4 different TQs as Ronnefalk survives Cav tangle to top Q4

Qualifying at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championship produced yet another different TQ as David Ronnefalk took the fourth round despite a last lap tangle with former Champion Ryan Cavalieri that would cost the HB Racing driver over 2-seconds.  Luckily however for the reigning 1:8 Offroad World Champion his predecessor Ty Tessmann would make a 5-second mistake of his own doing on the final lap allowing the Swede claim his first TQ run by 3-seconds over the Canadian.  For Ronnefalk, who hasn’t run outside the Top 3 all day, the TQ puts him as the overnight provisional TQ holder over Tessmann.  However, with rain forecast for tomorrow, should the fifth and final qualifier be cancelled reverting the standings to count 2 from 4 rather than 3 from 5, then it is Tessmann who will be declared Top Qualifier due to having the quicker TQ time which explains Ronnefalk’s frustration at being obstructed by Cavalieri.  Overall it was a dramatic end to Day 2 of the event with the top heat also seeing Ryan Maifield retire after 3-laps while laying down the TQ pace with a broken arm and reigning champion Bruno Coelho having TQ’d the previous round tangled with Michal Orlowski eventually retiring after a series of crashes.  A clean round from Dakotah Phend would reward the TLR driver with third, his best qualifier, ahead of Joern Neumann, also having his best run of the day, Spencer Rivkin and Dustin Evans.

‘I’m still pissed because if it rains tomorrow Ty will be TQ.  Cavalieri cost me the best time on the last lap so that (Q5 being rained off) would suck’, was Ronnefalk’s response when asked about Q4.  He continued, ‘Cavalieri spun around at the chicane and I thought he was going to let me by but he didn’t.  Luckily I got the TQ because Ty crashed on his last lap’.  Claiming his first Electric Offroad Worlds Championship podium 2-years ago in Japan, he concluded, ‘I am happy anyway because the car has been great so we’ll just have to wait and see what it is going to do to tomorrow’.  Currently organisers are working off a forecast that will see it ran from 06:00 to 07:00 in the morning which should mean no delays to the timetable a round of free practice scheduled at 08:35 ahead of the final round of qualifying.

Summing up his Q4 attempt, Tessmann said, ‘It was good until the last lap’.  The Xray driver continued, ‘the track is really difficult to get around but I was just pushing too hard to try catch David’.  Asked about his error in the centre section, most onlookers missing it having been distracted by Ronnefalk’s tangle with Cavalieri, he replied, ‘I don’t really know what happened, the car just tumbled about 15 feet’.   The result of the error was a 29.5 lap time compared to his previous 24.6 lap.

‘I ran the whole time without a mistake. I was quite a bit slower but I was more consistent and it paid off’, was Phend’s reaction to his best run of the day, his overall time 6-seconds quicker than his previous best of P8 in Q1.  Having made changes to his car for the round, he said they had made the car ‘a lot safer to drive but slower’.  Also going more safe at the controls driving at a ‘half decent pace’, he said ‘nearly everyone made two mistakes, it is getting harder every run out there but this time our approach paid off in the end’.  Feeling they might have gone a bit too far with the set-up changes he plans to ‘go back a little to gain a little more speed for tomorrow’.

‘So so, two times I had to single the double and one time I had a big mistake’, was how top seed Neumann summed up the penultimate qualifier.  The German, who is racing without a chassis sponsor and has opted to use an Xray, continued, ‘today the track is more difficult to drive than yesterday’.  Sitting 6th in the overnight ranking he added, ‘I hope to end up Top 5 after qualifying because I think the finals will be wide open.  Four different drivers have TQ’d which shows just how tough it is’.  Behind Neumann, Spencer Rivkin would continue to be the best of the Associated drivers with fifth for the round combined with his Q1 TQ leaving him holding 5th overnight. AE team-mate Dustin Evans would end his day with a P6, his best result of the day.  Needing to get a good result in Q5 to make the A-Main, he sits 12th overall which is one better than team-mate and former champion Ryan Cavalieri.

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World Champion Coelho delivers first TQ run

Reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho ‘finally’ delivered his first TQ run in China as he became the first driver to run 13-laps at Xiamen ARC International Raceway. With a P4 for the opening round and a P5 in Q2, the Xray driver produced his cleanest run on his third attempt to top the times from David Ronnefalk and Ryan Maifield – the consistent duo of qualifying so far switching their Top 3 order of the previous two rounds.  With Coelho the third different driver to top the times in qualifying, Q2 pace setter Ty Tessmann would back it up with a P4 while Spencer Rivkin managed a much improved performance on his previous qualifier to end up 7th for the round.

Opting to leave his Hobbywing powered XB4 unchanged for Q3 having ‘got the car very good’ for the second qualifier, Coelho reaction was one of relief as he summed up his performance with ‘finally’. The reigning European Champion, a title he won on dirt while his World and EOS titles all come on artificial surfaces, he said, ‘I just went out to make a clean run and while that didn’t actually happen because I hit the pipe at the start after a hard comeback I could get the TQ’. Having struggled to get his car to his liking throughout the six rounds of practice and the opening qualifier, he said improvements in Q2 gave him confidence and leaving the car unchanged he could focus more on his driving. With just one qualifier remaining on today’s schedule, the fifth & final qualifier taking place tomorrow morning ahead of the final, he said his focus for Q4 is to keep the car the same and learn to drive it better around the track without having to readjust to changes to the set-up.

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Tessmann takes Q2 in China

Ty Tessmann has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in China. Having opened 4WD qualifying with a P5 run, the Xray driver found 7-seconds to top Q2 by a 1.4-second margin from Yokomo’s Ryan Maifield who posted another P2 run. Despite a number of mistakes over the 5-minutes, David Ronnefalk would have the pace to again complete the Top 3, the HB Racing driver posting the fastest lap on his penultimate lap to finish a further 1.1-seconds off Maifield.  Having failed to finish Q1, Ryan Cavalieri would recover with a fourth for the round while Associated team-mate and Q1 pace setter Spencer Rivkin had a messy round ending up 19th fastest.

’That went really good’, was how Tessmann summed up his TQ performance. With driver’s getting just one warm-up lap prior to the heat start, he continued, ‘the car felt good in the warm-up but I didn’t make the double right and had to roll the jump so I was a a bit nervous at the start but in the race I made it every time and only had to roll it once’. Happy they have improved his XB4, the former 1:8 World Champion also felt tyres was a contributing factor. With the race using a hand out tyre, the Canadian said, ‘I think there is a big difference in the tyre batch to batch both in the grip and the wear. That was the first time I had a set go bald and the tyre had more grip. I’ve had a set with zero grip, good grip and somewhere in the middle. I think who goes fastest depends of the tyres’.

Summing up his second qualifying attempt, Maifield said, ‘I had a little bit of a mistake at the beginning and luckily stopped to let David (Ronnefalk) go by and then he did the same thing and let me go by so we worked well together on that. The newly crowned 2WD World Champion continued, ‘I also landed the table top weird and flat landed but apart from that I was going good and the car is working really nice’. He concluded, ‘we have good points to start with and we’ll keep going’.

‘Two third places is a good start as it could have been a lot worse’, was how Ronnefalk summed up Q2. The Swede continued, ‘the lap times feel great and the car is amazing but I need to relax a little. The racing is so intense. I need to stay more relaxed for the next one’. Giving an example of the intensity he said, ‘Myself, Maifield and Spencer got really close coming onto the straight. There was no space between the cars. It was not possible to drive. I was checking what Spencer was doing and wasn’t sure how he was going to jump and so I went for it but over jumped and crashed at the second double. Even with a lot of crashes I was still up there so if I can cut out some of them its got to be better’.

‘A lot better’, was Cavalieri’s reaction after the second of the five scheduled qualifiers, there still a threat of rain tomorrow. The former champion continued, ‘We changed everything on the car. I pretty much ran the same as Spencer so we finally have something that works’. Admitting to ‘stressing out every round’ prior to Q2, the American said ‘now I can relax and get on with driving’. Asked about his qualifier, Rivkin said, ‘I drove too slow. I wasn’t attacking like in the first round and it bit me’. Behind Cavalieri, Bruno Coelho and Joern Neumann would complete the Top 6.

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Rivkin surprises to TQ opening qualifier

Spencer Rivkin has taken a surprise TQ in the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the World Championships in China.  Seeding 8th in the fastest heat after a disappointing 2WD campaign, the former champion took the first of the 5-scheduled rounds of qualifying from his 2WD World Champion successor Ryan Maifield, the American duo separated by half a second.  Behind them, David Ronnefalk would recover from an early mistake to complete the Top 3 ahead of reigning champion Bruno Coelho, Ty Tessmann and Naoto Matsukura.  Having topped yesterday’s seeding in Xiamen, Joern Neumann have a costly mistake that cost him 6-seconds as he waited on marshals leaving the German with a P12 for the opening round.

‘I was not expecting that. I didn’t think the car was capable of such a run’, was Rivkin’s reaction to his TQ, the Associated driver more surprised than anyone that he got a TQ run.  Having failed to make the A-Main in his 2WD title defence, the just turned 20-year-old continued, ‘we changed something on the car and it paid off so I just drove it.  I can definitely drive better for sure. I really didn’t have much confidence going in the heat’.  Looking to Q2, having also posted the fastest lap of Q1, he said, ‘we have changed the car every run, now I’m going to leave it and work on my driving. I know I can do better on the steering inputs’.

Summing up his P2, Maifield declared it ‘not bad’ adding, ‘I had just one mistake at the beginning, well, I got a little loose and Naoto collected me’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I also had some traffic. It wasn’t much of a problem it was more just nerve racking getting passed.’  Suffering another small mistake later in the run he said, ‘I had a bobble near the end, I hit the pipe and had to do a U turn but the car is working really well and I know what & where I am going with line choices so it looking good for the next one’.

‘Considering the start it was a good comeback at the end’, was Ronnefalk’s view of the opening qualifier.  The HB Racing driver continued, ‘I also had a car blocking me for the last two minutes.  It was Naoto. He was fast one lap and would then slow me down the next one so I could have gone faster if I didn’t have to worry about what he was doing.  I said it to the referee after but he said he didn’t see it’.  For Q2 the Swede said, ‘I will try to eliminate the mistake at the start and see if can find a way to make the car easy to drive out of the gate.  It takes a couple of laps to get going but otherwise I’m happy with the car’.

Almost 3-seconds off Rivkin’s pace, Coelho declared his run as ‘not perfect’ but was happy that they ‘improved the car a lot from CP3 to now’.  The Xray driver said he lost 5-seconds with mistakes early on admitting he was ’not very confident for the round’ but with a better set-up he ‘got better over the round’ and he is now more confident in the car and his driving for the next one. Declaring his XB4 as now working ‘good but still not perfect’ he concluded, ‘we are on the right way now so we just need to make small changes to get it better’.

Xray team-mate Tessmann was also happier with his car.  The Canadian said, ‘we made a couple more changes after practice for this one and it was better.  I made the jump section everytime’.  Suffering ‘one marshal and one bobble’ he said, ‘we got the speed and just need to get rid of the crashes now’.  Asked if he planned to adjust his car for Q2 he replied, ‘we will see how the track goes. It is very inconsistent so it hard to get around without crashing’.

Matsukura’s view on Q1 was to the point, the Japanese driver saying, ‘the car good, me no good’.  The Infinity team driver added, ‘I had many many mistakes so I have to work on my driving, the car I will leave the same’.  Behind Matsukura, Kyle McBride would finish get a P7 for the round from the second fastest heat ahead of Dakota Phend, Dustin Evans and Lee Martin.

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Neumann top seed in China as CP2 proves slower

Joern Neumann is the top seed at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships in China.  Having topped the opening round of controlled practice held in the middle of the day under natural daylight, the German’s time stood as drivers failed to go quicker under flood lights in CP2. With the 2013 Worlds Top Qualifier setting a best time of 1:13.601 first time round, the best time for the second run would be a 1:14.945 which was set by HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk.  With Neumann breaking after 3-minutes, the German would end up 6th fastest for CP2 with the only improvement in the Top 17 times coming from Ryan Maifield. After a rough CP1 the Yokomo driver set the second fastest time to Ronnefalk to secure a spot in the top heat for qualifying as the 7th fastest driver. Naoto Matsukura backed up his opening P2 pace with a P3 for the second round remaining the second seed although the actual Q1 starting order for each reseeded heat grouping will be determined in CP3 tomorrow morning.

‘I broke in the last one but I am happy to top seeding of course’, was Neumann’s reaction at the end of Day 1 of the 4WD action, his participation in the event having been uncertain following his departure from Serpent. Choosing an Xray for the event with the German still having the backing of Team Orion, Maxima and Pro-Line, on CP2 he said, ‘It was hard to see so I don’t think a faster time was possible.  I only did 5-laps.  At the first double I think I cased the landing and the rear axle snapped but still I got a 1:16.2. It was too dark to be able to go super fast.’ Having left his car unchanged from CP1, he said despite the conditions the car felt really good and he will keep it the same again for tomorrow.

Topping the round, his pace only 46/1000ths slower than his 3rd place seeding time from CP, Ronnefalk said, ‘The track was a little looser than before but the main thing was it was hard to see in the night’.  He continued, ‘the lights are not the best and there are a few blind spots where you lose sight of the car so it’s hard to judge where the car is in relation to the pipe’.  With his CP2 topping time coming late in the round, the 1:8 Offroad World Champion said, ‘I pushed too hard in the beginning but I stepped it down a little towards the end and could put 3 laps together.  The car felt great so I am excited about tomorrow. We have one more practice and so we will try some ideas in CP3 but the car is already comfortable as it is.

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