Payne takes opening Mod 1:12 Qualifier at NYGP

Excelerate RC’s Ollie Payne has taken the opening round of Mod 1:12 qualifying at the MonTech New York Grand, the British driver having a clear edge over his rivals around 360v2 RC Raceway.  Just missing out on the podium at the last year’s running of the event, Payne took charge of the first of the four scheduled qualifiers despite his last Modified race outing being earlier this year.  Initially chased by Keven Hebert, the Xray driver running a prototype X12 this weekend in New Rochelle, unfortunately the Canadian’s run was cut short when he collected the car of race promoter Donny Lia, after the American spun on rejoining the track after an off.  With Hebert’s race done, this promoted defending Champion Sam Isaacs to P2, the Awesomatix driver almost a full lap down at the end of the 8-minutes.  3-seconds off his team-mate Kemp Anderson completed the Top 3.

Summing up his opening run, Payne said, ‘It was a very good run, the car is a little bit unstable but I think that’s everybody’s, its just I think mine is the best of a bad bunch type of thing.’  He continued, ‘you have to go easy on it, if you over push the car starts to slide so you kind of have you keep it within the limit but its good.’  Racing here last year with CRC before announcing shortly after the race his switch to Excelerate, asked how the last 12-months with the US manufacturer has been, he said,’It has been really really good for me.  The car is always 90% there which means I am never chasing set-up and I am always just doing a little bit here and there to get it into its working window, but it’s alway very good which helps a lot now that I don’t race as much.  It means I can always turn up with a good car.’  With his last big race outing the European Championships back in April, Payne says he has only raced 4 times since then after taking a break over the Summer.  Also running 1:12 Super Stock here, winning that class last year, he said driving the Mod car again here was a bit of problem at first as the last time he ran a 3.5 turn motor was January at the Snowbirds adding, ‘so I am always a bit weary for the first couple of runs.’  Asked about changes for Q2, he said, ‘I’m undecided as to whether to run a different compound of tyre.  I am considering it just because the grip is quite low in terms of American specs, so I am considering to try a tyre with a little more traction but I might wait until the open practice this afternoon and try it then.’

‘Definitely better than practice’, was how Isaacs summed up his Q1 performance.  With limited prep time for this race, being a late entry, he continued, ‘I think we made some improvements.  The car still needs some more steering but compared to practice it was definitely the right direction.’  Asked what changes he might try for Q2, the multiple US Champion and 2023 World Championship finalist replied, ‘I’m thinking maybe bigger front tyres and change the droop a little bit.  Maybe the sauce time and amount too, but we’ll make some more big changes and see if we can keep going in the right direction.’