Sugiura is top seed at WC

Yusuke Sugiura is the top seed for qualifying at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships in Japan.  The Kyosho driver set a new fastest 3-consecutive laps time in the second of the controlled practices to secure the No.1 in the top heat for qualifying tomorrow at the Yatabe Arena.  Behind the Japanese driver European drivers Bruno Coelho and Michal Orlowski would also improve on their CP1 times to end 4WD Day 1 2nd and 3rd fastest respectively.  Fastest in the first round, Jared Tebo failed to improve second time of asking and will carry the No.4 for qualifying followed by Martin Bayer and Ryan Cavalieri.

Declaring himself ‘happy’ to end the day fastest, Sugiura said he ‘still made mistakes’ adding he has ‘got to be much better for qualifying tomorrow’.  Describing his Muchmore powered Lazer ZX6 as ‘very fast’, the 19-year-old former Japanese National Champion and Warm-up podium finisher said it is ‘completely down to the driver now’.  Expecting the track to change over four rounds of qualifying on tomorrow’s schedule, the fifth & final round running Saturday morning, he said he prefers the lower grip of the morning but said his car is good in both conditions.

Making his 1:10 Offroad Worlds debut, Coelho said he didn’t just focus on 3-laps but his 5-minutes pace in the last practice.  Making two mistakes as he ‘over pushed’ he said ‘otherwise (he) was very happy with the consistency of (his) lap times’.  Running new tyres on his LRP powered XB4 for CP2, the better known onroad star said his buggy worked really good which surprised him as he didn’t expect this on the fresh tyres.  Pleased to get in he top group for qualifying he thinks this should be good but admitted ‘3-laps means nothing’ and its going to be ‘super difficult’ to stay there over 5-minutes’.  Bayer would suffer a motor issue in the final practice, but the Czech driver who was second fastest in CP1 is confident that with a new motor fitted he has a good car for qualifying.

Ending up only 0.065 of a second off Sugiura, Orlowski was pleased with the result but said it didn’t come easy.  Having struggled with a twitchy car in CP1, ending up 7th, he had put this down to his Schumacher being on new tyres.  Running them again in CP2, he said the car was no better and he had to reduce the steering EPA in the warm-up.  Taking the approach to drive smoother he said that worked out good but at the same time he got unlucky as on one of his counting three laps he had to avoid a crashed car costing him a few tenths.  Planning to change his wheelbase for the practice run that opens tomorrow’s qualifying day he said hopefully that settles his buggy, adding a good & long night of sleep should also help with the 14-year-old feeling ‘super tired’.

Asked if he had sorted his ongoing brake issues Tebo replied ‘not yet’ adding ‘we’ll get it figured out for tomorrow’.  The Kyosho driver said ‘the car is really good so we’ll be all good’.  Kyosho team-mate and a driver many expected would have a home advantage on the first Worlds to be run on astro turf, Touring Car World Champion Naoto Matsukura would fail to better his CP1 time scraping into the top heat along with 1:8 World Champion Ty Tessmann who posted his first Top 10 time in the final practice.

Another driver to count his opening time, Ryan Cavalieri completed the Top 6.  The Associated driver said a small adjustment to the breakthrough set-up he used in CP1 had made his Orion powered B44.3 ‘too conservative to drive and he will go back’ for tomorrow. Feeling he is in the mix over 5-minutes he said ‘its going to be interesting for sure but we should there’.  After the high of being crowned 2WD World Champion on Tuesday, Spencer Rivkin suffered a challenging first day of 4WD.  The 16-year-old could only manage 37th, a time set in CP1 when he broke with 2-minutes remaining, and put the poor performance down to just not having found a set-up yet.  Getting closer to Cavalieri’s setting he said ‘we’ll figure it out’ but lining up in the fourth fastest heat traffic could prove an issue in qualifying. Reigning champion Steven Hartson didn’t fare much better ending the up 28th.

For home manufacturer and Yatabe Arena owners Yokomo, Lee Martin would finish the seeding 7th ahead of top HB driver and fellow European David Ronnefalk.  The Euro Offroad Series Champion said his last run was ‘not too bad’ and he was on a 5-minute run as ‘3-laps count for nothing’.  Feeling he ‘should be OK’ in terms of pace his plan is to ‘try and keep it on its wheels’.  The British driver however expects ‘a bit of carnage’, continuing ‘its so fast there are going to be crashes and in 4WD crashes are big’ plus there are a few mad men in there too’ not being specific about which drivers he was referring to.  Just missing out on a Top 10 time, Ryan Maifield was best TLR driver ending up 11th.

View the complete ranking list after 2 rounds of controlled practice here (PDF).

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Video – 4wd Controlled Practice Rd2 Top 3

Tebo tops open controlled practice

Jared Tebo has topped the opening controlled practice at the IFMAR World Championships in Japan, the Kyosho driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Yatabe Arena over the Xray of Martin Bayer. Having set the pace in free practice, Bayer’s team-mate Bruno Coelho would complete the Top 3 with just 4/10ths separating the Top 10 drivers.

Having ended free practice 6th fastest, Tebo would improve his time by 3/10ths to repeat his 2WD performance when the American also topped the first of the two practice rounds that will determine the heats for tomorrow’s qualifying.  Pleased to top the times for the first time in 4WD, the former Champion said ‘the whole run was awesome but I’m still looking for better braking’.  Having fitting a new speedo to eliminate that being a cause of the problem he said the braking was no better.  The issue is when he applies the brakes they take varying time to come in causing him to miss his lines.  Planning to switch to a gear diff with thicker oil for the day’s final practice, he said better brakes would make him more comfortable with the car which he said can be ‘a lot better’ once he gets the issue sorted.

Only 13th fastest going into the first controlled run, former European Champion Bayer was happy ‘super happy’ with second.  Posting the fastest lap time, the Czech ace said himself and Coelho having been trying different set-ups to each other every run for CP1 they had the same set-up, one which he said was pretty close to the base set-up they came into the event with.  Describing his ORCA powered XB4 as ‘super easy to drive’ the EOS race winner said he ‘just drove it around’.  Running in Heat 11 of 13, the groups sorted based on the result of Tuesday 2WD finals, Coelho said he had a lot of traffic and he couldn’t get a perfect 3-laps.  Despite this he said 3rd was good with his aim for practice to just get placed in the top heat for qualifying.

Posting the fourth fastest time, Yusuke Sugiura described his performance as ‘so, so’.  Having raised the ride height of his Kyosho, the factory Kyosho driver said while the car was better he felt his own driving needs work.  Planning to leave his buggy unchanged for CP2, the 19-year-old will working on his consistency.  Team-mate Naoto Mastukura would take his example of the Lazer ZX6 to the 8th fastest time. The Warm-up Race winner & 2013 Worlds Runner-up said a set-up change was ‘not good’ and he will now revert back to his P3 set-up with a little tweak.

‘We made it to the show and showed up for one run’, was a much more upbeat Ryan Cavalieri reaction to setting the 5th fastest time.  Winning the last of his three 4WD World titles in 2011, the Associated driver said after ‘struggling with not enough low speed steering’ his B44 was ‘a lot easier to drive and on pace’.  Getting the improvement through changing a ‘bunch of little things’ he now said they have a good base to work from and fine tune.  It wasn’t all celebration in the AE camp however with the next of their drivers being Kyle McBride in 15th with new 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin doing only half the run and ending up 28th.

Making a substainal gain to knock 6/10th of his previous best, David Ronnefalk would complete the Top 6.  The factory HB driver said his D413 has been ‘really good from the beginning ‘.  Running his EOS set-up he said it was fast but too aggressive and they have managed to tone it down by adjusting the rear end set-up.  Running in the fifth fastest heat, having made only the F-Main in 2WD, the Swede said his 5-minute pace was also good enough for Top 5 even with lots of traffic so he is hopeful if he can get a better heat for qualifying he can be even closer to the lead pace of his former team-mate Tebo.

Third fastest at the end of practice, Michal Orlowski would set the 7th quickest time describing the run as only ‘OK’.  Running a new set of the controlled tyres he said they made his Schumacher very twitchy with ‘no grip in the rear’.  As a result the Polish ace said it was difficult to drive and therefore he lacked consistency.  Planning to reuse his tyres in CP2, the European Champion will leave the set-up unchanged having been very happy with his CAT K2 on used tyres in the final free practice.  Orlowski’s old Durango team-mate Travis Amezcua, who was 7th in free practice would shut down in CP1.  Managing to post the 13th fastest time during the less than 3-minutes he ran, the American believes the shutdown was caused by his receiver as turning off and back on the car everything was working again.

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Coelho tops practice as Matsukura closes gap

At the end of practice at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships at the Yatabe Arena its Xray’s Bruno Coelho who is proving to be quickest, the Xray drivers P3 time still standing at the top of the times sheets. With none of the Top 3 after P3 improving their times, the two big movers in the final practice would be Naoto Matsukura and Michal Orlowski. 6th & 7th after three rounds, they both improved their 3-consecutive lap times to move ahead of Yusuke Sugiura and Lee Martin with Mastukura’s Kyosho reducing Coelho’s advantage to 3/10ths.

Having originally planned to leave his car unchanged, Coelho said they tried ‘some different things’ in the set-up of his XB4.  Describing the results of the changes as ‘not an improvement’ he added it ‘was about the same in terms of pace’.  Despite the car being ‘still super good’, the Portuguese driver will go back to his P3 set-up for the first controlled practice and focus on driving more consistent adding he wanted to achieve this not just for 3-laps but the entire run.

Looking for more traction from his Lazer ZX6 after P3, pre-race favourite Matsukura said a rear shock change had improved this but added he ‘still need(s) more’. Feeling he is starting to find his way, the 22-year-old improving his outright lap time to record the second fastest lap behind Coelho, he said finding more rear traction would require a different set-up change other than further adjustments to the shocks.  Dropping to fourth, team-mate and fellow countryman Sugiura describing his P4 as ‘so so’.  Having lowered the ride height he said while it made the car easier to drive it was also slower.  Also creating problems over the whoops, he will go back to his previous settings for CP1.

Having made changes to his Schumacher for the third round to get rid of rear traction but the change being too much, Orlowski said going to 2.5 degrees of toe made the CAT K2 ‘good’.  ‘Much easier to drive’, the 14-year-old reigning European Champion will leave everything the same for controlled practice but aired some caution about qualifying.  Expecting the grip to get higher tomorrow, he said changes will be required to keep pace with the track but for now he would leave it.

Unable to improve on his P2, Martin said his Yokomo YZ-4 was ‘pretty easy to drive’.  Describing it as ‘consistent’, he said it was ‘not the outright fastest on lap times but (he) can drive it easy lap after lap’.  For controlled practice the EOS Champion will try another rear end change and ‘see what happens’.

Dropping one place to complete the Top 6, despite bettering his previous time in P4, Tebo said his ‘car set-up feels great’ but again he found his brakes to be ‘too soft’.  Running a slipper in P4 for the first time he said it was better but for CP1 he will fit a new speed controller in the hope of finding more brakes.

One of the early surprises of practice, Travis Amezcua dropped to 7th.  Having fitted new electrics to his Durango, he said the run was all about getting used to them.  While still setting the same fastest lap time he will adjust the speedo set-up for his next run.

After the highs of winning the 2WD World title with Spencer Rivkin and as defending 4WD Champions, the second half of the week long event has not started out very well for Team Associated.  Neil Cragg best of the B44’s in 18th with 3-time Champion Ryan Cavalieri clear frustrated by his car’s lack of steering.  Reigning Champion Steven Hartson took the drastic measure of running his 2WD car in P4 and managed to better his previous 3-consecutive lap time.   The American said ‘it felt better for me’ but added he needed to ‘figure out the front tyres to get it smooth enough but overall it was better (than his 4WD already)’.

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