Kutvonen Top Qualifier at DHI Cup

Viljami Kutvonen is Top Qualifier at the DHI Cup after delivering a second TQ run in the fourth & final round of qualifying at the Danish event.  With the weekend not starting out well for last year’s podium finisher, the Finn just scraping into the top heat of qualifying, the Awesomatix driver turned things around drastically in the second half of Day 2. Heading a 1-2 from team-mate Freddy Sudhoff in Q3, the team was on target to repeat that result in the closing qualifier until Sudhoff, who was on the heels of Kutvonen, had to avoid a marshal attending Yannic Prumper’s VBC on the last lap. With this dropping Sudhoff to fourth, Alexander Hagberg got a personal best of the weekend P2 from the round ahead of defending champion Ronald Volker who, having TQ’d the 2nd qualifier, will line up second on the grid. Although Naoki Akiyama would break during the round, having taken last night’s opening qualifier the Japanese teenager will start 3rd on his second DHI Cup appearance equaling his best international qualifying result achieved at last October’s IIC in Las Vegas. Hagberg will start start 4th with Sudhoff making up the top half of the grid for tomorrow’s triple A-Mains.

‘I got what I wanted and it feels even better after a not so good practice’, was Kutvonen’s reaction to finally securing the TQ having qualified second twice before. Making ‘small tweaks’ to his LRP powered A800 for the decider he said ‘they worked as expected making the car a little more easy to drive’. Describing it as a ‘difficult qualifier as Freddy had the same pace’, he added, ‘It is great to see our car have very good pace at the moment’.  Asked about the finals he replied, ‘I think I will leave the car and hope I can get away from the others, thats the plan’.

A previous 5 time Top Qualifier for the race he has won 8 times, Volker said , ‘it was slightly better than Q3 but I still lacked steering’.  The World Champion continued, ‘It was a very clean run but I couldn’t do much (to challenge for TQ) and I am disappointed for that’.  Having won the event from 3rd on grid, the Yokomo driver said, ‘for the finals I would prefer a car that is a bit difficult but than one that lacks steering’. Planning a new set of tyres for his BD8 and a different tyre prep to try improve his steering, the German added, ‘everyone is very close so 2nd is not bad and in terms of the track it is easy to touch the dots which are pretty high in spots so anything can happen’.

While he would suffer a broke drive shaft in the last qualifier with a minute to go, Akiyama said from the running he did his BD8 felt better than before and he is confident for the final. Qualifying 10th for the A-Main last year on his DHI Cup debut and going on to finish 6th, the 17-year-old said his plan is to follow Volker at the start and if his team-mate can force a pass on Kutvonen he wants to be there to follow him through.

While the Q4 time sheets show Hagberg as having the fastest car, the Xray driver said, ‘we got the car better but still need to change something to be fast for tomorrow’. Also losing time as a result of Prumper’s last lap crash, around 1/2 a second, the Swede added, ‘it was very close with, any of the Top 4 could have TQ’d but for the finals we will do a bit of fine tuning to the set-up to so hopefully we have a better car to race with’.

‘I would say just bad luck’, was Sudhoff’s reaction after Q4.  He continued, ‘Yannic had a mistake on the last lap and I had to come to a full stop to avoid the marshal and that cost me 1-second.  So I went from 1st or 2nd to 5th on the grid’.  With ‘the car again very good’, the German said ‘it would have been a lot better if I was starting second behind Viljami as we have a good pace and could have worked together but now I have to try to work my way through but everything can happen on this track layout’.

View the complete onroad event results here.

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Neumann & Ronnefalk TQ opening 4WD qualifiers at DHI

The opening two rounds of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the DHI Cup presented by LRP saw Joern Neumann TQ the opening round with David Ronnefalk proving fastest in the second of the four attempts drivers will get.  Having topped seeding yesterday, unbeaten DHI Cup champion Neumann opened qualifying with an easy TQ over Michal Orlowski with Marc Rheinard third ahead of Ronnefalk, both drivers having mistakes.  With a better set-up for Q2, HB Racing’s Ronnefalk would run a 2.5-second faster pace than that of Q1 with Orlowski again second although this time the 2WD Top Qualifier was much closer having found an issue with car after Q1.  Neumann would complete the Top 3 with Rheinard some distance back in fourth.

Summing up his opening round, Neumann said, ‘the first one was pretty good, it was a clean run and I could do consistent laps but I didn’t push 100% as the others crashed so the time was not so fast’.  On Q2 the Serpent driver said, ‘We were all pretty close but then I had one crash’.  Running both his qualifiers on new tyres, the German added, ‘it looks like others ran used tyres and could start out quicker so I will try used tyres for the next one’.

Taking his TQ on a second run set of the race’s controlled Schumacher tyres, Ronnefalk said he had the speed in the first run setting the fastest lap but threw it away when he crashed.  Lowering the D415’s centre of gravity for Q2, the Swede said this helped to keep the car ‘more flat in the corners’, helping improve corner speed, as well as reducing the amount the car squatted allowing a better transfer of his Orion power.  With his Q1 error costing him over 4-seconds, he said another factor was that he ‘put it together’ for Q2 with no crashes. Having run both his qualifiers on used tyres he said for Q3 he wants to ‘try how it is on new tyres’ adding he will leave the car set-up unchanged.

Orlowski said a loose servo caused him problems in Q1 describing the car as having ‘felt weird and different every corner’, with it tightened up for Q2 things were much better.  Setting the fastest lap he said he tried hard to challenge Ronnefalk and while it was ‘really close’ his CAT K2 was ‘difficult to drive’ as it lacked rear traction.  Describing the track as having ‘lower traction’ than before, something that concerns him over his 2WD set-up as these finals are up first tomorrow, he said hopefully with a set-up change to fix this ‘I can TQ a round and not finish second again’.

‘I crashed too many times in both of them’, was how Rheinard summed his 2 qualifying attempts so far.  The Yokomo driver continued, his YZ-4 ‘understeers too much’ and he ‘need(s) more steering’.  For Q3 he will try to achieve this by changing his ‘diff oil again’.  Behind the Pro factory drivers Finland’s Samppa Orhanen would have two good qualifiers posting the fifth fastest time for both rounds.

View the complete offroad event results here.

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Kutvonen heads Awesomatix 1-2 in Q3

Viljami Kutvonen led an Awesomatix 1-2 in the penultimate round of qualifying at the DHI Cup, the Finnish ace setting a new fastest time ahead of team-mate Freddy Südhoff.  Becoming the third different driver to post a TQ run at the 17th edition of the Danish event, Kutvonen’s result sets the stage for a 5-way shot out in the final qualifier to decide the 2017 Top Qualifier. Behind the much improved Awesomatix duo, Ronald Volker was to complete the Top 3 just ahead of his Yokomo team-mate Naoki Akiyama.  Having crashed on the last lap of the previous qualifier, popping a rear shock off his VBC, Yannic Prumper would bring home ‘a safe’ P6 for the round behind the Xray of Alexander Hagberg who lacked pace due to a ‘too stable’ car.

Having qualifying and finished 2nd to Volker in Odense on more than one occasion, while Kutvonen was happy to put his A800 on top of the time sheets and into contention for a first overall TQ he said, ‘its still not perfect but it the best its been so far this weekend’.  He continued, ‘Its always the same at DHI, my best qualifiers are the last two so now I need to TQ the last one’. Having made changes to the flex of his car for Q3, he said this made it ‘easier to drive’ but he hopes with ‘very small changes’ to the set-up for the last qualifier he push harder for the full 5-minutes.

Setting the fastest lap of the round, Sudhoff said his A800, which features a different harder chassis to that of Kutvonen, is ‘getting better and better’ and was ‘now easier to drive than before’.  ‘Super happy now with the car’, he said having suffered a few small mistakes over the 5-minutes he will leave the car as it is and just focus on his own driving.

‘I’m not too happy with Q3’ was a not too pleased looking Volker’s reaction to ending up 1.3-seconds off Kutvonen’s TQ pace.  The German explained, ‘I had no problem with the car rolling this time but now I did not have enough steering to challenge’.  Having gone too far with the set-up change on his BD8, he said ‘we need to go back a bit’. While he and team-mate Akiyama currently sit 1-2 in the qualification points standings, the World Champion said ‘its wide open now but hopefully we can stay 1-2 in the last one’.

Going up the oil in the diff of his BD8, Akiyama said his car was much better, adding the times were ‘super close’. Having taken the opening qualifier and going into the final heat as a contender for his first international TQ, the Yokomo protege feels reducing the power settings on his Yokomo speedo should make his car more easy to drive therefore improving his chances for a good fourth qualifier.

‘Its not so good now’ was Hagberg’s reaction after Q3.  A veteran of the DHI Cup, this being his 13th consecutive trip to the event, the Swede said, ‘we went in the wrong direction with the set-up and the car was too stable’. He continued, ‘we will go back to before and change something else and hopefully we’ll be back on the pace’.

Prumper said, ‘after I crashed in the last one I had to make a safe run but it was too safe and too slow’.  Feeling his VBC D09 is ‘too lazy on rotation’, the German will ‘change the car a little for the last one’, changing to less toe in and a different camber link.

View the complete onroad event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Orlowski to defend DHI Cup from pole

Michal Orlowski will set out to defend his DHI Cup title tomorrow from pole position after producing a second TQ run in the final round of 2WD qualifying at the Danish event.  The Schumacher driver made it back to back TQ runs when he again topped the times from Marc Rheinard, this time round the gap a lot closer as Rheinard registered his first 17-lap run. While being the only driver to finish all four qualifiers in the Top 2, Rheinard will find himself lining up third on the grid behind Joern Neumann who while on third in Q4 benefited from a faster TQ time to secure second overall. Former Top Qualifier and Champion David Ronnefalk will line up fourth with promising young Swedish Team Associated driver Wilhelm Skjöldebrand making it five different manufacturers filling the top half of the grid for the 6th running offroad at the DHI Cup.

‘I’m really happy to get the TQ.  I couldn’t make it happen last year but now I have’, was Orlowski’s reaction claiming his first TQ of the Odense based event.  Qualifying second last year behind Tom Cockerill, the 15-year-old described the final qualifier as ‘very exciting’ as himself and Rheinard went head to head for the overall TQ.  He continued, ‘Marc crashed, then I had a crash and after I went for it.  I got a bit at the end when Marc hit another car but I think I still would have been able to TQ’.  Planning to use the ‘same settings for the final’ on his prototype parts equipped KF2, he said ‘I hope to be able to make a bigger gap at the beginning but all three of us are on a similar pace so it will be difficult’.  Having made a mistake at the same spot on the track on both his TQ runs he concluded, ‘I also need to make no mistakes at the end of the straight’.

Rheinard said the chance of claiming the overall TQ on his DHI Cup Offroad debut was lost by ‘just a mistake on the 2nd lap’.  The Yokomo driver however enjoyed the qualifier saying, ‘I saw Michal crash and I was catching Joern but I wasn’t sure how we were running but after a while I saw he was coming again and he was a bit faster but it was close’.  Hitting a crashed car on his final lap, the EOS race winner said, ‘It didn’t effect anything, I only lost 1/2 a second’.  Starting from third he said, ‘it is still wide open but hopefully Joern can find pace to battle with Michal otherwise he’ll be gone’.

‘Luckily Orlowski got the TQ’ was Neumann reaction to Q4 as had Rheinard TQ’d the Serpent driver would have been demoted to third.  The former back to back champion said of his own performance, ‘I had a bobble on the wall and flipped over but the car was good again’.  Qualifying fourth last year and making it onto the final step of the podium in the finals, looking to this year’s finals the German said, ‘we are all the same pace so it should be interesting finals’.

Securing fourth the grid with his Orion powered D216, Ronnefalk declared, ‘we have improved a lot with the car’. Able to lock himself into an A-Main starting position in Q3, the Swede said, ‘we used the last one to try a few things on the car like cutting the inside of the tyre which made it easy to drive. I also worked on my speedo settings too which helped with corner speed’.  While he would traction roll at the end of the straight after triying to make a save from running wide, he said ‘the car felt great’ after the changes and now he is ‘confident for the mains tomorrow’.  He concluded, ‘Michal, Joern & Marc are very close on pace so my plan is to try and hang onto them and be there if anything happens’.

View the complete offroad event results here.

View the event image gallery here.