Cavalieri sets pace in 2nd practice

Ryan Cavalieri has opened Day 2 of the 1:8 Offroad World Championships In Las Vegas by setting the pace in the second round of practice.  The Team Associated driver was quickest over 3-consecutive laps from TLR pairing Ryan Maifield and Dakotah Phend with the trio separated by less then a tenth of a second with Joe Bornhorst fourth fastest.  Having set the pace in the opening practice yesterday, that time half a second faster than Cavalieri Practice 2 topping time, Jared Tebo would set the 12th fastest time while reigning World Champion Ty Tessmann was 15th quickest, both driver still pleased with their cars.   Having set the fastest lap yesterday, Ryan Lutz was again the fastest driver around RC Tracks of Las Vegas with a 33.980 as he took his Tekno to the seventh fastest time for the round.

Summing up the second of the five scheduled rounds of practice, Cavalieri said, ‘My car was a little better today and I had a little more steering’.  Running in Heat 2 of 16, he continued, ‘Yesterday we had the worst track but today the track is more consistent over the entire round’ – a round taking 3 & half hours to run. Running Pro-Line super soft Grid Iron tyres on his MX powered RC8B3, the 2014 Worlds podium finisher will run different shocks for the day’s second practice saying he will try a different piston ‘just to try something different’.

Reacting to his run, the running at the opposite end of the round to Cavalieri in Heat 15 of 16, Maifield said, ‘We made a few changes and the pace is good.  The car feels good although a little twitchy but the track is still very green’.  Switching to JConcepts Triple Dees on his Reds Racing powered 8ight 4.0 he continued, ‘the track is not even close to how its going to end up so we’ll just try to keep up with it but right now everything feels good’.

‘Better today’ was how Phend summed up his his start to Day 2.  Only 27th fastest in the opening practice, the 19-year-old shared a similar view to his team-mate Maifield saying, ‘the track is still pretty dusty and there is no groove. It going to change a lot’. Planning to ‘make changes here and there’ he said all the changes would be ones that could be ‘changed back quickly of needed’, adding the track is ‘developing ruts quite quickly’.  Running Pro-Line Holeshot in the second practice, the American driver plans to run Fugatives in P3 to get his 8ight ‘a little more aggressive’.

Improving his 3-lap pace by over a second, Bornhorst said, ‘I’m just driving around the pipes and trying to get comfortable’.  Running a number of prototype parts on his Tekno, he said he is ‘making tiny little changes, nothing huge, so as to make the car more comfortable’ adding ‘the more comfortable it is the faster I can drive it’.  Describing the track as ‘not nearly where it is going to be’ he continued, ‘the practice is still valuable testing but the track will continually get slower’.   Running M3 Holeshots he plans to run the same set in P3 adding ‘there is really no tyre wear’.

Having been second fastest yesterday behind team-mate Tebo, Elliott Boots would end up P5 in the second round.  Making a roll centre change for today, the European Champion said his Kyosho ‘wasn’t bad’ but added, ‘when the track dried up the car got a bit loose’.  With the track being watered before the start of each of the 10-minute heats, the British driver said ‘bad traffic’ was an issue in terms of getting three laps together.  Running Pro-Line’s new Electroshot tyre the 2012 Worlds Top Qualifier plans to try a different tyre for P3 but will leave the car unchanged saying they are testing ‘one thing at a time’.   Behind Boots, Australian Mugen driver Aaron Stringer completed the Top 6.

Commenting on his second run, Tebo said, ‘it was really good, we did some motor work after yesterday and it ran really good although now we need to work a on the mileage’.  Running out of fuel before the completion of the 10-minutes, the 2010 Worlds Top Qualifier said, ‘Yesterday we had better mileage and I thought we could do 10 minutes’.  On only being P12 for the round, he said, ‘the traffic was really bad so I couldn’t get 3-laps but when I look at my best lap compared to the other two that I counted I know there a lot of time in there’.  Describing his MX powered MP9 as having a ‘really good balance’, the American is ‘really happy with my speed on the smooth track as its going to get rough and that suits me better’.  For P3 he will test a different set of shocks and in term of tyres will stick with M3 Holeshots, only fitting a fresh set.

Trying different shocks on his HB Racing D815V2, Tessmann said, ‘it was better definitely’.  The change meant the car ‘soaked up the bumps better, (and) it was easier to drive’.  Describing the track as ‘holding up pretty good’, the Canadian will test a softer swaybar in the evening practice, drivers only getting 2 runs a day, as well as switching from M3 Holeshots to a set of Electroshots.  Team-mate David Ronnefalk would end up only 29th fastest.  The Swede said ‘we found the steering and that was the goal but its now lacking a little traction. It was better yesterday’.  Describing his D815V2 as ‘really consistent and easy to drive’ he said, ‘we need to compromise on changes we made and go back to a few thing we had on the car yesterday’.

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