Deja vu as Kaerup tops 4WD Seeding in Sydney

The opening day of 4WD action has ended at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships and in a somewhat deja vu outcome of what we witness in 2WD in Australia on Monday, it was Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup who concluded proceedings by topping seeding.  While the Dane ended the day fastest, unlike 2WD he didn’t have it completely to himself in practice.  After the opening two free practice rounds it was the defending World Champion Davide Ongaro who sat at the top of the times before two more rounds promoted Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik to pace setter on the reversed Hills RC Off Road track layout.  Seeding would open with Kobbevik carrying his form as he went fastest in CP1 ahead of the Xray of American Brennan Schimmel, the Slovakian manufacturer very much in the hunt after their 2WD woes.  With Kobbevik unable to improve on his best 3-laps in the second seeding round, Kaerup, who was only 6th after the first one, would go a tenth quicker than Kobbevik to goe into qualifying tomorrow as the Top Seed.  With Kobbevik carrying the number no.2 for qualifying, it would be Dakotah Phend who ended up being closest to the Scandinavian duo, the American 3/10ths of a second off the pace.  Also bettering his time in CP2, David Ronnefalk set the fourth fastest time with Schimmel’s CP1 time giving him P5, Xray looking strong with 3 cars in the Top 5.  Failing to make the Top 10 in any of the four free practice rounds, Michal Orlowski ended the day with a run that sees the Schumacher driver complete the Top 6 ahead of Ongaro while his team-mate & newly crowned 2WD World Champion Broc Champlin finds himself in the second fastest heat.  As history shows however this isn’t such a bad thing, the American having also started out in the second fastest qualifying group in 2WD.

Reacting after the run that gave the 17-year-old the Top Seed status, Kaerup said, ‘the car is pretty fast and way more comfortable this time.  I got some good laps under my belt and a good 5-minute run but we are still looking to find more comfortability in the car and speed.  We are going to try some stuff for tomorrow and then it’s straight to qualifying.’  With a round of practice opening qualifying day, the run determining how drivers will roll out for the first of the five scheduled rounds of qualifying, asked where he felt he was at with his program, Kaerup replied, ‘We are definitely a lot closer than earlier but there is still some overall consistency that is needed to be gotten on the top.’

Summing up his seeding effort, Kobbevik said, ‘I was running in a new set of tyres in the second one so the car was understeering but I tried to push it around, run them in, and get a good 5-minutes even with my mistake after the triple.’  He continued, ‘The car is good, but maybe we will try some small stuff in the morning and go from there.  Being overall Top 3 all the time and improving the car every run we are happy with that.’  Asked if the experience of 2WD and knowing how the track changes over the day would help in terms of making the right set-up changes for the conditions, the 19-year-old said, ‘I think it’s a bit similar but the first qualifier tomorrow will be high grip so it should be quite close set-up wise but it depends if they water the track much tonight how it will be in the morning.  Even though the morning practice is going to be a bit muddy I want to try something to find more speed for sure.’

A driver who is clearly looking in much higher spirts than earlier in the week, on his Top 3 seeding Phend said, ‘I think seeding went well.’  He xontinued, ‘The first run I just wanted to have a clean 5-minute run.  I did that and was consistent and had decent pace and then this next one I had a couple of small mistakes but picked a little bit of speed and it felt like the car was more into the track.’  Looking to Day 2 of the 4WD action the ROAR National Champion said, ‘we will make a couple of small changes for tomorrow but I feel like we’re pretty close to where we need to be and we are just going to be making changes depending on the track condition at what time we run.’

Winner of the European 4WD Championship title at the start of August, Ronnefalk said, ‘The seeding rounds have been pretty solid.  I think the speed has been there and we have just been trying a few thinks to decide for tomorrow what we want to do in terms of shock package and a couple of things on the rear end but I think that we figure it out now in the last one.  I felt I had a bit more stability in the rear which I was looking for so I am not going to go crazy and change too much for tomorrow.  I will keep it somewhat close to this and see how the conditions are.’  With seeding based on 3-consecutive laps asked his feeling on his 5-minute pace, the Swede said, ‘I think the 5-minutes are also good, I was pushing a little hard there and had two crashes but when I am driving like I should be I feel like the balance of the car is good and I am able to be pretty consistent over the 5-minute run.  The first one was a little bit better if I look at my 5-minute pace but obviously the second one I was a little bit faster on laps.’  He added, ‘I have also being breaking in tyres so I have to decide whether I want to go fresher like a high pin or small pin tomorrow.  I saw some of the guys in the last heat were pretty low on the thread in the centre of the tyre so I think that is what you want when the track is at least dry then we will have to decide whether we want to go like that also for the damp conditions in the morning, that is something for us to discuss tonight.’

The current US 2WD National Champion, Schimmel said, ‘The car is working a lot better obviously, the team has been working really well trying a lot of stuff out and all us kind of working in different avenues trying to find the best thing and then kind of converge on one.  I think it is going to be good for tomorrow.’  Asked what the main changes he made over the day were to improve his buggy, the 23-year-old said, ‘Really just messing with suspension and I think everyone here is.  Just trying to add a little more rear grip, the track is kind of polished over a little bit with the 4WDs.  I think everyone is complaining about that, so just trying to add a balance between grip and steering is really the biggest thing.’  Asked about his 5-minute consistency, he replied, ‘I am going to go back to what I was running in the first round of seeding and I think it will be OK.’

Aakws about his seeding runs, Ongaro replied, ‘Like I said before we are not changing much on the car but definitely we made a big improvement so I tried to push in this one (CP2) and I feel like if I push I can find a good lap and if I stay with my rhythm I can drive faster without crashing so we have a good qualifying car.’  The Italian added, ‘Tomorrow we will try another body and see which one I prefer.  I had planned to try the S15 in seeding but kept the F2 because we changed the car and we wanted see the difference with the car and the same body.’

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Kobbevik tops practice at 4WD Worlds

Daniel Kobbevik has topped free practice at the IFMAR 1:10 4WD World Championship, the Schumacher driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the fourth & final round of free practice in Sydney.  Topping the third round of practice ahead of Dakotah Phend, that time wouldn’t better Davide Ongaro’s FP2 time but finding almost a full second in FP4 the Norwegian went to the top ahead of Ongaro, who failed to improve on his earlier time.  Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup also had his fastest time in FP4 to end up third quickest ahead of Burak Kilic, the Mugen Seiki driver finding a huge chunk of time to his improve his 3-laps by over 2-seconds to record fourth.  With his FP3 time, Phend completed the Top 5 just ahead of Xray team-mate David Ronnefalk who was another who closed free practice with his best run.

Reacting to his early form, Kobbevik said, ‘Free practice was amazing.  I was always at the top from the beginning and we improved the car every run so that was awesome.  The car feels good now and we turned up the power a bit, the package is good.’  Having said earlier he found his car to be a bit loose, asked what he had changed to improve this the 19-year-old explained, ‘I did more of what I did at home in Norway, even though it is completely different it worked here so that was nice.’  With the track getting ‘more & more grip’, he said, ‘It feels nice to drive now, it was a bit strange with 4WD before now for me as I didn’t feel at one with the car and I always wanted more.  I still want more out of the car, but we are at a good starting point for the seeding and I am just getting more & more confident with the set-up.  I will talk to Trish and the rest of the team and see what we will do next.’

‘Not too bad’, was how Ongaro summed up free practice.  Explaining his program over the final two rounds he said, ‘we tried the car with less toe-in in Practice 3 and it was some points better, some points worse, and for me it is better to have a car that is safe to drive instead of loose in the rear.’  The Italian continued, ‘For now I am missing a bit of steering because we made the car easy so we will try to find more steering in the front.  I tried different bodies.  I feel like the F2 jumps way better and has more corner speed.’  Having also tried JConcepts’ P2 body, he said, ‘in this condition I prefer the F2.  I think I will keep the P2 for the morning and Q5, which is the worst one, and then F2 or the S15 which I will try in the next one.’

The driver who topped 2WD Free Practice before going on to take the overall TQ, Kaerup said, ‘The speed is good on 3-laps but I am looking for some comfortability in the car and some mid corner speed.’  Asked what he tried over the final two rounds of free practice, the eBuggy World Champion replied, ‘I tried some more steering but the set-up we did I don’t know if I liked it.  It was faster but it didn’t feel too good and we are soon hitting the 5-minutes so we’ve got to work quick to get the car dial in.’  On the track he felt ‘it’s pretty sandpaper like now, the tyres are going pretty fast.  I chucked on a new set and it was almost getting to the point where it was getting bald.  I think tyre wear is pretty high.’

Giving an overview of his free practice runs, Kilic said, ‘The last one was really good, we changed everything on the car before the run, and the Mugen Seiki prototype is working well.’  Asked what he was struggling with in the previous rounds, he explained, ‘I had no steering and I had no grip at all in the car so we made the changes and it really helped a lot.  It was the last free practice so we said we will try this and it worked really well.’  Asked where the set-up came from he said, ‘this is only the second time we run the car, the first time was Hudy Arena for the Euros and we had no testing before that, so we took the idea from 2WD because we improved the last day really well and it also improved the 4WD.’  Looking to the two rounds of seeding which will end Day 1 of 4WD action at the Hills RC Off Road track, and decide the heats for qualifying, Kilic said, ‘I will change a little bit more on the car, just some small things and we will see what we can figure out.  For us it’s still practice and the most important race is qualifying’.  Asked his thoughts on the new track layout, he said, ‘It’s really really good, just the double section is really hard, sometimes you land good sometimes not but it’s the same for everyone and it’s really cool.’

Asked where he felt he was now at in term of performance, Phend replied, ‘We’re not bad, we are just trying stuff and learning.’  He continued, ‘the track is changing a lot so we are making changes to get the car better but then also trying to make changes for the track changing so it’s a lot to keep up on but I think once we get the balance on what we are looking for, which I think we are getting closer to, then it will slow down a little bit and we’ll just make small changes here and there.’   On the evolution of the track, asked if it was getting easier and more challenging, the American said, ‘I would say it is getting more challenging to probably find a balance for the car.  It is grooving up but it is also glazing over at the same time so it’s kind of a weird grip I’d say.’

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Ongaro fastest as 4WD gets underway in Australia

Defending World Champion Davide Ongaro has set the early pace as the 4WD action gets underway at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Australia.  Having just missed the A-Main cut in 2WD, after two rounds of 4WD free practice it was the Italian who leads the way from 2WD Top Qualifier & Team Associated team-mate Marcus Kaerup.  With the first practice more a sighting run for the drivers on the freshly prepared track, racing now running in the anti-clockwise direction and the jump surfaces reworked for that change, the second round was more indicative of form and it was good to see Xray, after their struggles in 2WD, back in the mix.  Dakotah Phend would post the 3rd fastest time based off 3-consecutive laps with team-mate David Ronnefalk managing 5th fastest.  In between them, Daniel Kobbevik led the Schumacher team as team-mate & newly crowned 2WD World Champion Broc Champlin was brought back down to reality with only the 18th fastest time.  Describing his opening two practice runs as ‘alright’, Champlin said they are ‘still trying to get the car into a better window’.

Summing up his morning Ongaro said, ‘We are working good on set-up right now so we are changing stuff, not big changes, because we know the track from 2WD that it will evolve more.’  The 3-time back to back 1:8 Buggy World Champion continued, ‘We did a few changes and they worked so we will write them down and try something different in the next one.’  A fan of the new Hills RC Off Road track layout he said, ‘I feel like it reminds me of the layout at the Philippine Masters were you go down and there is a left side corner down with a double so I like it.’

‘The track layout is amazing, I love the double triple section and just the rhytym of the track is really fun to drive’, that was Kaerup’s initial impression of the 4WD layout.  On his car the Danish teenager said, ‘the car is fast, not the most comfortable to drive right now but we try to make that happen, but I am pretty happy with the speed.’  On how he expects the track to develop over the day he said, ‘I think it is going to be like 2wD, now it’s kinda damp and soft ground and it is going to be hard and sandpaper like towards the end of the day.’

An upbeat Phend summed up early practuce by saying, ‘A new day, a new start, for sure it’s important to reset and I feel comfortable with 4WD and the track.’  He added, ‘I have a couple of lines I can work on and I think we can mess with the car a little bit but I think we are in the ball park.’  On the new track direction, the reigning North American Champion said, ‘I think it’s fun, I think it’s going to be hectic racing with the triple and that little step up 180 jump at the back, there is definitely going to be some aggressive passes and moves there so it will be interesting come race time.’  Asked if there was anything specific he was looking to do with his car right now, he replied, ‘just get a little more grip, get the car a little more into the track, but the comfort is there.’

Kobbevik felt things started out well saying, ‘A good start I would say, I mean it can still be quite a bit better, but it’s a good start.’  The Norwegian, who qualified P3 in 2WD and just missed out on the podium, added, ‘at the moment we are lacking a bit of rear grip so I am trying to find that as the grip in the track is maybe there, so some small adjustments in the rear and hopefully I will find some more grip because I clearly cannot push as much as I want.’  On the new layout, the 19-year-old described it as ‘good fun’ adding ‘for sure it is better than just keeping the 2WD layout, it’s nice to have a new layout because I get quite easily bored on tracks that have been there for a while.’  Asked the key elements of the track he replied, ‘the triple, the first run was ok but now as the track dries and probably some set-up changes made it a bit hard for me.  So maybe I will change my shock set-up so I land a bit better but it is good fun this direction.  The double on the left side is quite difficult, you need to get it right, like the right speed and the right line.’

Winner of the B-Mail in 2WD two days ago, on his 4WD Ronnefalk said, ‘The times are decent but I’m still not like super happy with the car yet.  I am going to try a couple of different things here throughout practice and see where we end up on set-up but definitely off to better start I would say.  Also the rest of the team is a bit stronger than we were in 2WD starting off the event so it’s positive.’  Describing the 4WD track as having ‘a couple of parts that are a little more tricky’, he added, ‘you’re probably going to see more mistakes coming in the jump sections cause we are landing on top and especially during the day when the track is going to dry out it’s going to be more grippy landing.  In the morning you just slide off that table top but now we are going have the grip so we need to land perfect.  The back section is pretty tough because we are carrying more speed coming onto the U turn in the off camber and then obviously the small double on the left side and off camber after that, these are the tricky parts of the track.’  On his buggy he said, ‘I just want to have a little bit more rear end, it is a little bit loose so I had to drive it a bit too much.’

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Champlin on top of the World Down Under – Schumacher gets first 2WD World title

Broc Champlin is the new IFMAR 1:10 2WD Offroad World Champion, the American securing the biggest accolade in the sport by winning the opening two A-Mains in Sydney, Australia, and claiming Schumacher’s first 2WD World title.  Kicking off finals day at the Hills RC Off Road track with a TQ run in the fifth & final qualifier to line up second behind Top Qualifier Marcus Kaerup this was to be a hint of what was to come.  With Champlin all over the rear wing of Kaerup in A1 there would be contact on the penultimate lap, the pair touching mid air in the double double.  With Kaerup’s Associated going tumbling, Champlin came out of it just in the lead after a drag race down the straight with World Finals debutant Davey Batta.  2-time World Champion Spencer Rivkin would come through from sixth to complete the Top 3 as Kaerup crossed the line in fifth.  With a protest against Champlin proving unsuccessful for Kaerup, the Dane would lead away A2 again with Champlin applying the pressure and four laps in as he got his buggy on two wheels, Champlin didn’t need a second invitation to go through to the lead.  It was to be a lead the 23-year-old would hold, a mistake from Kaerup putting an end to any potential come back, and crossing the he became the latest IFMAR World Champion on the 40th anniversary of the championships.  With the new Champion locked in, Champlin becoming the 15th driver to join the 2WD roll of honour, A3 would decide the remaining podium places.  With Kaerup finally convert his pole position into a win this would see him salvage a podium behind Batta, as he, Rivkin, and Daniel Kobbevik all finished on the same points.

Becoming the 10th American winner of the original Offroad World Championship class, asked who it felt to become a World Champion, Champlin replied, ‘Absolutely amazing, there is really no words, it’s just special to have the chance to battle for one and then to win it is just next level’.  Hailing from Las Vegas he continued, ‘My car was super good the whole race and I was trying to maintain pressure and understood I couldn’t get too close.  Then Marcus tapped out, left the door open, I went to the inside.  He then made mistake and I was just able to relax a little bit.’  Asked how relaxed he was or if the nerves where an issue as he realised he was closing in on a World title, he said, ‘the nerves didn’t kick in until the last lap, when you have a bigger lead it’s harder cause your thinking about it.’  On giving Schumacher their first 2WD World title, he said, ‘I am super happy for them.  I just want to thank Trish, Robin, Muz, and everybody at the Schumacher factory.  I also want to thank Clu Connors from Whitz Racing Products, Jason & Alison from JConcepts, the whole Hobbywing crew, Gens ace, Power HD, all my sponsors, my friends, my family, I couldn’t do it without them.’  Racing since the age of 9, asked if becoming a World Champion was always the dream or at which stage of his career it became a goal, he said, ‘I would say as soon as I saw the joy in Slovakia that was brought to Spencer when I was team-mates with him.  And just how much it actually meant really put it into perspective that I really wanted to win it.’  Realising that goal today, asked if he was now thinking about the double as we head into the 4WD action he replied, ‘I am not thinking about the double just yet, I will probably enjoy dinner with the team, a glass of wine, and then sit down tomorrow get my 4WD tyres and car ready and go from there.  I was really confident coming in with 4WD, less confident with 2WD, so if 2WD went really well there is a chance 4WD could as well.’

With Batta impressing a lot of people here in Sydney, the 20-year-old summed up his performance with,  ‘I’m definitely happy but I have seen P2 a lot over the past few years and I was just trying to look for the win so when I get back home it’s back to work and keep grinding.’  Asked about his finals the Californian said, ‘A1 I made a tiny mistake on the doubles, the wind caught me a little bit and I dropped back.  I tried reeling them back in and I was in the perfect spot when Marcus and Broc got together and I drag raced Broc down the straight away but I didn’t want to fully cut him off and screw both of us so he ended up getting by me right there.  I tried putting pressure on him the rest of the lap but I didn’t want to really push to hard and hit him so ended up with a second.’  While trying to chase down Champlin in A2, finishing 6/10ths of a second off, Batta said, ‘I was chasing down Broc towards the end of A2 trying to reel him in but he did an amazing job. I race him in the States all the time so I will try to get him back later.’  With his car feeling ‘really grippy’ in A3, he would clip a curb in the top 180 and his car rolled over dropping him back but his two second places in the opening finals were enough for the runner-up spot on his first Worlds A-Main appearance.  With Arizona two years ago his first Worlds experience he finished 15th on that occasion.  Making a strong impression with his pace throughout 2WD here, asked his expectations for 4WD he replied, ‘this whole month leading up to the event I was practicing my 2WD and the last few weeks I built my 4WD and I took it out for a day and I was ‘this think is amazing’ so I put right back in the bag and we’re hoping it is as good as it is were I practice.’

‘I’m a bit disappointed to not get the win but Broc was the better driver on the day’, that was how Kaerup summed up his finals.  The 17-year-old continued, ‘I went the wrong way with the set-ups and small mistakes in the main cost me the title but I’m pretty happy to get third overall and recover what I could.  Congrats to Broc and Davey for the first and second place.’  The recently crowned eBuggy World Champion added, ‘I should have kept my se-up from Q3 and just got my confidence more & more but we went the wrong way every time trying something new so we just let other people into the party and we will not make he same mistake in 4WD.  I always like 4WD more so I am looking forward to it.’

A driver who was also making his first 2WD World final appearance, posting a TQ run in the fourth round of qualifying to line up P3, Kobbevik was frustrated at missing out on the podium.  A previous 4WD World Finalist at the Hudy Arena in 2019, also just missing out on the podium then and finishing fourth, the Norwegian said, ‘I knew I had to beat Marcus in the last one, and tried my best to do it clean but I couldn’t get passed and missed the single double double a bit, and to be honest A2 for me was a shame because Spencer took me out before the jump section.  I put in a protest but apparently they didn’t have a video review of it and the referee didn’t see it, so my protest wasn’t successful but if I would get that first spot in the second leg I could have just settled behind Marcus in the third leg so it would be nice for me but I had to go the hard way and it didn’t work.’  Looking to the upcoming 4WD action, the 19-year-old said, ‘at the warm-up for sure I was much quicker in 4WD than 2WD.  Every race is different but for sure I am even more motivated now for 4WD.’

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