Bayer fastest in 4WD at DHI Cup

Martin Bayer has set the 4WD Buggy pace on the opening day of the DHI Cup.  Despite being forced to sit out the final practice due to a servo failure, the Xray driver still managed to top the seeding list thanks to his 3-consecutive pace of the opening timed practice. Closest to the Czech ace was HB’s David Ronnefalk, the Swede improving on his opening time by a tenth of a second to get within 2/10ths of Bayer. Having set the pace in 2WD practice, Michal Orlowski would end up third fastest but the Schumacher driver was a considerable 7/10ths off the pace. For defending champion Joern Neumann, sixth would be the best the Serpent driver could manage behind Yokomo team-mates Tom Cockerill and Frederik Hovgaard.

‘Perfect’ was how Bayer summed up his XB4. Running the same set-up that he used at the opening round of the latest season of the Euro Offroad Series he said being able to run Schumacher’s Minipin tyre on the front makes this a really good set-up for the car (since its opening round the EOS has enforced the Stagger Rib as the only front tyre option for it championship).  Asked about sitting out the final practice, the former European Champion said having finished the previous practice with no problems when he put the car down for the last practice he had no steering the servo having stripped gears.  Planning no set-up changes for Q1, which for 4WD starts tomorrow, he will only fit new tyres, adding his aim is to ‘just drive around clean’ for the 5-minutes.  Asked about his opposition he replied ‘I’m still expecting Bruno (Coelho) to come’.  Only 8th fastest, World Champion Coelho said having not did any practice over the Christmas break he just needs more track time to find his rhythm.  Running a completely new car, having raced and won Round 2 of the EOS with his Worlds winning XB4, he said he was also still fine tuning his new car.  Making ‘a lot of mistakes’, the Portuguese driver said there is a lot of improvement to come.

Ronnefalk said 4WD practice ‘started out terrible’ as he need to get used running Mini Pins on the front of his D413 again and figure out right way to cut the tyres.   Describing the car as ‘always fast’, he added he just needed to adjust the set-up to make to easy to drive.  Feeling it’s now good enough for qualifying, the World Championship podium finisher will leave the car unchanged for Q1.

Orlowski said having started out with the rear shocks on his CAT K2 mounted to the rear of the shock tower, some testing of them mounted to the front by his team-mates convinced him to change resulting in the car having ‘super rotation’.  Now looking for more rear traction, the reigning European Champion will switch to a shortened rear camber link for Q1.  Having run rear tyres with the outside row of pins cut off, he will also switch to an uncut tyre for the first qualifier.

‘Average’ was Cockerill’s response to his 4WD performance.  The Brit is struggling to get a balanced set-up on his YZ-4.  With a set-up that is good in the infield, he said it leaves him struggling with his entry and exit off the main straight.  Finding a cure for that then the problem becomes the infield with the car struggling on flat landings leading it to double bounce which he said is costing time.  For Q1 he will run with the set-up that works well on the infield and just take it easier coming on and off the straight.  Team-mate Hovgaard was very happy with the performance of his YZ-4, the 16-year-old Dane making no changes over the four rounds of practice.  For Q1 he will continue with an unchanged set-up.

Chasing a fifth consecutive 4WD DHI Cup win, Neumann said part of his problem was that he broke after only 2-laps in the first timed practice forcing him to run a safe second round.  The German said while his  SX4  is not super fast on individual lap times he feels it has a ‘good 5-minute pace’.  Asked if he planned any changes for Q1 tomorrow he said his priority for now was sorting out his 2WD set-up while not far off the pace needs more steering for tonight’s two opening rounds of qualifying.

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Orlowski tops 2WD practice at DHI Cup

Michal Orlowski has topped 2WD Buggy practice at the DHI Cup, the Schumacher driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps at the Danish event to end up almost half a second clear of former winner Tom Cockerill.  Joakim Nicolaisen would complete the Top 3, Team Associated’s up & coming talent 3/100ths faster than defending champion David Ronnefalk.  For two time 2WD winner & unbeaten 4WD Champion Joern Neumann practice would leave the Serpent driver only 9th fastest while Xray’s 4WD World Champion Bruno Coehlo, despite laying down the fastest single lap ended up 16th.

Qualifying and finishing third in 2WD last year in Odense, Orlowski said although he came into the event prepared for low grip it was ‘even lower’ than expected.  Initially struggling for the first three practice runs, his KF2 SE ‘sliding around’, he said a switch from 15 to 10k rear diff oil together with a shortened rear camber link ‘helped a lot’ leaving the car ‘really good’ for the fourth & final practice.  Surprised that the track layout is almost identical to that of last year, the Polish ace feels he is now in good shape for qualifying which for 2WD will take place tonight following 4WD practice.

‘Pretty good’ was how 2014 winner, then driving for Schumacher, was how Cockerill summed up his practice.  Having not attended last year’s event, Yokomo’s lead driver this weekend as Lee Martin has nitro racing commitments, said while the traction was low for carpet it was nice adding it ‘should make for better racing’. Using the practice to bed in sets of the event’s Schumacher handout tyre, the only big change in terms of set-up was with shock oils as he tries to find more steering on what he described as an ‘understeer track’.  Describing the times of the leading drivers as ‘close’ he added ‘a lot of drivers are on a similar pace and there also making a lot of mistakes so my focus is more on my driving’.

Nicolaisen said his B5M, which features a Swedish made laydown gearbox, has been very good from the first run on the track.  Making only very small changes over the four rounds, the Norwegian said the track time was mostly used to scrub in tyres.  Describing the layout as having ‘a good flow’, he said as he is pretty happy with the car he will focus on his driving feeling he could clean up his lines a bit.

Making his HB team debut at the event last year, but having to race a Team C chassis in 2WD with which he TQ’d and won, Ronnefalk is now running HB’s D216.  The Swede said ‘we have done quite a lot of practice since the EOS and we now have a machined chassis rather than the rapid prototype we ran in Slovakia’.  He added ‘with not as much traction as EOS this suits the car. The speed is there. I just need to make it a little easier to drive over 5-minutes.’  Behind Ronnefalk fellow countrymen David Hassel and Niclas Mansson completed the Top 6 with Xray’s Martin Bayer 7th fastest.

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