January 8, 2017

Kutvonen cruises to easy A1 win at DHI Cup

Having secured his first overall TQ last night for the DHI Cup having started second a number of times before, Viljami Kutvonen made sure he capitalised on pole position taking a convincing tone to tone win in the A1.  Starting ahead of defending 7-time champion Ronald Volker, the Awesomatix driver was able to pull clear with ease eventually crossing the finish line 1.6-second ahead of the Yokomo driver.  Behind Naoki Akiyama ensured the Top 3 finished as they had started, the Japanese driver having a lonely race. Freddy Südhoff would be the highest placed driver to gain a position over the 5-minutes getting passed the Xray of Alexander Hagberg after a minute & a half.

With rather appropriate nickname within the Awesomatix team of ‘Iceman’, commenting on his win a rather cool Kutvonen summed up his win with, ‘It went just like I wanted’.  Declaring it ‘a good race’, the Finn continued, ‘I pushed at the start to get a gap and then could control the race’.

Having struggled in the final two qualifiers with a lack of steering, Volker said, ‘I had a lot of steering, too much, and I couldn’t get a good flow’.  The World Champion continued, ‘on the right side of the track I had to back off a lot because the car was twitchy’.  Describing his BD8 as ‘fast’, highlighting his lap times were ‘much better than the last two qualifiers’ he said the problem was ‘just a small thing with the balance’ and they ‘need to get it right to challenge Viljami’.

With ‘no fight’, Akiyama had little to report on what was a lonely race for the Yokomo protege.  The 17-year-old said his BD8 suffered a little with ‘push’ and for A2 he will switch to his other set of tyres.

View the complete onroad event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

January 8, 2017

Orlowski makes light work of rivals in A1

Michal Orlowski made light work of his rivals in the opening A-Main of 2WD Buggy at the DHI Cup this morning.  The Top Qualifier almost immediately took control of the race clearing off in the distance ahead of Joern Neumann and David Ronnefalk, an early mistake putting Marc Rheinard out of contention.  With defending champion Orlowski winning by 7.5-seconds, the main action of the race was to come towards the end as Ronnefalk caught Neumann getting by when the German cased the jump in front of the front of the drivers stand.  Next time round however Ronnefalk would get it wrong at the same section allowing Neumann back through.  Ronnefalk would made another attempt to get second on the final lap but trying to capitalise on a bobble from Neumann flipped over & needed marshalling but still managed to hold onto 3rd ahead of Dane Jesper Rasmussen.

‘I hope for the same in the next but I don’t think it will be so easy’ was Orlowski’s reaction to his dominant win.  The Schumacher driver said, ‘Joern had a mistake at the start and that already gave me a 1-second lead allowing me to cruise around and put in good laps’.  The 15-year-old continued, ‘then Joern and David started fighting which gave me more seconds’.  Expecting a tougher A2 he said, ‘the car is really good and I know I have the speed so I’m ready’.

‘Luckily I finished second’ was how Neumann summed up the first A-Main encounter.  The Serpent driver continued, ‘I changed nothing on the car but it was very loose on the rear, very strange’.  He added, ‘I was just trying to keep the car on the track’.  Asked what he though caused the lack of traction the German replied, ‘the only thing I changed was the tyres’.

Having lost position to fifth place qualifier Wilhelm Skjöldebrand at the start after he didn’t make it over the first double, Ronnefalk said, ‘I couldn’t get 2nd but 3rd is pretty good’.  The HB Racing driver continued, ‘My car felt great and the race was pretty much what I was expecting.  If the others made mistakes I would be there to take the places.  Orlowski had extra speed in his car but me, Marc and Joern are on the same pace.  I had a chance on the last lap but flipped over.  I’ll try again in A2’.

View the complete offroad event results here.

View the event image gallery here.