Ongaro comes good in Q3, Ronnefalk holds overnight TQ

Defending World Champion Davide Ongaro has concluded the first day of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship in Texas with his first TQ run, but it is Xray’s David Ronnefalk who holds the overnight TQ at the Thornhill Racing Circuit.  After topping seeding yesterday, Ongaro would not have the best of starts to qualifying as he managed only P5 while Ronnefalk topped Q1.  Worse was to come in Q2 as Ongaro posted the 8th fastest time.  With the frustration starting to show on the Italian’s face, while Sworkz’s Mason Fuller impressed with the Q2 TQ, the Ongaro smile would return in Q3 as the Team Associated driver just managed to pip the Xray of an impressive Chase Lemieux to the top of the timing sheets.  Lemieux has put in a strong day posting a P4 on his first attempt which he duly backed up with a P3 in the second one before closing out the day with a very competitive 2nd fastest time.  Overall it was a good end to the day for Team Associated with Spencer Rivkin putting together a P3, the leading drivers breaking 17-laps for the first time.  For Fuller, new tyres left him struggling a little in Round 3 and he ended the day by adding a P4 to his TQ & P3 while Tekno’s Ryan Maifield, who surprised with the 2nd fastest time in Q2, completed the Top 5 ahead of Ronnefalk.  The Swede felt he had a really fast car in Q3 but admitted he got carried away and this led to a number of mistakes that put him sixth for the round.  Elsewhere having looked to have found his way in Q2, America’s pre-event title favourite Dakotah Phend, like he did in Q1, ran out of fuel.  European Champion Juan Carlos Canas had been on a strong final run but the Spaniard had a costly last lap his Sworkz getting hooked up on one of the track’s roof support posts leaving him with a P9.

Putting it to Ongaro, ‘the smile is back’, the 25-year-old responded, ‘Yeah I mean I wasn’t happy before, not about my consistency but my package overall was a little bit not comfortable.  Now we changed a few things and maybe the rain helped a little bit with our tyres but I think we are now going on the right way.’  Asked what was the biggest thing they discovered to improve the car for Q3, he said, ‘we improve a lot with the car because before when I was going into the corner it was like locking, not going around like I like, but now I can do the corner more easy like my driving style.’

‘Really good’ was how Lemieux summed up his run that was just 0.173 off Ongaro’s TQ and fastest time of the day.  The son of former top international touring car racer Paul, the 20-year-old explained, ‘I didn’t make any mistakes and it was another 99 consistency run which I am trying to do every time.’  He continued, ‘Ongaro was very very fast that time and just got me by a tenth but we are heading the right direction and I feel very very comfortable with my car, the track, and tyres.  I am very confident for tomorrow, I feel good.’   On any car changes for Day 2 of quali, the current ROAR 1:10 National Buggy Champion said, ‘In the morning it is always very difficult to know what to do.  It’s like you need two or three different cars for each track condition.  In the morning it is super dusty and loose, and then you run different compound tyres or thread as in the middle of the day its pretty grippy, and at the end of the day it is very hooked up.  It’s hard to say what we are going to do for tomorrow but we’ll see when we get there.’

Reacting to his Top 3 run, Rivkin said, ‘Definitely finding some speed and consistency out there, I am definitely a slow learner and building confidence & pace into the car and comfortability is huge.  Big props to My who crew that’s helping me, Brent (Thielke) and dad.  It’s definitely a grind to say the least.’  The Arizona driver added, ‘We have a lot of team-mates here that are being very helpful.’  Asked what he had been lack from the outset, the 2 time 1:10 2WD Buggy World Champion said, ‘for sure just confidence and the car being edgy and hard to drive, but now it is being more one to one and feeling more in the track.  I just feel I wasn’t in the track and now I am more in that window of feeling where the car is going and how fast it is, under braking, confidence, the whole monty.’   He concluded, ‘We ended the day good so now we can get dinner, eat some ice cream and go to bed and get at it tomorrow.’

Asked about his run, Fuller said, ‘I don’t know if the new tyre was the best.  I felt like it took a while to break in, I was just a bit slower that round cause I ran a perfect race pretty much but just slow.’  Asked if he changed compound, the Iowa driver replied, ‘Nope same tyre just the first run on these so I guess now we know to probably run some balder tyres and hopefully I have got some more pace.’  Sitting pretty good at the end of Day 1 of qualifying with a 1,3 and 4, Fuller said, ‘now we can test for tomorrow and try and get more speed’.  Asked where he expected to get that speed from he said, ‘I think it is just the tyres because the last one (Q2) it was good and that’s the only thing I changed.’

First explain what happened in Q2, Maifield said, ‘I didn’t change anything on the car, ran the same tyre, but it felt really soft and I tried to manage it best I could and then I crashed in the double double single coming onto the straightaway with 3-laps to go.  I salvaged a Top 15 run, not great, probably would have been 6 or a 7 without the crash so not really on pace.’  He continued, ‘For Round 3 we left the car alone again but just changed to a completely different tyre and it definitely had a little more pace.  I put in a clean drive and still was a little off but overall it was a solid run and I know kinda now were I stack up.  I have 3 points worth talking about but hopefully I get ride of that 13 tomorrow and then just reset.’  Looking to Q4 he said, ‘We are going to put some fresh parts on this thing so we can liven her up a bit and go back to work.’  Switching to a JConcepts Spacebar in a new still to be named compound, he says he will most likely stick with that for tomorrow but added ‘it depends on the track with the rain, weather, so we are just going to have to play that by ear.’