Neumann & Rheinard take one TQ a piece in opening 2WD qualifiers

Joern Neumann and Marc Rheinard registered one TQ each in the opening two rounds of 2WD qualifying at the DHI Cup presented by LRP. In the opening qualifier it was Marc Rheinard who kicked off the 2017 season with a TQ run heading home Neumann and his own Yokomo team-mate Frederik Hovgaard. In the second of the 4 scheduled qualifiers, which brought Day 1 of the offroad action at the Danish classic to a close, the result would be reversed with Neumann getting the better of Rheinard with a faster time to hold the provisional overnight TQ on the tie-break. Behind the two Germans, Finnish Team Associated driver Karri Salmela would compete the Top 3 ahead of a much improved David Ronnefalk and top seed Michal Orlowski, the pair having got together in Q1 and ended up 17th and 13th fastest respectively.

‘I was a little faster than Marc that time and was able to catch and pass him’, was Neumann reaction after Q2.  Putting the improved pace of his Serpent SDX2 down to just refreshing the diff between qualifiers, he added, ‘It was also close in the first one but Marc was a little faster and after I had a bobble at the wall I settled for second’.  As well as his diff rebuild, the 2012 & 2013 2WD Champion said, ‘I also ran new tyres but so did everyone because of the tyre wear’.  The only driver to go 17-laps over the 5-minutes, he was impressed by his lap times over the final minute with him feeling that maybe used tyres could work for a second run but airing on the side of caution concluded he will run new tyres in the penultimate round and if that proves good he might use the last qualifier to try used tyres.

Summing up his Q1 topping run with ‘it was just a clean run and everyone else crashed’, Rheinard added, ‘but it was nice to start 2017 with a TQ run’.  A title contender in this season’s Euro Offroad Series having won the opening round, he said ‘Q2 was also not bad but Joern found more speed, my car felt more loose than before’.  Describing his YZ-2 as good in the long corners, he said the problem is he has ‘no forward traction on power’ but conceded his P1 and P2 is ‘still a good start so I can’t complain’.

Sitting third overnight thanks to a P6 in Q1, Salmela summed up his improved Q2 performance by saying ‘No big mistakes, drive better, there was nothing else actually’. On the opening qualifier he said ‘it was good but I drove too safe so was too slow’.  In terms of his car set-up he replied, ‘there is no problems with my 2WD’ adding for the morning’s third qualifier the plan was to leave the car unchanged and ‘keep it clean again’.

Reacting to his P4 in the second qualifier,  Ronnefalk said, ‘I knew it was going to be tough starting at the back but the speed is there for Top 3’.  The Swede continued ‘Q1 was pretty good until Michal made a mistake and he was letting me go but had more power and got stuck in my back wing and I lost 6-seconds’. Having to start at the back of the top heat for Q2 as a result of being last of the group in the first one, he would have a few mistakes of his own doing but was pleased to recover to get 4th. Happy with his car, his D216 using a new lighter chassis and prototype gearbox, he said for tomorrow ‘it’s just a matter of putting it (a good run) together’.

Having topped the seeding practice, Orlowski said his car was not really good in the qualifiers despite him setting the fastest lap in both rounds of qualifying.  Suffering two crashes in Q1, the second of which was with Ronnefalk, he said his KF2 was missing rear traction and under breaking the car slides around.  Also reporting, ‘I don’t have front steering’, the 15-year-old said his P5 in Q2 was not the worst result but he wants to be able to do better tomorrow.  Planning to running 3 degrees of rear toe in as well as also switching to a softer front spring for Q3, the EOS championship leader said, ‘I have the pace but the car is really difficult and the changes wont slow the car but should make it that bit easier to drive’.

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5 time 4WD champion Neumann tops DHI Cup seeding

Joern Neumann set the pace in 4WD seeding at the DHI Cup presented by LRP. The unbeaten 4WD Champion of the Danish event, who is going for a sixth consecutive title this weekend in Odense, topped the times with an improved run in the second of the two rounds of controlled practice. Behind the Serpent driver, 2WD top seed Michal Orlowski would post the second fastest time with his CP1 when he set the early pace and Neumann was P4. While Neumann’s advantage was 2/10th, the gap between Orlowski and third fastest David Ronnefalk was much closer with only 3/100ths separating the Schumacher and HB Racing stars. With Yokomo’s Marc Rheinard P4, Finnish driver Samppa Orhanen would make it five different manufacturers at the top of the seeding times taking his Associated to the fifth fastest time. One noticeable absence this year is that of factory Xray team, with 2016 podium finisher & World Champion Bruno Coelho and 2015 podium finish Martin Bayer both opting to not make the trip this year.

The ‘car works very good and is super easy to drive and fast’, was Neumann summary of practice. Running a preproduction example of Serpent’s new SDX4, having just received his first fully production version which is under his pit table and needs building, he added, ‘I moved the shocks in one hole for more steering and that is about it (in terms of changes made to the car for the DHI Cup track)’. The reigning European Champion said here the car has less grip than at the EOS where the car wants to traction roll from having too much grip’. Describing the tyre wear in 2WD as ‘crazy’ for 4WD he said, ‘it the same as 2WD, its pretty high’. Asked about qualifying, which for 4WD gets underway tomorrow after the conclusion of 2WD qualifying, he said the only thing he needs to do to the car is ‘fit new tyres’.

Orlowski said his ‘car feels good’ after some ‘small changes from the basic set-up’. The former European Champion added, ‘again the tyre wear is pretty high’. Setting his quickest 3-consecutive laps in CP1, the Pole said, ‘I ran the same set of tyres for a second time (in CP2) to check and it was pretty difficult so it is going to be a new set a run for qualifying’.

‘Really good’ was how Ronnefalk summed up controlled practice. With HB Racing designer Torrance Deguzman at his disposal at a European carpet offroad event for the first time, he said while the car is pretty much how he ran it at the World Championships at Yatabe, it now has a different lighter chassis. Offering more, the 1:8 Offroad World Champion said with this it is ‘super easy to drive and very consistent over the 5-minutes and it still has the outright speed’. Continuing ‘I think it will be good for qualifying’ he also added, ‘I think the chassis will also work good on dirt’ outlining he will remain on in the US after the 1:8 event the Dirt Nitro Challenge to test it as part of preparations for this year’s 1:10 World Championship in China in November.

With his carpet offroad experience limited almost entirely to the Euro Offroad Series, Rheinard said ‘It just feels like no grip so it is difficult, it is completely different to EOS’. The 4-time Onroad World Champion, who is having his first DHI Cup Offroad experience, continued, ‘It just low grip and I still have to get used to it’. In terms of his YZ-4 he plans to make a small diff oil change for qualifying but added, ‘every run new tyres, this is horrible’.

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Orlowski tops 2WD seeding at DHI Cup

Defending champion Michal Orlowski has topped 2WD Buggy seeding at the DHI Cup presented by LRP. The Schumacher driver posted the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the first of the two rounds of control practice at the Danish event with Marc Rheinard his closest challenger. Little under a tenth of a second off Orlowski’s 55.401 pace, Rheinard would also post his best time in the first round, all drivers reporting high tyre wear due to the tracks low grip. Completing the Top 3 would be Rheinard’s Yokomo team-mate Frederik Hovgaard who was the only driver in the Top 5 to better his opening time in the final practice.

Starting out practice with his ‘basic carpet set-up’, EOS Poland double winner Orlowski said with the ‘lower traction than (he is) used too’ they had to make some small changes to the car to find more speed and given the grip levels they have managed to get the car working well for the conditions. Running a KF2 fitted with a number of prototype parts, the Polish driver said the low traction is causing issues with tyre wear with the wheel spin leading to high wear of the Schumacher handout tyre. In terms of the track layout, the 15-year-old said it has a good rhythm and once you find that it is really enjoyable to drive. With ‘a few places’ you can make time he said getting the landing right at the jump under the driver stand is key to a good lap.

While a multiple winner of the DHI Cup in Touring Cars, this is Rheinard’s first attempt at offroad. Sent by his Offroad sponsors Yokomo, the former TRF driver still to announce his new touring car future, the German summed up his 2WD practice as ‘actually not too bad’. Winner of the current Euro Offroad Series season opener in 2WD, he said the biggest issue for him so far has been the lack of traction compared to the EOS adding ‘the tyre wear is really high’. Improving the car with a shock position change, he was content that the ‘lap times are fine’ and while ‘on full power the car slides’ it was the same issue for everyone. In terms of the track layout, he said, ‘its ok, its not too difficult’. 17-year-old team-mate Hovgaard was happy with his YZ-2 after a swaybar adjustment which the Dane said improved the car under acceleration. For qualifying he plans to just refresh the diff oil.

‘My car is pretty good’ was how Joern Neumann summed setting the fourth fastest time. The Serpent driver, who has won the 4WD Buggy title every year since the DHI Cup introduced offroad in 2012, was another to start with his regular EOS set-up on his SDX2. Having to make small changes for the grip levels which he described as ‘a lot lower’, the two time 2WD Champion described the resulting tyre wear as ‘crazy’ saying he doubted if two runs would be possible on a set of the Version 1 Mini Pin tyres feeling the risk was the tyres would go off too much at the end of the second run. For Q1 he will leave his car unchanged other than start out with a new set of tyres and gauge the track after 4WD had run its practice on it.

2WD Champion in 2015, then driving a Team C as HB didn’t have a car at the time of him joining the team, David Ronnefalk would post the 5th fastest time ahead of fellow Swede Christoffer Svensson. With HB Racing designer Torrance Deguzman making the trip over from the US to Denmark to help develop HB’s 1:10 offering for Europe’s popular offroad carpet tracks, Ronnefalk said of his practice time, ‘I’m happy. We are coming a lot closer to the other brands’. Running a D216 fitted with a different chassis and 3D printed laydown gearbox he said the changes ‘are really good and have helped (them) come a long way’. Admitting the event is more of a test session than a attempt to challenge for a second DHI Cup title, he said one area they need to improve is how the car accelerates saying ‘Orlowski and Marc’s cars have more acceleration’. One area he will work on for qualifying is his shock package but overall he concluded he was ‘pretty happy’.

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