March 4, 2023

Izsay claims Stock TQ at MIBO International

Adam Izsay is the Top Qualifier for Stock Touring Car at MIBO International.  The Hungarian locked his Xray into pole position when he backed up TQ runs in the second and third rounds with a P2 behind Oliver Havranek in Q4.  The result means that even if Havranek was to take the final qualifier he would be one point short of beating his team-mate.  The other TQ of the day went to Simon Horak, but the Czech driver suffered a DNF in Q2 and sits P5 overnight behind Jirka Vyšín (3rd) and Enrico Jung (4th).  Happy to wrap up the TQ, 20-year-old Izsay says the finals are going to be hard fraught. ‘The Top 3 are really close and the track is not so forgiving so it’s not going to be easy’.  In FWD while there is a three way battle for the pole in Formula, Tomáš Sova is holding the top spot overnight.

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March 4, 2023

Coelho secures 4WD TQ, Zalewski holds 2WD TQ with one to go

With four of the five rounds of Offroad qualifying complete at MIBO International, Bruno Coelho has secured the 4WD while young Polish talent Bartosz Zalewski holds the provisional TQ in 2WD.  Capping off Day 2’s action at the Michal Bok organised race with his third 4WD run of the day, Coelho put the TQ beyond his rivals’ reach.  The only other driver to top the times today when he took Q2, Zalewski also has two P2 runs to his credit to split his two senior Xray team-mates.  With a pair of second fastest times leaving Martin Bayer third and mathematically in with a chance of bumping himself one spot up the grid in tomorrow morning’s fifth & final qualifying.  Overnight Max Gotzl is holding fourth in 4WD ahead of Sweden’s Jessica Palsson and veteran racer Hupo Honigl.

In 2WD, Zalewski was the only driver to hit the top of the timing screens twice over the day.  Having taken Q1 Coelho’s 2WD endeavours went downhill from there including a DNF in Q4.  The other TQ performance came from Hungarian driver Zsolt Bajusz as the youngster collected 100 points for Q3.  16-year-old Zalewski can only be denied becoming Top Qualifier in Hrotovice by Bajusz or Coelho but with the fastest 5-minute time his rival are really going to need to put together a rather special run in the morning.  The 2WD Euro Buggy Masters Champion Palsson holds P3 overnight equal on points with Gotzl while Coelho lies 5th looking to shed a 6th from Q3.

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March 4, 2023

On form Brunet takes Q2 & 3 at MIBO International

France’s Antoine Brunet is the man on form at the MIBO International Race this afternoon, the Xray driver posting TQ runs in the second and third rounds of qualifying at the Czech event.  Having opening the day with P2 behind Ronald Volker, Brunet went one better in Q2 as Volker struggled with a set-up change before crashing out.  Oliver Havranek would make it an Xray 1-2 with ahead of the Yokomo of Christopher Krapp and Eric Dankel who had given Mugen a 1-2 in Q1.  Finding his form even better was to come from Brunet in Q3 as he set a new fastest time bettering that of Volker by over a second.  Again it was Havranek who was second fastest as he got to within 1/10th of  a second of his team-mate.  Back after his Q2 crash but struggling with his new body shell, Volker would complete the Top 3 ahead the IRIS One of Dionys Stadler.

While struggling with how nervous his car was at the start of the second qualifier, Brunet said a change to his tyre prep had overall given him a much more consistent car over the 5-minutes and he was delighted to take Q2.  Going with the same tyre prep for Round 3, he found the track conditions ‘more oily’ and that resulted in his car feeling ‘sticky mid corner’, something he plans to make a small adjustment for in his car set-up ahead of the penultimate qualifier.  Despite the track conditions he was able to bag his second maximum points of the day describing it as a ‘clean run without mistakes’.

Setting the fastest lap so far in Q3, Havranek said he again made a very fast start to the second heat to lead early on just as he had done in the opener.  A few mistakes ‘hitting dot here and there’ dropped him from the lead with the Slovak driver complimenting his team-mate Brunet for being the more consistent driver.  Feeling he was ‘calmer over the 5-minutes’ of Q3, he said this was ‘a really good qualifier’ and with no mistakes he could get closer to Brunet with just 1/10 separating them in the end.  Motivated for the fourth of the five scheduled qualifiers he said, ‘we will see what we can do in 4’.

Asked about his Q3 exit, Volker replied, ‘I told you about changing my diff, well it was the wrong choice’.  Suffering a fast crash and contact with the boards this broke his car with just 1:30 run.  Also breaking his body, he said having fixed the chassis, the fit of the new shell was slightly different leading him to suffer understeer.  Despite this the Mugen driver managed a P3 and is hopeful with a different body he can get back in the mix for Q4 which will bring Day 2 of the inaugural MIBO International Race to a close.

Sixth fastest in Q3 after his third in the previous round, Krapp said, ‘we are going a little backwards set-up wise’.  Happy with the points of P3 in Q2 he said it was 1 to 2 seconds off where they needed to be.  He said Q3 started better but then he had a ‘big mistake’ but admitted even without this they are still not there.  The World Championship Runner-up concluded, ‘the driver and the set-up are still not on point’.

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March 4, 2023

Chassis Focus – Antoine Brunet (Xray)

Chassis – Xray X4 23
Motor – Hobbywing V10
ESC – Hobbywing G2S
Battery – Sunpadow 4000mAh
Tires (handout) – Rush
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/BR1 BC-X4
Body – Xtreme Speciale

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