Ongaro tops 3rd practice in Vegas

David Ongaro topped the third round of practice at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Las Vegas.  The talented young Italian took his Mugen to the fastest three consecutive laps for all three rounds of practice in a round that would see European’s set the Top 3 times.  Closest to Ongaro would be Elliott Boots, the Kyosho driver going marginally faster than his previous best time to be 0.189 off.   Posting his first Top 10 time, HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk would go third fastest a further 3/10th off Boots.  It was also to be a much improved round for reigning champion Ty Tessmann as he also posted his first Top 10 time with a P4 for the round ahead of Dakotah Phend with Ryan Lutz completing the Top 6.

‘Very good’ was Ongaro’s response to his much improved pace.  Struggling in the the morning run with a car that ‘felt weird’, his MBX7R ‘loose in the rear’ and having ‘not enough traction’, a change of wing and a shorter wheelbase gave the 15-year-old a much better car for the third practice.  Shortening the wheelbase by 1mm, he also switched from a lexan JConcepts wing to a standard Team Associated kit wing which they mounted more forward.  The former European Junior Champion would also change LRP engines to one with more bottom end power.  Describing the track as technical and ‘not a typical American track’, he said ‘it needs a lot of driving’ and his focus for tomorrow’s final two practice runs is to ‘learn (the) track a little more’.

Boots was happy with his third run saying, ‘we tried to get the car to work better when the track dries out and the change to Holeshots did that for us’.  The back to back European Champion said at the start of the 10-minute run he suffered a few mistakes as he broke in the tyres.  With the track getting blown out in a few spots he said it took a bit of time to get used to how best to take that section.  With the wind picking up considerably for the afternoon run, he said ‘ the wind caused me to mess up the big double a few times as it blew the nose up’.  Looking to the final day of practice tomorrow, again two runs on the schedule, the British driver said for the first one he will run his Reds Racing powered MP9 unchanged adding ‘the track is changing all the time’.

‘Better now’ was how Ronnefalk summed up the round.  The Swede continued, ‘we got the forward bite back and the steering was still better than yesterday’. Fourth at the 2012 Worlds in Argentina, he added, ‘you have to decide on a balance between the amount of steering and the balance you want from the car’.   With his Orion powered D815 V2 ‘pushing too much for liking out of the corners’, the 20-year concluded ‘we need to work on that but it is much better than before’.

Ronnefalk’s HB Racing team-mate Tessmann was also happier with his D815V2.  He said, ‘we went with a little softer set-up which was better & faster’.  He continued that the change ‘seemed to to give more grip and was more forgiving even though there is not a lot of ruts yet but it was easier to drive’.  Tessmann also changed to Pro-Line’s new Electroshot tyre for the round. For tomorrow, the Canadian ace will try running more rear brake to get around the 180 degree corners at the end of the straight and the wall section better.

Fastest TLR for the round, Dakotah Phend ran the 5th fastest time with team-mate Ryan Maifield ninth fastest.  Phend said they made a few changes to his 8ight which were ‘better for how the track is now’ adding ‘we know what they do as the track changes’.  Switching to Pro-Line Fugitive tyres from Holeshots, the Michigan driver said, ‘it was a little early early for them yet, they were not as fast’.  Looking to the 4th of the 5 rounds of practice, Phend said they ‘will make changes to get a little more steering’.

The first practice round he didn’t set the single fastest lap time, Lutz said, ‘we tried some new parts but the track is not ready for them yet’.  The Tekno driver said that running the parts was still good practice to get a feel for them for later on.  With the teams preparations for the event based on a much rougher track he added, ‘the track is starting to get there but it’ll take a couple more rounds’.  Asked about changes for the fourth practice, he said, ‘we’ll go back and go a different direction with the set-up, for now we are just using the track time as practice’.  The popular driver added, ‘I’m happy with where we are at as we wait for the track’.

Having been fastest in the morning, in the second practice Cavalieri would set the eighth fastest time behind P1 pace setter Jared Tebo.  Making a shock change, the Team Associated driver said his RC8 was ‘probably the most consistent overall so far’.  With the shocks making it ‘a little easier to drive and more predictable’, he plans to run everything the same for P4.  On the track conditions he said ‘there are a few more bumps but the wind was more an issue’.  Not affecting his car he said it more affected the track condition as the gusts blew the dust around changing how the track felt from lap to lap.

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