Coelho & Ronnefalk set for TQ battle final qualifier
Bruno Coelho and David Ronnefalk are set to battle it out for the overall 4WD Buggy TQ at the DHI Cup. With Coelho taking the opening qualifier, in Q2 it was Ronnefalk who took Q2. In the third round Ronnefalk looked to repeat until with three laps to go the HB driver would loose his rhythm as he passed Martin Bayer and crash. Having been in hot pursuit of his rival this would allow Coelho to post a second TQ run, this time ahead of European Champion Michal Orlowski. With defending champion Joern Neumann completing the Top 3, Ronnefalk would end up with a P6 behind Bayer and Yokomo young charger Frederik Hovgaard. The result means now only Ronnefalk can deny World Champion Coelho from making his DHI Cup race debut as Top Qualifier, the Portuguese driver having the advantage of holding the fastest TQ time putting all the pressure on his Swedish rival for Q4.
After ‘mistakes, a lot of them’ in Q2, Coelho said things in the driver’s department were much better with just one mistake in Q3. Describing his LRP powered XB4 as ‘perfect’, the only problem was ‘some loose screws’ with it discovered afterwards the motor mounting able to move around freely in the car. Acknowledging luck was on his side to have completed the run trouble free, other than have it screwed tightly in place for the final qualifier he will leave the car unchanged as he is very happy with the EOS set-up he put on it after practice.
Commenting on his Q2 TQ, Ronnefalk said ‘it was a good run, no mistakes, the car felt good and with Bruno having a lot of mistakes it was an easy TQ’. Switching from a Proline to a JConcepts body for Q3 as well as adding a aero flap to the front shock tower he said this resulted in more steering. He said the run started to go wrong when he caught Bayer. Opening up to let him passed the 20-year-old said after that he didn’t know what the Czech driver was thinking as he tried o come back at him almost taking him out. ‘I lost momentum’ as a result of the contact leading him to case the back double allowing Coelho to go to the top of the timing screens, with future mistakes dropping him back down the order. Planning just new tyres for the deciding qualifier he said ‘I’m looking for another TQ in the last one’.
Improving his result with each run, starting out with a P5 in first round and third in Q2, Orlowski said raising the camber links on his Schumacher for Q3 had given the car better balance but he struggled with tyres. Running the same set of handout Schumacher Mini Pins for a third time he said it was too much. Describing it as a ‘good run (with) no mistakes’, the Pole said with new tyres for the next one he should be more competitive having been 3.5-seconds off Coelho’s pace.
Getting a better than expected P2 in Q2, Neumann said cutting an extra row of pins off his front tyres and moving the shocks to the outside hole on the arm ‘the car pushed way more than before’. The unbeaten 4WD DHI Cup Champion of the last four years, this the fifth running of offroad at the event, the Serpent driver will revert to his Q2 set-up for the last qualifier.
Behind Neumann, Demark’s Hovgaard continued his impressive showing as the leading Yokomo contender, 2WD Top Qualifier Tom Cockerill struggling in 4WD. The 17-year-old hasn’t changed his YZ-4 over qualifying declaring himself happy with both its and his own performance with him getting a 5th in Q2 which he backed up with a P4 in the latest round.
View the event image gallery here.
