McBride exploits drying track to head Kyosho 1-2

Kyle McBride exploited a drying track to TQ the fifth round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships, the Australian heading a Kyosho 1-2 from team-mate Elliott Boots. A wet start to the final day of qualifying in Sicily, the round starting with Group 11 to 14 and 1 back through 10, running together in Heat 5, the last of the fast groups, McBride and the 2012 Worlds Top Qualifier took advantage of an ever improving track to put their MP9s top of the times, a much anticipated TQ challenge from Agama’s Jeremy Kortz in Heat 10 on a completely dry track failing to materialise.  With the changing conditions producing a completely unpredictable Top 16, a third for the round sees the ever consistent Lee Martin move into the provisional TQ position counting four rounds with one qualifier left to run.  The man to beat on a dry equal conditions track bagged three TQ runs from the opening three rounds, Ty Tessmann would again suffer badly with the timing of his heat, the rain returning for the start of his Heat 3, leaving the Canadian with only the 23rd fastest time.

A driver who burst onto the scene at the 2010 World Championships finishing 4th in the Main, McBride said while he ‘got a bit lucky’ he felt it was still a good run.  The 18-year-old whose best previous round was 5th in Q1, said he put in a ‘smooth run with no mistakes’ and he was ‘pretty happy’ with how it worked out.  Switching from Pro-Line’s Suburb to Holeshot tyre in X3 compound for the conditions he said they suited the track well allowing him to set the fastest lap of the round. He added, the car was ‘good to drive’ as the reduced traction took away the risk of ‘tipping over’, a problem all drivers have faced in the dry on the highly abrasive track.

Admitting it was a much needed result, Boots said as a stand alone run it was a ‘pretty good’ drive from him.  The 21-year, who like McBride switched to Pro-Line’s Holeshot tyre, said he could have done with going down in diff oils on his Reds Racing powered MP9.  Leaving them the same as he was running in dry conditions they weren’t ideal for the conditions but knowing the track was getting faster he said he just concentrated on cruising around for a clean run.

Switching to his ‘traditional wet set-up’, Martin said while his MBX7R wasn’t perfect for the conditions he felt he drove well to make the most of the conditions.  Suffering one mistake when he took out the Live RC pitlane camera, he said the rest of the run was good.  While conditions are continuing to dry up, but with the treat of future rain, he said they will tweak the set-up they ran and have it ready should it be needed.

A title contender for the last three World Championships taking the win in 2008, Atsushi Hara would benefit hugely from the track conditions to claim the fourth fastest time.  Running in the same heat as McBride and Boots, the S-Workz driver summed up the run by saying ‘Slow man, but not too bad’.  Admitting that compared to the last three Worlds his target for qualifying this time round is low saying his Q5 time was only possible because he didn’t stop for fuel and on the slower track he ‘made less mistakes’.  Having tried to run with no stop in the dry,  fuel mileage from his OS Speed engine having been one of the Japanese ace’s strengths in the past, he said he has been unable to achieve it here, running dry after attempting it in Q3.  Targeting the 1/8 or possibly the 1/4 finals he said he still has faith that his long time & trusted mechanic Masayuki Miura will figure out something for the Mains.

Recording his first Top 10 qualifier, Renaud Savoya was relieved to feature towards the top of the times saying ‘finally’.  The Xray driver said you got to take what you can and he felt he made the most of the conditions for the timing of his heat.  Running in the same heat as Martin, the 3-time European Champion said that switching to a completely soft set-up made his Sweep Battle Star equipped XB8 a totally different race car adding he couldn’t have gone any faster for the conditions.

Serpent’s Mike Truhe, who was Top Qualifier at the 2008 World Championships, completed the Top 6. The American said it was ‘good’ run with the wet track feeling more normal to the style he is used to rather than the ‘nervous onroad style’ it has in the dry.  Changing the diff oils on his TOP powered Cobra 2.0 to what he called ‘normal’ he said this worked well for the conditions. Choosing Pro-Line’s Blockade tyre in M3 compound he said he probably would have been better to have run on a set of Holeshots.

Behind Truhe Italian National Champion Alex Zanchettin took his TLR to the seventh fastest time with World Champion Robert Batlle eight.  Batlle said he was happy to top his heat ahead of French National Champion Jerome Aigoin who he said is a master of such conditions.  Running a wet set-up the Mugen driver said one plus from the run was that he knows they have a good car should such conditions return.

‘Sucks’, that was Tessmann’s reaction to the round, the HB driver having hoped he could have wrapped up the overall TQ early. Finishing his heat second, 2-seconds behind Ryan Maifield, after suffering one spin out on the tile section, he said the track didn’t dry enough for a quick run but in terms of his D812 it felt good and well balanced. Having TQ’d Round 4 yesterday evening, a round that was also effected by rain, Xray’s Martin Bayer could only manage 48th.  The Czech driver said his car had good pace but he had two costly mistakes on the double before the straight without which he feels he would have ran a Top 10 time.

View the complete ranking after 5 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.

The Worlds according to Ruona – Wednesday Qualifying

So what did you think about that 4th round of qualifying? So here’s the question.. Are you more concerned about Jared Tebo escaping tech with the body holes or the track being rained on?

I get asked all the time….what tires should I run? This can be via text, email, FB message or just a straight up post to my wall. I always respond with; send me a photo of your track. A photo is worth 1000 words, so they say? Because, you see, the track really matters. This is something that you need to learn early in R/C.

It probably took me 3-4 club races when I started racing in October of 1990 to figure this out. Only back then you wanted a watered track because it gave the most grip. I was running Trinity tires on my JRX-T and I had 3 different tread patterns. Small, medium and medium large pins. If the track was wet I ran larger pins and if it was dry I would run smaller pins. I knew that when I was running the smaller pins on the dry track it was going to be loose anyways and be slow. However, as long as everyone else was slow I was ok with it.

As I got better and started racing 2wd I had more tire options and starting paying even more attention to the conditions. Back then, watering the track was by volunteers and you could basically do it whenever you wanted. One of the fast 2wd buggy guys at our club track GOAR, Mike Spein would “volunteer” to water the track just before his qualifier and lay down a nice coat of water just before his race. He would already have the 11×2 motor with 7 cells of power ready to go and….boom. Mike was clearing jumps, full throttle, throwing red dirt roosts on his way to a potential TQ. Mike knew how to setup, prepare and cater the track conditions to his setup. We were concerned in those days that Mike had a track advantage during a 90’s club meeting at the Greater Orlando Auto Racers track.

Fast forward about 5 years and we were racing the Winter Championships where previously we hoped to be in a qualifier in the morning on a fresh / damp track for the best shot at a TQ run. Something strange happened, the track crew decided they could no longer keep up with watering the track and they let it go dry. It wasn’t 20 minutes later and the track started looking funny…. It had this groove that started to form and we started seeing fast qualifiers coming out of guys that…..well, ah, normally, ah….ok, they aren’t fast and they were beating our previous runs. Then we noticed, holy crap, the next heat is even faster, then faster again. Pretty soon you run to the heat sheet and look who’s up in the last heats of 2wd modified. Ok, these guys have the best heat now and they are almost the last ones up to race. If you were lucky you had a late heat and the potential to lay it down on the fast track.

What could the guys do who were in the first heat of 2wd modified? All they could do is watch their times get beaten by a lap or more. Yes, a lap! First heat drivers would be throwing things in the pits, this is BS, I hate this track, what a joke, I’m going home, my grandma could TQ in the last heat…ugh whatever… The next year they would still have 400+ entries.

Fast forward to where we are at now. World Championships. Over time we have decided that it’s more fair to run the track dry and it’s more consistent heat to heat and allows all drivers to compete on a somewhat even playing field. We have gone so far as to add sugar and concrete to what previously used to be dirt surfaces just to up the level of consistency. It works, the sugar, the concrete and everything else we have done actually gives the best conditions for these types of events when you want the most fair shot at a TQ no matter what race you are in.

As far back as 1997, at the Worlds at the Ranch Pit Shop, they were using concrete to patch the track. I saw a hole forming at the end of the straight and Gil Losi Jr (I miss him at the races BTW) started making it larger and squaring up the hole. I say to him, hey what are you doing… He says I’m going to make some clean edges and fill the hole with concrete. My mind is blown….I’m thinking…it’s a dirt track just fill it with dirt. Jr says, concrete is the only thing that is close to what we actually are racing on after we have grooved up the track. I was skeptical until my qualifier and I was like holy crap, this freakin works. The hole was gone and we were hauling ass again… Jr and his concrete saved the day.

Today started just as any other qualifying round would with the track being in great condition. Fast times coming down as the heats get faster everything was on track for another showdown in heats 1-5 where the fast guys are. I see the cloud coverage was moving in and I go to Ryan’s pit and he’s already looking for different compounds. I think great, this guy doesn’t need any help he’s already on it. Heat 1 hits the track and Cavalieri, Martin Bayer and David Ronnefalk are running well. 16 lap pace going down in the 10:12 range. The race is on track and things are going ok. Then I feel a rain drop and I’m like oh, crap. I see the cars start sliding on the tile and I’m like these guys are screwed. I run back to the pits and talk with Ryan and then I run to the rental and pick out a set of used but softer tires for Ryan. I didn’t have the tire I wanted but this would have to do. Have to make the changes and decisions on the fly and things were happening quickly. I’m thinking F this crap we are going to TQ this round anyways when I find the right tire. Heat 1 gets 16 laps but not the greatest after the last minute got some water. Heat 2 hits the track and Tebo was running well but I couldn’t see his lap times until Maifield was sorted for heat 3. I run to see his best lap of 40 seconds. What the hell? A 40 out of Tebo as hot lap? Ugh….I watch for a minute and they have low grip on the tile sections and pretty much everywhere. I go back to the warmup area and Maifield is asking if he should even run considering the track is so bad and he says, with a clean run I’m lucky to be in the top 60 with the way things are going. Kevin and I convince Ryan to run anyways thinking ahead of potential problems of not running the qualifier.

Ty and dad prepped his car well with new front and rear clips (thinner diff fluid and standard settings) to the chassis and some Holeshots. You know what they were thinking? Blank this crap we are going to TQ this round anyways and show everyone who the man is. Heat 3 starts and Ty, Maifield and Wernimont all ran 39 second laps… I’m thinking, if it keeps drying (it wasn’t presently raining) and the race goes long enough these guys might have a shot at it. I videoed a few laps with Ryan and added to FB quickly. He was doing well with a so/so car and last second move on tires. Then more rain fell and all of a sudden the laps slooowed down… 41’s and 42’s….ugh. It was slow now and no shot at a decent run. Maifield finished off the qualifier with 15 laps 10:33 with no crashes and a great fuel stop. Impressive run for Ty, Wernimont and Maifield but a lap off TQ. Yes…..a lap short of TQ.

You know what Maifield said afterward? What a waste of time…I’m going to be 80th. We follow back to the pits after marshaling and everyone is still fired up about getting screwed on track conditions. Maifield’s rant goes something like Ive heard before. This is BS, I hate this track, what a joke, I’m going home, my grandma could TQ in that first heat…ugh whatever… I made that up but you get the idea…

See, no matter what you try and do there is nothing you can do about the single largest factor which is the track conditions. No matter how much of a badazz you are, you can’t control the surface, weather and conditions or the organization running the event. If you are running when the track sucks it’s not always your car, tires, driving, mental approach or good luck charm….is the track fast or not?

When it’s fast we say, keep your arms and legs inside the cab at all times…you are entering the rocket race. Sometimes there is no magical tire, no magical setup….you need to be able to read the track and know to have the appropriate equipment on during that time and let the chips fall where they may.

I just wish Mike Spein was here to water the track.

Photos of the day – Wednesday

Bayer reigns in wet Q4

Martin Bayer has TQ’d a rain effected fourth round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Sicily. Starting off the second day of qualifying with his best run securing Xray’s first Top 10 time, the Czech driver topped the second qualifier ahead of Ryan Cavalieri and David Ronnefalk. Starting out as a dry heat with 2-minutes to go the rain that the dark clouds threatened to bring finally arrived continuing for much of the remaining four title contender loaded heat groups. Running earlier in Heat 10, the round starting with Heat 6 of 14, Jeremy Kortz would be one of the big benefactors ending up fourth ahead of other Heat 1 runners Cody King, Dakotah Phend, Christopher Svensson and Darren Bloomfield. Fastest in the opening three qualifiers but having to run on a completely wet track Ty Tessmann, who is in Heat 3, would end up 37th.

While happy to take the TQ, Bayer said it was a lucky one and he would have preferred to have done it when the track ‘conditions are equal for everyone’. Finishing 1.3-seconds up on Cavalieri, losing time in a coming together with King halfway through the run, he said on the dry track his LRP powered XB8 ‘felt pretty good’ with it very consistent before the arrival of the rain. With the rain now passed but with more forecast for the morning, Bayer said while overall he is happy with how his equipment is running he would be waiting till the morning before deciding whether or not to make any changes.

‘Guess we finally got a bit of luck out of running in the first heat’, that was Cavalieri’s initial reaction to his second for the round. Adding one degree anti-squat to his prototype RC8, the Team Associated lead driver said with the change the car ‘didn’t jump right’ with it bouncing a little on the landings. Although ‘not 100% comfortable’ with the car he said he was still on for a better run before the rain adding he is ‘finally getting his driving right’ for the Naxos World track.

Ronnefalk said his drive didn’t deserve 3rd but continued ‘you need luck sometimes and it came at the right time I guess’. Going back up in the diffs oils in his Orion powered Kyosho as well as going for a softer compound of AKA’s Catapult tyre, the 18-year-old said he was able to push it harder. Feeling more comfortable with the car he said he was happy to get back into the 36-second lap times again, no one going faster than 37 in the first run of the day. The Swede said the run again wasn’t perfect from the drivers perspective with one big mistake at the double before the straight but even with this he said he would have still got a Top 10 for the round had it stayed dry.

A driver renowned for his bad boy image, Kortz gave a descript summary of his luck saying ‘the sun shines on a dog’s ass every once and a while’. Admitting he did get lucky, saying if the rain had come a minute earlier he would have got the TQ, the Agama driver said he still had to have put in a decent run to capitalise on the weather change. While the 4 time Worlds finalist doesn’t think he is going to qualify directly to the Semis he said his ‘car has been great’ but in a bad heat traffic issues has meant his times have just been too slow. Overall he said he is happy how things are going declaring his equipment race ready.

Having somewhat of a tough time so far in Italy, 2010 World Champion King said while it was a lucky 5th ‘that is the way it goes sometimes’. Admitting he ‘kind of needed it’, he said his Reds Racing powered Kyosho was better for the days second run. Having gone to heavier diffs for the day’s first qualifier, but not liking the change, he reverted to his Q2 set-up in which he ran the 14th fastest time. Describing the car as working he said the lighter oils suits his driving better.

Making the Top 16 for the first time, TLR Dakotah Phend was clearly relieved to end the day with a 6th which he said while a lucky one he would gladly take it. Copying team-mates Ryan Maifield and Adam Drake’s shock set-up for the round he said he was a lot more comfortable with his Orion powered 8ight. While still making ‘a couple of mistakes’ over the 10-minutes he said the run has given him a confidence boost going into the final day of qualifying.

Making a quick set-up change to his OS Speed powered D812 before hitting the wet track, Tessmann said while they didn’t have enough time to fully change the car to a wet set-up running on the wet track helped them learn quite a bit which could prove valuable should the rain return. Also switching to Pro-Line’s Holeshot tyre in X3 compound, when asked how the track was when wet he said the tile section is really difficult.

Maifield, who ended the round 63rd, said the run was ‘a totally complete waste of time that only left him with a car that needs to be totally rebuilt’. With a rain car built, he left it back at his hotel as he wasn’t expecting rain today, he said he only got to change to a softer JConcept tyre for the run. Setting the fastest lap of his heat, with a 39.813, he said the wet surface would be pretty cool to drive on with the right set-up.

With many complaining the start of Q4 was not moved forward rather than continue with the long lunch break when the rain could be seen coming defending champion Robert Batlle felt the round should have been cancelled. Running in Heat 2 the Mugen driver said they only had time to change to a softer tyre but even had they been able to change set-up the rain had effected the track too considerably for any kind of competitive time to be set.

View the complete ranking after 4 rounds here (PDF).

View our event image gallery here.

Video – Qualifying Rd3 Heat 1, 2 & 3