so it will be interesting come race time.’  Asked if there was anything specific he was looking to do with his car right now, he replied, ‘just get a little more grip, get the car a little more into the track, but the comfort is there.’

Kobbevik felt things started out well saying, ‘A good start I would say, I mean it can still be quite a bit better, but it’s a good start.’  The Norwegian, who qualified P3 in 2WD and just missed out on the podium, added, ‘at the moment we are lacking a bit of rear grip so I am trying to find that as the grip in the track is maybe there, so some small adjustments in the rear and hopefully I will find some more grip because I clearly cannot push as much as I want.’  On the new layout, the 19-year-old described it as ‘good fun’ adding ‘for sure it is better than just keeping the 2WD layout, it’s nice to have a new layout because I get quite easily bored on tracks that have been there for a while.’  Asked the key elements of the track he replied, ‘the triple, the first run was ok but now as the track dries and probably some set-up changes made it a bit hard for me.  So maybe I will change my shock set-up so I land a bit better but it is good fun this direction.  The double on the left side is quite difficult, you need to get it right, like the right speed and the right line.’

Winner of the B-Mail in 2WD two days ago, on his 4WD Ronnefalk said, ‘The times are decent but I’m still not like super happy with the car yet.  I am going to try a couple of different things here throughout practice and see where we end up on set-up but definitely off to better start I would say.  Also the rest of the team is a bit stronger than we were in 2WD starting off the event so it’s positive.’  Describing the 4WD track as having ‘a couple of parts that are a little more tricky’, he added, ‘you’re probably going to see more mistakes coming in the jump sections cause we are landing on top and especially during the day when the track is going to dry out it’s going to be more grippy landing.  In the morning you just slide off that table top but now we are going have the grip so we need to land perfect.  The back section is pretty tough because we are carrying more speed coming onto the U turn in the off camber and then obviously the small double on the left side and off camber after that, these are the tricky parts of the track.’  On his buggy he said, ‘I just want to have a little bit more rear end, it is a little bit loose so I had to drive it a bit too much.’