Anderson Top Qualifier at MonTech NYGP

Kemp Anderson is the 1:12 Modified Top Qualifier at the sixth edition of the Montech New York Grand Prix, the Awesomatix driver securing pole position for tomorrow’s single main with his time from the penultimate round of qualifier at the 360v2 track in New Rochelle.  With Donny Lia putting himself right in the picture after leading Q3 for a time, he would go on to top the fourth & final qualifier but would come up short on the TQ pace.  His time from the previous round will see the NYGP organiser line-up P2 in the final followed by Keven Hebert, the Xray driver finally getting his car set-up to where the Canadian has a chance of adding the NYGP title to his 2024 ROAR Nationals title.  Having surprised himself by holding the overnight TQ after topping Q1, 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Mächler with line up P4 on the AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified grid ahead of the Prodigy of Josh Cyrul and CRC of Andrew Knapp.  In the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class it is Lia who is your Top Qualifier from IFMAR President Eric Anderson.  The Speedzone Modified Touring Car class sees Hebert lead away the grid tomorrow thanks to the Canadian’s Q3 time which Kemp Anderson came very close to toppling in Q4.

Only fourth fastest in the final qualifier behind Cyrul, Anderson explained, ‘I made a mistake on the first lap and tweaked the car so it was pushing to the right and spinning out to the left so it was a little hard to drive.’  Looking to the single 8-minute final that will decide the new NYGP Champion, reigning Champion Sam Isaacs forced to miss this year’s race due to work commitments, the 22-year-old said, ‘I’m going to look through the car and probably revert back to my Q3 set-up because it was super easy to drive and consistent’.  The star of qualifying at last year’s IFMAR 1:12 Worlds concluded, ‘It will be a really intense one with Donny and I think Keven got his car pretty good in that one too so he’ll be right there’.

While having been on a TQ pace for a time during the final qualifier Lia described Q4 with, ‘It wasn’t a good run.  My car wasn’t very good that run at all.  The car wasn’t great the last run so I made a bunch of changes and none of them fixed it really, if anything it maybe went the wrong way.  Something the car is doing is leaving me scratching my head trying to figure it out.  Something is missing and I have got to figure out what it is.  I am going to try some stuff in practice and see if I can fix it ’cause right now it is just extremely inconsistent and difficult to drive.  The pace is there but I think we can go a lot faster than we have’.

Summing up his 1:12 Mod qualifying and P4, Mächler said, ‘It’s actually better than I thought so I will totally take it.  It was clear after Q1 that the other guys would go in front, I expected it.  The good thing is I didn’t destroy a car and I made 8-minutes all the time so that’s a win for me at least but the biggest win is that it’s fun out there.’  On his final qualifying effort the German said, ‘Actually it was good but I have the issue today that I am somehow super tired, so in the last minute of Modified I was close to stop as it’s really exhausting.’  Asked if he felt a podium was possible tomorrow he replied laughing, ‘We will see.  In Modified everything can happen so I will just try to be around, that the best take I have.’

Asked if he was back in the game, Hebert replied, ‘Sort of yeh, a lot closer now’. He continued, ‘I made a lot of changes in the areas I hadn’t gone yet and it seems to suit my driving style a lot better so I have a direction now.  Hopefully I will find the little bit I need for the final’. Asked if he ended up switching cars he said, ‘I ended up keeping the same car but I changed part of the front end and the rear suspension spring damping, I made a lot of changes and its pretty close now.  I was in the game so for sure it looks positive for tomorrow.’

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Pressure from Lia sees Anderson up pace in Q3

An impressive performance from Donny Lia in the penultimate round of qualifying at the Montech New York Grand would force Kemp Anderson to up the pace in Q3 to hold on to the top spot in the event’s AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class with another new fastest time in rocket round qualifying format.  A non-starter in the second round of qualifying as he switches between racer and event organiser, Lia, boosted by his 1:12 Stock TQ run in Q2, would lay down a very strong run until a mistake was enough to put Anderson back on top of the timing screens, the pair separated by 0.328 of a second at the end of the 8-minutes.  The only driver to manage 54-laps in Q2, he would better that time by almost 4.5-seconds with Lia becoming only the second driver to 54 laps of the 360v2 track.  Behind, Josh Cyrul would take his Prodigy 12 to the third fastest time ahead Keven Hebert and Friday’s Q1 pace setter Max Mächler, the later two having difficult runs.

It was pretty good, I knew Donny was going to be really fast that run so I pushed from the very first lap.  I had one mistake towards the end in the sweeper, I got a little bit loose but other than that it was a pretty clean run.  I think he was faster throughout the whole run but he had two mistakes and I had one, that’s what pretty much decided it.  My car started off really good but I had to drive super super hard at the end to stay ahead.’  Asked if the pressure is now on for the fourth & final qualifier, the 22-year-old said, ‘If he’s got a good car for the next it’s going to be hard again.’  Having added more power to his car for Q3 and made a ride height change, asked if he would make further changes for Q4 he said, ‘We’ll probably just add more power again.’

Putting on the sixth running of the Montech NYGP at his 360v2 track, summing up his Q3 performance Lia said, ‘The car was good but I definitely need to get it a little more comfortable especially in the sweeper, it was getting at little out of shape there so kind of hand to nurse it through there and lost my rhythm a little bit and made one little bobble.  That was like my first kind of real run in Mod so definitely a good base line to go off of and we’ll try to get a good run here in round 4.’  Winner of the legendary Snowbirds Race in 1:12 Mod earlier this year, asked what set-up changes he would make for the qualifying showdown he said, ‘I don’t know I’ve got to think about it.  Probably something in the back of the car, dampening maybe, go to a heavier dampening in the rear, something along those lines.  Just got to tune it in, it was really like the first run, so with a few changes we can get try to get a little bit better’.

With his Top 3 time in Q3 putting him provisionally P5 overall, asked about his run Cyrul replied, ‘We are making a little bit of progress, it has been 7-years since I actually raced 1:12 Modified and it’s kind of like strapping on some ice-skates and going down a bobsleigh run for the first time ever.  Man they have gotten really fast, last time I ran they were in blinky so they are really really fast and I am just trying to get used to it and comfortable’.  Asked about his new Prodigy 12 chassis he said, ‘I think the grip has come up today, yesterday I thought the car was actually pretty good I just didn’t put in a good clean run.  Today I have way too much steering and I am too old to hang on to that.  At least I got a decent run in that one and now we’ll try to mellow it out and make it easier for racing tomorrow’.

Second fastest in each of the opening qualifiers, Hebert’s reaction to the penultimate round summed up his frustration, ‘Not pleasant to drive, that’s about it.’  He continued, ‘We need to keep digging.  I have a second car so I might try that but we need to go with a completely different set-up.’  While his 1:12 run wasn’t good, the Canadian would finally hit the top spot in the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class as he lead home Q1 & 2 pace setter Anderson to lock in the new TQ time.

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Anderson goes top in qualifying at Montech NYGP

Kemp Anderson has gone to the top of qualifying at the Montech New York Grand Prix, the Awesomatix driver laying down a new fastest time for the AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class this morning in Q2 as he became the first driver to do 54 laps of the 360v2 track.  Behind Xray’s Keven Hebert set the second fastest time improving on his time from last night’s opening qualifier but the Canadian still remains third overall.  Opening qualifying with a TQ run, Max Mächler struggled with his Awesomatix this morning but still completed the Top 3 ahead of the CRC of Andrew Knapp, the American suffering a late mistakes that meant he also did not improve on his Q1 time.

Asked about his Q2 TQ run, Kemp said, ‘the car was good.  I made a side spring change for that run.  I think the set-up is still on the conservative side so we’ll go a little more aggressive for the next one.’  Asked how he would make the car more aggressive 2023 World Championship finalist replied, ‘I need to check my battery voltage, I think I need some more power in it and I need to find a lot more overall steering.’  Anderson would also TQ the second round of the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class bettering his time from Q1 with Hebert once again his closest challenger for the top spot.

Reacting to his opening effort on Day 2 of qualifier here in New York, Mächler said, ‘I didn’t get my saucing right.  It was really hard to keep it on the lines.  I crashed out a few times, the track fells a bit more gripped up than yesterday and it made it too hard to drive for me.’  He explained, ‘I ran the same sauce as yesterday but I didn’t do a practice run this morning to know the track has more grip I should have gone with the track evolution and I went the same as yesterday so basically my mistake.’  Asked if he went with the drag brake adjustment he planned after his Q1 TQ run, he said, ‘I went two clicks, it helped, but the car was so aggressive it was hard to know how good the change was’.

‘No improvement, the car was difficult to drive yet it still pushed so I am going to try find another direction for Q3’, was how Hebert summed up Q2.  The reigning ROAR National Champion said, ‘I am probably going to soften the car.  Just understanding the car a little bit is what I need so I need to find the direction to go, I haven’t found the right direction yet.’

Knapp summed up his run with, ‘you know my car was a lot better round 2 but I had one little mistake at the end, I hit a curb, so it kind of cost me my run but overall I am within 2/10ths of a second a lap of the rest of the drivers so I think the rest of qualifying should go really good.’   The Michigan added, ‘Yesterday my car was a little bit pushy, I was just working on getting some rotation and today I definitely got it rotating a little bit better.  I haven’t run Mod in a couple of months so getting it all back together.’  Ask his plans for Q3, he said, ‘Couple more changes, we are going to make it a little more aggressive, little more rotation ands hopefully should have a good qualifier’.

In the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class it was Donny Lia who laid down a new TQ pace ahead of Q1 pace setter Mächler and Eric Anderson. Organiser of the NYGP, Lia had problems in Q1 and was lucky to make it out in time for Q2, and he put together a TQ run. The reigning Snowbirds Champion explained, ‘My goal that run after my troubles in the first run was just to get a run in so I wouldn’t re-sort down to the lower heat.  The fact that I was able to TQ was even better.  I was thrashing with scoring issues so I didn’t think I was going to be ready and I just barely made it out there on rerun tires and some other stuff wasn’t really how it should be.  I was just trying to get a run in but the car came in pretty well, so that was a win win, I was happy to just make it out there.’  Asked about Q3 he said, ‘I think we can go faster.  Tires is the big improvement we can make.  These tires were just to get out there.  The rears were tires I never ran yesterday but were sauced yesterday, the fronts were reruns that I practiced on yesterday so a hodgepodge of tires so first 3-4minute car was real difficult. The bottom line is just to be ready!’

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