Orlowski makes light work of rivals in A1

Michal Orlowski made light work of his rivals in the opening A-Main of 2WD Buggy at the DHI Cup this morning.  The Top Qualifier almost immediately took control of the race clearing off in the distance ahead of Joern Neumann and David Ronnefalk, an early mistake putting Marc Rheinard out of contention.  With defending champion Orlowski winning by 7.5-seconds, the main action of the race was to come towards the end as Ronnefalk caught Neumann getting by when the German cased the jump in front of the front of the drivers stand.  Next time round however Ronnefalk would get it wrong at the same section allowing Neumann back through.  Ronnefalk would made another attempt to get second on the final lap but trying to capitalise on a bobble from Neumann flipped over & needed marshalling but still managed to hold onto 3rd ahead of Dane Jesper Rasmussen.

‘I hope for the same in the next but I don’t think it will be so easy’ was Orlowski’s reaction to his dominant win.  The Schumacher driver said, ‘Joern had a mistake at the start and that already gave me a 1-second lead allowing me to cruise around and put in good laps’.  The 15-year-old continued, ‘then Joern and David started fighting which gave me more seconds’.  Expecting a tougher A2 he said, ‘the car is really good and I know I have the speed so I’m ready’.

‘Luckily I finished second’ was how Neumann summed up the first A-Main encounter.  The Serpent driver continued, ‘I changed nothing on the car but it was very loose on the rear, very strange’.  He added, ‘I was just trying to keep the car on the track’.  Asked what he though caused the lack of traction the German replied, ‘the only thing I changed was the tyres’.

Having lost position to fifth place qualifier Wilhelm Skjöldebrand at the start after he didn’t make it over the first double, Ronnefalk said, ‘I couldn’t get 2nd but 3rd is pretty good’.  The HB Racing driver continued, ‘My car felt great and the race was pretty much what I was expecting.  If the others made mistakes I would be there to take the places.  Orlowski had extra speed in his car but me, Marc and Joern are on the same pace.  I had a chance on the last lap but flipped over.  I’ll try again in A2’.

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Orlowski does TQ double at DHI Cup

Having become the 2WD Buggy Top Qualifier earlier in the day, Michal Orlowski completed the TQ double at the DHI Cup presented by LRP taking the final two rounds of 4WD qualifying to secure pole for tomorrow’s A-Mains.  The Schumacher driver had a less than perfect start to qualifying when he ran Q1 with a loose steering servo but despite this still managed to get P2 behind Joern Neumann.  After another P2 run in Q2 behind David Ronnefalk, Orlowski finally delivered in Q3 setting the stage for a Q4 showdown for the overall TQ.  With both Neumann and Rheinard struggling, Orlowski just had Ronnefalk to contend with and while they went back and forth, both having to deal with traffic, it was Orlowski who took the spoils.  Behind him it is Ronnefalk who will line-up second followed by undefeated 4WD champion Neumann, with Rheinard and Samppa Orhanen making up the Top 5 starters.

After what he called a ‘rough start’ to Q4, Orlowski said ‘when I heard I was 1-second back from David I started to pushed really hard. I lost time in traffic but then David also lost time in traffic it was very close and in the end it worked out good for me’.  The former European Champion expects a difficult race tomorrow saying, ‘the top 3 are all on the same pace so the finals will be difficult and my aim starting from the front will be to try keep calm and make no mistakes’.  Having improved the car for Q3, finding more rear traction, he added they will leave his LRP powered CAT K2 unchanged for A1.

Summing up Q4, Ronnefalk said, ‘it was good until I hit traffic’ adding ‘when Michal hit traffic it was more spread out and that was what cost me the TQ’.  Making a late mistake as he tried to claw back the time, even with the mistake the separation being just 6/10th, the HB Racing driver said, ‘I’m second on the grid and I have a really good car so I’m happy’.

Having won his 5th consecutive 4WD DHI Cup title from fourth on the grid last year, Neumann said qualifying 3rd wasn’t a problem adding ‘I think the race is still wide open’. Changing from a 5.5 turn motor to a 5 for Q3 he said he didn’t like the feeling and pulled off early.  Going back to the 5.5 turn Orion motor for Q4, the Serpent driver tried a harder front diff but said it pushed too much but still he was able to get a P3 that would count towards his final grid position.  For the opening final, the current European Champion said he will revert to his Q1 set-up.

Set to line-up fourth on his 4WD Offroad DHI Cup debut, Rheinard said ‘the driver was shit’.  While the Yokomo driver would get a P2 in the penultimate round, benefiting from Neumann and Ronnefalk both having a bad run, he said he continues to struggle with understeer.  Going into the final the German said, ‘I will just drive around and see what happens. Getting anything more than fourth will depend on the others doing damage to one another’.

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Kutvonen Top Qualifier at DHI Cup

Viljami Kutvonen is Top Qualifier at the DHI Cup after delivering a second TQ run in the fourth & final round of qualifying at the Danish event.  With the weekend not starting out well for last year’s podium finisher, the Finn just scraping into the top heat of qualifying, the Awesomatix driver turned things around drastically in the second half of Day 2. Heading a 1-2 from team-mate Freddy Sudhoff in Q3, the team was on target to repeat that result in the closing qualifier until Sudhoff, who was on the heels of Kutvonen, had to avoid a marshal attending Yannic Prumper’s VBC on the last lap. With this dropping Sudhoff to fourth, Alexander Hagberg got a personal best of the weekend P2 from the round ahead of defending champion Ronald Volker who, having TQ’d the 2nd qualifier, will line up second on the grid. Although Naoki Akiyama would break during the round, having taken last night’s opening qualifier the Japanese teenager will start 3rd on his second DHI Cup appearance equaling his best international qualifying result achieved at last October’s IIC in Las Vegas. Hagberg will start start 4th with Sudhoff making up the top half of the grid for tomorrow’s triple A-Mains.

‘I got what I wanted and it feels even better after a not so good practice’, was Kutvonen’s reaction to finally securing the TQ having qualified second twice before. Making ‘small tweaks’ to his LRP powered A800 for the decider he said ‘they worked as expected making the car a little more easy to drive’. Describing it as a ‘difficult qualifier as Freddy had the same pace’, he added, ‘It is great to see our car have very good pace at the moment’.  Asked about the finals he replied, ‘I think I will leave the car and hope I can get away from the others, thats the plan’.

A previous 5 time Top Qualifier for the race he has won 8 times, Volker said , ‘it was slightly better than Q3 but I still lacked steering’.  The World Champion continued, ‘It was a very clean run but I couldn’t do much (to challenge for TQ) and I am disappointed for that’.  Having won the event from 3rd on grid, the Yokomo driver said, ‘for the finals I would prefer a car that is a bit difficult but than one that lacks steering’. Planning a new set of tyres for his BD8 and a different tyre prep to try improve his steering, the German added, ‘everyone is very close so 2nd is not bad and in terms of the track it is easy to touch the dots which are pretty high in spots so anything can happen’.

While he would suffer a broke drive shaft in the last qualifier with a minute to go, Akiyama said from the running he did his BD8 felt better than before and he is confident for the final. Qualifying 10th for the A-Main last year on his DHI Cup debut and going on to finish 6th, the 17-year-old said his plan is to follow Volker at the start and if his team-mate can force a pass on Kutvonen he wants to be there to follow him through.

While the Q4 time sheets show Hagberg as having the fastest car, the Xray driver said, ‘we got the car better but still need to change something to be fast for tomorrow’. Also losing time as a result of Prumper’s last lap crash, around 1/2 a second, the Swede added, ‘it was very close with, any of the Top 4 could have TQ’d but for the finals we will do a bit of fine tuning to the set-up to so hopefully we have a better car to race with’.

‘I would say just bad luck’, was Sudhoff’s reaction after Q4.  He continued, ‘Yannic had a mistake on the last lap and I had to come to a full stop to avoid the marshal and that cost me 1-second.  So I went from 1st or 2nd to 5th on the grid’.  With ‘the car again very good’, the German said ‘it would have been a lot better if I was starting second behind Viljami as we have a good pace and could have worked together but now I have to try to work my way through but everything can happen on this track layout’.

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Neumann & Ronnefalk TQ opening 4WD qualifiers at DHI

The opening two rounds of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the DHI Cup presented by LRP saw Joern Neumann TQ the opening round with David Ronnefalk proving fastest in the second of the four attempts drivers will get.  Having topped seeding yesterday, unbeaten DHI Cup champion Neumann opened qualifying with an easy TQ over Michal Orlowski with Marc Rheinard third ahead of Ronnefalk, both drivers having mistakes.  With a better set-up for Q2, HB Racing’s Ronnefalk would run a 2.5-second faster pace than that of Q1 with Orlowski again second although this time the 2WD Top Qualifier was much closer having found an issue with car after Q1.  Neumann would complete the Top 3 with Rheinard some distance back in fourth.

Summing up his opening round, Neumann said, ‘the first one was pretty good, it was a clean run and I could do consistent laps but I didn’t push 100% as the others crashed so the time was not so fast’.  On Q2 the Serpent driver said, ‘We were all pretty close but then I had one crash’.  Running both his qualifiers on new tyres, the German added, ‘it looks like others ran used tyres and could start out quicker so I will try used tyres for the next one’.

Taking his TQ on a second run set of the race’s controlled Schumacher tyres, Ronnefalk said he had the speed in the first run setting the fastest lap but threw it away when he crashed.  Lowering the D415’s centre of gravity for Q2, the Swede said this helped to keep the car ‘more flat in the corners’, helping improve corner speed, as well as reducing the amount the car squatted allowing a better transfer of his Orion power.  With his Q1 error costing him over 4-seconds, he said another factor was that he ‘put it together’ for Q2 with no crashes. Having run both his qualifiers on used tyres he said for Q3 he wants to ‘try how it is on new tyres’ adding he will leave the car set-up unchanged.

Orlowski said a loose servo caused him problems in Q1 describing the car as having ‘felt weird and different every corner’, with it tightened up for Q2 things were much better.  Setting the fastest lap he said he tried hard to challenge Ronnefalk and while it was ‘really close’ his CAT K2 was ‘difficult to drive’ as it lacked rear traction.  Describing the track as having ‘lower traction’ than before, something that concerns him over his 2WD set-up as these finals are up first tomorrow, he said hopefully with a set-up change to fix this ‘I can TQ a round and not finish second again’.

‘I crashed too many times in both of them’, was how Rheinard summed his 2 qualifying attempts so far.  The Yokomo driver continued, his YZ-4 ‘understeers too much’ and he ‘need(s) more steering’.  For Q3 he will try to achieve this by changing his ‘diff oil again’.  Behind the Pro factory drivers Finland’s Samppa Orhanen would have two good qualifiers posting the fifth fastest time for both rounds.

View the complete offroad event results here.

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