January 7, 2017

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.

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January 7, 2017

Chassis Focus – Michal Orlowski

Chassis: Schumacher Cougar KF2
Motor: LRP X20 6.5T
ESC: LRP Flow
Batteries: LRP 2900mAh “LCG”
Radio/Servo: Sanwa
Remarks – Reigning DHI Champion Michal Orlowski is running a very interesting version of the Cougar KF2 which features a number of prototype parts conceived and realised by his engineer Tristram Neal. First and most important is a 3-gear transmission, that allows for an opposite motor spin direction for a better gyroscopic effect. The chassis flex is now adjusted by two carbon side stiffeners that work together with a new split top deck, so as to take stiffness away from the top of the car. The rear shock tower now features new holes towards the inside of the vehicle. Michal is also using a under-LiPo brass weight.

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January 7, 2017

Volker takes second qualifier at DHI Cup

Having struggled to a P6 in yesterday’s opening round of qualifying at the DHI Cup presented by LRP, Ronald Volker resumed normal duty this morning as the reigning 7-time champion of the Danish classic TQ’d the second round of qualifying. The Yokomo driver topped the times by 2.2-seconds over Jan Ratheisky, the Xray driver putting in an impressive Modified run to back up his performances in the Superstock class in which he has TQ’d the first two rounds.  Alexander Hagberg would complete the Top 3, 11/100ths off his Xray team-mate, while last night’s Q1 topping Naoki Akiyama set the fourth fastest time with Awesomatix pairing Freddy Sudhoff and Viljami Kutvonen rounding out the Top 6.

‘Definitely a better qualification than the previous one’ was Volker’s reaction after Q2.  The World Champion continued, ‘It started out well at the beginning but then I started to have a problem in the long corners as the car got edgy and I could not go as fast as I wanted.  Considering I struggled in the first run these are very valuable points’.  Switching from running a carbon chassis on his BD8 in Q1 to an aluminium chassis on the same car for Q2, he said while ‘the traction came up a little bit’ the car ‘seems quicker’ but added, ‘now we just need to get the balance’.

Joking his improvement today was down to switching from coffee to a cappuccino, Ratheisky declared himself very happy with his P2.  The German, who is best known for his ETS Pro Stock and Formula campaigns, said, ‘I started off easy aiming to get a Top 6 finish. I don’t know what is going on but my car is just easy to drive’.  For Q3 he said, ‘I will just try to do the same again’.

‘A clean run but a bit too slow’ was Hagberg’s view of Q2.  He continued, ‘the traction came up which made the car edgy’. Having struggled with his tyres in Q1, he said that was fine now and the plan for Q3 is to ‘lose front grip’ from his ORCA powered T4 adding with a front roll centre adjustment, ‘it should be fine again’.

Admitting after he TQ’d Q1 that his team-mate Volker was faster, Akiyama said his ‘car (was) difficult’ and ‘yesterday was better’.  The 17-year-old Japanese driver continued, ‘in the low grip my car was better’.   With today’s track having more grip and his car becoming edgy to drive as a result he said, ‘I need to change the set-up for the next one’.

‘Until I made a costly mistake it was fine’ was how Sudhoff described his Q2 performance. In the second minute of the run the 2015 podium finisher would hit the wooden track markers in front of the driver stand and flip his A800 losing almost 4-seconds. The German said, ‘the traction is getting higher and higher and making the car edgy again so we need to find a way to overcome this’. Team-mate Kutvonen said changes overnight to his A800 had made it faster but very difficult to drive. The Finn added, ‘I think I was 15-times on two wheels so now I have got to make it easier to drive again’.

View the event image gallery here.

January 7, 2017

Orlowski bounces back with TQ run

After two below par qualifiers yesterday, reigning champion Michal Orlowski bounced back to open Day 2 of the DHI Cup presented by LRP with a TQ run. The Schumacher driver took control of Q3 once overnight TQ holder Joern Neumann had a mistake on the opening lap and building a gap over Marc Rheinard would post a new fastest time despite an error on his final lap, the run the only 17-lap run of the morning.  Missing out on his first 17-lap run by 4/10th of a second Rheinard would claim another Top 2 run over 3.5 seconds clear of former champion David Ronnefalk. Having taken last night’s second qualifier, Neumann would set the fastest lap of Q3 but with two big mistakes that required him to be marshalled he would end up with a P4 ahead of Jesper Rasmussen and Wilhelm Skjöldebrand.

‘It is good to finally TQ and I feel a bit better now for Q4’, was Orlowski’s reaction to taking the penultimate qualifier, yesterday having only netted a P13 and P5.  The EOS Championship leader continued, ‘I made two changes after Q2 and the car was much easier to drive’.  Describing the 3 degrees of rear toe in and softer front spring as making the car ‘slightly slower’ he added it ‘still had very good pace’.  Laughing off his last lap error which thanks to some swift catching by the marshal minimised the time lost he said, ‘at the end I was driving careful’.  Considering raising the rear camber link on his LRP powered KF2, he said he needs to think about it more as it may make the car harder to drive again.

Rheinard described his latest qualifier as ‘not bad’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I had one mistake but for sure Michal was faster’. Feeling he may not have had the best set of tyres that run, the German said, ‘I hope with a fresh set of tyres it will be better’.  With two of the four qualifiers to count and having a TQ from the opening round he said, ‘I will go for the TQ’ adding if  ‘Michal TQ’s that would push me back to third on the grid’.  With both Neumann and Orlowski having a 17 lap run from Q2, Rheinard needs a TQ to improve on his current second on the grid.

Ronnefalk was pleased with his first Top 3 qualifier having changed his tyre prep for the round.  The HB Racing driver yesterday was cutting both the inside & outside row of pins from the controlled Schumacher Mini Pin tyre but with the ‘traction down on the carpet’ opted to only remove the outside row of pins for Q3.  While he ‘almost traction rolled on the second lap’ he said once the new tyres scrubbed in the feeling of the car was an ‘improvement on yesterday’.  With the P3 together with a P4 from Q2 locking the 1:8 World Champion into the A-Main, he said having not pushed to catch the leaders in Q3, for the final qualifier they will try to improve on the outright speed.

Summing up his qualifier Neumann said, ‘I made less caster to get more steering and ended up with a lot of steering, too much’. This was to catch out the Serpent driver on his opening lap resulting in a 22 second lap around the 18-second a lap track with another 21-second lap later in the run. Holding the provisional overall TQ going into the final qualifier, the German said he will change back to his previous set-up.

Rasmussen summed up his second P5 run, having opened qualifying also with fifth fastest time, with ‘it was quite good I think’.  The Associated team driver, who is a former podium finisher at his home event, said a diff rebuild had improved his B6 adding ‘it was out of oil’.  Asked about any changes for the final qualifier, the 18-year-old replied, ‘just new tyres’.

View the event image gallery here.

January 6, 2017

Akiyama takes open qualifier at DHI ahead of Hagberg

Team Yokomo protege Naoki Akiyama opened qualifying at the 16th running of the DHI Cup with a TQ run, the Japanese driver setting the pace ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg.  Benefiting from a difficult qualifier for reigning champion and practice Top seed Ronald Volker, Akiyama was over 6/10ths faster than Hagberg with Freddy Sudhoff completing the Top 3 a further half a second off.  For Volker, who twice rolled his Yokomo over the 5-minutes, Q1 would leave him with a P6 behind former team-mate Yannic Prumper and a much improved from practice Viljami Kutvonen.

While declaring it was a ‘good result’, Akiyama was quick to make the point, ‘I don’t have the pace, Ronald is faster’.  The 17-year-old was to be actually fractionally faster than his World Champion team-mate on outright lap time, the fastest lap of Q1 being posted by Xray’s Jan Ratheisky.  Describing his BD8 as ‘good’, he said there is more to come from the driver, him continuing to feel he is still not driving smooth enough.

Giving a summary of his P2 run, Hagberg said, ‘the beginning was a disaster. It was like there was dust on the tyres because the first couple of minutes I had no traction’.  The Xray driver said once the tyres came in his T4 was ‘very good’ and he ‘could close the gap for a good recovery’.  For tomorrow, the 2016 podium finisher said ‘we need to check our tyre prep or be careful on the warm-up laps’ to ensure he doesn’t have a repeat of his lack of traction at the start of Q2.

‘I could fix the problem of the car being edgy to drive in practice and the car is consistent now’, was Sudhoff’s response to how Q1 had gone.  The Awesomatix driver added, ‘I hit the tape twice and got up on two wheels but despite this it was a good run’.  Feeling they now have a ‘good base to work from for tomorrow’, he said ‘we already have a few small changes planned for tomorrow to further improve the car but for sure we will try a different tyre prep’.

Having not been overly happy with his 3-lap pace in seeding practice, Prumper said on opening qualifying with a P4, ‘over 5-minutes its not so bad’.  Making a additive change for Q1, he added his VBC was ‘a little better’.  Declaring ‘4th is ok for sure’, the German, who qualified second overall at the 2015 DHI Cup, was on target for a Top 3 time until a small mistake on the penultimate lap. Looking to Q2, he said ‘I might keep the car the same and just try to get rid of the mistake’.

‘Much better than practice’ was Kutvonen’s reaction to getting a P5 out of the first qualifier.  Only 10th fastest in seeding, the ETS season opener podium finisher, said ‘that set-up didn’t work and I completely changed the car for Q1’.  Asked what was the biggest difference between the two set-ups was he said it was ‘small changes everywhere’. Describing his start to the heat as ‘slow at the beginning’, the Finn said he found his rhythm at the end and is now confident with the car again, plus with a few small set-up changes planned to further improve the car he is looking forward to a much better day.

Explaining his P6 for the opening heat, Volker said, ‘It started quite good but then got a little edgy and I traction rolled’. He continued, ‘trying to catch back up the lost time I then rolled over again’. Describing his LRP powered BD8 as ‘too difficult to drive’ the 7 time DHI Cup champion said, ‘we need to consider a bigger set-up change for tomorrow’.

View the event image gallery here.

January 6, 2017

Neumann & Rheinard take one TQ a piece in opening 2WD qualifiers

Joern Neumann and Marc Rheinard registered one TQ each in the opening two rounds of 2WD qualifying at the DHI Cup presented by LRP. In the opening qualifier it was Marc Rheinard who kicked off the 2017 season with a TQ run heading home Neumann and his own Yokomo team-mate Frederik Hovgaard. In the second of the 4 scheduled qualifiers, which brought Day 1 of the offroad action at the Danish classic to a close, the result would be reversed with Neumann getting the better of Rheinard with a faster time to hold the provisional overnight TQ on the tie-break. Behind the two Germans, Finnish Team Associated driver Karri Salmela would compete the Top 3 ahead of a much improved David Ronnefalk and top seed Michal Orlowski, the pair having got together in Q1 and ended up 17th and 13th fastest respectively.

‘I was a little faster than Marc that time and was able to catch and pass him’, was Neumann reaction after Q2.  Putting the improved pace of his Serpent SDX2 down to just refreshing the diff between qualifiers, he added, ‘It was also close in the first one but Marc was a little faster and after I had a bobble at the wall I settled for second’.  As well as his diff rebuild, the 2012 & 2013 2WD Champion said, ‘I also ran new tyres but so did everyone because of the tyre wear’.  The only driver to go 17-laps over the 5-minutes, he was impressed by his lap times over the final minute with him feeling that maybe used tyres could work for a second run but airing on the side of caution concluded he will run new tyres in the penultimate round and if that proves good he might use the last qualifier to try used tyres.

Summing up his Q1 topping run with ‘it was just a clean run and everyone else crashed’, Rheinard added, ‘but it was nice to start 2017 with a TQ run’.  A title contender in this season’s Euro Offroad Series having won the opening round, he said ‘Q2 was also not bad but Joern found more speed, my car felt more loose than before’.  Describing his YZ-2 as good in the long corners, he said the problem is he has ‘no forward traction on power’ but conceded his P1 and P2 is ‘still a good start so I can’t complain’.

Sitting third overnight thanks to a P6 in Q1, Salmela summed up his improved Q2 performance by saying ‘No big mistakes, drive better, there was nothing else actually’. On the opening qualifier he said ‘it was good but I drove too safe so was too slow’.  In terms of his car set-up he replied, ‘there is no problems with my 2WD’ adding for the morning’s third qualifier the plan was to leave the car unchanged and ‘keep it clean again’.

Reacting to his P4 in the second qualifier,  Ronnefalk said, ‘I knew it was going to be tough starting at the back but the speed is there for Top 3’.  The Swede continued ‘Q1 was pretty good until Michal made a mistake and he was letting me go but had more power and got stuck in my back wing and I lost 6-seconds’. Having to start at the back of the top heat for Q2 as a result of being last of the group in the first one, he would have a few mistakes of his own doing but was pleased to recover to get 4th. Happy with his car, his D216 using a new lighter chassis and prototype gearbox, he said for tomorrow ‘it’s just a matter of putting it (a good run) together’.

Having topped the seeding practice, Orlowski said his car was not really good in the qualifiers despite him setting the fastest lap in both rounds of qualifying.  Suffering two crashes in Q1, the second of which was with Ronnefalk, he said his KF2 was missing rear traction and under breaking the car slides around.  Also reporting, ‘I don’t have front steering’, the 15-year-old said his P5 in Q2 was not the worst result but he wants to be able to do better tomorrow.  Planning to running 3 degrees of rear toe in as well as also switching to a softer front spring for Q3, the EOS championship leader said, ‘I have the pace but the car is really difficult and the changes wont slow the car but should make it that bit easier to drive’.

View the event image gallery here.