Sensational Boots produces another TQ run

Kyosho’s Elliot Boots backed up his TQ run from this morning’s Q3 with a blistering performance in the penultimate round of qualifying this evening at the 1:8 World Championships in Argentina to take Q5 by a massive 13 seconds from Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield with Mugen driver Davide Tortorici third fastest.  The slowest TQ run of the five rounds due to the track having become very bumpy & unpredictable, the result puts the 19-year-old Brit top of the more qualification ranking scenario of counting 3 rounds from 5.  Officially there is one round of qualifying still to run although the weather forecast for tomorrow could very well see no action in Buenos Aires with very heavy rain expected later tonight, although that said previous rain predictions earlier in the event were to prove wrong.  Under normal circumstances 4 of 6 rounds count but to cover all eventualities race officials published both rankings with Robert Batlle provisional Top Qualifier from Boots.

Boots said his MP9 was really good adding that he is gelling more and more with the track as it gets more bumpy.  Having not done the Warm-up Race the British driver doesn’t have the same experience of the track as it deteriorates but he said on a few occasion enroute to becoming British National Champion he ran on tracks where the surface was similar to now and that this suits his driving.  Describing the track surface as like ‘the Moon’ when asked how it was for Q5, Boots said his run could have been faster but he had trouble passing Maifield who in turn had trouble passing Xray’s Renaud Savoya.  Not wanting to get caught up in with either buggies the 19-year-old with advice from his pitman Mike Craddock backed up until the pair sorted things out which he said cost him in total around 4 seconds.  Asked about Q6, Boots said he would wait to see what the rain does but should it stay dry he will run the same set-up and again using AKA’s medium compound iBeam.

Maifield said along with his ‘traffic problems’ he also made a few driver errors.  Admitting his driving was not on Boots’ pace overall he said it was a solid 10-minute run.  Switching to a yellow compound Metrix tyre from JConcepts for the run the American described the track as unpredictable but feels his RC8 could match Boots’ Kyosho if he drove it better.  Asked what his plan is for the final qualifier the 11th placed finisher at the 2010 Worlds in Thailand he said if the weather holds out he will ‘probably not change much’.

Finishing just behind fellow 2-time European Champion and Mugen driver Tortorici, the Italian is driving well in the difficult conditions, Robert Batlle ends the day at the top of the points ranking ahead of Boots when 4 of 6 is counted.  Asked about the track for Q5, the Spaniard said it was ‘destroyed’ and he drove the 10-minutes just trying to keep his MBX7 on four wheels.  Loosing time with a mistake at the double, he said they need to change their set-up for the increasingly bumpy track.  Having experienced running on the track at the warm-up where it broke up badly, Batlle who won the event said they were running the MBX7’s predecessor then and the set-up won’t directly transfer across.  Still learning how set-up changes effect the new buggy he said although he is sitting top of the ranking they need to find a little more speed.

Behind Batlle, Jared Tebo who runs in the same group as Tortorici set the 5th fastest time ahead of his Kyosho team-mate Kyle McBride. Unfortunately for defending World Champion Cody King Q5 was yet another difficult run for the American.

Elsewhere there were problems for TLR’s Dakotah Phend and A-Main Hobbies Dylan Rodriquez.  Phend only managed a single lap before his 8ight failed to turn at the end of the straight.  Confident with his buggy for the conditions on his opening lap two drivers ahead of him tangled and one of the recovering buggies pulled out in from of the 15-year-old.  The heavy impact resulted in a steering servo failure bringing an end to what was a disappointing Day 2 of qualifying, which yesterday started out so well when he took second in Q1.  With Dakotah out, the Top TLR driver for the round was fellow American JR Mitch who had his best run setting the 10th fastest time.  Second fastest in Q4, Rodriquez was also a non finisher for the round after he lost his front right shock when the corner of the carbon shock tower on his MP9 broke.

Qualifying Round 5 – Top 12
1. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 13/10:04.162
2. Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP – 13/10:17.157
3. Davide Tortorici – Mugen/Bliss – 13/10:18.875
4. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 13/10:18.903
5. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 13/10:20.241
6. Kyle McBride – Kyosho/OS Speed – 13/10:20.518
7. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed – 13/10:23.382
8. Simon Willetts – Mugen/Novarossi – 13/10:23.486
9. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 13/10:23.677
10.JR Mitch – TLR/Orion – 13/10:26.492
11.Taylor Petersen – Mugen/Alpha – 13/10:27.219
12.Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 13/10:27.555

Overall Ranking based on 3 of 5
1. Elliot Boots – 452 pts
2. Robert Battle – 451
3. Ty Tessmann – 448
4. Jared Tebo – 446
5. Ryan Maifield – 445
6. Lee Martin – 441
7. Yannick Aigoin – 438
8. Kyle McBride – 437
9. Davide Tortorici – 434
10.Martin Bayer – 433
11.Jerome Aigoin – 429
12.Atsushi Hara – 428

Overall Ranking based on 4 of 6
1. Robert Battle – 599 pts
2. Elliot Boots – 597
3. Jared Tebo – 588
4. Ryan Maifield – 587
5. Ty Tessmann – 584
6. Yannick Aigoin – 581
7. Martin Bayer – 573
8. Davide Tortorici – 570
9. Lee Martin – 570
10.Kyle McBride – 568
11.Atsushi Hara – 561
12.Taylor Petersen – 559

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Surprise Q4 as Wheeler TQs round

The fourth round of qualifying threw up a surprise with Xray driver Josh Wheeler setting the pace ahead of the Kyosho of A-Main Hobbies team driver Dylan Rodriguez with Jared Tebo third fastest.  Running in the 5th group of 12 which was the opening group of Q3 & 4, Wheeler benefited from the timing of his run with the second of today’s runs really taking a toll on the track.  The former World Championship Finalist admitted he got lucky with track conditions but said having followed in the same direction with his set-up as Xray team-mate Martin Bayer his OS powered XB9 worked really well for the run.  Running medium compound AKA iBeam tyres he said other than going for a longer rear arm he will leave everything else as is for the final run of the day.

18-year-old Rodriguez said changes to his MP9 including adding more caster improved the buggy but overall it was a change of his driving style that made the biggest change.  Running Proline Blockade tyres the American said they gave him a very consistent buggy.  Planning to run the buggy the same for Q5 he said he will only make a few small adjustments to keep up with the increasingly bumpy track conditions.

Behind the two surprise names at the top of the timing sheets, Tebo was best of the title favourites followed by Yannick Aigoin who laid down the fastest time in the Top heat where track conditions lead the majority of drivers to require marshalling.  Ty Tessmann who had a difficult run said the track ‘completely blew out’ for Q4 and said the key to the rest of qualifying is going to be staying on your wheels rather than trying to be ‘super fast’.

Just .065 behind his Associated team-mate, Ryan Maifield took fifth for the round despite loosing 8 seconds due to some very poor standards of marshalling.  The same marshall cost Q3 top qualifier Elliot Boots dearly and left him 7th behind Kyosho team-mate Jerome Aigoin.  A coming together with Tessmann which saw both buggies end up on their roofs on the concrete step, Warm-up Race Top Qualifier David Ronnefalk set the 8th fastest time.

Q1 pace setter Robert Batlle made a wrong last minute tyre choice for Q4 and eventually decided to pit during the run to change to the Procircuit Marathon & Sweet Shot combo he was originally planning to use.  The Warm-up race winner said he will stick with these on his Mugen MBX7 for the penultimate qualifier.

Qualifying Round 4 – Top 12
1. Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed – 13/10:14.317
2. Dylan Rodriguez – Kyosho/OS Speed – 13/10:15.559
3. Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 13/10:15.771
4. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 13/10:16.073
5. Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP – 13/10:16.138
6. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 13/10:16.906
7. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 13/10:18.263
8. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 13/10:19.290
9. Davide Tortorici – Mugen/Bliss – 13/10:19.847
10.Renato Tradardi Jr – Associated/Novarossi – 13/10:19.709
11.Taylor Peterson – Mugen/Alpha – 13/10:20.139
12.Travis Amezcua – Xray/Novarossi – 13/10:21.793

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Boots fastest in Q3

Elliot Boots became the third driver to post a TQ run at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships with the Kyosho driver getting Day 5 in Argentina off to a perfect start by topping Q3 ahead of Q1 pace setter Robert Batlle and Ty Tessmann who was fastest in Q2.

British Champion Boots had a couple of moments over his latest 10-minute run but said overall he was pleased with the result. Running AKA iBeam tyres on his MP9, the 19-year-old said the track was getting really unpredictable and it was important to be patient with the buggy and let it do its own thing over the increasing number of bumps because if you push too hard you end up having moments.  With two more qualifiers to run today following a decision to change the timetable last night in the hope of getting 5 of the 6 qualifiers in before Thursday’s predicted rain, Boots said he will continue with the same set-up and tyre choice for Q4.

Mugen’s Batlle was very happy to end the qualifier with the second fastest time, the Spaniard saying with three mistakes in the run he didn’t expect it.  Running a new as yet unnamed Procircuit tyre the Warm-up Race winner said the tyre was good but with the track getting more bumpy as well as more grippy he will switch tyres for Q4 to Marathon on the front and Sweet Shot on the rear.  Batlle’s team-mate Lee Martin enjoyed another competitive run taking his MBX7 to the fifth fastest time, the European Electric offroad champion proving very consistent with Top 6 runs in all three qualifiers.

Despite one crash at the end of the straight, where a lot of drivers are now having moments, and another big bobble Tessmann described the run as ‘alright’.  Having switched to thicker shock oil for the run he said his OS Speed powered D8’12 didn’t feel as good with it being edgy to drive.  Team-mate Hara set the sixth fastest time, the Japanese ace a lot happier with his performance today.  Running a softer shock set-up for Q4, he said he had better overall grip than yesterday and the buggy handled the bumps better however on the bigger jumps he added the softer shocks meant it was a little bouncy on landings.

Having set the 10th fastest time in both of yesterday’s qualifiers, Ryan Maifield posted the fourth fastest time in Q3.  The American said he did a lot of ‘Home work’ last night and the run was the best his heavily modified RC8 has been at the event so far. Switching to JConcepts Red compound Crossbow he said he would have been better with a larger pin tyre for the round.  With the buggy easy to drive, Maifield said they are very close in terms of the set-up he is looking for and for his next run he will make some very minor changes to try and get just a little more speed from it.

Top Xray for the round was Martin Bayer who was set the 8th fastest time just behind FEMCA Champion Kyle McBride who wasn’t happy with his tyre choice for the round.  Bayer said the run could have been ‘way better’ but he just lacked consistency.  Suffering one small mistake he said the track is getting more difficult and they need to adjust his LRP powered XB9 to better suit the conditions.

Elsewhere Jared Tebo ended the round with the 10th fastest time his Kyosho collecting a spun out buggy on the sweeper at the end of the straight which put the Orion powered MP9 on its roof.  TLR’s Dakotah Phend set the 12th fastest time after the 15-year-old, who had good pace, suffered three mistakes of his own doing.  Team-mate Adam Drake lost time in his run when he and defending World Champion Cody King had a coming together and them on the last lap he had an more costly incident with team-mate Darren Bloomfield.  The American ended up 21st for the round. Top Qualifier of the Worlds Warm-up event here in Buenos Aires Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk had a rear wheel fall off his MP9.  The young Swede said it was frustrating because his MP9 felt ‘really good’.

Qualifying Round 3 – Top 12
1. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 14/10:39.259
2. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 14/10:41.101
3. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 14/10:43.192
4. Ryan Maifield – Associated/LRP – 13/10:01.809
5. Lee Martin – Mugen/Novarossi – 13/10:02.283
6. Atsushi Hara – HB/OS Speed – 13/10:03.450
7. Kyle McBide – Kyosho/OS Speed – 13/10:04.028
8. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 13/10:04.400
9. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 13/10:05.874
10.Jared Tebo – Kyosho/Orion – 13/10:07.983
11.Taylor Petersen – Mugen/Alpha – 13/10:08.913
12.Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 13/10:10.694

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