Orlowski again in Q2 from Sobue & Lauter
Michal Orlowski has made it two from two in qualifying at the TITC however with his main rivals in the Top heat having issues it was Axon’s Akio Sobue and Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter from the second fastest heat that completed the Top 3, Sobue being a lot closer than Orlowksi had anticipated. Having opened with a P2 in Q1, Bruno Coelho would crash out as he tried to push the limits trying to go one better the second time of asking. After a great start to qualifying, setting the 3rd fastest time, unfortunately Naoto Matsukura would DNF with an ESC issue. Marc Rheinard would post only the 5th fastest time behind Korean racer Ji-Heon Yoo, who is seeded in the third fastest heat, with the multiple World Champion lost to explain his sudden loss of pace. In Open Brushless it was also a repeat TQ, with Lukas Ellerbrock fastest from Xpress’ Mongkolphan Lomrose, the Top Seed recovering from a poor Q1.
Asked about his run Orlowski said, ‘I didn’t change anything on the car and It was kind of similar to before just a little too easy to drive but this time I started better so I was able to stay in front. I had no clue that our heat was very slow compared the B & C heats, so after Bruno’s crash I kind of took it careful and I was lucky to still TQ because only after the race I realised that Akio was less than a second behind me. It’s very bizarre, because Marc got fifth, Lucas (Urbain) got 8th being third in our heat and I am really curious why. I am happy to get another TQ and now just deciding whether we should try and improve the car for these conditions or just drive it.’
Commenting on his strong run Akio said, ‘The car was more stable. The conditions changed because it is more hot and the sun is higher.’ Marshalling the top heat he continued, ‘I could see in the last heat it was more loose and not so easy and more drop but my car was very very stable, I just needed to be careful not to touch the white line. I think 5-minutes my car is very good because everyone from Q1 to Q2 lost time but my car stay the same. On his plans for Q3, which brings Day 2 of the 22nd edition of TITC to a close, he said, ‘I am waiting to see what the sun does. If same and hot I keep the same set-up but if more cloudy and changes conditions I will try something different with the set-up.’
Reacting his P3, 2024 TITC Open Brushless Champion Lauter said, ‘I am very happy. Yesterday was not a good day to be honest because I somehow lost all the lets call it hot lap pace I had which is important for seeding but today 5-minutes it seems to be very good. I am still not super happy with the first laps, I seem to lose .4 on Akio. We changed the car completely from Q1 to Q2. Now we change completely again and then we have three valid options to decide which one to stick on but for sure there is no point in making the car easier to drive now because I have good points and just going through the runs I will not better my points I think so we need to go a little bit more risky and see what happens.’
