Maifield leads Yokomo 1-2 in Q3 at WC

Ryan Maifield became the third different driver to post a TQ on the opening day of qualifying at the 2WD Offroad World Championship, the American leading a Yokomo 1-2 in China in the third round of qualifying.  Having not featured in the opening two qualifiers, with a best run of P9 in Q2, Maifield took set-up direction from team mate Lee Martin for the final action of the day to top the third of the five qualifiers by 0.375 of a second from the British driver who also managed a P2 in the previous round.  Behind the Yokomo duo, the round would see another of US Offroad racing’s big name drivers turn around a challenging day as Jared Tebo took his Kyosho to the third fastest time even with an error on his final lap.  Having taken Q2, Ryan Cavalieri would conclude a long day, due to morning rain delays, with a P4 ahead of Q1 pace setter Michal Orlowski while TLR’s Dakotah Phend rounded out the Top 6 with his best run of the day.

Commenting on his turn around in performance Maifield said, ‘We made a couple of changes and they were good. Lee was going good and we have been working well together so I did a few things he did and the car felt better’.  He continued, ‘It was still sketchy to drive so I tried to drive more calm but it was still not calm enough.  For tomorrow I need to make sure I don’t drink any Redbull because you have to be so calm out there’.  With 3 of the 5 rounds to count, the result is a huge boost going into the final two qualifiers tomorrow with the former runner-up saying, ‘we have a good plan for tomorrow and have a good idea what direction to go with our set-up’.

Summing up his run, Martin said, ‘ Overall it was a good run but I got held up a lot by traffic.  I’m not blaming the drivers as it was too dark to see who is around you but there are four guys on the drivers stand and big numbers on the cars but still nothing was called so can we not take these big ugly numbers off the cars’.  On his YZ-2 performance he said, ‘we made a small tweak to get more rear bite on power. It was quicker in the turns but didn’t solve the issue’.  With the Q3 result booking the European Champion’s place on the A-Main grid he conclude, ‘I’m excited for tomorrow’.

‘Awesome’ was Tebo’s reaction to P3 time, the former Champion only managing a best run of P13 in the opening two qualifiers.  He continued, ‘my car felt good and I finally got my confidence back.  I made a mistake myself when I messed up on my last lap which cost me the TQ but still this one kept me in with a chance’.  Having got his car set-up back to where the car is comfortable to drive he said, ‘I ‘m positive about tomorrow because now that I have confidence in the car I know there is room for improvement’.

Cavalieri said his run ‘started off good’ but then he had a ‘really bad one’ at the table top on the right side which cost him over 5-seconds.  While he ‘almost saved it’, the Associated driver admitted he was ‘lucky to salvage 4th out of something that could have been a lot worse’.  Feeling his car was too aggressive when he TQ’d Q2 due to the amount of wear on his front tyres he said ‘I really like the new front after the first 3 to 4 laps’.  Counting his P2 in the Q1, TQ in Q2 and P4 in the third, the multiple former champion holds the overnight provisional TQ in Xiamen.

‘It was difficult with the light. It was hard to see the pipes even with them painted white (in the corners)’, was Orlowski’s reaction to setting the fifth fastest time for the round.  The reigning Euro Offroad Series champion added, ‘I had two costly mistakes in the last double off the jumps section but the base is there and we don’t have to change anything on the car.  Tomorrow I will just try to drive around and make the best laps I can’.  Behind the Schumacher driver, while Phend’s 6th would be the first Top 10 for the TLR team it would also be the first time reigning champion Spencer Rivkin had a single digit result with him getting a P9 behind HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk and the privately entered Associated of Joern Neumann.

View our event image gallery here.

Cavalieri takes Q2 as TQ is again decided on last lap

Having lost out in the opening round of qualifying with a mistake on his final lap that gave Michal Orlowski the TQ, Ryan Cavalieri got it done on his second attempt in China but it wasn’t without incident with the last lap again being a deciding factor. With Orlowski leading away the field again in Q2, the Schumacher driver would get it wrong at the first double and need marshalling allowing Cavalieri to lead the field from Bruno Coelho. With mistakes from almost every driver come the final lap it was Coelho who was on target for the TQ but running in close proximity to Cavalieri, a mistake by the American would balk the Xray driver and out of his rhythm lead the 4WD World Champion to having a larger mistake in the jumps section that left him with a 31.4-second lap handing Cavalieri the TQ and dropping him to third behind Lee Martin.

With Coelho expressing his frustration with both Cavalieri and race control on the drivers stand over the incident, afterwards Cavalieri said, ‘I had a spin into the corner and he got into the back of me but I think the result was more a reflection of his error in the jump section. I said sorry to him. I was planning to give him room to pass at the next corner’. Commenting on his own performance the former Champion said, ‘the track was a lot dustier that time and there were a lot more mistakes from everyone. The left side was even more challenging’. Running his front tyres for a 3rd time in the qualifier he said is B6 was ‘too aggressive’ because of the wear and for Q3, the final qualifier of the day, he will ‘fit a new set to try smooth it back out’.

‘I was making a clean round and then on the last lap I touched with Cavalieri and thats it. It was his fault’, was Coelho’s view of things. The Portuguese driver sarcastically added, ‘he is not so experienced and he don’t know what to do when he has a faster driver behind him’. Asked how changes to his XB2 had worked, he replied, ‘It was still difficult to get around. The track changed a lot and that time it was very loose on the rear on power. We will make more changes but I think conditions will be different again but the lighting will make it even more challenging’. Having experienced running in darkness under flood lights for the second controlled practice last night he said, ‘with the shadows you can’t get close to the pipe because you can’t tell the difference between the shadow and the pipe. You also can’t see the car well so you can’t see what it is really doing’.

Having taken a ‘try not to crash route rather than the be fast route’ in Q1 to get a P5, Martin said he ‘drove a little harder to get around faster this time’. Running in the second fastest heat, the Yokomo driver had ‘one bad lap’ which he said ‘was a shame in hindsight’ given his closeness to the TQ pace and the fact he ‘hit a corner rather than crash in the hard bit’. Looking to Q3, the European Champion is not a fan of racing under spot lights.

Having struggled in practice leading to him finding himself carry the No.9 in the third fastest heat, Australia’s Kyle McBride would get a P4 for the second round of qualifying. The Associated driver said, ‘I got 10th in the first and now 4th so we are going in the right direction’. The Australian continued, ‘we have been making small changes to the car to get more grip and make it more easy to drive and for the next one I’m going to adjust the camber link and anti squat. you don’t have to be fast, you have to keep it smooth and you’ll be there. That run didn’t feel fast but I got fourth’.

View our event image gallery here.

Orlowski takes Q1 from Cavalieri on final lap

Top seed Michal Orlowski has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 2WD Offroad World Championships in China. After rain delayed the start of Day 2’s action, the first of the five qualifiers got underway with Orlowski making a cautious start as from the back 10th seed Ryan Cavalieri showed Team Associated had finally found their way on the challenging Xiamen track. Going to the top of the timing screens, Cavalieri looked to have bagged the first TQ with a big enough gap over the recovering Orlowski but contrasting last laps threw up a surprise. With Cavalieri touching the pipe on his final lap, Orlowski would post his fastest lap on his last lap with Cavalieri’s advantage turning to a 1/10th of a second deficit, the duo the only drivers to make 12 laps. Behind, fastest man on the track Bruno Coelho would somehow salvage a 3rd despite a number of crashes, with David Ronnefalk, Lee Martin and Dustin Evans completing the Top 6. For defending champion Spencer Rivkin the first qualifier would net the American the 11th fastest time.

Surprised to get the TQ, Orlowski said, ‘On the last lap I didn’t know if I had finished or not so I drove the best lap I could. It was to be my fastest lap and it gave me the TQ’. The Schumacher driver continued, ’It was a bit sketchy at the start. The first laps were not the best as I was a bit nervous. I hit the pipe and spun and then David (Ronnefalk) was behind me so I pushed a bit harder and starting climbing up the order. When I was in second I just want to try to get to the finish but then I had a few small mistakes. I knew it was very close but to get the TQ is a big confidence boost for the next one’. Asked about track conditions following the rain, the Polish teenager said, ‘the car is always on the edge, you don’t feel when it is going to spin out so it is hard to keep it on the track. For the next one we will make some set-up changes for this.’

‘Overall it was pretty good’, was Cavalieri’s reaction after Q1, the American happy to finally be on the pace but at the same time a little frustrated to lose the TQ on the final lap. He added, ‘I was really surprised how good my car felt in the warm-up and it was a flawless run until the last lap. I knew it was really close with Orlowski and when I messed up in the middle of the last lap I tried to make back the time but got a little tight to the pipe’. Asked about his marked improvement in pace, he replied, ‘we made really good changes to the car today. They have made it really comfortable and in the jumps section its now really good. We also improved the corner speed which helps a lot’.

Commenting on his first qualifying attempt, Coelho said, ‘I am kind of surprised with the place I made. My pace was good but I crashed a lot’. The Xray driver continued, ‘the track is very difficult after the rain and there was cars everywhere so like I said before the guy who makes the least number of mistakes will come out on top. I had three mistakes and flipped twice but fortunately I got 3rd place even though I lost 5-seconds in mistakes’.

‘Considering I was marshalled 3 times I’m happy to get 4th’, was Ronnefalk’s reaction. With two mistakes in the jumps section, the HB Racing driver said, ‘I lowered the punch in the electronics for that one and went too low so I will go back up a bit for the next one so I feel more comfortable on the jumps’. On track conditions, the Swede said, ‘the grip is down a lot I think so I will make a few changes but mainly to the electrics’.

View our event image gallery here.