September 25, 2013

Video – Daimon Borkowicz Worlds Debut diary – Day 2

In the second of a series of diary videos this week we catch up with World Championship debutant, up and coming Florida talent Daimon Borkowicz. The 13 year old Associated/ JConcepts driver is the protege of JConcepts founder and World Championship finalist Jason Ruona.


September 25, 2013

Cavalieri TQ’s penultimate qualifier

Cav

Defending Champion Ryan Cavalieri claimed the first TQ run of his World Championship campaign as he steered his Associated to the top of the time sheets in Q4 ahead of fellow American factory heavyweight’s Dustin Evans and Jared Tebo who posted the fastest lap of the round.  The result means that we will have to wait until tomorrow morning’s fifth and final round of qualifying to determine who will be the overall Top Qualifier for the finals that will decide the 15th IFMAR 2WD Electric Offroad World Champion.  As it stands now with 4 of the 5 qualifiers complete the battle for pole position is between Tebo and Cavalieri, the latter winning the title in Finland 2-years ago from 2nd on the grid.

Lee Martin

 

Behind the US trio, Tamiya’s Lee Martin was the fastest non US driver for the round taking his TRF201XM to the fourth fastest time 4/10ths in front of fellow British driver Darren Bloomfield’s TLR22.  Unfortunately for the former multiple European Champion he missed out on a Top 3 by just 9/1000ths of a second which would have left the Q2 pace setter in contention for the honour of Top Qualifier.

Ryan Maifield

Setting the 6th fastest time Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield is one of a number of high profile drivers who wont be able to sleep easy tonight as they need a good result from the morning’s final qualifier.  Another such driver is HB’s Ty Tessman.  The winner of the Pre Worlds, the Canadian ace is not comfortable with his Kyosho and a crash in Q4 meant he ended up outside the Top 10.  With only a pair of 7th place finishes to his credit Q5 is going to be crucial.  US National Champion Dakotah Phend, who claimed that title here in August, needs nothing short of a miracle to make the A-Main.  The 16-year-old TLR star will have to count 14th in Q1 and 8th in Q2 as two of his three results in the final qualification ranking.

Rain

Just as the final round of qualifying was completed the heavens opened up over the the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway which could have a knock on effect on tomorrow’s proceedings as it did when it rained two days before the opening day leading to a 5 hour delay to the start of practice.

View our event image gallery here.


September 25, 2013

Chassis Focus – Naoto Matsukura

naotocf

Car: Yokomo B-Max 2 MR
ESC: Yokomo Hobbywing 3.1
Motor: Yokomo Series 7
Batteries: Yokomo
Radio/Servo: Sanwa

The Japanese ace is driving the new Yokomo B-Max2 MR mid motored buggy with a few prototype parts that they are testing for these conditions. In terms of set-up his Yokomo is completely different  from what he uses back home, the high bite requiring a harder shock setup and different shock angles. Like the majority of the top drivers here his choice of front tire is the Pro-Line Scrubs.

Image Gallery

 


September 25, 2013

2WD Qualifying times Round 4

1. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 11/5:20.176
2. Dustin Evans – TLR – 11/5:20.843
3. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 11/5:21.402
4. Lee Martin – Tamiya – 11/5:21.411
5. Darren Bloomfield – TLR – 11/5:21.851
6. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 11/5:22.356
7. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 11/5:22.933
8. Neil Cragg – Associated – 11/5:23.293
9. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 11/5:23.585
10.Ryan Lutz – Durango – 11/5:24.231


September 25, 2013

Tebo bounces back in Q3

Jared Tebo

Jared Tebo bounced back to claim his second TQ run at the 2WD Electric Offroad World Championships in California, the Kyosho driver topping Q3 ahead of Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura and Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri.  Getting his qualifying off to the perfect start in the opening qualifyier, the American struggled with his set-up in Q2 but was back in business after changing to a heavier shock oil in the RB6 for his third run. Posting the fastest time of the event so far, with an 11 lap run in 5:20.954, Tebo is now the only driver who could potentially wrap up the overall TQ honours on Day 2 of the Worlds should he top this evening’s penultimate round of qualifying.

Cav

Cavalieri, who initially placed outside the Top 10 after the loop failed to register his buggy as he wheelied it across the line, said it was a good run once his tyres came in.  Running fresh tyres, Proline Scrubs on the front and the mandatory handout Suburb on the rear, he said they caused him to start out with understeer but by lap 4 all was good.  Planning to try and scrub in his tyres more ahead of his next run he said with this sorted he is ‘right there’ in terms of pace, adding that he is very happy with his consistency, being the only driver with a Top 4 finish from all rounds.

Numendahl

While Associated’s Maifeld was unable to back up his P2 in Q2, the team saw two of their other drivers step up to the mark.  Having shown promise in practice Kody Numedahl put in his first 11 lap run to take his Centro converted B4.2 to the 4th fastest time just ahead of Steven Hartson.  Numedahl said having gone too far with his set-up in Q2 he went back a step for Q3 and this resulted in him finding the extra front end grip he was looking for. Having retired in Q1, Hartson said he just drove aggressive this time round having been over cautious in Q2.  Happy to make the Top 5 he said he will just aim to repeat the run again in Q4 and avoid mistakes but added that the pace needed is hard to do.

Dustin Evans

Dustin Evans was best of the TLR drivers in Q3 as he rounded out the Top 6, a crash in the last lap costing him places.  The former US Champion said he is lacking pace on fresh tyres at the start of the run and if he sorts this he would be in good shape.  Team-mate Darren Bloomfield, who set the fastest lap for the round, finished 9th for the round after he crashed.

Marc Rheinard

For Q2 pace setter Lee Martin a broken idler gear forced him to retire, the  Tamiya driver said he could feel it going from the start.  Better known for exploits in electric Touring Cars, with 3 World titles to his credit, TRF team-mate Marc Rheinard claimed his first Top 10 finish taking his Muchmore powered 201XM to the 8th fastest time just behind HB’s Ty Tessman.  Completing the Top 10 was A-Main Hobbies team driver Tyler Vik at the controls of a Kyosho RB6.

View our event image gallery here.