December 14, 2024

Polito back on the top again in Q3

Mattia Polito was back at top of the time sheets at the SIGP, the Sworkz driver setting the pace in the 3rd & penultimate round of qualifying in Xiamen ahead of fellow countryman Davide Ongaro.  After TQ’ing the opening round, a bad set-up would lead to two crashes in the second round leaving the Italian with a P3 as David Ronnefalk TQ’d from Ongaro.  A crash on the first lap was the start of a rough Q3 for Ronnefalk, his Xray eventually ending up 5th fastest.  Out front, Polito just missed out on doubling up on being the only driver to run 13-laps of the challenging track, his only blotch in Q3 an off track excursion that cost him less than 2-seconds.  In the end he would have 2.7-seconds on Ongaro with Bruno Coelho enjoying his cleanest run yet to record his first Top 3 time.  Making his SIGP debut along with Ongaro and Polito, 18-year-old Gabriel Astorino had a strong run to the fourth fastest time 9-seconds off the TQ pace.

‘It was good and clean expect for one mistake’, was Polito’s reaction to Q3, him lucky that he didn’t need to be marshalled as he was able to drive his own way back onto the track.  With his car back working after they raise the rear end back up again, the 21-year-old added, ‘I want to try different shocks.  Before I used 6-holes but for the last round I will try 8-holes.  The rest I leave the same.’

Summing up his performance Ongaro said, ‘It was close with Mattia but then I had a stupid crash after the straight, so I lost about 3, 4 seconds, I was there with him anyway it was better definitely.’  Making diff oil changes after Q2 ask how these were, the World Champion said, ‘It was better for me.  The car is more consistent and for the bumps I think it is better.’  Looking Q4, the 23-year-old, ‘on the car I will make no change but we will try something different on the tyres.’

Looking a bit more upbeat that he was after Q2, Coelho said, ‘It was better than the one before.  I think I recovered like 15-seconds so its a big improvement, it is also easy to make 15-seconds less.  Still I did one big bobble which cost me the TQ, because I was super fast.  The progress is happening so lets try to keep that moving.’  On his car and any set-up changes he planned for the fourth & final qualifier, the former 1:10 Offroad World Champion said, ‘now we are just working on small changes.’

‘I’m happy because I had a good feeling with the car now’ was how Astorino summed his run to the fourth fastest time.  The Italian WIRC said a shock change after Q2 had left him with a buggy that ‘was much better on the jumps and the slow corners.’  For the final qualifier, he is considering a further shock change as well as his diffs as he feels he is going in a good direction with the changes made earlier.   Suffering one mistake in the run when he took a jump wrong, he said it didn’t cost him much time or result in him needing to be marshalled.

View our event image gallery here.

December 14, 2024

Chassis Focus – David Ronnefalk (Xray)

Chassis – Xray XB8’24
Engine – FX K303
Fuel – Energy
Tires – Hotrace Bangkok
Radio/Servo – FlySky Noble Pro+ / Hitec HSB9381
Body – Xray

Image Gallery

December 14, 2024

Ronnefalk takes Q2 at SIGP

Xray’s David Ronnefalk has kicked off Day 2 of qualifying at the SIGP in China by taking the second round of Nitro Buggy.  A much cooler morning in Xiamen, a clean run would see the Swede top the times by 1.3-seconds from a much improved Davide Ongaro while Q1 pace setter Matti Polito completed the Top 3, both Italians having mistakes.  While having the fastest buggy on the track in Q2, it was another error filed run from Bruno Coelho, three costly mistakes over the 7-minutes leaving him with a P4.  Backing up his Top 5 in yesterday’s opening qualifier, Joseph Quagraine again took his Mayako to the 5th fastest time ahead of the WIRC of Gabriel Astorino.

‘I just kept it on the wheels and had a good couple of opening laps’, was how Ronnefalk summed up his TQ performance.  The 2016 World Champion continued, ‘Dad was informing what the others were doing.  I got told Ongaro crashed, and next to me was Bruno on the driver’s stand and I heard he crashed by his reaction.  Dad told me I had a 7-second lead or something so I stepped it down from that point.  Because of his crash Ongaro was pushing a lot so he closed in for a couple of laps in the middle of the run.  I had one lap where I almost threw it away twice but managed to keep it on the wheels but lost about 3-seconds so Ongaro got close.  I had to push on the last lap to get the TQ.  You can make the fast laps, it not an issue on this track but its going to bit you if you keep doing them all the time.’  Asked about track conditions today he said, ‘It was weird now cause eBuggy in the morning felt really grippy compared to yesterday and I had good grip so I kept the same tyres for nitro now and I felt already I had a lot less grip so its changing a lot.  In terms of the bumpyness I don’t think it gets more, it was broken from the start, the surface is pretty consistent, what is changing is the grip level but it is nothing crazy but I probably would have went for a different compound for nitro if I knew the change would be so big.’

Having TQ’d the second round of eBuggy, asked about his nitro run, Ongaro replied with, ‘Better, better than yesterday and finally we found some pace in both cars.  We continue working but I am happy and I also slept well last night which helps.’  Asked what details he was now focusing on with his car, Adrien Bertin wrenching on his buggies this weekend, he said, ‘we are working on diff oil mainly and tyres.  We already found the right compound but the thread we are still trying options.  We are working with Nebula and Neutron.  We don’t have a lot of them so we have to switch them but both are working the same and in eBuggy I also tried the Blackhole because they put molasses on track and they worked good.  We have three threads that are working.’

The star of yesterday’s action, taking the opening TQ with a clean run, Polito would suffer two mistake this time round.  Asked about his Q2 performance, the Sworkz driver said, ‘I made two mistakes because the car was too low in the rear.’  With a faster lap time than both World Champion drivers ahead of him, the 21-year-old Top Seed wasn’t phased by being off the top spot on the time sheets for the first time since the event officially got underway and said he would just correct the rear ride height for Q3 and ‘all is OK’.

‘It was a tough morning but still a lot to go’ was Coelho’s reaction after Q2.  He added, ‘it’s for sure not the best conditions for me as an onroad/offroad driver.  I would prefer for sure the new tracks without any bumps and this is extremely bumpy so I am suffering a lot with my own skills basically.’  Fresh from winning the FEMCA Electric Touring Car title last weekend at the GDC indoor carpet track in Foshan, looking to take a positive from Q2 he said, ‘It is always nice to learn and experience different conditions, I think I never had such rough conditions but I have to learn.’  Asked about his buggy, he replied, ‘In both categories I think I was if not the fastest one of the the fastest around the track, I just need to be able to be more consistent for the whole run without so many mistakes.  Probably I need to dial it back a bit.’

View our event image gallery here.

December 13, 2024

Chassis Focus – Mattia Polito (Sworkz)

Chassis – Sworkz S35-4 EVO
Engine – O.S. Speed B04
Fuel – Energy
Tires – Matrix Nubela
Radio/Servo – Futaba T10PX / KO Propo RSx4S Power HC
Body – Xtreme Aria

Image Gallery

December 13, 2024

Polito takes Q1 ahead of Ronnefalk & Ongaro at SIGP

Having topped seeding on his SIGP debut, Sworkz’s Mattia Polito capped off an impressive Day 1 of official action in Xiamen, China, by topping the opening round of qualifying.  The Italian who executed a clean run to record the only 13-lap run took the first of the four scheduled qualifiers ahead of Xray ‘s David Ronnefalk and Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro, both drivers having mistakes that would prove costly due to the race’s supplied marshals.  While Polito put together a very impressive first qualifier, setting the fastest lap in the process, it would be contrasting performance from Xray’s Bruno Coelho who had many mistakes eventually claiming the fourth fastest time.  Behind, Mayako’s Joseph Quagraine put together a run that allowed him to the fifth fastest time but the Finn believes he as driver has more to give tomorrow.

‘The track for the first qualifying was really difficult but we don’t make mistakes, just little errors but it was fast.  Difficult but fast’, that was how Polito reacted to his TQ round.  Leaving his buggy unchanged from seeding, he summed up the first meaningful day of the SIGP as ‘good’. Having also topped eBuggy seeding, he said his P3 in the categories opening qualifier was down to a mistake, and also him not being super happy with his tyre choice for the electric buggy.  With three more qualifier on the schedule for tomorrow (Saturday), he said, ‘I think the plan is to start the same as we finished today and maybe in electric we might change the tyres, we will see in the morning.’

Ask how his Q1 went, Ronnefalk replied, ‘It was going really well, I had a couple of those small little mistakes nothing major in the start and I saw Bruno gapped me a couple of corners but I was just trying to stay on the wheels which is most important obviously.  I saw Bruno had two mistakes so then I knew from dad telling me on the headset that I was close to Polito.  I was within 1-second at one point I think and then I had a couple of cars I went through but the very next corner after passing them I just came in a little too hot a flipped over.’  Not normally a huge loose of time he explained, ‘I flipped over right in front of the marshal’s feet but I still lost 10-seconds cause the marshal was waiting for all the cars to come by before he grabbed mine.  This is always the thing when you have marshals that haven’t really marshalled cars in their life.  I think the two mistakes Bruno did he lost 23-seconds.  That why it is so important to stay on the wheel.  Even with a 10-second mistake I saw Ongaro had the same on the last lap so I ended up second.  I’ll take it.’  The 2016 World Champion concluded, ‘both my cars felt really good, I changed my nitro so it is almost like my electric, only small differences but mainly the same, it is just a matter of staying cool, calm and collected up there.’

A driver we have come to expect will be the hence mark at most international races, Ongaro was a little more upbeat at the end of the day following Q1.  The Italian described the opening qualifier as ‘better than the last round of seeding’ but added, ‘I had a crash on the last lap and lost 11-seconds. It was my fault so it wasn’t the marshals fault but I lost a lot of time there.’   Looking to Day 2’s qualifying action he said, ‘for tomorrow we have a better car, we are improving step by step.  Compared to yesterday today is a lot more comfortable for sure.  The Top 5 are super close so I think the key on this track is don’t flip and have a car that is easy to drive.  So lets see for tomorrow.’

‘Very poor driving from myself today’ was Coelho response after qualifying.  Winner of the SIGP Onroad race earlier this year, he continued, ‘both cars were working pretty good, I was pretty fast but in both categories I struggled to keep the concentration I believe and I made some rookie mistakes for sure.’  With 3/4 of qualifying rounds still to run, he stated, ‘We are confident in the cars for tomorrow and for me today was just an off day.   Tomorrow there is three more qualifiers to go in each category which I hope everything will go well for.’

Having attended the last SIGP hosted in 2019, the track now running in the opposite direction on the very same layout to the 2019 edition, JQ described his opening nitro qualifier as ‘good’ despite one mistake.  He continued, ‘My car was very easy to drive and I see a lot of people struggling, so I am quite happy with the that.  I honestly feel that I need to work on my driving.  I am a bit too careful everywhere so driving wise I need to improve a lot.’  Asked if he felt he was driving too cautious due to the tricky track conditions, the Finn replied, ‘No, it’s because I am old and haven’t driven.’  On his buggy set-up he said, ‘car wise I don’t feel like I need to change but I will change because I am changing every run to learn and just test things.  I’ll keep changing things and drive better but I’m happy, everything is good.’  He concluded, ‘basically I am confident enough for a lexan wing now.’

View our event image gallery here.

December 13, 2024

Polito tops seeding at SIGP in China

Sworkz’s Mattia Polito is the top seed at the SIGP Offroad Race in Xiamen, the Italian fastest in both Nitro and Electric Buggy on the return of China’s biggest annual offroad race after a 5-year break.  Over 3-consecutive laps of the challenging 3-Circles track, overnight repairs making for improved conditions for today’s two seeding rounds, Polito would go fastest in both ahead of Xray’s Bruno Coelho.  It was however the first round that was the fastest for the 21-year-old who had 1.6-seconds on Coelho.  With Coelho’s fastest time coming from CP2, the margin on that occasion was down to 2/10ths of a second as Polito’s best was 7/10ths slower than his earlier attempt.  Behind Davide Ronnefalk took his Xray to the 3rd fastest time with his CP1 time ahead of Davide Ongaro, the reigning World Champion improving by over a 1-second in CP2.  WIRC’s Gabriel Astorino and Mayako’s Joseph Quaqraine completed the Top 6.

With this his first visit to the SIGP, Polito was pleased with his performance in seeding describing it as ‘pretty good’.  The 2021 Italian National Champion is also liking the track layout if not the surface adding ‘it’s bumpy but the racing line I like.’   Switching to a different Matrix tyre for the second practice run, he said, ‘It was not fast like the previous one so we go back for the first quali’.   Having been Ongaro’s main title challenger in the Italian National Championship the last 3-seasons, looking towards qualifying he said he confident that he can transfer his seeding pace to a consistent 7-minute qualifier.

Summing up his seeding performance as ‘pretty good’, Coelho added, ‘we are still trying some tyres.  The car is working pretty good now so we are just trying to find out the tyres.  In the morning the track is a bit wet and during the day it starts to become drier and the compounds change completely the grip.  I was changing the tyres during the run and at the end I was able to run 3 pretty good laps’.  Using Hotrace’s Bangkok tyre, he said ‘from super soft to medium it works pretty ok depending on the time of the day so we need to find the best solutions for this.’  Having admitted yesterday that the track was challenging he feels, ‘today seems to be easier to drive than yesterday, I think they fixed some jumps which was the biggest trouble yesterday, this has made it was drivable and more, lets say more, racing that before.’

His first Nitro Buggy race since the World Championship in Redovan, Ronnefalk said, ‘I tried tyres in both rounds, the first round I came into pit and tried different compounds, I ended up liking the second one better which was the (Hotrace) Bangkok Super Soft.  Then for the last one I decided to try something else on the tyres, a different compound again just to see because we don’t have a lot of tyres between Bruno and myself.  We have to make sure we have enough for the whole race.  So I just checked how another one felt but in the 2nd seeding is was not really working well.  The car felt good and everything but I had no lap time speed cause I had not traction.  The car was been feeling good today after some changes this morning.’   Asked if he noticed the track repairs, the Swede said, ‘the first couple of runs in the morning has always been nicer than the last few, it seems the grip is a little higher in the morning when the track is a bit damp but as soon as it dries out those small little bumps get sharper again and its difficult towards the afternoon to drive.’   Looking to Q1, having taken the opening eBuggy qualifier, he explained, ‘I was able to TQ eBuggy and I am running the same set-up on both cars so it is just a matter of collecting data we have had so far from all our tyres tests because it looks like the tyre is making the most difference out there, of course the shock package and everything is important but the track gets kind of polished after lunch so then you have a lot less grip than in the morning.’

Without out his father as his pitman this weekend, former World Champion Adrien Bertin filling that role here, Ongaro said, ‘We struggled a little bit with the set-up compared to two days ago.  We started with a good base but then after one practice the car start to make strange things so we struggle a lot with the set-up.’   Second fastest in the opening eBuggy qualifier, he continued, ‘Now we change for the eBuggy and it seems like the car was really really better, I feel I can push so I will put the same setting on my nitro for Q1 and see if that makes he difference.  If yes we start from that point again.  I think now changing a few small things makes a huge difference, the consistency was much better than before.’