Ronnefalk TQ’s opening two qualifiers at DHI Cup

David Ronnefalk got his 2015 season off to the best start possible as he topped the opening two rounds of 2WD Buggy qualifying at the DHI Cup in Denmark.  The newly signed HB driver, who is running a Team C chassis as his new chassis sponsor don’t yet have a 2WD car, headed a 1-2 for the TM2 with, currently out of chassis sponsor contract, Joern Neumann using the same car to finish second in both qualifiers.  Neumann’s former Durango team-mate Michal Orlowski who was quickly signed up by Schumacher also made a promising start to his new contract as he completed the Top 3 in each of the qualifiers.

Improving his opening TQ pace by an impressive 5-seconds, Ronnefalk said most of that was down to his set of handout Schumacher tyres being better on their second run.  Having made no changes to his chassis set-up since hitting the track at the Odense Conference Centre for the first practice in the morning, the Swede said with the tyres very aggressive on the carpet and lacking traction on the wood in Q1 this led to two mistakes. With the tyres providing better grip on the wood in the second of the four scheduled qualifiers he said the overall feeling was much better and other than once having to roll the back double once due to a bad line on the approach, he said he was very happy with his performance.  Planning to continue with the same set of tyres for Q3, he said the plan for now is then to use the last qualifier to break in a second set of tyres for the finals.

Stiffening up the diff in his buggy for the opening qualifier, reigning European Champion Neumann said this improved the car’s earlier lack of speed out of the corner a lot.  Getting a modified top deck from the Team C ‘guys’ for Q2 he said while it didn’t feel any different to drive this further increased the buggy’s overall speed.  Returning the part after the run he will now make the same modification to his own deck by cutting it down the centre for more flex.  Much happier with the car now he feels he still needs to get more used to the car but he is much more confident now going into Day 2 of the event.

‘Too many mistakes’ was Orlowski’s reaction to his two qualifiers.  Very complimentary of his new Cougar KF chassis, which he has not changed since free practice, the highly rated 13-year-old said the short landing on the back straight of the track is causing him particular difficulty adding that the nature of the track meant the landings where crucial with the landing having to be inch perfect to go fast and it was easy to over jump and miss the critical point on the short down ramp of the jumps.

While Team Associated driver Niclass Mansson would post the fourth fastest time in Q1, last year’s Top Qualifier Oskar Levin would take the spot in the second qualifier.  Having had a ‘run to first’ in the first qualifier with two early mistakes leaving him 16th, the Team C driver took a safer approach to Q2.  After a better start, the Swede said ‘the pace got better and better’ and for tomorrow he hopes to build on the performance.  For Xray’s Martin Bayer qualifying netted him a pair of fifth fastest times.

View the event image gallery here.

No change as Bayer & Ronnefalk top practice

The final round of offroad practice at the DHI Cup saw no change at the top of the respective classes as Martin Bayer took top seeding for 4WD qualifying and David Ronnefalk secured the number 1 spot in 2WD.  While 4WD saw only 2 improvements from the Top 6 drivers 2WD saw the Top 7 drivers improve their pace over 3-consecutive laps with new Schumacher signing Michal Orlowski improving from 6th to second as he found almost 2-seconds in time.

Bayer said he tested a change to his Xray XB4 in the final practice but with the traction improving from the first practice it didn’t work so well.  Almost one second off his earlier pace the former European Champion said he will go back with the set-up change for the opening qualifier which, unlike the other classes that end Day 1 with Q1, will start qualifying in Odense in the morning. In 2WD Bayer improved to third saying he managed to get a little more speed out of his XB4-2WD but added he still needs more.

Improving to second fastest in 4WD, the class being his main focus for this his HB debut weekend, Ronnefalk said lengthening the camber links on his D413 was a step forward.  While it made the buggy feel more lazy it was a lot easier to drive having had ‘way too much side bite’ in the earlier practices. Describing the changes as putting him in the right direction for the opening qualifier, the reigning back to back 1:8 Offroad European Champion said he may try some more shock changes for the morning.  Topping 2WD with a Team C chassis, he said having tested the car for a month at home he knew it would be good and he doesn’t expect he will be making any changes again emphasising his focus is 4WD and getting to grips with that.

Winner of all previous DHI Cup’s in 4WD, Joern Neumann ended practice third fastest.  The German said his 4WD car, the prototype Durango he used to TQ the 2013 World Championships, is good and with the top 3 ‘all (having) the same speed’ the German feels he is good for qualifying.  In 2WD he said power out of the corner is still a problem and he hopes heavier diff oil for Q1 will improve things.

Only running in 2WD as he is also running in Touring Car, Polish ace Michal Orlowki was very happy with his final practice.  The 13-year-old said he hasn’t made any changes to his new Schumacher and the improvements are coming from better driving.  For Q1 he said he hoped he would ‘not have so much mistakes’ as the car is really good.

View the event image gallery here.

Bayer & Ronnefalk top 1st buggy practice at DHI Cup

Team Xray’s Martin Bayer and new HB signing David Ronnefalk set the buggy pace in the first timed practice at the DHI Cup in Denmark. The fourth year offroad has run at the famous Touring Car event, Bayer topped 4WD from defending champion Joern Neumann while Ronnefalk also topped the German in 2WD.

‘It is just practice but its going pretty good’ was how Bayer summed up his early form.  The Czech driver, who was runner-up last year, said this year’s track was much better in terms of its layout and the change of carpet also made for a lot better traction and he liked how it felt to drive.  In terms of working on his car he said he has just been making small shock adjustments and working on his tyres pins between runs.  Fourth fastest in 2WD, he said while the car feels ok he is ‘missing some speed’ but he hopes to rectify this with some tuning of his shocks and slipper.

Running without a chassis sponsor following Durango’s decision to stop its factory race team at the end of the 2014 season, Neumann said his 4WD was pretty good.  Having started the day with a standard DEX410 for the first timed practice he switched to his World Championship TQ prototype car which he said lands better and for now he will continue with that. Running a Team C chassis in 2WD, he described the car as ‘so so’.  While second fastest, he said out of the corner it had no power with it felt like one tyre is spinning.  For the final practice he will try running a stiffer suspension and also move the shocks more to the outside.

Also running a Team C chassis in 2WD as HB dont have a buggy yet, Ronnefalk said the TM2 ‘is so easy to drive and it suits his aggressive style’.  He said while the quality of the parts are a little weak he said with a 2WD HB buggy in mind he has learned a few things already from running it.  Describing the track layout as ‘super fun to drive’, he said while he ‘drove bad’ in the first timed practice his new D413 is ‘super fast’ although for the last practice they will make some changes to try and make it a little more easy to drive.

View the event image gallery here.