Ongaro comes good to take Q4 in Perth

Davide Ongaro came good on his Top Seeding at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships to TQ the fourth round of qualifying in Perth.  The Italian led a Team Associated 1-2 in the evening run with Ryan Cavalieri enjoying a much improved performance as the American manufacturer’s drivers on the whole showed strong.  Having failed to run inside the Top 10 in the opening three qualifiers, Spencer Rivkin would take his RC8 to the fourth fastest time.  For defending champion David Ronnefalk, who broke in the previous round, his day was not to get any better as he suffered a plug failure during Q4.  Another of the title contenders to hit problems was reigning 1:10 electric Offroad World Champion Ryan Maifield who suffered a flame out after he was released from his fuel stop during the 1o-minute heat. Naoto Matsukura would set the third fastest time for the round with his second Top 3 of the event.  Behind him and Rivkin, Jared Tebo would have his best result so far with P5 ahead of Ty Tessmann, who having topped his heat was later demoted to 6th.

‘Better than this morning’, was Ongaro’s reaction to finally delivering on the pace he showed in practice.  With Heat No.1 running after a track watering, the 17-year-old said, ‘in the beginning it was slower because of the wet track but at the end it was good. I had two big mistakes in the last round (Q3) but we changed from 42.5 to 45 oil in the shocks and this made the car better on the bumps. I was able to make a clean run and the wheel nut stayed on’ – his Q2 ended early when he lost a wheel nut.  Again running AKA Double Down tyre, he said for tomorrow he plans to leave everything the same with his focus being to ‘make no mistakes’.

Reacting to his improved pace, Cavalieri said, ’That was pretty good to be honest.  The car was good today and we made good choices on tyres’.  Having claimed his first Top 10 run with 10th in the day’s opening round, the American feels his lines still need working on saying, ‘there are definitely a couple of spots I am leaving a few tenths out there’.  He concluded, ‘its been a much better day for our whole group and we’ll try build on that tomorrow’.

On his run, Matsukura said, ‘I had two big mistakes but the car was good and also the tyre was good’.  He explained, ‘in the first one I also had mistakes because the car was difficult to drive. The shock oil was a little soft and also the tyre but this time the car was good’.  Running JConcepts Stacker tyre he said he planned to run the R2 compound but given the watered track and colder conditions he will switch to the softer blue compound which he said matched the conditions perfectly.

‘It was a start in the right direction’, declared Rivkin after his P4 run.  The former Electric Offroad World Champion continued, ‘there is still a lot of driver improvement to do but the result gives us confidence for tomorrow. We are going to take small steps at a time’.  Explaining the jump in performance, he said, ‘we ran a completely different set-up and went back to what I know’.  His mechanic Richard Saxton added, ‘we still need to get the car working as well as it did there when we are on a dry track’.

Having improved on his previous position every run, Tebo said, ‘I haven’t had a super good run where I am proud of the effort but that time I felt I drove pretty well’.  The Kyosho driver added, ‘It was fairly tame but I fell apart at little at the end so I know I can drive it better’.  On his car, the former Worlds Top Qualifier said, ‘I haven’t changed anything because the car feels good’.

’Not good’, was how Tessmann described his 4th qualifier.  Having TQ’d Round 2 and 3 of qualifying, the Xray driver said, ‘I was expecting high grip but instead it was the lowest I have experienced so far.  We were set-up for high grip. It was hard to drive and was slow’.  The 2014 Champion concluded, ‘we won’t have to run on anything like this again.  The car is good in the day so we’re not too worried’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Another TQ run for Tessmann as Ronnefalk breaks

It was another TQ run for Ty Tessmann at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Australia as the Canadian opened Day 2 of qualifying with a considerably slower time for the 10-minute compared to yesterday.  Topping Q2 with a time of 10:08.083 compared to today’s pace of 10:12.716, Tessmann led an Xray 1-2 with Bruno Coelho topping his heat for his best points so far. Having taken the opening round of qualifying, it wasn’t to be a good start to Wednesday’s action for reigning champion David Ronnefalk.  On his third lap, the HB Racing driver ‘donkey flipped’ his buggy on the right side of the track leading to a broken suspension arm.  A strong run from Spanish Mugen driver Juan Carlos Canas would see him complete the Top 3 ahead of team-mates Ryan Maifield and Robert Batlle.  Former Worlds Top Qualifier Elliot Boots, who so far hasn’t featured strongly, would be the top Kyosho for the third round with his first Top 6 run.

Commenting on his latest run, Tessmann said, ‘It went ok. We changed some stuff on the car, some was good, some was bad.  We have more stuff to try in the next round’.  The 2014 World Champion added, ‘It wasn’t my cleanest run. I had a bobble on the back stairs and also some traffic so I’m happy to be on pace’.  Choosing to run Pro-Line’s Buckshot S2 tyre, the current ROAR Champion said, ‘it was the right tyre for the conditions. The track was pretty dusty without being blown off (between rounds)’.

A rather pleased looking Coelho said, ‘It was a very good run. Even though I had three big mistakes I still finished second’.  The versatile Portuguese driver continued, ‘All the mistakes were my own fault and they cost me maybe 5-6 second so without it could have been a TQ run.  I need to improve on that part (his driving)’. Asked about his car, he replied, ‘finally I had a very good feeling from the car.  I’m very happy with the whole package. We changed a lot. The shocks, toe-in, camber, a lot of things. We are on a good way’.

Reacting to his Q3 performance Canas said, ‘the track is difficult and the car too’.  The 16-year-old, continued, ‘I am fighting with the car today. It was better yesterday. We need to make it more comfortable to drive’.  Having changed to less toe-in in the rear for the latest run, he will go back adding ‘the run could have been faster’, his time only 0.057 off Coelho.

A content Maifield described the round as ‘OK’ adding, ‘we made a lot of changes to the car to make it safe for the mains but it was probably too safe’.  The American continued, ‘overall it was a relatively clean run. Nothing crazy. I had a mistake in the pits when I braked for another car and hit the wall which cost me a second’.  For the second of the day’s qualifiers, he will ‘make a rear shock change and go up in the rear diff again’.

‘Overall it was OK, it was a Top 5 run the car is not so good’, was Batlle’s summary of his performance.  The 2012 World Champion explained, ‘the rear is squatting even more than yesterday.  We had good speed but we need to improve the squat more for the next one’.  The Spanish driver said he also had ‘a lot of traffic with Ty’,  I let him passed and he crashed and then I had to let him go again. At least we have 3 good results and we need one more to make a good final.  That is the target for now’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.