January 7, 2018

Orlowski cruises to A1 win

Michal Orlowski cruised to an easy victory in the opening A-Main of 2WD Buggy at the DHI Cup this morning.  The Top Qualifier quickly pulled clear of the field and such was his lead that even with a roll off the corner table table which required his Schumacher to be marshalled he still had more than half a lap advantage at the finish.  Behind, Elias Johansson would take second, the young Swedish talent having an equally comfortable gap of the battle for third which would go to David Ronnefalk.

Commenting on his win, reigning champion Orlowski said, ‘we changed the rear camber link to make it easier on new tyres and it was perfect for laps’.  The Pole continued, ‘I had a good gap after 3 laps so I just kept my head down and then Elias had a mistake which gave control of the race. I had a small error at the corner table top but it didn’t cost me anything’.  Chasing a third 2WD title in a row at the DHI Cup, the EOS Champion will be aiming to get that job done in A2 saying, ‘we will run the same car for A2 and see what we can do’.

‘Pretty good but I had two mistakes’, was how Johansson summed up A1.  The Associated driver said while new tyres had made the car nervous to drive at the start, he put his two mistakes down to ‘driver error’.  Having made no changes to his car over the weekend he has no plans to start changing anything now adding he expects A2 to be better due to the fact the tyres are now broken in.

Qualifying only 8th for 2WD, David Ronnefalk was happy to get third.  He said, ‘I threw up four times during the night so I didn’t have any expectations for the race. I wasn’t even sure I would be able to drive. I just wanted to finish’.  The HB Racing driver said his changes to his car since qualifying had given him more speed and ‘carnage’ in the race allowed him to gain some early places.  Battling with third place qualifier Jesper Rasmussen he would pass the Dane only to make a mistake but was be able to get the position back by the finish.

View the complete event results here.

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January 6, 2018

Orlowski takes TQ double at DHI Cup

Reigning 2 and 4WD DHI Cup Champion Michal Orlowski will start his title defence from the best place possible after the Schumacher driver made it a TQ double in Denmark as he claimed the 4WD pole in the fourth & final round of qualifying at this year’s event. Having secured the 2WD TQ earlier in the day after just three rounds, the Pole had to wait until the fourth & final 4WD qualifier after Q2 produced the only glitch in an otherwise dominant performance from the teenager. Orlowski didn’t have it easy however with star of the 2018 DHI Cup Elias Johansson challenging him for the overall TQ and leading the final qualifier until a mistake.  Still the 13-year-old will line-up an impressive 2nd on the grid ahead of fellow Associated driver Jesper Rasmussen who capped off qualifying with a P2 time. As in 2WD, Joern Neumann will make his Schumacher debut from 4th on the grid with 2016 Champion David Ronnefalk completing the top half of the grid.

View the complete event results here.

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January 6, 2018

Volker Top Qualifier at 18th running of DHI Cup

Ronald Volker is Top Qualifier at the 18th running of the DHI Cup.  Chasing an 8th victory at the Danish classic, the Yokomo driver wrapped up pole with a third TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying.  Going on to make it a clean sweep in the fourth & final qualifier and with reigning champion Viljami Kutvanen absent from Odense this year, it looks like it is Volker’s race to lose tomorrow given his form over the last two days.  Behind the World Champion, it will be reunited team-mate Yannic Prumper who will start second ahead of Elliott Harper, Marc Rheinard and Markus Hellquist.

Commenting on the final two qualifiers, Volker said, ‘I switched to progressive springs all round for the third one and it felt more similar than expected.  I wasn’t sure it was better so for the last one I went back to my Q2 set-up for the last one. It was worse, I had less overall grip so I will go back to the progressive springs again for the Main’.

‘It was super close’, was Prumper’s reaction finishing P2 in the final qualifier having been on the TQ pace for a time.  He continued, ‘It came down to the last lap. I had some small mistakes at the beginning but in terms of time they were huge.  We were all on the same pace’. Prumper said his improvement came from switching to a Montech body for the final qualifier which made his Yokomo ‘easier to drive’ and he will continue with it for the finals.  Admitting, ‘I’m not sure where you can overtake on this track’ he concluded, ‘I hope my set of tyres keep performing (in the finals)’.  Drivers have an allocation of just 2-sets of tyres for the entire weekend with no extra allocation for the finals.

Harper was positive about qualifying third managing to survive getting up on 2-wheels on the last lap.  With very little between him, Prumper and Rheinard and a fastest lap almost identical to Volker’s, the Schumacher driver said, ‘Yeah, that was really good. We’ve worked hard to develop the setup further and it’s really good to be on pace with everyone again. We saw it at the EWS International before Christmas, but we found it a bit too late there. Now, we started off from the front foot and it’s been good to pace myself with Ronald, Marc, Yannic and Chrissi from the start’.

Summing up his qualifying, Rheinard said, ‘I changed tyre for the last one and it was a little better but there is still no grip’.  The Infinity driver continued, ‘anything I change on the car doesn’t change the feeling on the track’.  Asked about the finals he replied, ‘I will just drive. I am too slow so I am just going to drive my own race and see what happens’.

In the Super Stock class, Patrick Folman is Top Qualifier after he put in the perfect qualifying to TQ all four rounds. The Dane will lead away the A-Mains from 2016 Champion Tim Benson with Frederik Mikkelsen lining up third.

View the complete event results here.

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January 6, 2018

Orlowski resumes reign after Q2 glitch

Michal Orlowski has resumed his reign at the DHI Cup, recovering from a glitch in the second round of 4WD qualifying to take penultimate round ahead of the increasingly impressive Elias Johansson.  13-year-old Johansson has looked competitive from the start of the weekend and has looked increasingly confident at the controls of his Team Associated.  In Q2, the Swede was there to pick up the pieces when Orlowski made a set-up change that wasn’t to his liking claiming the TQ ahead of former champion Jörn Neumann. Joining Orlowski as the only driver to run 17-laps in qualifying with a P2 in the penultimate qualifier, Johansson could potential deny the Schumacher driver the TQ double and also been overshadowing his high profile fellow Swede David Ronnefalk.  A former champion in Odense, Ronnefalk finally put in a clean run in Q3 to record the third fastest time with the HB Racing driver looking more like a rookie than the double World Championship podium finisher he is.

Asked about his P5 in the second qualifier, Orlowski said, ‘we made a change and the car felt different which caused me to make a couple of mistakes.  I almost got back to the front but then had a costly mistake on the wall’.  He continued, ‘for the last one we went back to the spring from before and raised the rear camber link and the car felt even better than before. It was easier to drive’. Already Top Qualifier for the 2WD A-Main tomorrow, looking to the final qualifier the Schumacher driver said, ‘we will run a new tyre to bed them in for the finals and hopefully I can TQ.  Elias is pretty quick’.

Admitting the weekend is going better than expected, Johansson said his car continues to be really good and although he has a chance of the overall TQ its not his aim in the final qualifier.  Pleased with his run to the TQ in Q2 and then matching Orlowski’s 17-lap pace in Q3, he said ‘Michal drove really fast’ and to start in the Top 2 I am happy’.  Like Orlowski he too will run a new set of tyres in Q4 to scrub them in for the finals and so expects the car to be edgy over the opening laps.

After finding his car ‘very edgy’ in the opening qualifier, Ronnefalk reverted back to his EOS set-up but said the improvement came from his front tyre cut.  Leaving the side pins in place he glued the side wall with this making it easier to drive but crashing twice in Q2 still didn’t net a competitive time.  Knowing however he had a good car he said his approach for Q3 was to ‘drive clean and stay on the wheels’.  While he found this ‘slow’, at the end of the 5-minutes it paid dividends as he finally posted a Top 3 run.  Finding himself only 8th on the grid in 2WD, he will try to repeat Q3 and try put himself further up the 4WD grid.

View the complete event results here.

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January 6, 2018

4WD quali gets underway with Orlowksi TQ run

With the 2WD qualifying wrapped up, the attention on the offroad track at the DHI Cup turned to Q1 of 4WD which was to be a familiar story as Michal Orlowski topped the times. Running a prototype chassis, the Schumacher driver would be the only one to go 17-laps with the Team Associated cars of Jesper Rasmussen and Elias Johansson providing the main challenge to the reigning champion. Separated by 6/10th they would have a 3-second advantage on the HB of David Hassell who just saw off Joern Neumann. While Hassell had his HB prototype in the mix, his superstar team-mate David Ronnefalk continued to struggle with errors ending up only 12th quickest.

‘It wasn’t easy’ said Orlowski afterwards.  He continued, ‘we were all on new tyres so the first few laps it was very edgy so I didn’t push too hard.  After a few laps I got a gap and everything felt good.  I had a few bobbles but nothing major and I could still get the TQ’.  Describing his prototype chassis as feeling like it had too much steering, for Q2 he will change to a harder front spring to try reduce steering but expects the run to be better anyway given the tyres are now bedded in.

Enjoying a great run at his home event, Rasmussen said, ‘the car was good but was easy to flip’. He continued, ‘I had already broken in my tyres but I think the grip is higher today than yesterday. Having run with the 2 outside rows of pins removed from from his tyres he plans to go with 2 rows of each side for Q2.

‘The first couple of laps were pretty aggressive because of the tyres’, was Johansson reaction after his first qualifier.  The up & coming Swedish talent continued, ‘by the end it was much better and I was able to do all the run with no major mistakes so I am happy’.  Expecting his car will be better for Q2 based on the tyres having now been fully scrubbed in he will make no changes to the car.

View the complete event results here.

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