Magical Top 16 decided

Qualifying for the 2010 IFMAR 1:8 Off Road World Championships is over with 16 drivers now able to relax some what having successfully completed the first stage of the event by qualifying directly for the Semi finals.  Having already wrapped up the honour of becoming Top Qualifier at these World Championship this morning in Q5, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo topped off the perfect day with another fastest run in final qualifying.  Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield, who needed to add a good result to his tally, took second in Q6 moving him right back up the order to fourth in the final qualification ranking.  The only other driver to TQ a round here in Pattaya, defending Champion Atsushi Hara was third fastest to move into second overall ahead of Adam Drake, who had his worst run of the event with 9th.

A rather uneventful final qualifier the biggest losers were Losi’s Matt Castellano and Xray’s Teemu Leino who were pushed out of the Top 16 by Maifield and Josh Wheeler.  28th after Q5, Wheeler saved the best for last as he took his Xray around in the 4th fastest time to secure the final direct qualification spot just behind Joern Neumann who gives LRP’s S8-BXR evo buggy the honour of being best placed of the many new manufacturers making their World Championship debut here.   In terms of nationalities, qualifying endorses the United States status as the powerhouse of 1:8 Off Road with 9 of the 16 drivers being American.

Finalists at the last World Championships Robert Batlle, Jesse Robbers, Travis Amezcua and Taylor James didn’t make the first cut.  Batlle, Robbers and Amezcua will line-up in the 1/4 Finals while James has set himself a mammoth task needing to survive four finals if he wants to again be in the World’s most important buggy race having qualified down in the 1/16th final which means he races tomorrow.

A rest day for the top 48 drivers, tomorrow’s schedule will see up to and including the 1/16th final being run from which eight drivers will progress to the big day.

Final Qualification Ranking – Top 16
(Best 4 of 6 rounds Counted)
1. Jared TEBO (USA) – Kyosho/Orion – 737
2. Atsushi HARA (JPN) – Hot Bodies/OS – 730
3. Adam DRAKE (USA) – Losi/Novarossi – 726
4. Ryan MAIFIELD (USA) – AE/Reedy – 726
5. Billy FISCHER (USA) – Losi/Novarossi – 716
6. Cody KING (USA) – Kyosho/Orion – 715
7. Renaud SAVOYA (FRA) – Mugen/RB – 715
8. Ryan CAVALIERI (USA) – AE/Orion – 710
9. Miguel MATIAS (POR) – Losi/RB – 695
10.Mike Truhe (USA) – Losi/Orion – 694
11.Tyler TESSMANN (CAN) – Hot Bodies/OS – 692
12.Darren BLOOMFIELD (UK) – Losi/NR – 689
13.Yannick AIGOIN (FRA) – Losi/NR – 689
14.Jeremy KORTZ (USA) – Hobao/Werks – 687
15.Joern Neumann (DE) – LRP/LRP – 680
16.Joshua WHEELER (USA) – Xray/OS – 680

View the official event results here.

View the event photo gallery here.

Tebo is 2010 Top Qualifier

Jared Tebo will enter the record books as the Top Qualifier for the 2010 IFMAR 1:8 Off Road World Championship putting the honour beyond the reach of his rivals by going fastest in the penultimate round of qualifying here in Pattaya, Thailand.  The Kyosho driver recored his second TQ run topping Q5 from Team Durango’s Ryan Lutz.  Tebo had a couple of close moments but otherwise said it was a really good run despite the ‘extremely, extremely rough’ track conditions.  The US Champion said sticking to your lines had become so important and that he has never raced on a track where this was so critical.  Slowly adjusting the set-up on his AKA shod MP9 to suit the changing track, he is happy to have wrapped up the TQ honours but said that there was still a bigger game plan and he was sticking with it.  Finding the chassis plate to be bent he will fit a new one for Q6.

Having set the fastest lap in both of the qualifiers yesterday, Lutz again was the quickest man over a single lap but this time he backed it up with a good 10-minute pace.  Carrying the hopes of World Championship debutants Team Durango, the American said he ran as conservative as he possibly could and that while it goes against his natural driving instinct it is really the only way to post a competitive time around this track.  Planning the same approach for the final qualifier he said even with another top run he can not make magical Top 16 and his focus now is getting himself into a Quarter Final position. Still fine tuning his Alpha engined DNX408 he said it has been getting better and better each time out.

Third fastest Adam Drake has been ‘Mr. Consistent’ in qualifying.  What was a good round for Team Losi, with three of their cars in the Top 6, the suprise absentee from the 2008 World Final said he made a few mistakes. Also experiencing some problems with traffic the former US Champion said his 8ight felt good and his speed was good too.  Top Qualifier at the last Worlds team-mate Mike Truhe was fourth fastest recording his best heat. Second fastest in Q3 & 4 yesterday Billy Fischer had a costly crash which lost him about 7 seconds to finish 6th.  Discovering the ride height a little off on his O.S. powered Losi he said the run was ‘not bad’ but the final round should be better.

Defending Champion Atsushi Hara had two big mistakes on his way to fifth in Q5 but said the result means no more pressure as it secures him a place in the Semis, the Japanese ace was left well down the order after having a bad round yesteday in the evening run. Happy with his D8, the Hot Bodies team leader was less complimentary about the track saying it ‘sucks’ having got really bumpy even since yesterday.  Asked what the plan was for the final qualifier, Hara said he was going for ‘maximum attack’ as he wants to add a second TQ run to his tally.

Dominator of the opening day of qualifying, Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield’s bad luck from yesterday continued as he failed to even start Q5 when the steering servo failed on his RC8B on the first lap of warm-up.  With two bad scores this puts huge pressure on the American ace for the last run with him currently sitting 34th in the ranking.

European Champion Renaud was seventh fastest securing his place in the Semi but it was again a troubled round for the only other European in the 2008 final Robert Batlle.  The Associated driver suffered a flame-out and was a non starter in Q2 so he needs a good final run if he is to make the Semis.  Elsewhere Serpent’s Billy Easton enjoyed his best run of the week getting the new Cobra S811 into the Top 10 for the first time behind Ryan Cavalieri and Portugal’s Miguel Mathias, who were 8th and 9th respectively.

Qualification Ranking after Round 5 of 6
(Best 4 to Count)
1. Jared TEBO (USA) – Kyosho/Orion – 13/10:01.509 – 734
2. Adam DRAKE (USA) – Losi/Novarossi – 13/10:04.684 – 726
3. Billy FISCHER (USA) – Losi/Novarossi – 13/10:12.322 – 716
4. Atsushi HARA (JPN) – Hot Bodies/OS – 14/10:44.154 – 716
5. Renaud SAVOYA (FRA) – Mugen/RB – 13/10:04.366 – 715
6. Cody KING (USA) – Kyosho/Orion – 14/10:45.124 – 715
7. Ryan CAVALIERI (USA) – AE/Orion – 13/10:11.734 – 710
8. Miguel MATIAS (POR) – Losi/RB – 13/10:12.694 – 695
9. Mike Truhe (USA) – Losi/Orion – 13/10:17.686 – 694
10.Darren BLOOMFIELD (UK) – Losi/NR – 13/10:16.116 – 683
11.Jeremy KORTZ (USA) – Hobao/Werks – 13/10:18.046 – 682
12.Yannick AIGOIN (FRA) – Losi/NR – 13/10:11.614 – 681
13.Tyler TESSMANN (CAN) – Hot Bodies/OS – 13/10:16.407 – 678
14.Matthew CASTELLANO (USA) – Losi/OS – 13/10:12.324 – 677
15.Joern Neumann (DE) – LRP/LRP – 13/10:08.207 – 677
16.Teemu LEINO (FIN) – Xray/Orion – 13/10:18.660 – 673

View the official event results here.

View the event photo gallery here.