Orlowski holds overnight TQ at DHI Cup

Michal Orlowski holds the overnight TQ in 2WD Offroad at the DHI Cup.  The Schumacher driver completed a successful first day at the 18th running of the Danish event by posting TQ runs in the opening two qualifiers. Behind the reigning champion it is Team Associated’s Jesper Rasmussen who sits second, the Dane opening his home event with a P2 in Q1 which he then followed up with 3rd in the second round.  Second fastest to Orlowski in Q2, 13-year-old Elias Johansson finds himself sitting third overall ahead of fellow Swede David Ronnefalk. Having topped seeding, Ronnefalk made too many errors in each qualifier declaring afterwards, ‘the driver was not on point today’.

Happy to take both qualifiers, Orlowski wasn’t as pleased with his driving in Q1.  He said, ‘I made some mistakes at the beginning and then David also made mistakes.  Then I heard Jesper was close behind so I had to put in some good laps.  I left the car the same for Q2 but started off more easy so as to make no mistakes.  I had one small mistake but just cruised until I caught traffic towards the end but I still managed to the get the TQ’.  Happy with the car on the EOS carpet, the reigning EOS Champion, said, ‘we are thinking about changes for tomorrow but I don’t want to risk making a change and making the car worse because its working really well as it is now’.

‘The first one was awesome’, was Jespers response when asked to sum up the first half of qualifying.  He added, ‘the car was a little nervous at the end of the straight but overall was really good and it was an almost clean run’.  For Q2, the 19-year-old changed the front camber link and to a different front wing but finding the changes made the car ‘hard to drive’ he will change back to his previous set-up for tomorrow’s Q3 with a small shim adjustment to the front bulkhead.

Johansson declared himself ‘pretty happy’ with holding 3rd overnight but feels his driving could be improved for tomorrow.  After ‘some mistakes’ Q1, he was on for a much stronger Q2 but then rolled his Associated just before the loop resulting in him losing over 2-seconds on the last lap.  Despite this he still held on for P2 and having not touched the car set-up all day he will continue with it as is for the remaining two qualifiers tomorrow morning.

‘I pushed too hard and that led to mistakes’, was Ronnefalk’s summary of his disappointing opening to qualifying.  The HB Racing driver and former champion continued, ‘In the 1st one I was leading.  It was really close with Orlowski but I crashed on my own.  In the second one I start towards the back. Oskar (Levin) let me by but then I crashed and he let me by again but I crashed again.  I need to get a good sleep for tomorrow’.

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Orlowski fastest in 4WD practice

Reigning DHI Cup Champion Michal Orlowski set the quickest time in 4WD practice, the Schumacher driver leading the times from Karri Salmela and Jesper Rasmussen.  Second fastest behind David Ronnefalk in the earlier 2WD practice, Orlowski would end 4WD with 6/10ths of a second advantage over Salmela while Ronnefalk, the only other driver in the Top 8 to improve his time in the final practice, ended up P4.

Running the same prototype car that he raced at the World Championships but which has undergone a number of parts tweaks, Orlowski said ‘the car felt good from the first practice and given I have not had much running with this car I am happy with the pace’.  With Schumacher doubling the weight of its factory team for 2018 with the signing of Joern Neumann, Orlowski highlighted the fact that he has been trying to help Joern Neumann get familiar with the prototype.  Asked about the sharing of set-up info, the Pole said, ‘we are running similar set-ups to one another but our driving styles are very different’.  Having switched to a thicker roll bar and softer spring he said this ‘worked real good’ and the plan for Q1 tomorrow is to leave it unchanged concluding, ‘I don’t know what more to change because the car already feels good’.

‘Surprisingly good’ was how Salmela summed up setting the second fastest time.  The Team Associated driver continued, ‘we finally have a good track in Finland and maybe that is why it so good here’.  Having spent two weeks helping with the completion of his home club’s new indoor track he then spent the week ahead of the DHI getting in practice.  While also using the EOS carpet which the DHI is using for the first time this year, he said his home track’s carpet is older and has less grip but the higher grip in Odense wasn’t much of a problem so much so ‘I haven’t done anything to the 4WD since getting here’.

Having set the fifth fastest time in 2WD, Rasmussen summed up his P3 pace in 4WD as ‘better than 2WD’.  The Dane said having started out with his base set-up on his Associated, it proved too soft. Improving the car by changing to thicker oil, he said that other than that how to cut the pins on the tyres was the only other thing he needed work on adding ‘I think we are on the right way now’.

‘So, so’ was how Ronnefalk summed up his pace, the Swede being over a 1-second off Orlowski on his best 3-consecutive laps.  The HB Racing driver continued,’ the car was very difficult to drive in the first few rounds so I tried to adapt the set-up for the track’.  Having, like Salmela, used his local track to test for the DHI he also found the grip levels higher in Odense.  Describing his car as having ‘got better in the last one’ he concluded, ‘we still need to improve quite a lot to match Orlowski’s pace.  The car is nervous to drive and wants to flip easy so we will see what can be done for qualifying’. Behind Ronnefalk fellow countryman Elias Johansson set the fifth fastest time with David Hassel completing the Top 6.

For Neumann, P8 was the best he could manage as his final practice lasted just two laps due to a loose pinion in the car’s prototype drivetrain.  Engineer Tristram Neal put his hand up for the German’s lost valuable track time but Neumann said even with the short run the car ‘already felt better’ over the previous runs.  He concluded, ‘I am still learning but the car works very good, Michal shows it has the pace’.

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Ronnefalk tops 2WD practice at DHI Cup

David Ronnefalk set the fastest time in 2WD practice at the DHI Cup this morning in Denmark, the HB Racing driver quickest from back to back reigning champion Michal Orlowski.  Winner of the event in 2015, Ronnefalk set a fastest 3-consecutive lap time of 57.514 compared to Orlowski’s 57.597 with the Top 3 completed by 13-year-old Elias Johansson with a time of 57.955. With the event marking 7-time DHI Offroad Champion Joern Neumann’s debut for Schumacher, the German kicked off this new partnership with the 6th fastest time.

With drivers getting four rounds of practice, Ronnefalk said, ‘my car was good from the start but was lacking a little speed in the lap times so I made some changes to make it easier to drive and that brought down the laps times’.  Having changed the rear diff oil and the position of the rear shocks, he plans to keep the prototype car, which is the same car he took to a podium finish at the World Championships in China, the same for the first qualifier which is scheduled for later this evening, following 4WD practice.  The 1:8 World Champion, who is making the move from Sweden to Spain on Tuesday in order to allow him run 1:8 all year round, lead compliments on the switch to EOS carpet by the DHI organisers this year saying,  ‘the carpet is a huge improvement, before the tyre wear was too fast’.

Like Ronnefalk, Orlowski said, ‘the car felt good from the first run, we just changed to a thinner diff oil and lowered the car and after that I was just driving it around’.  Adding the DHI Cup title to his CV in 2016 with 2WD victory, the Pole is chasing three titles in a row and summed up practice performance by saying, ‘Overall I am pretty satisfied with the pace and consistency’.

Team Associated driver Johansson was pleased with his seeding pace.  The Swedish National Championship podium finisher summed up practice as having gone ‘pretty good’ adding he had been able to ‘stick with the same set-up as we arrived with’. A 2017 Finalist, he is a fan of the switch to EOS carpet and the track layout however he did highlight the corner table top as being ‘difficult’.

Former Top Qualifier Oscar Levin would post the fourth fastest time, the HB Racing driver running an Xray chassis due to the limited availability of their prototype 2WD.  The laid back Swede said he was ‘just trying to find my way around and get confident for qualifying’.  Making a shock oil change, he said the only other work over practice was on preparing tyres and overall he is happy with his start to the weekend.

Posting the 5th fastest time, Danish driver Jesper Rasmussen declared practice as ‘pretty good I think’.  The Associated driver said having started out with his basic set-up he changed to a shorter camber link which improved things.  Running the final practice with the front rollbar off he said he will put it back on for Q1 finding the car too nervous with it off.

Having only had one run with his new cars prior to his race debut here in Odense, Neumann said, ‘I’m definitely still getting used to the car’.  Trying both a carbon and alu chassis over the four practices, he has opted to continue with the alu version ‘for now’ having found it ‘easier to drive’.  The inaugural winner of the DHI Offroad titles when it was introduced in 2012, Neumann also made comments on the switch to the EOS but unlike others his main positive of the carpet was the colour. ‘I like it even more then at an EOS.  You can see the car better on the grey.  Maybe the EOS should change from the black’.

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