Ongaro continues to set pace in Vegas to top first seeding round

Davide Ongaro continues to set the pace in practice at the 1:8 World Championships in Las Vegas, the talented young Italian opening Day 3 of the event by topping the first of the seeding rounds of practice.  Having shot to the top of the time sheets in yesterday evening’s third round of practice, Ongaro proved that time was on merit as he again topped the times from Elliott Boots, the separation 6/10ths of a second.  Behind them US National Champion Spencer Rivkin found a big improvement when it counted as he managed to get inside the Top 20 for the first time with 3rd for the round ahead of Round 1 pace setter Jared Tebo.  For reigning World Champion Ty Tessmann a part failure at the start of the 10-minute run would result in the HB Racing driver ending up only with the 21st fastest 3-consecutive laps.

‘Amazing like this’ was Ongaro’s reaction to again topping the times sheets.  Backing up his impressive improvement in yesterday’s third round of practice, he ran his LRP powered MBX7R unchanged with just a fresh set of the same Procircuit Claymore tyres he ran throughout yesterday.  Asked about today’s track conditions, the 15-year-old said, ‘it is a lot bumpier than yesterday and it took the track longer to dry because of the temperature’  With the extra bumps in mind, he plans to change to a wider rear end to make the car more stable and get better traction, his overall goal to make the car ‘safer to drive’.

For Elliott Boots reverting back to a lower roll centre left the European Champion more happy with his Red Racing powered MP9.  His mechanic Mike Cradock, made the change after seeing his driver struggle with the right side of the track in P3 yesterday evening.  With the car now more aggressive to drive, a style Cradock says his driver prefers, he said the big benefit is that he can now get the car where he wants it which is important for negotiating the bumps and ruts that are appearing more and more each round.  For the final practice Cradock said ‘we might leave the car the same but try a different tyre.  It still very dusty for a Holeshot tyre’ adding the ‘track is so changeable, it has good grip and then completely changes with the dust’.

‘The car & I are getting better’ was how Rivkin summed up his latest practice. Running early in the round in Heat 4 of 18, he felt his pace was helped by track conditions, him saying, ‘I think the track is a little better for the first few races (of the round)’.  The 1:10 2WD World Champion also thinks there is better to come saying, ‘I thought I could have drove better’.  Running JConcepts Triple Dees on his MX powered RC8, he plans to ‘make a few changes (for the final practice) and see how they stack up’.  Asked what he was looking for from the set-up changes he replied, ‘I want to get it a little easier to driver so I can run an overall Top 10 run and not just 3-laps’.

Setting the second fastest lap behind Ongaro, Tebo said, ‘the speed is there but the rear is not comfortable’.  The former Electric Offroad Word Champion said, ‘the car was just super loose, I had not traction at all’.  Planning a rear set-up change with different suspension arms for final practice, the American said with this change he’ll ‘be right there for the last one’.

Posting the 5th time, Round 2 Practice pace setter Ryan Cavalieri said his first seeding run ‘went alright’.  The Associated driver said his ‘oils were a little thick for the temperatures and it didn’t get good til the end’. Expecting the temperatures to remain low he will ‘drop the oil for the next one’.

Completing the Top 6 for the round, Team Associated’s Steven Hartson said, ‘It didn’t feel that good but I guess I got a few good laps together’.  The 2013 1:10 4WD World Champion continued, ‘the car feels good but I just need to work on a good full run rather than 3-laps’, him feeling there is a lot to be gained from him improving how he is driving his RC8.  Having made ‘a lot of changes yesterday (to his car set-up)’ he said he is ‘now almost back to the set-up he started out with’ and for now the only changes he will try will be tyre compounds.  Running JConcepts Reflex in blue compound he had planned to try the harder red version but with the temperature today ‘so cold’ he wouldn’t have been able to test them so he again ran with the blue compound.

It was to be rough start to seeding for Tessmann.  Just as his heat started the Canadian suffered a C-hub failure on the step down saying ‘it wasn’t a hard landing’.  With his team-mates running to get a replacement for a running repair so as he could complete some laps and register 3-laps, he adding ‘it wasn’t the same part and had a different setting so the car didn’t feel great’.  Describing the car as having ‘felt really good on the first lap’, he is confident they should be good for a competitive 3-laps in the final practice.

With today the first time the ‘Race In’ competitors got World Championship track time, bringing the total number of heats up to 18, it was Mike Truhe who would be quickest of them putting his Mugen into the Top 10 with the 9th fastest time.  For ‘Race In’ winner Lee Martin it wasn’t a good run as he managed only the 62nd quickest time.

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Ongaro tops 3rd practice in Vegas

David Ongaro topped the third round of practice at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Las Vegas.  The talented young Italian took his Mugen to the fastest three consecutive laps for all three rounds of practice in a round that would see European’s set the Top 3 times.  Closest to Ongaro would be Elliott Boots, the Kyosho driver going marginally faster than his previous best time to be 0.189 off.   Posting his first Top 10 time, HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk would go third fastest a further 3/10th off Boots.  It was also to be a much improved round for reigning champion Ty Tessmann as he also posted his first Top 10 time with a P4 for the round ahead of Dakotah Phend with Ryan Lutz completing the Top 6.

‘Very good’ was Ongaro’s response to his much improved pace.  Struggling in the the morning run with a car that ‘felt weird’, his MBX7R ‘loose in the rear’ and having ‘not enough traction’, a change of wing and a shorter wheelbase gave the 15-year-old a much better car for the third practice.  Shortening the wheelbase by 1mm, he also switched from a lexan JConcepts wing to a standard Team Associated kit wing which they mounted more forward.  The former European Junior Champion would also change LRP engines to one with more bottom end power.  Describing the track as technical and ‘not a typical American track’, he said ‘it needs a lot of driving’ and his focus for tomorrow’s final two practice runs is to ‘learn (the) track a little more’.

Boots was happy with his third run saying, ‘we tried to get the car to work better when the track dries out and the change to Holeshots did that for us’.  The back to back European Champion said at the start of the 10-minute run he suffered a few mistakes as he broke in the tyres.  With the track getting blown out in a few spots he said it took a bit of time to get used to how best to take that section.  With the wind picking up considerably for the afternoon run, he said ‘ the wind caused me to mess up the big double a few times as it blew the nose up’.  Looking to the final day of practice tomorrow, again two runs on the schedule, the British driver said for the first one he will run his Reds Racing powered MP9 unchanged adding ‘the track is changing all the time’.

‘Better now’ was how Ronnefalk summed up the round.  The Swede continued, ‘we got the forward bite back and the steering was still better than yesterday’. Fourth at the 2012 Worlds in Argentina, he added, ‘you have to decide on a balance between the amount of steering and the balance you want from the car’.   With his Orion powered D815 V2 ‘pushing too much for liking out of the corners’, the 20-year concluded ‘we need to work on that but it is much better than before’.

Ronnefalk’s HB Racing team-mate Tessmann was also happier with his D815V2.  He said, ‘we went with a little softer set-up which was better & faster’.  He continued that the change ‘seemed to to give more grip and was more forgiving even though there is not a lot of ruts yet but it was easier to drive’.  Tessmann also changed to Pro-Line’s new Electroshot tyre for the round. For tomorrow, the Canadian ace will try running more rear brake to get around the 180 degree corners at the end of the straight and the wall section better.

Fastest TLR for the round, Dakotah Phend ran the 5th fastest time with team-mate Ryan Maifield ninth fastest.  Phend said they made a few changes to his 8ight which were ‘better for how the track is now’ adding ‘we know what they do as the track changes’.  Switching to Pro-Line Fugitive tyres from Holeshots, the Michigan driver said, ‘it was a little early early for them yet, they were not as fast’.  Looking to the 4th of the 5 rounds of practice, Phend said they ‘will make changes to get a little more steering’.

The first practice round he didn’t set the single fastest lap time, Lutz said, ‘we tried some new parts but the track is not ready for them yet’.  The Tekno driver said that running the parts was still good practice to get a feel for them for later on.  With the teams preparations for the event based on a much rougher track he added, ‘the track is starting to get there but it’ll take a couple more rounds’.  Asked about changes for the fourth practice, he said, ‘we’ll go back and go a different direction with the set-up, for now we are just using the track time as practice’.  The popular driver added, ‘I’m happy with where we are at as we wait for the track’.

Having been fastest in the morning, in the second practice Cavalieri would set the eighth fastest time behind P1 pace setter Jared Tebo.  Making a shock change, the Team Associated driver said his RC8 was ‘probably the most consistent overall so far’.  With the shocks making it ‘a little easier to drive and more predictable’, he plans to run everything the same for P4.  On the track conditions he said ‘there are a few more bumps but the wind was more an issue’.  Not affecting his car he said it more affected the track condition as the gusts blew the dust around changing how the track felt from lap to lap.

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