Practice complete at Worlds, Evans fastest

Practice for the 15th IFMAR 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships is completed with Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans posting the fastest time in the ninth & final practice round ahead of Tamiya’s Lee Martin and Associated’s Ryan Maifield. Defending champion Ryan Cavalieri appeared less than happy with his final practice in which he posted the 5th fastest time behind Pre World Race winner Ty Tessman.

The top seed for qualifying, having posted the fastest 2-consecutive laps in last night’s first controlled practice, Evans described his final practice as ‘very good’ adding it was nice to run with 10 evenly matched drivers allowing him to finally get a clean 5-minute run in.  Happy with his Orion powered mid motored TLR22, the former US National Champion and Reedy Race winner said despite the cooler conditions this morning at the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway  the buggy felt ‘awesome’ and he planned to run it as is for the opening qualifier.  Team-mate Mike Truhe, who posted the sixth fastest time, was also very happy with his Novak powered TLR22 adding that the buggy was there to get the job done and it was now just down to the driver.  Making one mistake in the final practice he said this was a result of him over driving it in order to find the limit of what he said is a very easy buggy to drive.

Martin, who is happy he has cured the electric glitches he suffered in the 6th round of practice, shared Evans comments regarding the 10 car heats saying it was ‘nice to have less traffic’.  Suffering one ‘excursion’ when he put his Viper powered TRF201 XM onto the piping, he said other than a fresh set of tyres, all drivers having to use Proline Suburb rears and Martin opting for Scrubs on the front, he was happy to leave his buggy as is for the first of the four qualifiers on today’s schedule.

Maifield said he lacked a little steering but put that down to the cooler conditions, there being a noticeable cold breeze today.  Running JConcepts front tyres he said he plans to stick with them as the temperatures should come up by the time his first qualifier comes round although he said he probably will make a few minor tweaks to the set-up he ran this morning.  Associated team-mate Cavalieri wasn’t giving too much away.  Running in the second fastest heat, he said the only plan ahead of qualifying was to refresh his shocks but his body language hinted that the multiple World Champion who is chasing a 5th title is not happy with how things are going so far.   Setting the 7th fastest time Associated designer Kody Numedahl reported a similar lack of steering to Maifield but also feels once the temperature comes up all will be good adding that his Centro converted B4.2 is ‘really easy to drive’.

Running in the second fastest heat, HB’s Ty Tessmann was pleased with how his Orion powered Kyosho RB6 ran but said the wind was a bit of an issue.  Marshalling the top heat, the Canadian said the wind totally died down for their run but with much higher winds forecast for tomorrow this might having a bearing on the outcome of the finals.

In the Kyosho camp it was recently crowned Japanese National Champion Yusuke Sugiura who was quickest with the 7th fastest time.  Best of the drivers posting a 10-lap run, he outpaced fellow Japanese driver and 2011 Finalist Naoto Matsukura who was 9th by 6/10ths of a second.  Top European Kyosho driver 17-year-old David Ronnefalk posted the fastest lap time for the round, but the Swede said two mistakes cost him a total of around 5-seconds. Very happy with his RB6, he said the pace is there but he just has to cut out the mistakes and keep off the pipes.  Kyosho’s big hope for the World title Jared Tebo ran a soft compound front AKA 3 Rib due to the cooler conditions but said it made his buggy very inconsistent.  Switching back to the same medium compound he ran yesterday, the former 4WD World Champion said he is feeling pretty confident going into the opening qualifier.

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‘From Race Control’ – Day 2 of 2WD Buggy

After yesterday’s long delays and very late finish to proceedings, Day 2 of the World Championship for 2WD Electric Buggy is running to schedule with the second round of controlled practice gettting things underway.  Having run 15 cars in the heats yesterday today only 10 buggies will be on track at a time, the running order is mostly determined by each drivers 2-consecutive fastest laps from last night’s first controlled practice.  One noticeable adjustment to that is Darren Bloomfield who set the 12 fastest time but has been moved into the Top Heat as Buggy No.10.  Once the final practice is complete things are set to step up a notch as we get down to the serious business of qualifying with four of the five 5-minute rounds making up today’s (Tuesday) programme.  The first qualifier is due to hit the track at 10:10 local time here in California with the Day 2 set to wrap up shortly before 17:30.

Video – Daimon Borkowicz Worlds Debut diary

In the first of a series of diary videos this week we catch up with World Championship debutant, up and coming Florida talent Daimon Borkowicz. The 13 year old Associated/JConcepts driver is the protege of JConcepts founder and World Championship finalist Jason Ruona.

Evans top seed for Worlds Qualifying

Dustin Evans topped the first controlled practice to secure the position of top seed for tomorrow’s qualifying, the Team Losi Racing driver outpacing Tamiya’s Lee Martin over the fastest 2-consecutive laps by just over 2/10ths with TLR team-mate Mike Truhe completing the Top 3 on what was a long opening day to the 2WD Electric Offroad World Championships. With controlled practice the first time drivers got to run a full 5-minute heat, it was Truhe who took his Novak powered TLR22 around the Silver Dollar track in the fastest time doing 11-laps in 5:24.016 with Martin posting a very similar pace just .226 adrift.

Behind them HB’s Ty Tessmann, who over 2-consecutive laps lacked a little pace, set the third fastest time followed by Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard and Associated’s two Ryans, Maifield faster than defending Champion Cavalieri. Evans, who had issues with traffic in CP1 in the 15-car heat preventing him from setting a good 5-minute time, said his Orion powered TLR22 was ‘fast & comfortable to drive’ and he was ‘super happy’ to be top seed for qualifying which will see the number of buggies on track at a time reduced to 10.

Top 12 Controlled Practice times
1. Dustin Evans – TLR – 57.658
2. Lee Martin – Tamiya – 57.884
3. Mike Truhe – TLR – 57.974
4. Jared Tebo – Kyosho – 58.264
5. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 58.339
6. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 58.352
7. Ryan Maifield – Associated – 58.393
8. Steven Hartson – Associated – 58.468
9. Dakotah Phend – TLR – 58.496
10.Yusuke Sugiura – Kyosho – 58.5
11.Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 58.706
12.Darren Bloomfield – TLR – 58.7811

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Bloomfield fastest in final free practice

Team Losi Racing’s Darren Bloomfield set the outright pace in the 6th & final round of free practice at the 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships, the British driver just a fraction faster over a single lap of the Silver Dollar track than Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield who posted the quickest race time for the round.  Tamiya’s Lee Martin made it three different manufacturers at the top with a best lap that was just 3/1000th quicker than TLR’s Dustin Evans.

Having been playing with getting the balance right between his mid motored TLR22 being too easy or too nervous to drive, Bloomfield said for FP6 he got it right adding that the lower temperatures probably played a part too.  After a delayed start to Day 1 of the event to allow the track to fully dry after heavy rain two days earlier, the final round of practice ended under flood lights with Darren running in the last of the ten 15 car heats.  Declaring himself very happy with where his buggy is now at he said he is confident going into the first timed practice tonight from which the fastest 2-consecutive laps will count towards a reseeding for tomorrow’s qualifying.  Overall there was an air of confidence in the TLR camp with Evans very happy with his 22 after making a change to lighter shock oil all round for the final practice.  The former US Champion said the change made his buggy more agile.  Running against the trend running his 22 in rear motor configuration, current US Champion Dakotah Phend was a lot more upbeat after his final practice saying things were now ‘a lot better’.  Changing from Proline’s Scrubs to their ION tyre, the 16-year-old now has the steering he was looking for and with a few small tweaks to his set-up believes he should be good for the first run when times will officially count for something.

In the Associated camp, Maifield was a little less enthusiastic than his rivals about where he was at.  Describing how free practice had gone he summed it up as ‘OK’ adding that it was hard to drive without crashing, the track proving difficult in respect to being able to run a full clean 5-minutes.  In terms of his B4.2 he said it felt pretty good but after after a long busy day of running on the hour every hour he is looking forward to getting the opening day done and starting a fresh tomorrow.  Team-mate and reigning World Champion Ryan Cavalieri said it hadn’t been the best of days with him having a number of technical issues.  Suffering a motor problem and having his gear mesh move in the final free practice, he said problems aside his B4.2 is working really well and with both issues now sorted he should be good.  The final practice saw Associated’s Steven Hartson find good pace as he ran a 28-second lap.  Hartson said he has been really happy with his buggy all day and the improvement just came from his driving, adding that the more laps he puts in the quicker he has been able to go.  Although he sat out FP6 in order to help the two Ryans, Kody Numedahl declared himself ‘satisfied’ adding he is feeling really good about his form going into the controlled practice.

Having changed to a thicker diff oil for FP5 and then reverted back to what he used earlier for his final free practice, HB’s Ty Tessman said he was happier with how his Kyosho RB6 ran in the sixth practice.  Motoring up for FP5 he said he was happier with the 6.5T Orion unit and the only planned change for the first controlled practice is to run a new set of Proline’s directional Scrubs tyre mounted for smooth feeling having previously run them in the aggressive direction.

Running Tamiya’s mid motored TRF201 XM, former European Champion Lee Martin said the buggy is running good but in the final run there were a few spots on the track where it was doing funny things due to some sort of electric problem.  As a result he will fit a new speedo and receiver wire which should hopefully cure the issue without which he is pretty confident about his pace for the counting 2-consecutive laps.

Current European Champion Joern Neumann said considering the lack of mileage with Durango’s latest prototype, which he only got to run for the first time today, free practice had gone ok.  Describing the new buggy as ‘much better’ than its predecessor he said they are still learning how it reacts to set-up changes.  Using the last practice to try a different front tyre he said the JConcepts Barcodes gave the buggy understeer and so he will revert to back to their Dirt Webs.

Heading the Asian challenge, Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura said a change to the rear camber link on his B-Max2MR gave him more grip but the recently turned 20-year-old said he wants more.  Happy with his own driving the Japanese star will make some more set-up tweaks for the controlled practice round.

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