January 11, 2015

Fourth DHI Cup win for Neumann

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Joern Neumann remains the unbeaten DHI Cup Champion in 4WD Buggy when for the second year running, the German again saw off the challenge of Martin Bayer in the third A-Main.  With a win a piece, Bayer winning A1, the pair went into A3 exactly as they did 12-months ago with a winner takes all situation.  Starting from the TQ position Neumann would only briefly relinquish the lead when Bayer attempted a move on lap 3 and had to wait on Neumann to retake position as David Ronnefalk drove past the recovering Durango to take a short lived lead. While Bayer had the pace to challenge his carpet track nemesis a series of mistakes from the Czech driver would drop him to fourth leaving him to again finish second overall.  Finishing A3 in second position Ronnefalk would complete the podium in Denmark on his HB debut.

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Currently racing without a chassis sponsors, but still using the Durango DEX410 that has in some form or another helped him to all his DHI Cup victories, Neumann said it was nice to start the 2015 season with a fourth consecutive win of the event and keep his 100% winning record intact for another year.  Having found his Orion powered buggy edgy to drive in the opening two Mains, he said removing another row of pins from the controlled Schumacher tyres for A3 left him with no such problems and other than the early contact with Bayer the race went to plan.

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Bayer said ‘I’m not disappointed with second’. Setting the fastest lap of both A2 & A3, the Czech ace said ‘I had the speed and I’m happy with the performance of the car but my own mistakes cost me the chance to fight with Joern’.

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Disappointed with his driving in A1 & 2, Ronnefalk said A3 was an improvement, with him particularly pleased at not crashing on the final lap as he had done in the previous two encounters costing him a chance of being in the hunt for the overall win going into the closing race.  The Swede said while he was lucky to take the lead when Bayer made contact with Neumann he was also unlucky as his D413 got caught up on Neumann’s wheel without which he said he could have easily found himself with a 3-second lead instead just getting ahead.  Towards the end of the race he said he also played more cautious as he didnt want to risk his second as he wasn’t sure of A3 third place finisher Niclas Mansson’s result from the other finals.  Overall Mansson’s Associated would end up fourth. Pleased with his new car, Ronnefalk said the speed is there and he just needs more time to familiarise himself with it which should put him on a par with Bayer and Neumann when he will go up against them again at Round 2 of the EOS later this month.

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January 11, 2015

Volker takes DHI Cup tally to six

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Ronald Volker has brought his tally of DHI Cup titles to six after another easy win in A2 secured him overall victory at the 15th running of the famous Danish event. The Yokomo driver was joined on the podium in Odense by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, winner of a controversial A3, with Freddy Sudhoff getting his debut for HB off to an encouraging start with third overall.  Having been the only serious contender to the reign of Volker over the weekend Yannic Prumper would miss the podium finishing fourth after a coming together with Hagberg as they battled for the lead in the closing race.

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As in the opening final, Volker again benefited from Prumper struggling with his BD7 while having improved slightly his own car was able to take advantage of having a clean track in front of him.  Still not entirely comfortable with his car, he said it was better than A1 and he had more confidence to push, allowing him to match Hagberg’s pace as the Swede mounted a charge having got by both Marc Rheinard and Prumper for second.  ‘Very happy’ to kick off the 2015 season with another DHI Cup win, he said it also had extra meaning as this year marks his 10th year of being supported by LRP, who are also the main sponsor of the DHI Cup. Describing the carpet used at the event as more unpredictable than the black ETS carpet, he also acknowledge the efforts of his engineer Yukijiro Umino over the weekend.

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Promoted to the win of A3 after Serpent’s Marc Fischer was penalised for a last lap move on leader Sudhoff, Hagberg said his ORCA powered T4 was very good again at the start of the race and posting the fastest lap of the race he was able to put pressure on Prumper. Running on the bumper of the BD7, the Swede saw his opportunity to pass on lap 9 but it would see him put the German’s car on its roof.  Giving his account of the incident, he said he thought Prumper had run a wide line coming onto the straight and he tried to get down the inside but the space wasn’t there and he ended up putting the Yokomo on its roof.  Saying ‘(he) was responsible for that’, he waited on Prumper to retake position but this allowed both Sudhoff and Fischer to also go passed.  Following the collison he said he just waited behind the leaders and this was to pay off as coming off the straight Sudhoff ran slightly wide resulting in his PRO5 getting tagged by Fischer opening the door for Hagberg to go into second a position that later became first when an apologetic Fischer was given a time penalty for his contact.

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Prumper was clearly annoyed by the attempted pass by Hagberg saying ‘he is not able to make a clean race’. The 21-year-old went as far as saying ‘I think it was intentional’ giving the example of how he was able to run on the Hagberg’s rear bumper cleanly at the opening round of the ETS in the Czech Republic last month.

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Unaware of Fischer’s penalty, intially believing he had finished fourth, a result he was pleased with, Sudhoff was delighted to discover he had got new contract with HPI Racing underway with a podium finish.  Commenting on his A3 drive, the German said ‘up to the last lap the race was ‘really good’.  Trying to keep Fischer behind he said he went a little too wide into the corner after coming off the straight leading to the contact that put his PRO5 out of shape dropping him to third on the track. Making a diff change for the final encounter hoping it would gve him more steering he said the steering remained the same but left the car more difficult to drive and on the right side of the track he slowed which allowed Fischer to close in each lap.  Thanking both Andy Moore and HB team manager for their text message support throughout the weekend, he feels they are going to work very well together and he is excited about prospects of working with them face to face at future races.

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Classified third after his penalty Fischer would end the race 5th overall with Xray’s Martin Hudy completing the Top 6.  Having qualified third Marc Rheinard’s would finish last.  The Tamiya driver made a mistake on the opening lap in A1 and quickly pulled off and in A2 got out of shape leading to contact with Hagberg.  The day would not end any better as having discover a broken wheel on his TRF419 after A2 he had to us a wheel from another set and into the first corner he traction rolled off the track.

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In Super Stock, ETS Champion Marek Cerny would win the opening two A-Mains to claim his first DHI Cup title.  Although the Czech driver already had the title sewn up he went for the clean sweep in A3 but a bad first lap saw his Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky take the win and second overall in what would be an all Xray podium with Danish driver Mike Gosvig completing the overall Top 3.

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January 11, 2015

Chassis Focus – Ronald Volker

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Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2015
Motor – LRP X20 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow
Battery – LRP 6000mAh
Radio/Servos – Sanwa
Body – Protoform Speed6
Remarks – The German Yokomo ace is running a pretty standard example of the Japanese car, the only option parts being the aluminum chassis and the lightweight aluminum dogbones in the rear. He is also using a titanium screw set. Setup-wise, he was able to run his standard carpet setup, with the only major change being to a lighter shock oil

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January 11, 2015

Neumann & Bayer to go head to head in A3

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In a repeat of 2014, the 4WD Buggy title at the DHI Cup will be a two way battle between Joern Neumann and Martin Bayer with the winner to be decided in A3.  In A1 Bayer took his Xray to victory ahead of the Top Qualifier Neumann after contact between the pair saw the Durango end up on its roof as they came around to complete lap 3.  In the second A-Main Neumann lead until an error on lap 4 allowed Bayer to the front until he made a mistake 3 laps later.  Dropping to third behind David Ronnefalk it looks like A3 would be a three way battle for the win on this the fourth year of offroad being part of the famous Danish event.  However on the last lap a mistake from Ronnefalk would mean the new HB signing would not be kicking of his new sponsorship with a win.

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The unbeaten in 4WD Champion, losing his 2WD reign last year to Tom Cockerill, Neumann was to the point about what happened in A1 saying ‘Martin took me out’.  Describing his Durango as a little edgy to drive he said A2 went better and while he can drive the car around on his own no problem its ‘not good for fighting’.  For A3 he will cut another row of pins from his set of controlled Schumacher tyres and is confident that will give him the car to get the job done.

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Bayer said his XB4 is feels really good and in A1 he had no problem catching Neumann and when the German ‘went wide’ they were ‘side by side’ with him having the inside allowing him to take the lead from where he could control the race.  Again with a fast car in A2, the former European Champion said he had the chance to take the win but just made too many mistakes.  With second overall secured with his results from A1 & 2, his finishing position last year, he said he has nothing to lose and therefore would be going for it in the closing race.

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‘Shit driver’ that was a frustrated Ronnefalk’s summary of his two Mains.  Having won 2WD earlier in the day, but using a Team C chassis as HB dont yet have a 2WD, he said he doesn’t know why he kept crashing on the last lap when he had 2nd secured. The crash in A2 proving costly as it put him out of contention to be part of the battle for the overall win on his debut with the D413.

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