Tessmann takes Q2 in China

Ty Tessmann has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in China. Having opened 4WD qualifying with a P5 run, the Xray driver found 7-seconds to top Q2 by a 1.4-second margin from Yokomo’s Ryan Maifield who posted another P2 run. Despite a number of mistakes over the 5-minutes, David Ronnefalk would have the pace to again complete the Top 3, the HB Racing driver posting the fastest lap on his penultimate lap to finish a further 1.1-seconds off Maifield.  Having failed to finish Q1, Ryan Cavalieri would recover with a fourth for the round while Associated team-mate and Q1 pace setter Spencer Rivkin had a messy round ending up 19th fastest.

’That went really good’, was how Tessmann summed up his TQ performance. With driver’s getting just one warm-up lap prior to the heat start, he continued, ‘the car felt good in the warm-up but I didn’t make the double right and had to roll the jump so I was a a bit nervous at the start but in the race I made it every time and only had to roll it once’. Happy they have improved his XB4, the former 1:8 World Champion also felt tyres was a contributing factor. With the race using a hand out tyre, the Canadian said, ‘I think there is a big difference in the tyre batch to batch both in the grip and the wear. That was the first time I had a set go bald and the tyre had more grip. I’ve had a set with zero grip, good grip and somewhere in the middle. I think who goes fastest depends of the tyres’.

Summing up his second qualifying attempt, Maifield said, ‘I had a little bit of a mistake at the beginning and luckily stopped to let David (Ronnefalk) go by and then he did the same thing and let me go by so we worked well together on that. The newly crowned 2WD World Champion continued, ‘I also landed the table top weird and flat landed but apart from that I was going good and the car is working really nice’. He concluded, ‘we have good points to start with and we’ll keep going’.

‘Two third places is a good start as it could have been a lot worse’, was how Ronnefalk summed up Q2. The Swede continued, ‘the lap times feel great and the car is amazing but I need to relax a little. The racing is so intense. I need to stay more relaxed for the next one’. Giving an example of the intensity he said, ‘Myself, Maifield and Spencer got really close coming onto the straight. There was no space between the cars. It was not possible to drive. I was checking what Spencer was doing and wasn’t sure how he was going to jump and so I went for it but over jumped and crashed at the second double. Even with a lot of crashes I was still up there so if I can cut out some of them its got to be better’.

‘A lot better’, was Cavalieri’s reaction after the second of the five scheduled qualifiers, there still a threat of rain tomorrow. The former champion continued, ‘We changed everything on the car. I pretty much ran the same as Spencer so we finally have something that works’. Admitting to ‘stressing out every round’ prior to Q2, the American said ‘now I can relax and get on with driving’. Asked about his qualifier, Rivkin said, ‘I drove too slow. I wasn’t attacking like in the first round and it bit me’. Behind Cavalieri, Bruno Coelho and Joern Neumann would complete the Top 6.

View our event image gallery here.

Rivkin surprises to TQ opening qualifier

Spencer Rivkin has taken a surprise TQ in the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the World Championships in China.  Seeding 8th in the fastest heat after a disappointing 2WD campaign, the former champion took the first of the 5-scheduled rounds of qualifying from his 2WD World Champion successor Ryan Maifield, the American duo separated by half a second.  Behind them, David Ronnefalk would recover from an early mistake to complete the Top 3 ahead of reigning champion Bruno Coelho, Ty Tessmann and Naoto Matsukura.  Having topped yesterday’s seeding in Xiamen, Joern Neumann have a costly mistake that cost him 6-seconds as he waited on marshals leaving the German with a P12 for the opening round.

‘I was not expecting that. I didn’t think the car was capable of such a run’, was Rivkin’s reaction to his TQ, the Associated driver more surprised than anyone that he got a TQ run.  Having failed to make the A-Main in his 2WD title defence, the just turned 20-year-old continued, ‘we changed something on the car and it paid off so I just drove it.  I can definitely drive better for sure. I really didn’t have much confidence going in the heat’.  Looking to Q2, having also posted the fastest lap of Q1, he said, ‘we have changed the car every run, now I’m going to leave it and work on my driving. I know I can do better on the steering inputs’.

Summing up his P2, Maifield declared it ‘not bad’ adding, ‘I had just one mistake at the beginning, well, I got a little loose and Naoto collected me’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I also had some traffic. It wasn’t much of a problem it was more just nerve racking getting passed.’  Suffering another small mistake later in the run he said, ‘I had a bobble near the end, I hit the pipe and had to do a U turn but the car is working really well and I know what & where I am going with line choices so it looking good for the next one’.

‘Considering the start it was a good comeback at the end’, was Ronnefalk’s view of the opening qualifier.  The HB Racing driver continued, ‘I also had a car blocking me for the last two minutes.  It was Naoto. He was fast one lap and would then slow me down the next one so I could have gone faster if I didn’t have to worry about what he was doing.  I said it to the referee after but he said he didn’t see it’.  For Q2 the Swede said, ‘I will try to eliminate the mistake at the start and see if can find a way to make the car easy to drive out of the gate.  It takes a couple of laps to get going but otherwise I’m happy with the car’.

Almost 3-seconds off Rivkin’s pace, Coelho declared his run as ‘not perfect’ but was happy that they ‘improved the car a lot from CP3 to now’.  The Xray driver said he lost 5-seconds with mistakes early on admitting he was ’not very confident for the round’ but with a better set-up he ‘got better over the round’ and he is now more confident in the car and his driving for the next one. Declaring his XB4 as now working ‘good but still not perfect’ he concluded, ‘we are on the right way now so we just need to make small changes to get it better’.

Xray team-mate Tessmann was also happier with his car.  The Canadian said, ‘we made a couple more changes after practice for this one and it was better.  I made the jump section everytime’.  Suffering ‘one marshal and one bobble’ he said, ‘we got the speed and just need to get rid of the crashes now’.  Asked if he planned to adjust his car for Q2 he replied, ‘we will see how the track goes. It is very inconsistent so it hard to get around without crashing’.

Matsukura’s view on Q1 was to the point, the Japanese driver saying, ‘the car good, me no good’.  The Infinity team driver added, ‘I had many many mistakes so I have to work on my driving, the car I will leave the same’.  Behind Matsukura, Kyle McBride would finish get a P7 for the round from the second fastest heat ahead of Dakota Phend, Dustin Evans and Lee Martin.

View our event image gallery here.

Neumann top seed in China as CP2 proves slower

Joern Neumann is the top seed at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships in China.  Having topped the opening round of controlled practice held in the middle of the day under natural daylight, the German’s time stood as drivers failed to go quicker under flood lights in CP2. With the 2013 Worlds Top Qualifier setting a best time of 1:13.601 first time round, the best time for the second run would be a 1:14.945 which was set by HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk.  With Neumann breaking after 3-minutes, the German would end up 6th fastest for CP2 with the only improvement in the Top 17 times coming from Ryan Maifield. After a rough CP1 the Yokomo driver set the second fastest time to Ronnefalk to secure a spot in the top heat for qualifying as the 7th fastest driver. Naoto Matsukura backed up his opening P2 pace with a P3 for the second round remaining the second seed although the actual Q1 starting order for each reseeded heat grouping will be determined in CP3 tomorrow morning.

‘I broke in the last one but I am happy to top seeding of course’, was Neumann’s reaction at the end of Day 1 of the 4WD action, his participation in the event having been uncertain following his departure from Serpent. Choosing an Xray for the event with the German still having the backing of Team Orion, Maxima and Pro-Line, on CP2 he said, ‘It was hard to see so I don’t think a faster time was possible.  I only did 5-laps.  At the first double I think I cased the landing and the rear axle snapped but still I got a 1:16.2. It was too dark to be able to go super fast.’ Having left his car unchanged from CP1, he said despite the conditions the car felt really good and he will keep it the same again for tomorrow.

Topping the round, his pace only 46/1000ths slower than his 3rd place seeding time from CP, Ronnefalk said, ‘The track was a little looser than before but the main thing was it was hard to see in the night’.  He continued, ‘the lights are not the best and there are a few blind spots where you lose sight of the car so it’s hard to judge where the car is in relation to the pipe’.  With his CP2 topping time coming late in the round, the 1:8 Offroad World Champion said, ‘I pushed too hard in the beginning but I stepped it down a little towards the end and could put 3 laps together.  The car felt great so I am excited about tomorrow. We have one more practice and so we will try some ideas in CP3 but the car is already comfortable as it is.

View our event image gallery here.

Neumann goes quickest in opening controlled practice

Joern Neumann has gone quickest in China with the 2013 World Championship 4WD Top Qualifier setting the fastest time in the first round of controlled practice. Third fastest in free practice, the German non factory supported driver put in a blistering 3-consecutive laps in CP1 to top the times from Naoto Matsukura, another driver with no official chassis backer for the event.  Having set the early pace in Xiamen, HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk would complete the Top 3 ahead of top American Dakotah Phend, Ty Tessmann and Michal Orlowski.  Having ended the four rounds of free practice as the fastest driver, Ryan Maifield would struggle to put together 3 good laps.  Although fourth quickest in terms of his outright pace over a lap, the newly crowned World champion sits 28th in the seeding.  Second quickest to Maifield after free practice, reigning champion Bruno Coelho would end up 8th quickest in the first of the two counting controlled practice, the second of which will bring Day 1 of the 4WD action to a close following the opening ceremony.

‘It was very good’, was how Neumann summed up his run.  The former factory Serpent driver who ran an Associated chassis in 2WD and is using an Xray in 4WD with both cars modified by long time mechanic Gerd Strenge, continued, ‘I go back to my previous set up and it was much better.  The track has improved and the feeling of my FP3 set-up was better for the track.  I think I will stay the same for the last one’. Asked about consistency of his Orion powered XB4, he said, ‘everyone is going to make mistakes because the track is very hard but my car is perfect so I just need to make as few mistakes as possible when the 5-minutes count in qualifying’.

Opting to run Associated cars for the championship, factory Infinity team onroad star Matsukura said, ‘The set-up that time was better.  The car was more stable and I had more steering’.  Going for a softer spring and shock oil as well as adding more camber to the B64, the 2013 runner-up, continued, ‘we still need to make little changes to get more steering and we are thinking what is the best thing to do’.  Like Neumann, he said he was happy with the consistency of the car but due to the track, doing an error free run would be difficult if not impossible.

Ronnefalk described CP1 as ‘pretty good’.  On the podium at the previous Worlds held in Japan, he added, ‘I felt something was not right with the steering at the start.  The car didn’t turn fully to the left.  I popped a ball cup and when Cavalieri was putting it back on I adjusted the left EPA.  After that the pace was good and I could put three decent laps together’. Overall pleased with his set-up, he said the focus now is to ‘work on our 5-minute pace’ adding, ‘we just need to change some small details and it should be fine’.

Fourth fastest, Phend said, ‘the car is easy to drive and I did a good qualifying pace but we still want to get more speed in the car. We changed a few things and we are getting closer but we can still work on getting more corner speed’.  Missing the final in Japan having made it the previous two occasions, the American concluded, ‘we will keep trying to go faster and make the car more comfortable because trying to make no mistakes will be important too’.

‘The car felt better at the start but then it faded, I think the oil was too soft’, was Tessmann’s view on CP1.  The fastest Xray team driver, the Canadian who has spent 3-weeks at the Hudy Arena in preparation for his Worlds debut with the Slovakian team continued, ‘Joern was still faster so we need to find speed and think how we are going to to do that for the last one’.  Observing, ‘everyone had more trouble with the jumps section that time’ he said I don’t know if the track is getting harder or if everyone is over thinking it but its important to get clean through there’.

‘It wasn’t looking good at the beginning but it is getting better and better. It’s now looking promising’ was the reaction of 2WD Top seed Michal Orlowski at posting the 6th fastest time.  Only 33rd at the end of free practice, the Schumacher driver said, ‘we are running a prototype car and had problems in free practice and I broke a couple of things in the jump section.  We have solved that problem and for only my second full run I am happy with how the car is working now’.  Looking to the CP2, the first two deciding what heats drivers will qualifying in with tomorrow morning’s CP3 deciding the starting order of each heat, the Polish teenager said, ‘we now know the direction to go with the set-up and we have a good set-up plan for changes we will make for the next one’. Behind Orlowski, Spencer Rivkin would set the eight fastest time as the Team Associated’s fastest driver with Cavalieri P9 ahead of Yokomo’s Lee Martin. 

View our event image gallery here.