Horne Top Seed at 2WD World Championship

Aydin Horne is the Top Seed at the 2WD World Championship, the Team Associated driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second seeding round.  Having set the fastest time in the opening seeding round but unable to improve on that, Bruno Coelho ended up 2nd fastest 2/10th down on Horne time.  Ninth fastest on his first attempt, European Champion Marcus Kaerup improved by over a second to completing the Top 3 at Hobby Action RC Raceway.  Backing up his impressive first round, Brennan Schimmel improved on that time and his TLR will carry No.4 in the top heat tomorrow with Davide Ongaro No.5 and Broc Champlin No.6.  Reigning Champion Spencer Rivkin just scraped into the top heat as he set the 8th fastest time of seeding his time 7/10th off that set by Horne.

Reacting to his run Horne said, ‘I’ve had good speed all day but just wasn’t able to put the hot laps together’.  The 21-year-old continued, ‘we made it easier to drive for that one in the high speed stuff and those changes unlocked new lap time for myself’.  A driver former Champion Jared Tebo tipped for success this week, Horne said he feels good going into qualifying tomorrow and his goal is to put ‘in solid laps and keep a cool head’.

Only 11th fastest in the second seeding round, Coelho explained, ‘It’s still practice so we tried something different and it didn’t work as we thought but I am pretty confident with the car’.  He added, ‘I don’t think I have been this confident with my 2WD before’.  Asked about qualifying tomorrow, the Xray driver said, ‘we still have one more practice so maybe we try something more on the car before but I think we have a good car for qualifying’.

Asked about his improvement between runs, Kaerup said, ‘I just got it together better but the heat was pretty chaotic.  I felt I had got the 3-laps in and then crashed’.  Asked how he thought he was looking for the 5-minute qualifying runs, the young Dane replied, ‘I think it is going to be OK.  Once I don’t push all out the car is decent’.  He added, ‘we made the mistake in 4WD of changing the car too much instead of focusing on learning the track’.

Pleased with his effort, Schimmel said he felt he improved on his driving with his main focus being on getting ready for qualifying.  The Virginia driver said has been able to calm the car down and it is easy to drive for 5-minutes.

‘Better than the first one’ was how Ongaro summed up Round 2 of seeding but again the Team Associated driver had tyres issues.  Despite the problem, this time with a brand new set meaning he will get a replacement, the Italian said, ‘overall it was good and P5 is not bad at the moment’.  He concluded, ‘we will see tomorrow what we can do with the new set of tyres’.

Champlin was pleased with first first day of 2WD action saying, ‘everything is good, we didn’t have the sheer lap pace but the car is super easy to drive over 5-minutes’.  The Schumacher driver said for tomorrow he plans to make the ‘smallest of changes to try get a little more grip’ from his prototype LD3.

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Coelho tops first seeding round

Bruno Coelho has topped the opening round of seeding practice at the 2WD Offroad Worlds, the Xray driver fastest over 3-consecutive laps from Broc Champlin.  The Portuguese driver improved on his free practice pace by over 1.5-seconds being the only one to run 56-seconds and having half a second on Champlin’s effort.  TLR’s Brennan Schimmel put in a strong run to set the third fastest time just ahead of team-mate Cole Tollard.  Defending Champion Spencer Rivkin led the Team Associated challenge, posting the 5th fastest time.  Having set the pace in the four rounds of Free Practice, team-mate Davide Ongaro would have a problem with a broken rear tyre insert that meant he could only go 12th fastest and now finds himself down a set of tyres.

Commenting on his run, Coelho said, ‘the car is working very good.  I believe we made some good changes and now we will try to improve it more’.  Asked about what he felt his XB2 was lacking, the Electric Touring Car World Champion replied, ‘we want to make it more stable so we can run more laps without mistakes to prepare for qualifying’.

‘I stuck to my tyre strategy and it looks like Bruno did the same’, said Champlin of his opening seeding run.  The American Schumacher driver continued, ‘I set my car back to how I normally run it at big events and I will focus on being comfortable with the car rather than try find that extra notch’.  Asked about the body & wing change he tried in Free Practice, he said he would, ‘stick with the JConcepts P2’.

Crediting TLR engineer Frank Roots with his P3 run, Schimmel said a shock change on his buggy made it easier to drive.  The 21-year-old added the improvement ‘made it easier to put the car in the right spot of the track every lap’ which in turn makes for a more consistent 5-minute time.  Asked if he planned any further changes for the second seeding round, which brings Day 1 of the 2WD action to a close, he said he would ‘work more on his driving’.

Cole said his run was ‘pretty good’ adding ‘the track is definitely better.  He continued, ‘the tyres are better warmed up which takes a minute or two but my car felt pretty good’.  For the second seeding round, the Wisconsin driver said with the car to his liking the plan was to ‘just keep going around making consistent laps’.

‘I thought that was OK.  We’ve been making small gains’, was Rivkin feeling on his P5 run.  He continued, ‘there is a lot of stuff changing in the Top 10 but on overall time I think I ran a Top 3 so I’m pretty confident’.  He added, ‘There are a few different tyre strategies going on so it’s hard to gauge where everyone is actually at right now’.

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Ongaro tops free practice at 2WD World Championship

Newly crowned 4WD World Champion Davide Ongaro has got his 2WD campaign off to a promising start by topping the times in free practice on Day 1 of the 2WD Offroad World Championship in Arizona.  The Italian recorded the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the fourth & final free practice being the only one to record a 57-second time. His Associated was 2/10ths faster than Team Losi Racing’s Tater Sontag, whose team-mate Cole Tollard completed the Top 3.  Bruno Coelho would end practice fourth fastest ahead of Broc Champlin, who unlike the rest of the front runners, didn’t improve in FP4 having set his time during his third run.

Asked how he felt practice had gone, Ongaro said, ‘we made a few changes this round and it was definitely better’.  Using the final free practice to break in new front tyres, he said it took about 3 laps for them to come in but after that he was able to feel the benefits of running a front wing on his buggy for the first time.  He said, ‘the front wing was better for my driving style at least’.  Asked about the first round of controlled practice, driver’s best time from the two rounds deciding the heat the will line-up in for tomorrow’s qualifying, he said, ‘we will leave the car the same and just break in rear tyres for tomorrow.’

Sontag summed up his performance as ‘pretty good’, explaining they made a spring change that improved the car a lot’.  Having had a lot of grip he said he did not have enough steering but after the change of spring it had ‘more overall balance’.  Planning to use controlled practice to break in tyres, the 16-year-old is enjoying the track saying, ‘I like this one.  The left side has a nice flow and it all connects well together’.

‘I’m not trying to set the world on fire but the car feels pretty stable and easy to drive for 5-minutes’, was how Collard summed up his performance.  Still in his first season as a TLR driver, he continued, ‘we been making some minor changes but I don’t think we will change anything for the first round and see where that puts us’.  A driver who TQ Q5 of 4WD from the second fastest heat, the American said, ‘I’m not to worried about making the A sort as the Top 3 (groups) are all pretty close’.

Reacting to his P4 time, Coelho said, ‘it’s getting better and better. The layout is really nice and has a good flow so it’s all about set-up’.  The Xray driver added, ‘with the high speeds the landings are challenging when trying to get power down without losing the rear.  We are working on that but I think now we are on a good way with the car’.

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