Kemp sees off late Rheinard attack to win A1

Kemp Anderson held off an intense late attack from Marc Rheinard to win the opening A-Main of the IFMAR 1:12 World Championship in Florida.  Starting from the pole, Andersson would initially gap the field as second place starter Michal Orlowski was occupied with trying to keep a hard charging Rheinard at bay, the pair swapping paint but holding order.  Approaching the mid point of the 8-minute Orlowski would find his rhythm, the Schumacher driver closing Anderson’s over 1-second gap down to nothing.  Coming on to the straight, the Polish ace would make a pass for the lead on the inside of the Awesomatix driver but his car shot to the outside and he hit the boards.  With a tweaked car he was then passed by Rheinard.  Having survived the Orlowski challenge, now Anderson was ready for a second attack on his lead this time from the reigning World Champion.  The German was all over and even got in under his team-mates car but in a display of why he is a 5-time World Champion was able to back out of it quick enough that they both continued with minimal disruption.  While Rheinard would make a second attempt at taking the lead, Anderson kept his nerve to take a popular win, while 5-seconds back Orlowski completed the Top 3 some 7-seconds ahead of Alexander Hagberg in P4.

Summing up his A1 performance a very modest reaction Anderson said ‘It was pretty good’.  The 21-year-old continued, ‘I just tried to drive consistent and get into a good groove but the car was pushing a little at the end and that allowed Marc to catch up.  It was a good race’.  Asked about Orlowski attempted pass, he said, ‘I don’t really know what happened.  He tried a move on the straight away but it ended with him hitting the boards.  I came out lucky on that one I guess.  It was a far and clean pass.  It was good racing.’  Looking to A2, he said ‘I will probably run the car the same and just try again to drive a clean 8-minutes’.

‘Close’ was Rheinard’s reaction after the opening encounter.  He continued, ‘It took too long to get by Michal.  My car was pretty fast.  I got on his inside but he blocked it and we both lost time but for sure I have a car that is good enough car for the win’.  Chasing his third 1:12 World title here at Beachline Raceway he concluded, ‘there are still two finals so you never know what happens’.

Asked about his race Orlowski replied, ‘the car was pretty loose and hard to drive but I was somehow able to hold on to it’.  On his attempted pass on Anderson, the former European Champion said, ‘I was very unlucky.  I got on the inside of Kemp but then I have no idea what happened.  After I hit the boards the car was tweaked’.  Looking to A2, he said, ‘We’ll regroup and we’ll make the car a little stable and start again’.

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Anderson is 1:12 Worlds Top Qualifier

After a thrilling final qualifier at the IFMAR 1:12 World Championship in Florida, Awesomatix’ Kemp Anderson is the overall Top Qualifier for the 21st running of the sport’s longest running electric category.  Having kicked off Day 2 of qualifying at Beachline Raceway with a TQ run in Round 4, Anderson would go into the sixth round vying for pole position against racing heavy weights Marc Rheinard and Michal Orlowski.  Top Qualifier at the last World Championship, Orlowski’s quest to repeat that result came to a spectacular end after just one lap as he wheelied his Schumacher, the impact breaking a body hanger.  Now it was just Anderson and defending World Champion Rheinard in the shoot out.  With two TQ runs to his credit, a third TQ run would give Rheinard the top spot.  Anderson on the other hand needed to TQ in a new fastest time.  A small mistake by Rheinard meant the German had to push hard to get back on terms with the rapid Anderson but that would lead to a much bigger crash that ended his challenge.  While rivals were no longer a worry, Anderson knew he was now against the clock needing a new fastest TQ time.  While the pressure was enough for his father and newly elected IFMAR President Eric Anderson to stay in the pits, the rest of the those attending the event lined up around the track.  Despite the intensity of the biggest moment of his racing career, Anderson delivered with a time 2.5-seconds quicker than the previous best set by Orlowski securing a very popular home TQ for the host nation.  With all three drivers having two TQ runs each, overall it will be Orlowski who starts second with Rheinard lining up P3 ahead of Alexander Hagberg with Donny Lia competing the top half of the grid.

Taking his TQ achievement in his stride, his father less so and understandably overcome with emotions, Anderson said, ‘I got lucky Orlowski crashed which meant I didn’t have that pressure.  Then when Marc had his mistake I knew it was up to me to get it done’.  Having struggled with a big drop off in rear end grip in the previous qualifier, the 21-year-old said, ‘after the last one we made a change and it was awesome.  I couldn’t have asked for any better’.  Looking to tomorrow’s triple finals, the reigning ROAR National Champion said, ‘1:12 Mod is always tricky at the start.  I am already happy with my week so we’ll see how it goes’.

‘I just made a wheelie, I don’t know how but I must have touched the kerb.  I was trying to make a clean first lap’, was Orlowski’s summary of his early exit.  Speaking from experience having started from pole in 2020 only to lose out on the title to Rheinard, he continued, ‘Starting second I am still happy because in 1:12 it very hard to lead.  Kemp is fast but so is Marc.  I think Marc and me are in the best positions.  All the pressure is on Kemp’.

Having held the overnight TQ taking 2 of the 3 qualifiers yesterday, Rheinard summed up today as a ‘useless day’.  Crashing out of Q4, having traffic issues in Q5 and then crashing out of the final round, he said, ‘the TQ is better for sure but I think 3rd is a good position.  It’s a different game for the finals.  Everyone is going to do small mistakes, they’re long finals’.  On his crash in the final shootout he said, ‘It was a stupid mistake at a corner it shouldn’t happen.  I was just trying to beat Kemp but after a little moment I then had to push to try come back and crashed, it happens’.

While he got a second for the final round, Hagberg said, ‘It was only because everyone else crashed’.  The 2018 World Champion and reigning 8-time European Champion explained, ‘We made some changes to the car and it was a little worse.  We are trying to figure out why because the changes didn’t do what we expected them to do’.  Asked about the finals, the Swede replied, ‘I finished all the runs today with no crashes.  I’m sure there will be a lot commotion in the finals so I hope to be in a position to pick up the pieces’.

In the 1:12 Spec class, Max Machler made it an Awesomatix double TQ.  Like Modified, the TQ battle came down to the final round with Machler facing up against his team-mate and 1:12 stalwart Mark Stiles.  With Machler opening the day by clocking up his 3rd TQ run, the British driver registered his second TQ in the penultimate round setting the stage for a potential winner takes all battle.  A early mistake put Machler out of contention for the round but now the pressure was on for Stiles to deliver a new fastest time.  While he got close just missing out on matching Machler’s 39-lap run from Q4, Stiles lost out on the tie-breaker and starts 2nd.  Behind the Europeans, Xray driver Robbie Dodge is the top American starting P3 with Raymond Darroch and Eric Anderson making up the front half of the grid that will decide the 2nd ever IFMAR 1:12 Spec World Champion.

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Orlowski takes penultimate qualifier at 1:12 Worlds

The overall Top Qualifier at the 21st running of the IFMAR 1:12 World Championship is to be decided in the final round after Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski took the penultimate round.  After crashing out of Q4 this morning, the 2020 Top Qualifier redeemed himself by putting down the fastest run of the event finishing ahead of Q4 winner Kemp Anderson by 1.6 second.  A starting order error, drivers called to start based on the results of Q4 instead of the overall qualification ranking, would see Anderson lead away the heat and the American, laying down the fastest lap, looked for a time that he might repeat his previous effort.  It wasn’t to happen however as entering into the final quarter of the run his pace faded considerably.  Having started from the back after his DNF, Orlowski took advantage to move to the top of the timing screen to take a TQ run that puts him in contention for pole position for tomorrow’s title deciding finals.  The only driver who could have wrapped up the overall TQ early, defending Champion Marc Rheinard could claim he fell foul of the starting order error as he had contact with Hayato Ishioka and needed to be marshalled having just passed the Japanese driver.  In the end he Rheinard would recover to P4 over 3-seconds off 2018 Champion Alexander Hagberg.

‘We changed the car and I was very happy with how it ran’, was how Orlowski summed up his second TQ run.  The Polish ace added, ‘It was a little sketch at the start but as I got used to the changes and my confidence after Q4 was not high but after a few laps it was all good’.   He continued, ‘It was a good battle with Kemp, I don’t know what happened to him at the end but I was happy to have the 1-second cushion’.  Having the advantage of the fastest TQ time, Orlowski said, ‘It is wide open and it’s going to be a good battle in the last one.  I will probably leave the car the same and stick with what I have.  I feel confident with it’.

Anderson said, ‘It started off good but was super loose at the end’.  Asked if he know what the problem was, the North American 1:12 Champion said, ‘I lost rear grip so we will re-evaluate and make a change for the last one’.

Reacting to his P3 run, Hagberg said, ‘Again I struggled a bit for the first minute so we didn’t solve the problem’.  The Swede continued, ‘It’s lacking steering so we will make it more aggressive and try hang on at the beginning’.  He concluded, ‘I think we are still fairly closer but we need to find something’.

Asked about his incident with Ishioka, Rheinard said, ‘The first problem is with IFMAR and the starting order.  I was all the way at the back because it was done off the last heat instead of the overall order’.   Catching and making contact with Ishioka’s Roche six laps in, the German ace said, ‘I hit the kerb a bit when I was passing him and he didn’t back off enough so he hit me’.  On his car, his best lap almost identical to Orlowski’s, he said, ‘It had a bit of understeer but it was still OK but hopefully we can make it better for the last one, we’ll see’.

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