Canas states intentions with fastest time in Q6

Having already wrapped up the overall TQ at the 19th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship with one qualifier to go, Juan Carlos Canas stated his intentions very clearly to his rivals by setting a new outright fastest time in sixth & final qualifier.  The Sworkz driver’s fourth TQ run came ahead of defending Champion Davide Ongaro, the Team Associated driver’s run hampered when he got blocked by two crashed cars when exiting pit lane leaving the Italian 5.5-seconds in deficit to his rival.  After his impressive showing in Q5, Bruno Coelho failed to repeat a clean run ending up on his roof during his final 10-minute effort meaning he couldn’t deny Ongaro P2 overall and pole in the Semi B.  Instead the Xray driver starts second in the Semi A behind Canas.  2016 World Champion David Ronnefalk will line up behind the man who took that title from him in the Semi B.  With many surprised that there hasn’t been a better showing from the America contingent given their previous experience of the RC-Redovan track 2-years-ago, Dakotah Phend has put himself in a solid Semi Final position after ending qualifying P5 overall ahead of former Top Qualifier Elliot Boots.  While qualifying is complete, there are concerns among drivers that the ruling on tyre size could turn the event on its head.  As it currently stands, given the type of tyre being used and the high wear rate most tyres will fail to meet the minimum diameter with one source saying that almost 50% of cars in qualifying would have been DQ’d had the rule been implemented how IFMAR currently interpret the wording.  IFMAR has called a international jury meeting to seek clarification having already had a meeting with representatives from 7 tyre manufacturers.

Reacting to his Q6 time Canas said, ‘I had pretty good lap times.  I tried new things on the car and also new stuff from JConcepts and it was working really well so I have a new idea for Saturday’.  Asked more about the car changes, he said, ‘I changed the car completely.  I think for longer run it is better, lap time was fast but it was also pretty safe.’ On run time, he said, ‘fuel was perfect, tyres I need to try on Saturday morning.  The wear is pretty high for everyone.’

Summing up his run Ongaro said, ‘Super unlucky, the feeling was better but super unlucky, I was on pace with him (Canas) but coming out of the pit lane I found two cars that were upside-down and blocking the pit lane so I had to stay there ’til someone get the cars so I lost about 5-seconds.  Overall I am happy with the car, we are in a strong position’.  Asked about tyre wear, ‘I think tomorrow with all the lower finals run the track will change again.  We will watch tomorrow while we are here wrenching our car and see what it is like.’

‘That one didn’t go really good’ was Coelho’s thoughts on the round.  He explained, ‘I went on the softs again and I don’t think conditions were right for them now, we would need to change the set-up a lot for it, the car was diffing out a lot on the track which made me touch a lot of pipe and have some bobbles but still the speed was there.  As I said there will be a time when Clays will work and I think now is the time they start to work and we were not with the right compound.  We know what we need to do now and go with Clays and change set-up’.  With all the mistakes I did I still finish 3rd second to Ongaro.  Asked if he had the match of Canas’ pace he said, ‘I don’t know how my Clays are going to work so we will see on that and we will also see on the IFMAR decision on the tyres I hope they don’t destroy the race.  At the moment everyone is running tyres with no pins so if they follow the run like checking the tyres after the run everyone is going to have to change to pins which I think will be a big mess so I hope there is a good decision outcome’.

Ronnefalk was upbeat about his qualifying performance.  He said, ‘It’s going to be Top 2 on grid, second behind Davide in the Semi B so it’s all good.  It is an improvement from 2-years ago and I am closer to the top.  I am confident going into Saturday and we will see what it brings.  On his final qualifying run the Swede said, ‘I had good speed in the last one unfortunately I got caught by the wind, there was a big gust coming right when I was on the double double and I could save it, lost 5-seconds there, and then I had another mistake trying to push after that one, obviously not ideal.  We tried some stuff, car had good speed, so I am feeling good it’s just qualifying isn’t my strong point.  Top 5 in every run throughout qualifying this is probably my better qualifying showing still’.  I am pleased with 4th but I would like to have had at least a TQ run to show the speed is really there’.  Asked about his preparations for the final he said, ‘I think the track is going to change a lot tomorrow when the mains are running, longer runs usual put down a lot more grease from the exhaust so I definitely think we are going to see the Clay compounds come into play her Saturday which is going to really mix up things because so far nobody has used them with great success I would say from what I know.’  On tyre wear he said, ‘tyres are wearing a lot but it’s the same for everyone, everyone will pretty much be bald.  I guess we are going to see what IFMAR is going to do because there is a rule on the tyre diameter.  They said they are going to have a decision today but it would have been nice to have that before qualifying because we would have known what to work with’.

One of three Americans to make the final at RC-Redovan 2-years ago Phend said his final qualifier was, ‘Not so great’.  He added, ‘We tried some different dirt compound and it didn’t do exactly what I thought it was going to do but we still have a long time to figure that out.  The track is going to change a ton tomorrow and then all day Saturday until we get to that point.  I think we are on a decent spot with the car we probably get some tyre options mounted up for the Semi practice and then do a data debrief and come up with a game plan.’  I’m content with 5th for now, the Top 4 are really fast and definitely a bit of speed on me.  I think the Semi will be really good for me as I’ll be about to see where they are faster maybe it’s a line I can adjust or if we need to make an adjustment to the car.  I haven’t really been able to figure that out ’cause I haven’t run with them in the heat that I am in so I think we will learn a lot from the Semi.  I’m just going to try keep it smooth at the start and hopefully Top 5 going to the main and go from there’.

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Canas is Top Qualifier as Coelho sets blistering Q5 pace

For months he has been widely tipped to become the new 1:8 Offroad World Champion, and living up to the well justified hype Juan Carlos Canas has completed the first stage and locked himself in as the Top Qualifier in Spain.  The Sworkz driver topped Q2, 3 & 4, giving him the perfect score with only reigning Champion Davide Ongaro left in the TQ race going into the penultimate round.  Having thrown away a potential TQ run a round earlier in Q4, Xray’s Bruno Coelho managed to omit the last lap error this time to take his first TQ and by default hand Canas an early overall TQ.  Having already switched to using the remaining two rounds of qualifying as testing for the Semi Finals, Canas would still get a P2 for the round although the gap to Coelho was a massive 5.4 seconds.  A rocket round, Coelho’s time almost 6 seconds better than the previous best from Q4, Ongaro would finish 3rd 0.154 off Canas with Elliott Boots having his best run in P4.  The Top 6 was completed by David Ronnefalk and the TLR of top American challenger Dakotah Phend.

With it widely accepted that Canas’ Q4 run was job done in terms of overall TQ, the Spaniard was very much already moved to the next stage of his campaign.  Asked about Q5, the European Champion said, ‘I tried some things like planned.  It was working good, it made it more comfortable but it was a bit slower compared to Bruno, also he did a superb run, super clean and super fast.’  Planning to try another change for the sixth & final round, asked if the set-up from Q5 was something he could use in the finals, he replied, ‘maybe if the grip changes a little bit I can use for Saturday but for the next one I will try some other ideas to have more options for Saturday.’

‘Finally a clean run, that was what was basically missing’, was Coelho’s reaction.  He continued, ‘the car was very good and it is giving us very good confidence for the rest of the race.  We changed small things on the car and it was good, now we want the track not to change until the end of the event but we know that is not going to happen.’  On his plans for Q6 he said, ‘I can still be second (overall) but in the end it doesn’t change much so we want to try something more because I am sure the competition won’t stay where they are and will improve their package so for sure try something to make it faster’.  He concluded, ‘We are very positive at the moment.’

Having struggled for pace in the previous round Ongaro said, ‘That was better than before, we completely changed the car, we switched to the 2022 World Championship set-up from here and it was better in some parts of the track and worse in others so we try to adjust now’.  He continued, ‘we cannot do worse than P3 (overall) now so we will keep changing stuff ‘.

Summing up his best round so far Boots said, ‘Obviously we didn’t have the pace of Bruno, he was on a blistering one but I think we are going in the right direction.  Elaborating on what he is missing he said ‘just corner speed.’  He continued, ‘you see from watching Bruno’s car how much the car rotates so that’s the way we need to go after watching his car.  We had a bit more that time so we’ll keep going that direction.’  Asked how his set-up was compared to team-mate Canas, both also running Reds Engines, he said, ‘It similar but there are small changes because he drives a lot harder than me but its not far from each other.  Tyres are the big thing, they act differently, different side grip and things.  Before it was easier because we ran the same (tyres) so you can run the same set-up’.  Looking to Q6, the British driver said, ‘we are the Semis so it is nice we can try stuff for the next one’.

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