Champlin on top of the World Down Under – Schumacher gets first 2WD World title

Broc Champlin is the new IFMAR 1:10 2WD Offroad World Champion, the American securing the biggest accolade in the sport by winning the opening two A-Mains in Sydney, Australia, and claiming Schumacher’s first 2WD World title.  Kicking off finals day at the Hills RC Off Road track with a TQ run in the fifth & final qualifier to line up second behind Top Qualifier Marcus Kaerup this was to be a hint of what was to come.  With Champlin all over the rear wing of Kaerup in A1 there would be contact on the penultimate lap, the pair touching mid air in the double double.  With Kaerup’s Associated going tumbling, Champlin came out of it just in the lead after a drag race down the straight with World Finals debutant Davey Batta.  2-time World Champion Spencer Rivkin would come through from sixth to complete the Top 3 as Kaerup crossed the line in fifth.  With a protest against Champlin proving unsuccessful for Kaerup, the Dane would lead away A2 again with Champlin applying the pressure and four laps in as he got his buggy on two wheels, Champlin didn’t need a second invitation to go through to the lead.  It was to be a lead the 23-year-old would hold, a mistake from Kaerup putting an end to any potential come back, and crossing the he became the latest IFMAR World Champion on the 40th anniversary of the championships.  With the new Champion locked in, Champlin becoming the 15th driver to join the 2WD roll of honour, A3 would decide the remaining podium places.  With Kaerup finally convert his pole position into a win this would see him salvage a podium behind Batta, as he, Rivkin, and Daniel Kobbevik all finished on the same points.

Becoming the 10th American winner of the original Offroad World Championship class, asked who it felt to become a World Champion, Champlin replied, ‘Absolutely amazing, there is really no words, it’s just special to have the chance to battle for one and then to win it is just next level’.  Hailing from Las Vegas he continued, ‘My car was super good the whole race and I was trying to maintain pressure and understood I couldn’t get too close.  Then Marcus tapped out, left the door open, I went to the inside.  He then made mistake and I was just able to relax a little bit.’  Asked how relaxed he was or if the nerves where an issue as he realised he was closing in on a World title, he said, ‘the nerves didn’t kick in until the last lap, when you have a bigger lead it’s harder cause your thinking about it.’  On giving Schumacher their first 2WD World title, he said, ‘I am super happy for them.  I just want to thank Trish, Robin, Muz, and everybody at the Schumacher factory.  I also want to thank Clu Connors from Whitz Racing Products, Jason & Alison from JConcepts, the whole Hobbywing crew, Gens ace, Power HD, all my sponsors, my friends, my family, I couldn’t do it without them.’  Racing since the age of 9, asked if becoming a World Champion was always the dream or at which stage of his career it became a goal, he said, ‘I would say as soon as I saw the joy in Slovakia that was brought to Spencer when I was team-mates with him.  And just how much it actually meant really put it into perspective that I really wanted to win it.’  Realising that goal today, asked if he was now thinking about the double as we head into the 4WD action he replied, ‘I am not thinking about the double just yet, I will probably enjoy dinner with the team, a glass of wine, and then sit down tomorrow get my 4WD tyres and car ready and go from there.  I was really confident coming in with 4WD, less confident with 2WD, so if 2WD went really well there is a chance 4WD could as well.’

With Batta impressing a lot of people here in Sydney, the 20-year-old summed up his performance with,  ‘I’m definitely happy but I have seen P2 a lot over the past few years and I was just trying to look for the win so when I get back home it’s back to work and keep grinding.’  Asked about his finals the Californian said, ‘A1 I made a tiny mistake on the doubles, the wind caught me a little bit and I dropped back.  I tried reeling them back in and I was in the perfect spot when Marcus and Broc got together and I drag raced Broc down the straight away but I didn’t want to fully cut him off and screw both of us so he ended up getting by me right there.  I tried putting pressure on him the rest of the lap but I didn’t want to really push to hard and hit him so ended up with a second.’  While trying to chase down Champlin in A2, finishing 6/10ths of a second off, Batta said, ‘I was chasing down Broc towards the end of A2 trying to reel him in but he did an amazing job. I race him in the States all the time so I will try to get him back later.’  With his car feeling ‘really grippy’ in A3, he would clip a curb in the top 180 and his car rolled over dropping him back but his two second places in the opening finals were enough for the runner-up spot on his first Worlds A-Main appearance.  With Arizona two years ago his first Worlds experience he finished 15th on that occasion.  Making a strong impression with his pace throughout 2WD here, asked his expectations for 4WD he replied, ‘this whole month leading up to the event I was practicing my 2WD and the last few weeks I built my 4WD and I took it out for a day and I was ‘this think is amazing’ so I put right back in the bag and we’re hoping it is as good as it is were I practice.’

‘I’m a bit disappointed to not get the win but Broc was the better driver on the day’, that was how Kaerup summed up his finals.  The 17-year-old continued, ‘I went the wrong way with the set-ups and small mistakes in the main cost me the title but I’m pretty happy to get third overall and recover what I could.  Congrats to Broc and Davey for the first and second place.’  The recently crowned eBuggy World Champion added, ‘I should have kept my se-up from Q3 and just got my confidence more & more but we went the wrong way every time trying something new so we just let other people into the party and we will not make he same mistake in 4WD.  I always like 4WD more so I am looking forward to it.’

A driver who was also making his first 2WD World final appearance, posting a TQ run in the fourth round of qualifying to line up P3, Kobbevik was frustrated at missing out on the podium.  A previous 4WD World Finalist at the Hudy Arena in 2019, also just missing out on the podium then and finishing fourth, the Norwegian said, ‘I knew I had to beat Marcus in the last one, and tried my best to do it clean but I couldn’t get passed and missed the single double double a bit, and to be honest A2 for me was a shame because Spencer took me out before the jump section.  I put in a protest but apparently they didn’t have a video review of it and the referee didn’t see it, so my protest wasn’t successful but if I would get that first spot in the second leg I could have just settled behind Marcus in the third leg so it would be nice for me but I had to go the hard way and it didn’t work.’  Looking to the upcoming 4WD action, the 19-year-old said, ‘at the warm-up for sure I was much quicker in 4WD than 2WD.  Every race is different but for sure I am even more motivated now for 4WD.’

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Champlin TQ’s final qualifier to secure P2 for WC Final

Schumacher’s Broc Champlin has TQ’d the final round of 2WD qualifying at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship, the result promoting the American driver to second on the grid behind Top Qualifier Marcus Kaerup.  With the running order for Round 5 of qualifier at the Hills RC Off Road track in Sydney starting with the fastest heat up first this morning, it was Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski who topped that but with the track improving as things warmed up, the following heats proved faster.  Seeding in the second fastest heat Champlin set the top pace ahead of Xray’s David Ronnefalk and Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen, Ronnefalk’s first Top 10 run coming too late to put him in the title deciding A-Main.  Orlowski’s time would end up being good enough for 4th ahead of team-mate & Q4 winner Daniel Kobbevik, improving the Polish driver’s quali tally but keeping him P5 on the grid.  Having wrapped up the overall TQ after 3 rounds, Kaerup again used the final qualifier to test something on his Associated, the Dane saying afterwards that the changes ‘didn’t work’.

Describing his Q5 run as ‘super good’, Champlin continued, ‘I started off a little bit slow, I think I ran too fresh a tyres but I know what to do in the finals now.’  The 23-year-old, who unlike many of his rivals did not make any prior visits to the unique dirt track of this year’s World Championships, added, ‘The track came around a ton and I lost a lot of steering so I got a just tune a bit more steering into the car and I’m ready to fight.  I start 2nd on the grid so it’s a good opportunity and I just have to be patient.’

In what has been a tough week for the entire Xray team, Ronnefalk said, ‘At least we can say we really tried.  We worked our ass off.  We didn’t get off to a good start on the practice day and we were trying everything between the team to find the issue, we were struggling with steering and grip and we have been trying and fighting the whole way through qualifying.’  The Swede continued, ‘I thought it was a little bit better in Q4 qualifying yesterday but unfortunately I had a crash, it could have been a Top 5 I think without that crash which maybe would have put me in the bottom of the A, so that kinda sucked but before we didn’t have a chance at it.’  The 2016 1:8 Buggy World Champion explained how they found some pace for this morning, ‘After the debrief yesterday we came up with a couple of last changes that we wanted to try to learn something for 4WD and it definitely worked so I think even though it really sucks in the B and not have any cars in the A we did everything we could this week and I am happy to be able to show at least one good run there to put the brand up were the should be.’  The former 1:10 Worlds podium finisher added, ‘When I was here testing everything was feeling good, the track is a lot different from then layout wise and grip wise, the car really required a little bit of a different set-up and it took us too long to find.  On the changes he made the Swede said, ‘the base is still from when I was hear in July but the layout is a little faster, the grip is a little higher so basically little details throughout qualifying and finally now with two major changes it really improved the feeling, the grip, and the steering and everything.  If I could have had this earlier of course it would have been a different story but its easy to say, I’m just happy like we were able to just prove to ourselves we were able to find it and just need to keep it with us for 4WD and hopefully we get off to a better start there.’

With his final run putting him into the A-Main after he took the tie break for the 10th & final spot with 4WD World Champion Davide Ongaro, asked about his qualifying, 22-year-old Haatanen said, ‘My car has been really good in qualifying but too easy to drive so the pace wasn’t that good.  We made some changes for the last qualifying yesterday and drove the same car this morning and seems to be really good, but it was just too late.’  The newly crowned German National Champion continued, ‘In Q2 our car was pushing a little so we thought it was the front tyre so we just changed to new front tyres but it didn’t make a difference so I think we just lost one qualifying basically because we didn’t change the car enough to get more steering.’

‘The car was amazing but the track was just too slow, that’s it’, that was how Orlowski summed up his final qualifying effort.  Runner-up behind Kaerup at the recent inaugural eBuggy Worlds in Portugal, he continued, ‘I had a mistake at the back and lost around a second and then the last few laps I was on 2-wheels and lost another second or something.  I knew the B heat and the later heats would have track advantage so I knew I needed a 110% clean run and I didn’t so I knew it would not be enough.’  On his car he explained, ‘We made changes over night for the car.  Me and Daniel did the same change and both of us were extremely strong and and crazy fast this one, it was just bad set-up decisions at the beginning of qualifying  and then in Q4 and Q5 I had really good pace but I got taken out my Marcus in Q4 and now the slower track conditions.  The starting position is not great cause I wil be start 5th but we have good pace so we need to hope for some luck but its not been the best.’

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Kobbevik delivers TQ run in Q4

Having opened qualifying day at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships with an impressive P3 run, Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik closed the day out with a TQ run in the penultimate round in Australia.  With Marcus Kaerup dominating the first three rounds to secure the overall 2WD TQ, the Team Associated driver used Q4 as a test session, the front tyres he opted to try leaving him with ‘no steering’ and causing him to ‘drive like a wild animal’.  This opened the door for us to see a new name at the top of the timing, and running in the second fastest heat it would be Kobbevik who took that honour.  While unable to match the 12-lap TQ time set the previous round, the Norwegian managed 11 laps in 5:01.373 to finish ahead of Team Associated Aydin Horne on 5:03.814 and his Schumacher team-mate Michal Orlowski on 5:03.842.  Clement Boda and Davey Batta completed the Top 5.  Close to a TQ run in Q3, Spencer Rivkin couldn’t back that up, a mistake on his third last lap leaving the 2015 & 2019 World Champion with a P7 ahead of Broc Champlin.

Holding P2 on the grid overnight following his TQ run, asked about his performance, Kobbevik said, ‘I did some changes to the car to get some more steering and added a bit more power for the run since the grip is coming up.  From the first lap I did a 26.9 and just got into the rhythm, but towards the end I felt like it dropped off a bit, I don’t know if the tyre was used but I felt I had less rear grip so I just tried to get it around for the last laps and it turned out to be a quick run.’  On the increased powered the 19-year-old explained, ‘I just change the setting on my Hobbywing speedo’.  Asked if he was motivated for tomorrow when he will line up at the sharp end of the A-Main grid, he said, ‘I am but I am ready for bed now.  I have finally found a nice day rhythm, the jet lag from Europe is finally good.’

Reacting to his best run of the day, Horne said, ‘I cleaned it up for the last one.  I was able to keep working with the team trying to figure out what we were missing through the rest of the day but figured it out at the end there and found some pace.  Finally got good points but it’s going to be tight to make the main even with a 2, so I’m going to need to have a good run in the morning to lock it in.’  Asked about the previous three qualifiers the American said, ‘the first round everything was fine, I just drove really tight and nervous and had my mistakes and it didn’t work out, just a bad run.’  He continued, ‘the second run I ended up running a new set of front tyres and I didn’t realise I had no steering so it was everything I could do to get 12.  The third run it was a good drive, the car was good, just I got 9th but I was 2/10ths off 5th so its tough out there and tight.  We are able to be on the good end of tight that time so it equals out but we are going to need a good one in Q5.’

Giving his thoughts after Q4, Orlowski said, ‘Its been a struggle, ever changing conditions and trying to find the speed, but the last run pace wise was very positive as I had my best score with a marshal.  A lot of bad luck in that one but let’s see tomorrow.’  He continued, ‘We have one more then finals and anything can happen so we just need to try start as high as possible.’  Asked how his car was working now he replied, ‘yes it’s ok, it’s just getting the right set-up at the right moment of the day is important and I wasn’t good at it today.’

With a good finish to the day, asked about his earlier runs Boda said, ‘I have two times 8th, then a 15 with one mistake and then the last one 4th so I have 8,8, 4 which I think is not sure for the main but we have one more run tomorrow.’  The French Champion continued, ‘I think the track will be different with the work on it tonight but we have a good set-up, the car was really good, the power was really good also, so we need to stay on four wheels tomorrow morning.  The car was good all day I just made some little mistakes and one big mistake but the car was really good all the day.’  For the final qualifier the order is fully reversed with the top heat going first, meaning they face a much fresher track than before.

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Kaerup locks up early TQ in Australia with 3 from 3

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup has locked up an early overall TQ at the IFMAR 1:10 2WD Buggy World Championships in Sydney, the Dane taking a clean sweep of the opening 3 rounds of qualifying to secure his second WC Top Qualifier honours in the space of a month.  Fresh from his 1:8 eBuggy World Championship win in Portugal, once the 17-year-old found his rhythm on the Hills RC Off Road track yesterday he has been pretty much untouchable topping seeding and today carrying that momentum into qualifying.  While Davey Batta signalled he might give his team-mate a run for his money and keep the fight for the TQ going, it wasn’t to be as the American ran out of tyres in Q3.  In the end it was a rejuvenated Spencer Rivkin who would end up Kaerup’s closest challenger, the pair the first to go 12-laps over the 5-minutes however running in the second fastest heat Rivkin, thinking his run was done, stopped on his last lap before realising him mistake but he lost almost 4-seconds – Kaerup beating his time by 3.5-seconds.  The second fastest heat would again see some impressive times with Schumacher pairing Broc Champlin and Daniel Kobbevik again setting the 3rd and 4th fastest time respectively.  Reigning British Champion Tommy Hall enjoyed a strong Q3 breaking into the Top 10 for the first time with a P5 ahead of Batta.

Asked about his pole position securing run, Kaerup said, ‘It was really good.  We made some changes to the car and on the warm-up lap I could just feel they were just the right things to do.’  Not wanting to disclose the changes made, saying they were small, he added, ‘I knew after I crossed the line for the 12-lap I knew it was going to be the TQ cause unfortunately Spencer pulled off.  Also this run I wasn’t really nervous,  I just had the confidence to push all out.’  Asked what his plan is for the remaining two qualifiers, one left to conclude today’s action and one tomorrow morning ahead of the triple finals, he said, ‘probably scrub some tyres and run in a new ball diff.’

With Rivkin ruing his mistake, he said, ‘My car felt the best it has been, but on my driving I need to be a little more laser focused out there towards the end of the run and a little better with my race craft.  I wish the announcing was a little bit different with all the commotion the commentating speaker was a bit confusing but there’s no one to blame but myself.  That was my best point so we’ll just keep moving forward, it’s definitely not over and we are just getting started here.’  Asked what improvements he found for his car for Q3, he replied, ‘Honestly I have really just been working and getting some advice from my team-mates Davey and Aydin, working off what those have been running so far.  I started with what I had been running the last two times I have been to Australia and I actually was the only one starting with the stuff that I was starting with, everyone made some huge changes before they even got here and I was like I am just going to stick to my guns.  My ego just got a little too big maybe and I should of maybe pivoted but I thought I made the right call, I really wish I had done it a little bit earlier but I think I am starting to peak more at the right time.  There is two more runs obviously and I am really excited for the next run.’

Asked about his Q3 Champlin said, ‘I started out just mediocre and then was able to find a groove.’  He explained, ‘I keep making some set-up changes that I would normally run in America and these keep benefiting me in a way.  I found a groove and was pretty quick at the end, I just lost so much time off the start.’  Asked about that time lost at the start, the 23-year-old said, ‘I think a lot of it is just me.  I always have a tendency for the last few years to just roll into the races and try be there at the end but it’s really difficult to do that when your racing in the B sort cause then your not setting a high enough mark for the A sort and you are just trying to win the heat, so yeah I just roll in too easy and try stay in it and the last minute give everything I have and end up just slightly off because I was fast enough to start.’  Recording a P9 in Q1, Champlin explained, ‘That was the run I decided I was just going to change a bunch of stuff and go in my own direction with set-up, and then in Q2 I worked with that set-up a little bit and that was a 3 (for the round).’  With two 3s, he said he will keep working with the set-up saying ‘I have specifically made a ton of improvements with my shock package and I feel I went one way that as too stiff and then went back the other way too soft so going back in between I’ll give it everything it has.’  With this the reigning US Carpet National Champion’s first time to the Hills RC Off Road track, asked his thoughts on it he said, ‘It fun, its different.  We don’t have any of this stuff in States, so it’s a joy to race outside, the facility is amazing and then we are in Jurassic Park essentially with all the wildlife which is pretty cool.’

‘A 3, 4, 4 should lock me into the final, all three runs barely any mistakes and pushing hard’, was how Kobbevik reacted after his latest qualifier.  The Norwegian added, ‘but I want to get more steering and try to get the top spots as well.  I hope their is room for improvement.’  Asked about track conditions, he replied, ‘It is more and more grippy.  It feels a bit like astro turf now, the grip is so high now you are a bit afraid to traction roll, I have seen some cars do it, so you need to be a bit careful as well.’

Having really impressed in the opening two qualifiers, asked about his third run Batta said, ‘I think I went out on too old of a rear tyre.  I thought the grip was high enough to run a little bit of slick and that was not the case.’  With his TQ challenge gone, the 20-year-old said the goal now was to try ‘lock in the P2’ adding ‘Spencer had a good run so we’ll see.’

Q2 Update – Kaerup again from Batta

The second round of qualifying would prove to be a repeat of this morning’s opening encounter at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad Worlds with Marcus Kaerup once again topping the times ahead of his Team Associated team-mate Davey Batta.  A much faster run, the grip continuing to increase as the dirt track grooves up with a black tyre line, Kaerup would go 6-seconds faster with Batta even closer to the Dane this time round with him just 3/10ths off the TQ time.  With Batta going to the top of the timing screens during the 5-minute run, Kaerup admitted that Batta had him under pressure with the Top Seed impressed by the pace of the American.  Behind it would again be a Schumacher that completed the Top 3 but this time it was Broc Champlin that led their challenge after the American topped the second fastest heat.  Also in that heat, Daniel Kobbevik backed up his impressive P3 in Q1 to record the fourth fastest time ahead of former World Champion Spencer Rivkin.  While third fastest in top heat, Michal Orlowski’s time would only be good enough for 6th ahead of French National Champion Clement Boda.

Kaerup takes Q1 ahead of Batta in Australia

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup picked up where he left off in Australia yesterday, the Dane taking the opening round of qualifying today at the IFMAR 1:10 2WD Buggy World Championships.  Topping seeding practice yesterday Kaerup would go head to head with his AE team-mate Davey Batta in the first of the 5 rounds of qualifying at the Hills RC Off Road track.  After a less than perfect start, Batta would come back strong over the heat setting the fastest lap to get within 6/10ths of a second of Kaeup as both drivers found themselves in traffic for the final two minutes of the run.  With Orlowski the biggest challenger to Kaerup yesterday, it was to be his team-mate Daniel Kobbevik who lead the Schumacher charge this morning.  Running in the second fastest heat, which he topped ahead of 2-time World Champion Spencer Rivkin, Kobbevik’s time was good enough for third overall ahead of Orlowski and Japan’s Kouki Kato with Davide Ongaro completing the Top 6 ahead of Rivkin.

Reacting to his TQ run, Kaerup said, ‘It was pretty good, we made some changes to the car from the practice this morning and it paid off, the car was a lot better.  I think we are still lacking some steering but it was good enough to keep up with Batta and we had a great battle for the TQ.’  Asked about the traffic in the second half of the run, 5 cars running in a pack, the 17-year-old said, ‘It was a bit hard because you didn’t want to push too much because you didn’t want to get tangled so it was kind of like a waiting game but it worked out in the end so it was not too bad.’  Regarding Q2 and any changes to his buggy, the 1:8 eBuggy World Champion said, ‘I think I am going to discuss with Andrew and Joona about how to get more steering and then we are going to go forward’.  Asked about the changing track conditions over the day as the sun moves around the tree shelter dirt track, he said, ‘the track changes a lot especially from the first one to now when there is a lot more grip in the track and I think it is going to keep getting more and more with the more rubber we get down so it’s changing every time.’

Asked how his run, Batta explained, ‘I had some bobbles the first couple of laps and then Marcus was behind me.  I didn’t feel I was holding him up too much and then my tyres started coming in a little bit more and I wasn’t holding him up at all so I just kept pushing and ended up getting a little closer there at the end.’   Feeling that with a cleaner run he is right in the mix, the 20-year-old American said, ‘Hopefully the next round I can try keep it clean the first few laps and see how it goes.’  Planning to ‘probably leave it the same’ (his buggy set-up) for Q2, he said while he expects the grip to come up his buggy ‘should still be good.’

‘The best so far’, was how a pleased looking Kobbevik summed up Q1.  The Norwegian continued, ‘ I just tried to drive without mistakes because it’s so close so you can’t afford any mistakes and at the same time your pushing really hard to get the car around the corner and drift a bit and grip up for the straights.  The car was good and no traffic for me except I had one car I was lapping and he was really slow in one corner and didn’t want to let me by, then for the double double he was in front of me and on the second one I cased it, so that was my only mistake really’.  Asked about his car’s performance, the 20-year-old factory Schumacher drivers said, ‘we have been quite close I feel.  I have been losing a bit of grip or losing steering and I have been complaining about the steering all the time, I want more steering, but I guess it is the same for everybody.’

Summing up his opening effort, Orlowski said, ‘It was OK, a few bobbles I guess throughout the run but we need to find a little more speed. With the track changing all the time it’s really hard to find it cause you make a change but the track also changes but it’s a solid start so I’m happy about that.’  Asked if with a clean run he could take the fight to Associated the Pole said, ‘I think a slightly cleaner would be better but probably not TQ, I think we are still missing a little speed but it also depends on the time of the day.  In the morning we are really quick, in the afternoon we are really quick and then in the middle of the day we are missing a bit.  It is definitely a lot better than yesterday and it’s nice to see Daniel went fast so we know the car is good and it’s all down to small details in the set-up and good driving.’