Cockerill comes good in Q3

Former Champion Tom Cockerill finally came good in the third round of 2WD Buggy Qualifying at the DHI Cup, the Yokomo driver denying another former Champion, Joern Neumann, his first TQ run of the event on the final lap. Having taken both qualifiers at the Odense event yesterday, Michal Orlowski looked like he was about to seal the overall TQ early but a last lap error allowed Neumann to jump to the top of the timing screen.  It was to be short lived however as Cockerill, who started from the back of the 10-car heat after a tough first day of qualifying, went fastest by 0.081 of a second.

Commenting on his TQ run, which importantly was a new fastest time, Cockerill said ‘I texted tech support and after being told off about my driving got some set-up suggestions’.  The tech support he was referring to was Yokomo lead driver Lee Martin whose nitro commitments has him racing in Italy this weekend.  Switching to a flat front arm, adding more caster and rebuilding the shocks on his YZ-2, Cockerill said the changes gave the car a little more steering with it now ‘tucking in nicer’ into the corner at the end of the straight.  The only driver who can deny Orlowski his first overall TQ at the DHI Cup, Cockerill said the only change he will make for the decider is change to a new but already scrubbed-in set of the handout Schumacher tyres.

‘Car was pretty good’, was how Neumann summed up Q3.  The Serpent driver, who is running a modified 4WD buggy in 2WD, said for the first minute and a half he was quicker than Orlowski but the Pole was faster in the middle of the heat.  Only changing to a new set of tyres for the qualifier he said this was a slight improvement but to try and get his SX4 more consistent for Q4 he will run a heavier diff oil.

Running tyres for a third time, Orlowski said he knew from the warm-up laps that it was going to be a struggle as his Schumacher was sliding around on the past their best tyres.  After a mistake at the first corner on the opening lap at the table top, the 14-year-old said he ‘just pushed as hard as (he) could’ and setting the fastest lap it all looked to be working out until the last lap.  Making a mistake at the table top, he said as he tried to recover he caught at dot and flipped his KF2 SE.  Losing over one & a half seconds, he would drop to third just 2/10ths off Cockerill’s TQ pace. Behind Orlowski, Xray’s Martin Bayer would get a P4 followed by Yokomo driver Frederik Hovgaard with David Hassel completing the Top 6.

View the event image gallery here.

Orlowski holds overnight TQ in Denmark

Michal Orlowski has kicked off his 2016 season perfectly with the Schumacher driver securing the provisional overnight 2WD Buggy TQ at the DHI Cup.  Having topped practice at the Danish event, the 14-year-old carried his pace into qualifying taking the opening two rounds from the Swede Niclas Mansson who sits an impressive second overnight.  Improving one place to claim P3 in the second of the four scheduled qualifiers, Joern Neumann lies third going into Day 2 followed by Xray’s Martin Bayer and Team Associated’s Joakim Nicolaisen.  Having shown promise in practice taking his D216 to the fourth fastest time, for defending champion David Ronnefalk the qualifiers would prove difficult.  Only 13th in Q1, a last lap crash in Q2 would cost the HB driver a second behind Orlowski and the Swede finds himself sitting 10th overall.

Delight with the outcome of both qualifiers, Orlowski described Q1 as a ‘crazy run’.  Over jumping the table top on the opening lap he would roll his KF2 SE making another similar mistake a few laps later.  Having ‘pushed really hard’ to try make back up the time the Polish ace would then come together with TQ pace setter Tom Cockerill, Cockerill coming off the worst of the incident when his Yokomo made contact with the drivers stand.  Giving his view of the incident he said Cockerill went outside so he went for the inside but then the former event winner crashed into him, the incident losing him a few seconds.  Able to continue, unlike Cockerill, he said he pushed hard to try get a Top 3 time but setting the fastest lap in the process he would snatch the TQ from Mansson on the last lap.  Changing to a new set of tyres for Q2, he said this resulted in a ‘really bad feeling’ from the car for the opening 3-minutes.  With the car improving as the tyres broke in, again a charge to try and make up for lost time would see the World Championship Finalist set the fastest lap as he secured another TQ run, this time the margin a much larger 2.5 seconds over Mansson.  With new tyres proving slower, for Q3 he will revert to the same set of tyres he used in Q1 as he looks to wrap up an early overall TQ.

Finishing last year’s 2WD A-Main fifth overall from 9th on the grid, Mansson said cutting tyre pins for qualifying gave his Associated B5M ‘more rotation’.  Sixth fastest in practice, the 26-year-old said his first run had one mistake but Q2 was ‘a clean run’, consistency key to today’s results.  Looking to get more steering for tomorrow’s qualifiers, he plans to raise the rear roll centre for Q3.

On target for a TQ run in Q1, Neumann described the first round as ‘unlucky’ after his battery died on the run down the straight on his last lap.  Leaving him fourth fastest, he would suffer a crash in Q2 while again on the TQ pace as he went too short on the first jump of the back section costing him 2-seconds.  Going on to post the 3rd fastest time, the Serpent driver was encouraged by the fact he was ‘a lot closer to the guys than at the EOS’ adding they now ‘have a lot more speed in the car than before’.  The Serpent driver is running a modified 4WD SX4 in 2WD which, in addition to having no front drive shafts, features a number of prototype parts allowing for a more central positioning of the motor.

A driver who has undertaken both a diet and training programme, a new for 2016 lightweight Bayer described his opening performances as ‘OK’.  The Czech driver said in Q1 it was going ‘pretty good’ until he made a four second mistake with a minute to go while in the hunt for the TQ. He said Q2 was the ‘same story. On the pace but small mistakes’.  Describing his car as ‘pretty easy to drive’ he needs to ‘cut out the mistakes’ adding that was ‘down to the driver’.  Team-mate Coelho, who finds himself in the second fastest heat holds 7th overnight behind former Top Qualifier Oscar Levin having got a P9 in Q1 and a P7 in the second round.

Giving his account of his incident with Orlowski in Q1, 2014 Champion Cockerill said ‘it was 50/50’.  ‘I was leading so I wouldn’t pull out of the way and ended up in the rostrum’.  Second fastest in practice, the Yokomo driver said Q2 was ‘better’ and while ‘the car was good’ the ‘driver was shit’.  On the TQ pace he would come up short in the back jump section losing 3-seconds to end up P5.  While his YZ-2 is ‘good’, he said he might try a different rear wing for Q3.

View the event image gallery here.

Bayer fastest in 4WD at DHI Cup

Martin Bayer has set the 4WD Buggy pace on the opening day of the DHI Cup.  Despite being forced to sit out the final practice due to a servo failure, the Xray driver still managed to top the seeding list thanks to his 3-consecutive pace of the opening timed practice. Closest to the Czech ace was HB’s David Ronnefalk, the Swede improving on his opening time by a tenth of a second to get within 2/10ths of Bayer. Having set the pace in 2WD practice, Michal Orlowski would end up third fastest but the Schumacher driver was a considerable 7/10ths off the pace. For defending champion Joern Neumann, sixth would be the best the Serpent driver could manage behind Yokomo team-mates Tom Cockerill and Frederik Hovgaard.

‘Perfect’ was how Bayer summed up his XB4. Running the same set-up that he used at the opening round of the latest season of the Euro Offroad Series he said being able to run Schumacher’s Minipin tyre on the front makes this a really good set-up for the car (since its opening round the EOS has enforced the Stagger Rib as the only front tyre option for it championship).  Asked about sitting out the final practice, the former European Champion said having finished the previous practice with no problems when he put the car down for the last practice he had no steering the servo having stripped gears.  Planning no set-up changes for Q1, which for 4WD starts tomorrow, he will only fit new tyres, adding his aim is to ‘just drive around clean’ for the 5-minutes.  Asked about his opposition he replied ‘I’m still expecting Bruno (Coelho) to come’.  Only 8th fastest, World Champion Coelho said having not did any practice over the Christmas break he just needs more track time to find his rhythm.  Running a completely new car, having raced and won Round 2 of the EOS with his Worlds winning XB4, he said he was also still fine tuning his new car.  Making ‘a lot of mistakes’, the Portuguese driver said there is a lot of improvement to come.

Ronnefalk said 4WD practice ‘started out terrible’ as he need to get used running Mini Pins on the front of his D413 again and figure out right way to cut the tyres.   Describing the car as ‘always fast’, he added he just needed to adjust the set-up to make to easy to drive.  Feeling it’s now good enough for qualifying, the World Championship podium finisher will leave the car unchanged for Q1.

Orlowski said having started out with the rear shocks on his CAT K2 mounted to the rear of the shock tower, some testing of them mounted to the front by his team-mates convinced him to change resulting in the car having ‘super rotation’.  Now looking for more rear traction, the reigning European Champion will switch to a shortened rear camber link for Q1.  Having run rear tyres with the outside row of pins cut off, he will also switch to an uncut tyre for the first qualifier.

‘Average’ was Cockerill’s response to his 4WD performance.  The Brit is struggling to get a balanced set-up on his YZ-4.  With a set-up that is good in the infield, he said it leaves him struggling with his entry and exit off the main straight.  Finding a cure for that then the problem becomes the infield with the car struggling on flat landings leading it to double bounce which he said is costing time.  For Q1 he will run with the set-up that works well on the infield and just take it easier coming on and off the straight.  Team-mate Hovgaard was very happy with the performance of his YZ-4, the 16-year-old Dane making no changes over the four rounds of practice.  For Q1 he will continue with an unchanged set-up.

Chasing a fifth consecutive 4WD DHI Cup win, Neumann said part of his problem was that he broke after only 2-laps in the first timed practice forcing him to run a safe second round.  The German said while his  SX4  is not super fast on individual lap times he feels it has a ‘good 5-minute pace’.  Asked if he planned any changes for Q1 tomorrow he said his priority for now was sorting out his 2WD set-up while not far off the pace needs more steering for tonight’s two opening rounds of qualifying.

View the event image gallery here.