January 8, 2016

New season but no change as Volker tops DHI practice

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It is the long established opening international race of the new season, but the early signs from the DHI Cup is that little has changed for 2016 with Ronald Volker topping the practice times in Odense.  Closest to the 6-time winner of the Danish classic would be Alexander Hagberg, the gap over 3-consecutive laps being 1/10th of a second.  Winner of the event in 2013, then driving for Xray, Adrien Berntsen would complete the Top 3 for new Danish manufacturer Gizmo with Viljami Kutvonen making it four different manufacturers at the top of the time sheets with his Awesomatix.

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Winner of the event for the last two years, Volker said ‘practice went well’.  Starting out running two cars each practice, one a carbon chassis and the other aluminium,  he said while both cars ran the same lap time he preferred the feeling of the alu chassis choosing it for the timed practice. Having a distinct advantage of over 4/10ths after the first timed practice, Volker said his rivals closed right up in the final practice.  Having struggled with his BD7’s consistency over 5-minutes at the opening round of the ETS in December, he said here the car is very good over 5-minutes.  While lap times are close with his rivals he is confident he will benefit from that consistency at the end of the qualifiers.

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A touring car driver with one of the busiest race schedules, Hagberg was clearly looking refreshed after his ‘no racing’ break over the Christmas.  The Swede summed up practice by saying, ‘as always things are the same at the DHI. It starts off with low grip but as the traction comes up it starts to suit the Xray car better’.  Runner up at last year’s DHI Cup, the European Champion said his T4 2016 ‘feels good but just needs slightly more pace’ continuing ‘we can still improve it with more set-up changes’.  Team-mate Bruno Coelho would take his example to the 6th fastest time.  His first DHI Cup outing, he said the biggest thing for him are that the handout LRP tyres are ‘completely different’ to what he is used to racing on.  Feeling he is ‘missing a little steering’ he said it’s proving difficult to find but added ‘we are still working on it’.

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Having impressed on his Gizmo debut at the opening round of the ETS where he was seeded in the top heat, Berntsen said his GZ1 is working really good joking that the driver was also ‘pretty decent’ today.  Describing the Top 3 pace as ‘super tight’, the Norwegian’s car features some new parts with one of the Gizmo designers Steen Graversen have worked on lightening some parts, the Dane adding that these were one off works and not viable for production.  For Q1 Berntsen said other than rebuild his diff, everything else is fine and he would leave the car as is for now.

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‘Like normal it is getting better and better’ was how Viljami summed up his practice.  Changing ‘a lot of small things’ over the four practices, the Finn said this led to improved steering for the new A800.  Set to run the car set-up unchanged for tonight’s first qualifier, he will change his tyre prep after finding the car loose at the beginning of the last practice run.

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Another driver making his DHI Cup debut at the 16th running of the event, Thailand’s Meen Vejrak would post the 5th fastest time 4/10th off his team-mate Volker.  The former nitro touring car World Champion said track conditions gave a similar feeling that of a gas car adding he also likes the track layout, which, was designed by Volker.  In terms of his Scorpion powered BD7 2016, he said he needs to make it more stable with it sliding one side more than the other.  Asked if the car was tweaked, he said ‘maybe or maybe something is loose so we will check everything over for qualifying to see what we can find’.

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In the Super Stock class, which runs a handout LRP 13.5 X20 Stock Spec motor and blinky mode speedos, it was the Kyosho of Tim Benson that set the pace.  Behind the German, Dane Mike Gosvig took his Xray to second fastest time with Tony Streit completing the Top 3.  Defending Champion Marek Cerny would post the 4th fastest time.

View the event image gallery here.

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January 8, 2016

Chassis Focus – Bruno Coelho

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Chassis – Xray T4 ’16
Motor – LRP X20 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow
Battery – LRP 6000mAh
Radio/Servos – Sanwa
Body – MonTech Silvy
Remarks – Racing three classes here in Odense, Xray’s Portuguese star Bruno Coelho is running a pretty standard version of the 2016 T4 touring car from the Slovakian manufacturer. The car is equipped with low friction belts and an aluminium screws set, and sports some new orange drive shaft blades that are designed for higher durability.

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January 8, 2016

Chassis Focus – Tom Cockerill

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Chassis – Yokomo YZ-2
Motor – Yokomo 6.5T
ESC – Yokomo
Battery – Yokomo 4800mAh
Radio/Servos – KO/Xpert
Remarks – Top Yokomo driver in the Buggy division here at the DHI Cup, British driver Tom Cockerill is running a YZ-2 equipped with front and rear LMR wings and under LiPo weight. The car also features a titanium screw set, vented slipper plate and rear aluminium uprights.

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January 8, 2016

Bayer fastest in 4WD at DHI Cup

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Martin Bayer has set the 4WD Buggy pace on the opening day of the DHI Cup.  Despite being forced to sit out the final practice due to a servo failure, the Xray driver still managed to top the seeding list thanks to his 3-consecutive pace of the opening timed practice. Closest to the Czech ace was HB’s David Ronnefalk, the Swede improving on his opening time by a tenth of a second to get within 2/10ths of Bayer. Having set the pace in 2WD practice, Michal Orlowski would end up third fastest but the Schumacher driver was a considerable 7/10ths off the pace. For defending champion Joern Neumann, sixth would be the best the Serpent driver could manage behind Yokomo team-mates Tom Cockerill and Frederik Hovgaard.

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‘Perfect’ was how Bayer summed up his XB4. Running the same set-up that he used at the opening round of the latest season of the Euro Offroad Series he said being able to run Schumacher’s Minipin tyre on the front makes this a really good set-up for the car (since its opening round the EOS has enforced the Stagger Rib as the only front tyre option for it championship).  Asked about sitting out the final practice, the former European Champion said having finished the previous practice with no problems when he put the car down for the last practice he had no steering the servo having stripped gears.  Planning no set-up changes for Q1, which for 4WD starts tomorrow, he will only fit new tyres, adding his aim is to ‘just drive around clean’ for the 5-minutes.  Asked about his opposition he replied ‘I’m still expecting Bruno (Coelho) to come’.  Only 8th fastest, World Champion Coelho said having not did any practice over the Christmas break he just needs more track time to find his rhythm.  Running a completely new car, having raced and won Round 2 of the EOS with his Worlds winning XB4, he said he was also still fine tuning his new car.  Making ‘a lot of mistakes’, the Portuguese driver said there is a lot of improvement to come.

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Ronnefalk said 4WD practice ‘started out terrible’ as he need to get used running Mini Pins on the front of his D413 again and figure out right way to cut the tyres.   Describing the car as ‘always fast’, he added he just needed to adjust the set-up to make to easy to drive.  Feeling it’s now good enough for qualifying, the World Championship podium finisher will leave the car unchanged for Q1.

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Orlowski said having started out with the rear shocks on his CAT K2 mounted to the rear of the shock tower, some testing of them mounted to the front by his team-mates convinced him to change resulting in the car having ‘super rotation’.  Now looking for more rear traction, the reigning European Champion will switch to a shortened rear camber link for Q1.  Having run rear tyres with the outside row of pins cut off, he will also switch to an uncut tyre for the first qualifier.

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‘Average’ was Cockerill’s response to his 4WD performance.  The Brit is struggling to get a balanced set-up on his YZ-4.  With a set-up that is good in the infield, he said it leaves him struggling with his entry and exit off the main straight.  Finding a cure for that then the problem becomes the infield with the car struggling on flat landings leading it to double bounce which he said is costing time.  For Q1 he will run with the set-up that works well on the infield and just take it easier coming on and off the straight.  Team-mate Hovgaard was very happy with the performance of his YZ-4, the 16-year-old Dane making no changes over the four rounds of practice.  For Q1 he will continue with an unchanged set-up.

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Chasing a fifth consecutive 4WD DHI Cup win, Neumann said part of his problem was that he broke after only 2-laps in the first timed practice forcing him to run a safe second round.  The German said while his  SX4  is not super fast on individual lap times he feels it has a ‘good 5-minute pace’.  Asked if he planned any changes for Q1 tomorrow he said his priority for now was sorting out his 2WD set-up while not far off the pace needs more steering for tonight’s two opening rounds of qualifying.

View the event image gallery here.

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