January 6, 2017

Volker from team-mate Akiyama in DHI Cup seeding

Ronald Volker has topped seeding practice at the DHI Cup presented by LRP in Denmark. The reigning champion was fastest from his Yokomo team-mate Naoki Akiyama being the only driver to run 3-laps in 38-seconds. Fastest by almost 3/10ths from Akiyama, Volker would set his quickest time in the final practice with Akiyama having topped the times in the first of the two runs. Also improving his time in the second run, Alexander Hagberg would complete the Top 3 followed by his Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky. While 2016 podium finisher Viljami Kutvonen would struggle to only the 10th fastest time, Awesomatix team-mate Freddy Sudhoff would round out the Top 5 times ahead of the VBC of Yannic Prumper.

‘I’m satisfied with how the car went’ was Volker’s reaction after practice. Chasing an 8th DHI Cup title this weekend, which marks the 16th running of the event, he added ‘we kept changing the set-up each run and managed to improve, the grip went a lot higher than expected with the car lifting tyres on the long corners’. Overall happy with the car for the final practice he said ‘it is a little edgy at the beginning of the run so we’ll probably adapt the tyre prep for Q1’.

With the biggest change to be made to his BD8 over the practice rounds being a switch to a harder diff, up & coming Japanese star Akiyama said the car was ‘better’ after the change. Having made his DHI Cup debut last year, finishing 6th, the 17-year-old plans to leave the car unchanged for Q1 feeling his driving is where the greatest improvement will come from. Running a ‘very different set-up’, he said the track which was designed by Volker has a ‘good flow’ but for the 5-minute qualifiers he needs ‘to be more smooth’ and try to get through it with ‘no mistakes’.

‘A bit better, the car feels pretty balanced’ was how Hagberg summed up his ORCA powered T4. Racing in his 13th consecutive DHI Cup, all of which he has been accompanied by his father Bosse, he added, ‘we’ll see how pace is over minutes but it feels alright’. Describing the traction levels as ‘medium-high’ and describing the track as ‘fairly open compared to last year’, the Swede said for Q1 they will make some ‘minor tweaks’ to the set-up but overall the car ‘feels alright’.

With no Formula class at the DHI Cup to dominate, ETS Formula Champion Ratheisky said his P4 pace was ‘a lot better than expected’. Asked about his car the German said ‘I just drive it and have fun’. In terms of changes to the set-up he said the only thing he changed between the two rounds was to ‘just drink coffee with milk & sugar’. Describing the layout as ‘very good’ he is confident his 3-lap pace is a true reflection of his pace saying, the car can run that time consistently for all the run’.

‘So far so good’ was how Sudhoff summed up what is his first race outing since the ETS season opener in early December. Running Awesomatix’ A800, he explained the preproduction run of the first of their new A800X kits has just started and while they have an example of the car here they don’t have enough spare parts to race it. Running his car ‘nearly the same as at the ETS’, he said the big thing is that ‘the driving style is a little different due to the tyres’, the DHI Cup using a handout LRP tyre for touring car. Looking to qualifying he said, ‘I need to make it a little more stable in the long sweepers which is our weak point for now’ concluding ‘on this track consistency is important’.

Prumper described practice as having gone ‘so so’. The German added ‘the car is to edgy and is always on two wheels and I don’t know what to change anymore’. Running a different but unchanged VBC chassis to that which he used at the ETS season opener he said ‘there is a lot traction, its normally not that high here’. For the first of the qualifiers, which will bring Day 1 of the event to a close tonight, he said, “I will keep the same set-up and change tyre prep but don’t know what exactly’.

View the event image gallery here.

January 6, 2017

Chassis Focus – Max Machler

Chassis – Awesomatix A800 X
Motor – LRP X20 13.5 Stock Spec
ESC – LRP Flow
Batteries – LRP 7500mAh Stock Spec
Tires – LRP (handout)
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Bodyshell – Protoform Mazda Speed6
Remarks – Awesomatix team manager Max Machler is testing here at the DHI Cup their latest version of the A800 called “X”. The new car features a longer chassis for an increased wheelbase, with the servo position also brought forward compared to the previous version. The sway bar mounts now feature ball bearings, and the top deck has been revised in shape and its centre mount is also new. The bulkheads and the spur mount have also been slightly updated in order to offer a better belt tension adjustment, while the shape of the wishbones has been changed to obtain more clearance to the rims at full steering lock. The linear steering system is now standard in the kit, and the hubs have been updated in the search for better handling in high bite conditions.

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January 6, 2017

Orlowski tops 2WD seeding at DHI Cup

Defending champion Michal Orlowski has topped 2WD Buggy seeding at the DHI Cup presented by LRP. The Schumacher driver posted the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the first of the two rounds of control practice at the Danish event with Marc Rheinard his closest challenger. Little under a tenth of a second off Orlowski’s 55.401 pace, Rheinard would also post his best time in the first round, all drivers reporting high tyre wear due to the tracks low grip. Completing the Top 3 would be Rheinard’s Yokomo team-mate Frederik Hovgaard who was the only driver in the Top 5 to better his opening time in the final practice.

Starting out practice with his ‘basic carpet set-up’, EOS Poland double winner Orlowski said with the ‘lower traction than (he is) used too’ they had to make some small changes to the car to find more speed and given the grip levels they have managed to get the car working well for the conditions. Running a KF2 fitted with a number of prototype parts, the Polish driver said the low traction is causing issues with tyre wear with the wheel spin leading to high wear of the Schumacher handout tyre. In terms of the track layout, the 15-year-old said it has a good rhythm and once you find that it is really enjoyable to drive. With ‘a few places’ you can make time he said getting the landing right at the jump under the driver stand is key to a good lap.

While a multiple winner of the DHI Cup in Touring Cars, this is Rheinard’s first attempt at offroad. Sent by his Offroad sponsors Yokomo, the former TRF driver still to announce his new touring car future, the German summed up his 2WD practice as ‘actually not too bad’. Winner of the current Euro Offroad Series season opener in 2WD, he said the biggest issue for him so far has been the lack of traction compared to the EOS adding ‘the tyre wear is really high’. Improving the car with a shock position change, he was content that the ‘lap times are fine’ and while ‘on full power the car slides’ it was the same issue for everyone. In terms of the track layout, he said, ‘its ok, its not too difficult’. 17-year-old team-mate Hovgaard was happy with his YZ-2 after a swaybar adjustment which the Dane said improved the car under acceleration. For qualifying he plans to just refresh the diff oil.

‘My car is pretty good’ was how Joern Neumann summed setting the fourth fastest time. The Serpent driver, who has won the 4WD Buggy title every year since the DHI Cup introduced offroad in 2012, was another to start with his regular EOS set-up on his SDX2. Having to make small changes for the grip levels which he described as ‘a lot lower’, the two time 2WD Champion described the resulting tyre wear as ‘crazy’ saying he doubted if two runs would be possible on a set of the Version 1 Mini Pin tyres feeling the risk was the tyres would go off too much at the end of the second run. For Q1 he will leave his car unchanged other than start out with a new set of tyres and gauge the track after 4WD had run its practice on it.

2WD Champion in 2015, then driving a Team C as HB didn’t have a car at the time of him joining the team, David Ronnefalk would post the 5th fastest time ahead of fellow Swede Christoffer Svensson. With HB Racing designer Torrance Deguzman making the trip over from the US to Denmark to help develop HB’s 1:10 offering for Europe’s popular offroad carpet tracks, Ronnefalk said of his practice time, ‘I’m happy. We are coming a lot closer to the other brands’. Running a D216 fitted with a different chassis and 3D printed laydown gearbox he said the changes ‘are really good and have helped (them) come a long way’. Admitting the event is more of a test session than a attempt to challenge for a second DHI Cup title, he said one area they need to improve is how the car accelerates saying ‘Orlowski and Marc’s cars have more acceleration’. One area he will work on for qualifying is his shock package but overall he concluded he was ‘pretty happy’.

View the event image gallery here.

January 6, 2017

Track Focus – DHI Cup Odense

Host Club – Odense R/C Minirace
Country – Denmark
Location – Odense
Venue – Stadium Arena Fyn
Track type – Temporary
Surface – Carpet (Onroad), Carpet & Wood (Offroad)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise (Onroad), Clockwise (Offroad)
Previous races hosted – 16 (Onroad), 5 (Offroad)

After recharging their own batteries and looking to get out of the food coma that resulted from the Christmas over indulgence, for drivers the DHI Cup in Denmark marks the dawn of the new season and for the last 17 years has been the traditional opening event of the international touring car race calendar. While the event may not have its once blue ribboned international driver line up, it still packs a punch in terms of the quality of its driver line-up and it quickly books out proving that it is still a favourite among racers. Based in Denmark’s third largest city of Odense, the famed international Touring Car event has also become an important European offroad event with both the offroad and onroad classes racing simultaneously on two back to back tracks that are separated by a huge drivers stand.

On the onroad track, the entry split into 90 Super Stock and 70 Modified entries, the first thing noticeable about the carpet is that it’s grey, the DHI Cup organisers not following the trend of running the now almost standard issue Black ETS carpet. Heading the large organisation team that put on the event and impressively deconstruct the entire set-up with military precision on Sunday night, Ulrich Rassmussen said the reason for continuing to run grey carpet is that they like that after some running on the brand new carpet a visual race line develops. As for the 2017 layout, defending Champion Ronald Volker was again tasked with coming up with the plans for the track design. While his 2016 design didn’t translate to how he had envisaged it, the Yokomo driver who is chasing his 8th DHI Cup win, said ‘they did a very good job’ with building the track this year. Describing his layout as ‘not too difficult or not too easy’, he added, ‘while it has a couple of hairpins it is quite flowing’. Pointing out the short angled wooden sections that are used to layout the curved sections of the track, Volker said they are a very good system as you can run up on them without flipping the car making them a much better option than the standard corner dots.

The Offroad track, the 160 entries split evenly between 2WD and 4WD Buggy, is made up using last year’s touring car track carpet. A total of 10 wooden jumps, mostly carpet covered, making up a lap of the track, the main feature is the wall section which having been in front of the drivers has now been moved to the front right side of the track. Defending 2WD champion Michal Orlowski said while the layout is fine, the grip is low adding ‘you can hear the wheels spinning as you drive around’.

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