Martin gets it done in Q2

Tamiya Racing Factory’s Lee Martin has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the World Championships in Chico, California. Having suffered a problem with his slipper clutch in Q1, leaving him to post the fourth fastest time, the British ace had no such issues in the second 2WD qualifier, posting a new fastest time .9 of a second up on Q1 non-finisher Ryan Maifield and fellow countryman Darren Bloomfield.  For Q1 pace setter Jared Tebo a wrong choice of shock oil left the Kyosho driver to struggle, a mistake ultimately leaving him to finish outside the Top 10.

Martin, who finished 7th overall at the 2011 Worlds, was pleased with his run commenting that he has just ‘got to do it again now in the next one’.  The multiple former European Champion said the track felt a little different from Q1 but still his TRF201 XM felt good and the plan is to leave everything as is and just try to repeat the run in Q3.  Finishing the run with his fastest lap of the 5-minute run he said this was encouraging showing the car is consistent from start to finish.

‘Better’ was how Maifield summed up his run to second having broke his Centro converted B4.2 on the opening lap first time of asking.  With a retirement on the board he said he ‘cruised’ looking to get a solid result from Q2, a driver’s best 3 of 5 rounds determining the grid for finals.  Commenting on his mid motored buggy, Maifield said he would like to find more mid corner steering and to try & achieve this will fit new drive parts for Q3. It was a decent round for Associated who managed to get all three of their star drivers in the Top 5 with current champion Cavalieri posting the 4th fastest time 18/1000 in front of former Champion Neil Cragg.

Having moved the location of his rear shocks which resulted in his TLR22 rolling less in the corners, Bloomfield was pleased with his run to third adding that he plans to stick with that set-up for his next one.  Team-mate Mike Truhe set the 6th fastest time describing it as a ‘clean solid run’.  While his buggy is ‘not a rocket ship’ he said he is happy with the 5-minute pace and the plan for the next one is just to ‘fit new tyres and charge it up’.  ‘Just one bad crash is all it takes’ is how Dustin Evans summed up his run to the 9th fastest time behind his teenage team-mate Dakotah Phend who also suffered ‘one bad crash’.

After his DNF in Q1, HB’s Ty Tessman said he maybe drove a little to cautiously on his way to 7th in Q2.  The Canadian said he wasn’t too comfortable with his Kyosho RB6 which he described as ‘not super fast’ adding it felt loose.

Commenting on his run to the 15th fastest time, Tebo said his shock oil was too light for the hot air temperature of Q2.  Planning to go up 2.5 in oil weight for Q3 he said even with the buggy soft a Top 3 would have been on the cards if he hadn’t have made his mistake in front of the drivers’ rostrum.  One of the worlds most famous offroad racers but still void of a 2WD World title, Tebo wasn’t to be put off by his Q2 run adding everything should be fine for the next run.

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2WD Qualifying times Round 2

1. Lee Martin – Tamiya – 11/5:21.348
2. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 11/5:22.275
3. Darren Bloomfield – TLR – 11/5:23.757
4. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 11/5:24.022
5. Neil Cragg – Associated – 11/5:24.040
6. Mike Truhe – TLR – 11/5:24.716
7. Ty Tessman – Kyosho – 11/5:24.724
8. Dakotah Phend – TLR – 11/5:25.402
9. Dustin Evans – TLR – 11/5:25.827
10.David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 11/5:26.337

Tebo TQ’s opening qualifier

Kyosho’s Jared Tebo has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the 2WD Electric Buggy World Championship in Chico, California, where the Top 3 were separated by just 4/10ths at the end of 5-minutes with Dustin Evans second fastest and defending champion Ryan Cavalieri third. Two notable retirements from Q1 where Pre Worlds winner Ty Tessman, who posted the fastest lap of the round before he stripped a spur gear after his motor moved, and Associated’s Ryan Maified who didn’t even manage to complete a full lap breaking a front wishbone on his opening lap.

Tebo was understandable pleased to kick off qualifying with a TQ run describing things as ‘so close’.  Setting himself the goal of putting in a clean run and seeing how it works out, the Kyosho ace was running 6th on pace at the end of the opening lap but by lap 4 was top of the timing screens staying there til the end of the 5-minutes.  Running AKA Three Rib fronts on his Orion powered RB6 he said they gave him a very safe car and for Q2 he will continue with the same tyre combo, Proline Suburb the controlled rear tyre, and leave his set-up as is.

17-year-old team-mate David Ronnefalk described his run to the 5th fastest time as ‘so so’.  The Swede said he was very happy with his driving this time round but ‘annoyed’ at losing 6-seconds after a coming together with his Japanese team-mate Yusuke Sugiura.  The 1:8 European Champion had problems getting past the Japanese National Champion with the two eventually clashing in the air.  Very happy with his buggy for Q2 he said his aim was just to ‘stay out of trouble’.

Cavalieri, who is running in the second fastest heat, described his opening qualifier as ‘really good’.  Having not looked too happy after practice the 4 time World Champion said changing from a 7.5 to a 6.5 motor had made his Centro converted B4.2 much easier to drive with him not having to over drive.   For Q2 he said he will washer up the front ball set so as to give him more corner exit steering.

Top seed for the opening qualifier, Evans said he started off a little slow but at the rest of the run was really good. The TLR driver said his confidence with the mid motor TLR22 is growing every run adding for the next one he ‘just needs to be a little faster out of the gate’.  The Colorado driver said the wind has started to make the tabletop-triple section rather tricky with him having one big moment that he was fortunate to save.  Team-mate Darren Bloomfield reported a similar slow start ending up 8th fastest.  Having had problems with a motor sensor wire in the final practice, the British driver said after the earlier problem he took a few laps to get the feel of things again.  Once he got into his groove he said everything felt good and he is looking forward to improving in Q2.  Third fastest in the reseeding, TLR’s Mike Truhe crashed on his opening lap with the 3-seconds lost leaving him to only claim 11th, three place in front of the team’s US National Champion Dakotah Phend who crashed while on target for a Top 3 time.

Setting the fourth fastest, Lee Martin was a ‘little disappointed’ with the result.  The Tamiya driver said his slipper loosened off during the race losing him a little drive. Finishing only 1-sec off Tebo he said without this a TQ would have been possible.  Planning to just re-adjust his slipper rather than fit a new one, the British ace said in terms of the set-up he will leave everything as is as he is very happy with his TRF201 XM.

Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura said his aim for Q1 was to put in a safe run and so 6th was ‘OK’.  Having changed his B-Max2MR after the final practice the 3-time 1:12 World Champion said they made it a little tricky to drive.  For Q2 the 20-year-old said he will make a few changes to try and get that the ‘edgeness’ out of the buggy.

European Champion Joern Neumann took his prototype Durango to the 8th fastest time.  The German described his buggy as being ‘OK but not the fastest’ and said the main issue with the run was one ‘stupid mistake’ that cost him around 4-seconds.  With his Durango suffering a little understeer he said for Q2 he will add weight to the front.

Completing the Top 10 for the opening qualifier was Associated’s Kody Numedahl and Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill, whose 10th fastest time raised a few eyebrows.

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Practice complete at Worlds, Evans fastest

Practice for the 15th IFMAR 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships is completed with Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans posting the fastest time in the ninth & final practice round ahead of Tamiya’s Lee Martin and Associated’s Ryan Maifield. Defending champion Ryan Cavalieri appeared less than happy with his final practice in which he posted the 5th fastest time behind Pre World Race winner Ty Tessman.

The top seed for qualifying, having posted the fastest 2-consecutive laps in last night’s first controlled practice, Evans described his final practice as ‘very good’ adding it was nice to run with 10 evenly matched drivers allowing him to finally get a clean 5-minute run in.  Happy with his Orion powered mid motored TLR22, the former US National Champion and Reedy Race winner said despite the cooler conditions this morning at the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway  the buggy felt ‘awesome’ and he planned to run it as is for the opening qualifier.  Team-mate Mike Truhe, who posted the sixth fastest time, was also very happy with his Novak powered TLR22 adding that the buggy was there to get the job done and it was now just down to the driver.  Making one mistake in the final practice he said this was a result of him over driving it in order to find the limit of what he said is a very easy buggy to drive.

Martin, who is happy he has cured the electric glitches he suffered in the 6th round of practice, shared Evans comments regarding the 10 car heats saying it was ‘nice to have less traffic’.  Suffering one ‘excursion’ when he put his Viper powered TRF201 XM onto the piping, he said other than a fresh set of tyres, all drivers having to use Proline Suburb rears and Martin opting for Scrubs on the front, he was happy to leave his buggy as is for the first of the four qualifiers on today’s schedule.

Maifield said he lacked a little steering but put that down to the cooler conditions, there being a noticeable cold breeze today.  Running JConcepts front tyres he said he plans to stick with them as the temperatures should come up by the time his first qualifier comes round although he said he probably will make a few minor tweaks to the set-up he ran this morning.  Associated team-mate Cavalieri wasn’t giving too much away.  Running in the second fastest heat, he said the only plan ahead of qualifying was to refresh his shocks but his body language hinted that the multiple World Champion who is chasing a 5th title is not happy with how things are going so far.   Setting the 7th fastest time Associated designer Kody Numedahl reported a similar lack of steering to Maifield but also feels once the temperature comes up all will be good adding that his Centro converted B4.2 is ‘really easy to drive’.

Running in the second fastest heat, HB’s Ty Tessmann was pleased with how his Orion powered Kyosho RB6 ran but said the wind was a bit of an issue.  Marshalling the top heat, the Canadian said the wind totally died down for their run but with much higher winds forecast for tomorrow this might having a bearing on the outcome of the finals.

In the Kyosho camp it was recently crowned Japanese National Champion Yusuke Sugiura who was quickest with the 7th fastest time.  Best of the drivers posting a 10-lap run, he outpaced fellow Japanese driver and 2011 Finalist Naoto Matsukura who was 9th by 6/10ths of a second.  Top European Kyosho driver 17-year-old David Ronnefalk posted the fastest lap time for the round, but the Swede said two mistakes cost him a total of around 5-seconds. Very happy with his RB6, he said the pace is there but he just has to cut out the mistakes and keep off the pipes.  Kyosho’s big hope for the World title Jared Tebo ran a soft compound front AKA 3 Rib due to the cooler conditions but said it made his buggy very inconsistent.  Switching back to the same medium compound he ran yesterday, the former 4WD World Champion said he is feeling pretty confident going into the opening qualifier.

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