Canas is Top Qualifier as Coelho sets blistering Q5 pace

For months he has been widely tipped to become the new 1:8 Offroad World Champion, and living up to the well justified hype Juan Carlos Canas has completed the first stage and locked himself in as the Top Qualifier in Spain.  The Sworkz driver topped Q2, 3 & 4, giving him the perfect score with only reigning Champion Davide Ongaro left in the TQ race going into the penultimate round.  Having thrown away a potential TQ run a round earlier in Q4, Xray’s Bruno Coelho managed to omit the last lap error this time to take his first TQ and by default hand Canas an early overall TQ.  Having already switched to using the remaining two rounds of qualifying as testing for the Semi Finals, Canas would still get a P2 for the round although the gap to Coelho was a massive 5.4 seconds.  A rocket round, Coelho’s time almost 6 seconds better than the previous best from Q4, Ongaro would finish 3rd 0.154 off Canas with Elliott Boots having his best run in P4.  The Top 6 was completed by David Ronnefalk and the TLR of top American challenger Dakotah Phend.

With it widely accepted that Canas’ Q4 run was job done in terms of overall TQ, the Spaniard was very much already moved to the next stage of his campaign.  Asked about Q5, the European Champion said, ‘I tried some things like planned.  It was working good, it made it more comfortable but it was a bit slower compared to Bruno, also he did a superb run, super clean and super fast.’  Planning to try another change for the sixth & final round, asked if the set-up from Q5 was something he could use in the finals, he replied, ‘maybe if the grip changes a little bit I can use for Saturday but for the next one I will try some other ideas to have more options for Saturday.’

‘Finally a clean run, that was what was basically missing’, was Coelho’s reaction.  He continued, ‘the car was very good and it is giving us very good confidence for the rest of the race.  We changed small things on the car and it was good, now we want the track not to change until the end of the event but we know that is not going to happen.’  On his plans for Q6 he said, ‘I can still be second (overall) but in the end it doesn’t change much so we want to try something more because I am sure the competition won’t stay where they are and will improve their package so for sure try something to make it faster’.  He concluded, ‘We are very positive at the moment.’

Having struggled for pace in the previous round Ongaro said, ‘That was better than before, we completely changed the car, we switched to the 2022 World Championship set-up from here and it was better in some parts of the track and worse in others so we try to adjust now’.  He continued, ‘we cannot do worse than P3 (overall) now so we will keep changing stuff ‘.

Summing up his best round so far Boots said, ‘Obviously we didn’t have the pace of Bruno, he was on a blistering one but I think we are going in the right direction.  Elaborating on what he is missing he said ‘just corner speed.’  He continued, ‘you see from watching Bruno’s car how much the car rotates so that’s the way we need to go after watching his car.  We had a bit more that time so we’ll keep going that direction.’  Asked how his set-up was compared to team-mate Canas, both also running Reds Engines, he said, ‘It similar but there are small changes because he drives a lot harder than me but its not far from each other.  Tyres are the big thing, they act differently, different side grip and things.  Before it was easier because we ran the same (tyres) so you can run the same set-up’.  Looking to Q6, the British driver said, ‘we are the Semis so it is nice we can try stuff for the next one’.

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Canas holds overnight Worlds TQ

Day 1 of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship is complete and it is Pre Race favourite Juan Carlos Canas who holds the overnight TQ in Spain.  The Sworkz driver made it 2 out of 3 when he backed up his Q2 TQ performance in the final run of the day, however it wasn’t a perfect Q3 from the Spaniard.  In the end however he took another max points haul ahead of World Champion Davide Ongaro.  Opening qualifying with a TQ run, Ongaro’s Team Associated holds P2 overall with Bruno Coelho with a pair of Top 3 times from Q1 & 2 sitting 3rd.  It wasn’t a good Q3 for the former 1:10 Offroad World Champion, a number of errors after a wrong tyre choice leaving him with the 6th fastest time.  Instead the Top 3 for the round was completed by Dakotah Phend, the TLR driver continuing his rise to the front as the top US contender sitting fifth overall behind 2016 World Champion David Ronnefalk.

Summing up his second TQ run, Canas said, ‘I make a mistake, I put on new tyre and at the beginning it was a little loose and I pushed too hard and I have my mistake, it was my mistake.’  The 22-year-old said after the mistake, while helped by the tyres coming in, ‘my mental approach also changed so I am happy about that but not happy with run as not a clean run. I am happy about the speed I show after the mistake’. Living a 4,5 hour drive from the track asked about the second day of qualifying, the final 3 rounds on the schedule, he replied, ‘Tomorrow is one new day, anything can happen.  It will be a colder track because we have less temperature so we will see what happens but my plan is clean runs and be confident for long runs’.

Over a second off Canas, Ongaro said, ‘That was more windy I think.  I had a really bad stop lap because they made a mistake catching my car and on the back section, the two doubles, wind catch my car and I fly on the double.  I had a 57 (seconds) lap which cost me a lot because we normally have a 54 on the fuel stop lap.  Anyway I am happy in the P2 for the third round because we are still the fight for TQ.  If not no problem, the race is on Saturday, so I don’t care really.’  Asked more about the wind and whether he felt he could do anything with his car for it, the 23-year-old said, ‘If it is a problem then yes we need to look but think it will not be the same in the morning because the wind always come on the last round like yesterday.  So we see tomorrow, without the wind my car is good so all good otherwise.’

Packing up after a very positive day, a very happy Phend said, ‘That went great, probably my cleanest run so far, just really concentrated on hitting the marks every lap and being super consistent and we found a little bit of speed that time as well so we are closing the gap.  Probably still half a second or so on the speed but the consistency feels good and car feels comfortable at the speed I am doing right now.’  Asked what he changed to find the speed he explained, ‘we changed the front springs, different camber links and different shock, lot of little changes now and we’re getting closer and closer. For Day 1 I’m pretty happy how it went we got better every run and all three rounds were really solid driving, Donal is awesome in the pits.’

Laughing at getting another 4th for the round, Top Seed Ronnefalk said, ‘but this time I had really good speed, the changes we made from Q2 to Q3 improved and the tyres worked well from the start of the run that time.  I felt really good, unfortunately I touched the pipe at the bottom left chicane, the fast one, and the car just went on flying out into the fence and that was 4-5 seconds lost.’  With Bryan Baldo crashing in front of him he lost further time, ‘he crashed right in front of me with three laps to go, he was going to let me by, he was going to go wide but he just rolled at the bottom left.  That was unfortunate, it was not his fault, but I was just at the wrong spot and the wrong time so I lost anther 3-seconds or so.  All that considered I still made it over for a 13-lap run.  I know it could have been a lot better and the 6-seconds or so cost be a shot at the TQ.  Anyway it feels good now ’cause I was kind of lacking the speed in the first two and it feels like I got the speed I had yesterday back.’  Asked if he had any issues with the wind, he said he did notice it in the warm-up but in the run he did not have any problems.

Having opened with a strong P5 showing in the opening qualifier but suffering a rough Q2 Tekno’s Joao Figueiredo managed to round off the day with a second Top 5 run.  Explaining his Q2 effort, the Portuguese driver said, ‘we made a small change and we figure out we probably had the car too stiff overall.’  Going back to a softer set-up for the last one and making some adjustments on his tyre inserts, and ‘it paid off, the car is pretty good now it is just missing a little speed.’  Asked if he knew where he was loosing that speed he said, ‘We are probably going to play around with the clutch because I think it is not on point.  It feels smooth and everything but I did some laps behind some guys and they are pulling 1-2 out of the corners.  We just need one more Top 5 and think when that averages out we will be good.’

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One a piece as Canas takes Q2

It is one a piece for the World Champion and European Champion in qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the later, Juan Carlos Canas taking the second round of qualifying ahead of Round 1 TQ winner Davide Ongaro.  Posting a new fastest time, Canas’ Sworkz would stop the clock 3/10ths up on the World Champions Team Associated as Xray pairing Bruno Coelho and David Ronnefalk joined them on 13-laps runs.  While it has been the European drivers leading the way at RC Redovan, TLR’s Dakotah Phend continued to close the gap, the American posting a P5 for the round.

It was a clean run but I had traffic again’ was Canas’ reaction to topping Q2.  Asked how much the traffic affected his time, the Spaniard said, ‘I don’t know but maybe 1-second or more.’  With some drivers reporting the track feeling different given timing in the day, the pre-race favourite said, ‘I didn’t change my car and I feel the same grip on everything.’  Pleased with how his car and taking the approach “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” he said he plans to finish out Day 1 of qualifying with an unchanged set-up.

Ongaro was happy with his car but less pleased with his driving saying, ‘I had two stupid mistakes by myself, I crashed outside the pit lane and hit the wall and on the same lap on the chicane in the middle of the lap I lost half a second’.  The Italian continued, ‘Overall I am happy, I am super confident with car and can drive easy on 48 (second) pace.’  With three from 6 rounds to count, he plans to finish out the day with the same car and with a good result then use tomorrow to try some changes and ‘find our limits’.

Describing his run as ‘very clean’, Coelho continued, ‘towards the end I felt the car was a bit soft.  I don’t know if it was the tyres but now it is pretty hot so the tyre probably got too soft.  I also have high tyre wear now so we think they were not the perfect compound for now.  For the last 2-minutes the car was difficult to drive’.  He continued, ‘it should be colder, for sure we are going to try different things but I think the track is coming where it will completely change the compound of the tyres.  From now on I think the game of the tyres starts.  The track is getting oily now, you can see people using clays now and starting to get faster. Our set-up is there and it is all about tyres now.’

‘Another decent run I would say’, was how Ronnefalk summed up Round 2.  He explained, ‘I told the guys coming into today three rounds in the Top 4 I would be happy then I had a mistake on the pit lane in the first round and then this time I was super careful coming and going out but I still messed it up.  The pitstop itself was fast so I can’t blame pit guys but I lost 2-seconds on that pit lane, I got stuck on the tube on the exit.  That’s free time you can’t afford to give away if you want to TQ.  Obviously it won’t have been enough to challenge for the TQ but I would have been within 2-seconds again.  Another Top 4 this round is still a good score I would say’.  For Q3 the Swede ‘will try some stuff’ feeling with four rounds left he should be able to get one more strong run to lock himself into the Semis.

Upbeat about his latest performance, Phend said, ‘That was a solid, really clean run, didn’t have a bobble, we are in the ball park where we need to be car wise.  We are just kind of fine tuning and tinkering trying to find more speed.  I feel like I am driving pretty safe out there so when I know I can get more comfortable and I can hopefully push the pace more.  We are just going to keep working on the car and get a third round in and then tomorrow then we can really start to throw stuff at the car and see what we come up with.  Asked if he had been on the back foot in practice, the 2022 12th place finisher said, ‘Yesterday was a little bit of a rough day, we made a lot of progress the first two practice days but went backwards yesterday in seeding but glad to turn it around so far today so we’ll try to keep in rolling and aim to get in Semi and go from there’.

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