Kutvonen heads Awesomatix 1-2 in Q3

Viljami Kutvonen led an Awesomatix 1-2 in the penultimate round of qualifying at the DHI Cup, the Finnish ace setting a new fastest time ahead of team-mate Freddy Südhoff.  Becoming the third different driver to post a TQ run at the 17th edition of the Danish event, Kutvonen’s result sets the stage for a 5-way shot out in the final qualifier to decide the 2017 Top Qualifier. Behind the much improved Awesomatix duo, Ronald Volker was to complete the Top 3 just ahead of his Yokomo team-mate Naoki Akiyama.  Having crashed on the last lap of the previous qualifier, popping a rear shock off his VBC, Yannic Prumper would bring home ‘a safe’ P6 for the round behind the Xray of Alexander Hagberg who lacked pace due to a ‘too stable’ car.

Having qualifying and finished 2nd to Volker in Odense on more than one occasion, while Kutvonen was happy to put his A800 on top of the time sheets and into contention for a first overall TQ he said, ‘its still not perfect but it the best its been so far this weekend’.  He continued, ‘Its always the same at DHI, my best qualifiers are the last two so now I need to TQ the last one’. Having made changes to the flex of his car for Q3, he said this made it ‘easier to drive’ but he hopes with ‘very small changes’ to the set-up for the last qualifier he push harder for the full 5-minutes.

Setting the fastest lap of the round, Sudhoff said his A800, which features a different harder chassis to that of Kutvonen, is ‘getting better and better’ and was ‘now easier to drive than before’.  ‘Super happy now with the car’, he said having suffered a few small mistakes over the 5-minutes he will leave the car as it is and just focus on his own driving.

‘I’m not too happy with Q3’ was a not too pleased looking Volker’s reaction to ending up 1.3-seconds off Kutvonen’s TQ pace.  The German explained, ‘I had no problem with the car rolling this time but now I did not have enough steering to challenge’.  Having gone too far with the set-up change on his BD8, he said ‘we need to go back a bit’. While he and team-mate Akiyama currently sit 1-2 in the qualification points standings, the World Champion said ‘its wide open now but hopefully we can stay 1-2 in the last one’.

Going up the oil in the diff of his BD8, Akiyama said his car was much better, adding the times were ‘super close’. Having taken the opening qualifier and going into the final heat as a contender for his first international TQ, the Yokomo protege feels reducing the power settings on his Yokomo speedo should make his car more easy to drive therefore improving his chances for a good fourth qualifier.

‘Its not so good now’ was Hagberg’s reaction after Q3.  A veteran of the DHI Cup, this being his 13th consecutive trip to the event, the Swede said, ‘we went in the wrong direction with the set-up and the car was too stable’. He continued, ‘we will go back to before and change something else and hopefully we’ll be back on the pace’.

Prumper said, ‘after I crashed in the last one I had to make a safe run but it was too safe and too slow’.  Feeling his VBC D09 is ‘too lazy on rotation’, the German will ‘change the car a little for the last one’, changing to less toe in and a different camber link.

View the complete onroad event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Orlowski to defend DHI Cup from pole

Michal Orlowski will set out to defend his DHI Cup title tomorrow from pole position after producing a second TQ run in the final round of 2WD qualifying at the Danish event.  The Schumacher driver made it back to back TQ runs when he again topped the times from Marc Rheinard, this time round the gap a lot closer as Rheinard registered his first 17-lap run. While being the only driver to finish all four qualifiers in the Top 2, Rheinard will find himself lining up third on the grid behind Joern Neumann who while on third in Q4 benefited from a faster TQ time to secure second overall. Former Top Qualifier and Champion David Ronnefalk will line up fourth with promising young Swedish Team Associated driver Wilhelm Skjöldebrand making it five different manufacturers filling the top half of the grid for the 6th running offroad at the DHI Cup.

‘I’m really happy to get the TQ.  I couldn’t make it happen last year but now I have’, was Orlowski’s reaction claiming his first TQ of the Odense based event.  Qualifying second last year behind Tom Cockerill, the 15-year-old described the final qualifier as ‘very exciting’ as himself and Rheinard went head to head for the overall TQ.  He continued, ‘Marc crashed, then I had a crash and after I went for it.  I got a bit at the end when Marc hit another car but I think I still would have been able to TQ’.  Planning to use the ‘same settings for the final’ on his prototype parts equipped KF2, he said ‘I hope to be able to make a bigger gap at the beginning but all three of us are on a similar pace so it will be difficult’.  Having made a mistake at the same spot on the track on both his TQ runs he concluded, ‘I also need to make no mistakes at the end of the straight’.

Rheinard said the chance of claiming the overall TQ on his DHI Cup Offroad debut was lost by ‘just a mistake on the 2nd lap’.  The Yokomo driver however enjoyed the qualifier saying, ‘I saw Michal crash and I was catching Joern but I wasn’t sure how we were running but after a while I saw he was coming again and he was a bit faster but it was close’.  Hitting a crashed car on his final lap, the EOS race winner said, ‘It didn’t effect anything, I only lost 1/2 a second’.  Starting from third he said, ‘it is still wide open but hopefully Joern can find pace to battle with Michal otherwise he’ll be gone’.

‘Luckily Orlowski got the TQ’ was Neumann reaction to Q4 as had Rheinard TQ’d the Serpent driver would have been demoted to third.  The former back to back champion said of his own performance, ‘I had a bobble on the wall and flipped over but the car was good again’.  Qualifying fourth last year and making it onto the final step of the podium in the finals, looking to this year’s finals the German said, ‘we are all the same pace so it should be interesting finals’.

Securing fourth the grid with his Orion powered D216, Ronnefalk declared, ‘we have improved a lot with the car’. Able to lock himself into an A-Main starting position in Q3, the Swede said, ‘we used the last one to try a few things on the car like cutting the inside of the tyre which made it easy to drive. I also worked on my speedo settings too which helped with corner speed’.  While he would traction roll at the end of the straight after triying to make a save from running wide, he said ‘the car felt great’ after the changes and now he is ‘confident for the mains tomorrow’.  He concluded, ‘Michal, Joern & Marc are very close on pace so my plan is to try and hang onto them and be there if anything happens’.

View the complete offroad event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Volker takes second qualifier at DHI Cup

Having struggled to a P6 in yesterday’s opening round of qualifying at the DHI Cup presented by LRP, Ronald Volker resumed normal duty this morning as the reigning 7-time champion of the Danish classic TQ’d the second round of qualifying. The Yokomo driver topped the times by 2.2-seconds over Jan Ratheisky, the Xray driver putting in an impressive Modified run to back up his performances in the Superstock class in which he has TQ’d the first two rounds.  Alexander Hagberg would complete the Top 3, 11/100ths off his Xray team-mate, while last night’s Q1 topping Naoki Akiyama set the fourth fastest time with Awesomatix pairing Freddy Sudhoff and Viljami Kutvonen rounding out the Top 6.

‘Definitely a better qualification than the previous one’ was Volker’s reaction after Q2.  The World Champion continued, ‘It started out well at the beginning but then I started to have a problem in the long corners as the car got edgy and I could not go as fast as I wanted.  Considering I struggled in the first run these are very valuable points’.  Switching from running a carbon chassis on his BD8 in Q1 to an aluminium chassis on the same car for Q2, he said while ‘the traction came up a little bit’ the car ‘seems quicker’ but added, ‘now we just need to get the balance’.

Joking his improvement today was down to switching from coffee to a cappuccino, Ratheisky declared himself very happy with his P2.  The German, who is best known for his ETS Pro Stock and Formula campaigns, said, ‘I started off easy aiming to get a Top 6 finish. I don’t know what is going on but my car is just easy to drive’.  For Q3 he said, ‘I will just try to do the same again’.

‘A clean run but a bit too slow’ was Hagberg’s view of Q2.  He continued, ‘the traction came up which made the car edgy’. Having struggled with his tyres in Q1, he said that was fine now and the plan for Q3 is to ‘lose front grip’ from his ORCA powered T4 adding with a front roll centre adjustment, ‘it should be fine again’.

Admitting after he TQ’d Q1 that his team-mate Volker was faster, Akiyama said his ‘car (was) difficult’ and ‘yesterday was better’.  The 17-year-old Japanese driver continued, ‘in the low grip my car was better’.   With today’s track having more grip and his car becoming edgy to drive as a result he said, ‘I need to change the set-up for the next one’.

‘Until I made a costly mistake it was fine’ was how Sudhoff described his Q2 performance. In the second minute of the run the 2015 podium finisher would hit the wooden track markers in front of the driver stand and flip his A800 losing almost 4-seconds. The German said, ‘the traction is getting higher and higher and making the car edgy again so we need to find a way to overcome this’. Team-mate Kutvonen said changes overnight to his A800 had made it faster but very difficult to drive. The Finn added, ‘I think I was 15-times on two wheels so now I have got to make it easier to drive again’.

View the event image gallery here.