Bayer leads the way in 4WD qualifying at DHI

Reigning European Champion Martin Bayer made his intentions clear in the opening two rounds of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the DHI Cup taking his Xray XB4 to a pair of 15-laps run at the Odense based event.  In the opening qualifier the Czech ace was the only driver to record 15-laps setting the fastest time ahead new young Team Associated signing Jesper Rasmussen.  The second encounter was a closer affair with defending champion Joern Neumann becoming only the second driver to run 15-laps.  A bad lap by Bayer meant the Durango driver would finish the round just 1/10th of a second adrift.

Bayer said ‘after a not so good time in 2WD’, him only managing to qualify 9th overall for the A-Main, his 4WD performance was ‘really good’.  Describing his LRP powered buggy as ‘perfect’, changing nothing between runs, he said the opening round could not have gone much better.  Q2 however was not as good, the driver being the weak point.  Opting to leave his set-up as is and instead focus on adjusting his driving style, this resulted in a few mistakes in the second of the four qualifiers with him losing 2-seconds over one lap. Very confident with his XB4 for Q3 he said the plan is just try and tidy up his driving.

Chasing a hat trick of DHI wins, Neumann described Bayer’s pace in the opening qualifier as ‘very fast’ and trying to keep pace with him he pushed too hard leading to mistakes that left him only 9th fastest.  Running heavier rear shock oil and a softer front swaybar on his DEX410 in Q2 he said that despite starting the heat down the order due to his Q1 performance he was able to run more with Bayer, recording the fastest lap of the round.  Planning to go heavier again with the oil in the rear shocks for the penultimate run he will also use an untouched set of front tyres having previously removed pins. The EOS Champion said because of the unusually low traction for a carpet track he needs the extra grip.

Describing his car as ‘OK’ for the opening qualifier when he posted the fourth fastest time, Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill said changes for Q2 made it ‘fell a lot better’.  Sitting second overall after two rounds, the British driver switched from 2 to 3 hole pistons which made for better landings and also put on anti-roll bars which he said brought his K1 Aero much closer to the pace of Bayer & Neumann.  Encouraged by the new found pace he said with a few more changes he ‘might actually be able to starting mixing it with the two boys’.

15-year-old Rasmussen was very happy with his opening round but a switch to a fresh set of tyres for Q2 left his Associated B44.4 aggressive and dfficult to drive.  Finishing the round 12th fastest, the up & coming Danish talent said with the tyres now scrubbed in he should be back up to speed again in Q3.

In a reverse of form with Bayer, 2WD Top Qualifier Oskar Levin struggled with his 4WD managing only the 13th & 7th fastest times with his Team C.  These results leave the Swede sitting provisional 10th.

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Levin 2WD Top Qualifier at DHI Cup

Oskar Levin has got his 2014 season & his new sponsorship with Team C off to the best start possible by securing the overall TQ honours for 2WD Buggy at the DHI Cup.  Having TQ’d both of yesterday’s opening qualifiers in Denmark giving him the provisional overnight TQ honours, TQ runs from defending champion Joern Neumann in Q3 and Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill in Q4 meant the Swede remained top of the ranking.  Cockerill will start tomorrow’s triple leg finals from 2nd with Neumann’s Durango set to line up third.

Delighted to be Top Qualifier on his international race debut with Team C, Levin said he just did his own thing today and it paid off.  Going into Q3 he said his aim was just to go for a safe run and apart from two bobbles he was happy overall with his run to the second fastest time behind Neumann. While this put Neumann in strong contention to deny Levin the overall TQ, should the German be able to repeat it in the final qualifier, the 19-year-old stuck to his game plan for Q4.  Knowing it would give him a slower car but thinking ahead to the finals he fitted a new set of the controlled Schumacher rear tyres to his TM2 V2 so as to break them in for main event. While Neumann looked threatening for the first two minutes, a mistake by the European Champion gave Levin what he described as the ‘perfect start with Team C so far’.

TQ’ing the final round, Cockerill said he was pretty happy although the Top Qualifier of the Euro Offroad Series season opener said he would obviously prefer to be starting as No.1 tomorrow.  Very happy with his Nosram powered Cougar KF, the British driver said it took a while to get the set-up right but he got there in the end.  Planning to just freshen up the buggy for the finals he believes there is good opportunity for overtaking due to there being no grip roll issues meaning its should be possible to throw down the inside for a pass.

Reverting back to Schumacher’s stagger front tyre having struggled in Q2 on Mini Pins, Neumann said Q3 was a good run but in Q4 he just pushed too hard.  Also improving his Orion powered DEX210 for today’s qualifiers by running heavier diff oil, he said he just went for the TQ in Q4. While the first 2-minutes went well he eventually pushed over the limit resulting in a number of mistakes that left him only 7th fastest for the round.  Looking to maintain his 100% winning record at the DHI Cup having won the event since offroad was introduced in 2012, Neumann thinks overtaking will be difficult and that it will be down to who does the least amount of mistakes.  Back to back champion of the carpet based Euro Offroad Series, he also feels the Team C and Schumacher has an advantage on this year’s DHI track due to the fact that their motors are mounted further towards the middle of the chassis compared to his Durango.

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Oskar Levin (SE) – Team C – 310 pts
2. Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 308
3. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 307
4. Kim Nielsen (DK) – Team C – 305
5. Jesper Rasmussen (DK) – Team Associated – 301
6. Jonas Kaerup (DK) – Team Associated – 299
7. Niclas Månsson (SE) – Team Associated – 299
8. Villalba Zacarias (ES) – Team C – 298
9. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 298
10.Thomas Andersson (SE) – Schumacher – 297

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Back to back TQ runs for Levin at DHI Cup

New Team C signing Oskar Levin got his debut for his new sponsor off to the perfect start at the DHI Cup after the Swede claimed the opening two rounds of qualifying at the Danish event.  The result leaves the 19-year-old holding the provisional overall TQ overnight in Odense while some of his key rivals are under pressure to make the most of tomorrow’s remaining two qualifiers.  Defending Champion Joern Neumann finds himself only 4th overall, while Xray’s Martin Bayer is 10th and Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill is way down in 32nd after a DNF in Q1.

Very pleased, Levin described his opening TQ run as a ‘good clean run’ but said a fresh set of tyres caught him out in Q2 and he had to work a lot harder to take that one. With his TM2 V2 a little edgy on the fresh set of handout Schumacher tyres he made an early mistake and the buggy got caught up on the piping.  Dropping him down the order he said after 2-minutes the tyres came in and the buggy was ‘really good like in Q1’ and getting his confidence back he was able to push really hard with no problems allowing him to work his way back to the front to take the round from Cockerill.

Its a Team C 1-2 overnight at the DHI with Danish driver Kim Nielsen sitting second with his borrowed buggy.  Having only got the car this morning, driving it for the very first time in the opening practice, he straight away was very comfortable with the car which he described as being ‘easy to drive’.  Finishing second to Levin in Q1, in Q2 he took up the lead of the 5-minute run when the Swede had his early mistake but lost it again with a mistake of his own which saw the TM2 ending up on its roof and needing to be marshaled.  Despite this and a second mistake Nielsen still managed to post the third fastest time.

Neumann, who is looking to make it three DHI wins from the 3-years Offroad has been part of the event, said his opening run to the third fastest time was ‘OK’ but ‘a little slow’.  Changing from a Cut Stagger front tyre to Mini Pins as he looked for more steering he said it was a bad call and resulted in a run with ‘too many mistakes’.  Sporting a bodyshell design this weekend that is less than pleasing on the eye, the EOS champion plans to revert to his previous tyre choice for Q3.

Ahead & behind Neumann in the qualification ranking are the Associated’s of Swede Niclas Mansson and young Dane Jesper Rasmussen. Mansson sits 3rd overall but the 24-year-old felt while his first run to fifth was good his second run could have been better if he had not had problems with traffic.

Rasmussen had a very strong & clean opening qualifier taking his C4.2 to the fourth fastest time.  On target for another strong run in Q2, the 15-year-old got hit by Neumann, the incident leaving him to finish up 9th quickest. Happy with the performance of his C4.2 he will leave his set-up as is as for Q3 and just focus on getting in an incident free 5-minute run.

After his ‘car fell apart in Q1’ following some ‘bad mechanic work’ resulted in a hinge pin falling out, Cockerill said his Cougar KF was really good in the second one although the driver this time had some problems.  Having cleared it no problem throughout practice the British driver ‘crashed 3 to 4 times’ on the centre table top.  Confident that the ‘car is there’ in terms of pace, he said with a clean run it will be very tight among the top drivers and he is looking forward to tomorrow remaining two qualifiers.

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