Maifield tops free practice in China

Ryan Maifield has topped free practice at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships in China.  The newly crowned 2WD World Champion set the fastest time in the fourth & final round of free practice at Xiamen ARC International Raceway with just over a tenth of a second advantage over Bruno Coelho, the reigning 4WD Champion also registering his quickest time in FP4.  Having found himself at the top of the time sheets after three rounds, Joern Neumann would end up third overall after failing to better his FP3 time.  The early place setter after the first two practices, David Ronnefalk would have issues in the final practice, completing just 5-laps. Second fastest in FP3, that time would leave him 5th fastest behind Ty Tessmann and ahead of Naoto Matsukura who completed the Top 6.

Summing up free practice, with 2 rounds of controlled practice left on today’s schedule, Maifield said, ‘It going good. We are still kind of throwing shit at the wall and seeing what works’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I am still playing with tyres.  There is not much you can do because its a handout tyre but I am still deciding on gluing or not gluing the foam to the wheel’.  For CP1 he will also make a shock adjustment by moving to a smaller hole piston.  Noticeable hotter today than during the three days of 2WD action, Maifield said, ‘the track is definitely getting loose in spots’ but concluded, ‘overall it still feels nice’.

While describing things as ‘getting better now’, Coelho continued, ‘we are still working on the car because it is very far from perfect’.  With the track having ‘less traction every run’, the Xray driver said, ‘some parts of the track have so much traction but then other parts have no traction.  At the triple, the surface is polished and the traction there is just getting worse and worse so we have to work on the car for this’.

‘I’m only 2/10th off so its going OK’, was Neumann’s thoughts on his performance in practice.  The former World’s Top Qualifier and multiple European Champion changed to a different front and rear spring on his privately entered Gerd Strenge modified Xray for FP4 reporting the track as being faster while the car ‘felt OK’ but wasn’t much different to the run before. Setting a faster single lap time but unable to get 3 good laps due to traffic, with his rivals going faster he will revert back to his FP3 set-up for controlled practice ‘to see if it’s better’ for how the latest track conditions are.  Describing the track as ‘very difficult like 2WD’, the German added, ‘the four doubles are hard to get right every lap.’

Tessmann said he is ‘getting closer’ and his Xray ‘felt good that time’ but added ‘it’s not quite the feel as I’d like’.  Planning ‘a couple of changes’, the former 1:8 World Champion said he is looking to get ‘more stability at high speed’ from his XB4.  On track conditions he said it is ‘a little more polished’ and while ‘everyone is going faster there is not so much change in how to feels’.

‘It felt good so I’m not worried’ was Ronnefalk’s reaction after his limited FP4 run time.  The reigning 1:8 World Champion said, ‘we changed a few things to get more speed without sacrificing consistency.  Unfortunately we forgot to put an o-ring in when putting back the centre shaft and when the chassis flexed it popped out.  We managed to get it back in with an o-ring to get some laps and I could get a 24.0 lap so I know we improved the car a lot from the few laps I did.  I will run it the same for the next one’.

Matsukura summed up free practice by saying, ‘the track is hard, it fun but hard’.  The Infinity driver would be the fastest Associated driver bettering the American brands team drivers of which Dustin Evans was quickest in P8.  Describing his car set-up as ‘ok’, the reigning 1:12 World Champion said it is suffering from ‘a little bit of understeer’ adding ‘we need to make it more stable in the rear’.  On track conditions the Japanese driver said, ‘It starting to get a little bumpy now’.  Behind Matsukura Dakotah Phend would continue to lead the TLR challenge ending free practice 7th quickest.

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Ronnefalk sets early 4WD pace at World Championships

David Ronnefalk has set the early pace at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in China as the 17th running of the event switches to 4WD.  With a day off following the crowning of Ryan Maifield as the 2WD Champion, today’s action sees 4 rounds of free practice followed by two rounds of controlled practice in between which there will be a 2-hour break for the official opening ceremony. Having secured 5th overall in 2WD despite taking the win in A3, Ronnefalk would set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the free practices with the track now running in the opposite, clockwise direction to that used in 2WD.  Behind the HB Racing driver, Xray’s Ty Tessmann was second fastest being just over 1/10th of a second slower with Maifield kicking off his 4WD campaign much stronger than 2WD with the third fastest time. TLR’s Dakotah Phend made it four different cars at the top of the times sheets with Bruno Coelho and Renaud Savoya completing the Top 6 with Ryan Cavalieri the fastest Associated driver in 7th.

‘The car is great, we changed quite a lot on the set-up and the pace was really good for the second one’, was Ronnefalk’s reaction to topping the times.  The Swede continued, ‘we saw the traction was different to what we expected after watching some of the earlier heats of the first round and made changes.  The car was alright but I had too much power and too much brakes.  We also changed a bunch of things on the car set-up to suit the track for the second one and now we just need to do some fine tuning’.  Asked what he would specifically like to improve on his car, the base for the upcoming D4 18, the 2015 podium finisher said, ‘the car is fast and easy to drive but we will try to get a little more speed out of it without taking away the consistency that’s there’.  On the reversed track layout he said, ‘I like it this way, I think its fun’.

Asked how he felt the opening two practices had went, Tessmann said, ‘It’s started off a lot better’, a reference comparing it to his 2WD campaign in which the Canadian just missed the A-Main cut.  The US National Champion continued, ‘we made a couple of changes to the shocks and it was better on the landings, there are flat landings everywhere’. Describing his XB4 as ‘easy to drive’ he added, ‘I hope nothing changes with the track like rain or something’.  Currently rain is being forecast for Saturday, which is officially Finals day here in Xiamen.  For FP3 he will make ‘just small changes but nothing crazy’.  On driving the track in the opposition direction to 2WD, he said, ‘the jump section is a lot easier but the rest is not a lot different in terms of the flow’.

‘Started out ok so far’ was Maifield’s summary of early practice.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘we are just making small changes and getting used to the different direction and so far it is going decent’.  On the track switch the American said, ‘It feels a little more fun. With the resurfacing I think they did a pretty good job.  It’s got more traction compared to the last day of 2WD but its not too much like the start of the 2WD.  It a nice medium’.  On his YZ-4’s performance he said, ‘the rear end is wishy, washy I guess so we need to get more side support’.

Setting the fourth fast time Phend summed up his morning as going ‘good so far’.  Describing the clockwise direction as ‘ok’ he added, ‘It not quite as fun but it works. It pretty hard to make it work both ways, they didn’t change any of the piping’.  On his TLR 22-4, the American said, ’It’s working pretty good. We are just making small changes. The set-up we came here with was pretty good and we are just trying to improve on that. It is easy to drive but we are trying to get a little more corner speed in the corners’.

Coelho said his Xray was ‘very good’ but felt he ‘drove just ok’ admitting he made a few mistakes too many over the 5-minute runs. Having set the pace in free practice in 2WD ending up qualifying P5, the reigning 4WD Champion added, ‘I think I prefer the layout the other way.  The jumps are even more difficult now but overall I think we have a good car’.

Sixth fastest, Savoya was happy with his start to 4WD proceedings. Feeling he went safe with the set-up, the French driver plans to go for a more aggressive set-up for the next run and also plans to add ‘a little bit more power in the speed control to have more punch out of the corner’.   A driver better known for his 1:8 Offroad exploits having been a multiple European Champion and World Championship podium finisher, on the track layout he said, ‘the jumps section is still really tricky as well as middle section too but the rest is really good’.

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Maifield finally gets his World title

Having held a title of being one of the greatest offroad drivers to never have been crowned World Champion, Ryan Maifield today finally revoked that status when he joined R/C racing’s most elite club by becoming the 2WD World Champion in China. With form over the first day & a half of the event making the American an unlikely title challenger, that all changed in the third qualifier as together with his Yokomo team he turned things around and go on to become Top Qualifier.  Taking an easy win in A1 despite a last lap tumble, A2 would see a first lap mistake set up the world famous ‘Ryan & Ryan’ show as he and Ryan Cavalieri went into battle. Having lost out to Cavalieri in the past, Maifield this time kept his composure with the mistake coming from Cavalieri.  Getting stuck up in a corner pipe it handed Maifield a huge lead allowing him to cruise to the win and with it the World title. Admitting afterwards that he had begun to accept he might never be a World Champion, the meaning of finally achieving his dream was clear to see as he became overcome with emotion on the drivers stand as track announcer Scotty Ernst asked him how it feels to finally be World Champion.

‘Its a pretty surreal feeling. There are so many great drivers that have never won a World title, I’m very thankful that I can now say I’m a World Champion, not many drivers can say that’, was how Maifield summed up the meaning of this his greatest win.  Part of the offroad super power trio that is himself, Cavalieri and Jared Tebo but the last one to add a World title to his CV he continued, ‘I have always dreamed of this and I wish Jason (Ruona) was here. We have worked well together for a long time.  I’m sure he won’t regret having missed the food but I’m sure he’s going to regret not being here for the win but we’ll celebrate when we get home’.  On his A2 performance he said, ‘I made a slight bobble in the doubles.  I knew how important it was to stay in front so I did what I did to keep in front.  Ryan is a great driver and held his line, he knew it was the first lap so he didn’t contest it.  It was great to race Ryan for my first World Championship because I raced him for each one of his’. In terms of his YZ-2 DTM he said, ‘I had to build my car twice today because I had a bent chassis (after his Q5 off) and them for this one (A2) my diff didn’t feel great so I stole Hara’s.  Joe (Pillar) has just joined the team and has been a great help and kept everything calm. When I’m freaking out rebuilding the car he keeps everything calm.  It is great to be involved with a team like Yokomo, I only joined them at the start of the season but they have listened to my input and Lee’s and made the changes we needed. Myself and Lee have worked really well together and Shin too, its been a real team effort’.

Finishing second to David Ronnefalk in A3, the Swede having a great run from P7 on the grid, Cavalieri said, ‘I did what I had to do to get second (overall)’. He continued, ‘Lee made a mistake so I knew a win or second would be enough’.  Going one better than Japan two years ago, the Team Associated driver said, ‘Overall it was good result but we struggled a bit today. I had everything going for me yesterday but still we were close’.

Disappointed to miss out on making it a 1-2 for Yokomo, Martin said, ‘I drove like shit there. My car was good again but I took the wrong line over the triple which killed the speed and I got swallowed up by the pack’.  His first Worlds podium with Yokomo, the European Champion said, ‘Overall I’m really happy with making the podium and I’m super happy for Ryan. We won this as a team not as an individual and we proved a lot of things like our car is great. Now on to 4WD’.  Finishing on the same points as Martin but losing out on the podium on tie break, Kyosho’s Jared Tebo would finish 4th with Ronnefalk’s A3 win securing the HB Racing driver fifth.  With the 13th different 2WD champion having been crowned at the 17th running of the IFMAR World Championships, Maifield has a day to celebrate before he and the rest of the drivers get back down to business on Thursday for the start of the battle to crown the 4WD Champion.

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