January 11, 2014

Levin 2WD Top Qualifier at DHI Cup

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Oskar Levin has got his 2014 season & his new sponsorship with Team C off to the best start possible by securing the overall TQ honours for 2WD Buggy at the DHI Cup.  Having TQ’d both of yesterday’s opening qualifiers in Denmark giving him the provisional overnight TQ honours, TQ runs from defending champion Joern Neumann in Q3 and Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill in Q4 meant the Swede remained top of the ranking.  Cockerill will start tomorrow’s triple leg finals from 2nd with Neumann’s Durango set to line up third.

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Delighted to be Top Qualifier on his international race debut with Team C, Levin said he just did his own thing today and it paid off.  Going into Q3 he said his aim was just to go for a safe run and apart from two bobbles he was happy overall with his run to the second fastest time behind Neumann. While this put Neumann in strong contention to deny Levin the overall TQ, should the German be able to repeat it in the final qualifier, the 19-year-old stuck to his game plan for Q4.  Knowing it would give him a slower car but thinking ahead to the finals he fitted a new set of the controlled Schumacher rear tyres to his TM2 V2 so as to break them in for main event. While Neumann looked threatening for the first two minutes, a mistake by the European Champion gave Levin what he described as the ‘perfect start with Team C so far’.

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TQ’ing the final round, Cockerill said he was pretty happy although the Top Qualifier of the Euro Offroad Series season opener said he would obviously prefer to be starting as No.1 tomorrow.  Very happy with his Nosram powered Cougar KF, the British driver said it took a while to get the set-up right but he got there in the end.  Planning to just freshen up the buggy for the finals he believes there is good opportunity for overtaking due to there being no grip roll issues meaning its should be possible to throw down the inside for a pass.

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Reverting back to Schumacher’s stagger front tyre having struggled in Q2 on Mini Pins, Neumann said Q3 was a good run but in Q4 he just pushed too hard.  Also improving his Orion powered DEX210 for today’s qualifiers by running heavier diff oil, he said he just went for the TQ in Q4. While the first 2-minutes went well he eventually pushed over the limit resulting in a number of mistakes that left him only 7th fastest for the round.  Looking to maintain his 100% winning record at the DHI Cup having won the event since offroad was introduced in 2012, Neumann thinks overtaking will be difficult and that it will be down to who does the least amount of mistakes.  Back to back champion of the carpet based Euro Offroad Series, he also feels the Team C and Schumacher has an advantage on this year’s DHI track due to the fact that their motors are mounted further towards the middle of the chassis compared to his Durango.

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Oskar Levin (SE) – Team C – 310 pts
2. Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 308
3. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 307
4. Kim Nielsen (DK) – Team C – 305
5. Jesper Rasmussen (DK) – Team Associated – 301
6. Jonas Kaerup (DK) – Team Associated – 299
7. Niclas Månsson (SE) – Team Associated – 299
8. Villalba Zacarias (ES) – Team C – 298
9. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 298
10.Thomas Andersson (SE) – Schumacher – 297

View the complete Offroad event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

January 11, 2014

Volker continues to reign at DHI

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Having topped practice and then TQ’d the opening round of qualifying yesterday, Ronald Volker continued his reign at the 14th running of the DHI Cup by kicking off Day 2 of the Danish event by topping the second of the four qualifiers.  The Team Yokomo ace took the round once again ahead of Team Xray’s Adrian Berntsen with Serpent’s Marc Fischer completing the Top 3.  Exiting the boundaries of the track twice as his Tamiya understeered off the track, Marc Rheinard failed to complete the full 5-minutes.

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‘Could not be any better ‘ is how Volker summed up his run which was over 4-seconds faster than his opening qualifying time of last night.  His first outing in Europe with Yokomo’s new BD7 2014, he said after traction rolling during his warm-up laps he knew traction was high and so he adjusted his driving accordingly. With no such issues over the 5-minutes he said the car performed perfectly.

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Summing up his qualifier as ‘pretty good’, Berntsen said he struggled a little at the start something he is putting down to his tyre preparations. Once the tyres on his T4 2014 came in, the reigning champion said he was very happy & confident with the car allowing him to close the gap to Volker for a time before making a mistake on the final lap which lost him over 1-second.  ‘Happy with second’, he plans to change his tyre preparation for Q3 after consultation with his father on what to do differently.

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After a error filled run yesterday, Fischer said both his driving and his S411 where better today.  Set-up changes made the car better in the early part of the run better but after the 3-minute mark the German once again had to contend with understeer.  Describing the run as ‘much cleaner’, for his next run the German will change to a softer front spring as well as switching from LRP to CS tyre additive to evaluate if there is any key difference between the two that might help cure his understeer.

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Having reverted to his practice set-up Alexander Hagberg was a little happier this morning as he took his ORCA powered Xray to the fourth fastest time.  The Swede said the car was now ‘OK’ but the run just contained too many small driver mistakes.  With a clean run he said he believes a Top 3 run is possible and going forward he is much more confident about the remaining two qualifiers.

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Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen said changes to his A700 EVO had improved the car over how it ran in Q1 but the second run was let down by two driver errors.  Eventually posting the 5th fastest time, the Finn said he is undecided as to whether to make any further tweaks to his set-up ahead of Q3.

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Germany’s Tim Benson completed the Top 6.  Driving his LRP powered Xray with the same set-up as he ran yesterday when he posted the 7th fastest time, he said his focus for the run was to do 5-minutes with no mistakes.  Achieving that the 23-year-old said having notched up a second safe run he will use the third qualifier to try a set-up to try and gain more in corner steering.

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Running the same car as in Q1, Rheinard appears be at a loss as what to do to cure his understeer problems which are clearly visible as the former 3-time World Champion makes his entry onto the main straight.  The German said his two flying exits from the track were a result of him trying, unsuccessfully, to drive through the understeer.  For Q3 he is undecided as to whether to switch to his stiffer ETS chassis or make some radical set-up changes to his ‘softer’ TRF418.

View the complete TC event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

January 11, 2014

‘From Race Control’ – Day 2 at DHI Cup

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Today’s action at the DHI Cup is all about qualifying.  On the Onroad track drivers will complete three rounds of qualifying having run their opening qualifier last night at the Stadium Arena Fyn.  On the Offroad track, first up for the day is the remaining 2 rounds of 2WD Buggy qualifying before the drivers switch over to 4WD Qualifying which runs all four qualifiers today.  The line-up for tomorrow’s final will be determined by each drivers best 2 from 4 rounds of qualifying.

January 10, 2014

No surprises as Volker TQ opening DHI qualifier

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The opening round of qualifying threw up no real surprises as Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker TQ’d the opening round of qualifying ahead of defending Champion Adrian Berntsen and Marc Rheinard.  Bringing the first day of action at the 14th running of the famous Danish event to a close Volker topped the first of the four scheduled qualifiers with a time of 25-laps in 5:11.289 with Bernsten just over 1 second adrift. Despite setting the fastest lap of Q1, Rheinard could not make a 25-lap run finishing with a time of 5:00.764.

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While it was pretty much plain sailing out front for Volker, Rheinard said his Tamiya is just sliding around with the lack of overall grip appearing to be getting worse for the German.  Admitting he is not far away from his arch rival and ETS title nemesis, he said unlike Volker for him to do that kind of pace every lap is just not possible.  Running his ‘soft’ TRF418 in Q1, the Much More powered car fitted with a more flexible chassis plate, he said for tomorrow’s second qualifier he might switch back to his ‘stiffer’ chassis again but first he plans to think about his set-up options overnight before making that decision.

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Setting the fourth fastest time Awesomatix factory driver Viljami Kutvonen described his first qualifier as an ‘ok start to the event’.  The rapid Finn said he changed his tyre preparation for the run and that was a wrong decision.  This resulted in him losing time at the start of the run but once the tyres came in he said the car was good and he feels the pace is there to mix it with both Rheinard and Berntsen. Planning to go back to the tyre prep he used in practice he said he will fine tune the set-up on his LRP powered A700 EVO as he feels he can get a little more speed out of him by getting a better balance between having more steering without bringing on traction roll.

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Serpent’s Marc Fischer kicked off his qualifying with the fifth fastest time.  The German said his Viper powered S411 was good in the beginning but a combination of mistakes that got bigger and bigger cost him a lot of time.  Feeling the car started to push as the run progressed he said without the mistakes he believes he is pretty close to Rheinard.  Not sure yet what he will change for the morning’s second qualifier he said he hopes to cure the car from developing as much understeer but ultimately he needs to cut out the mistakes for a good run.

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Completing the Top 6 was Xray team leader Alexander Hagberg.  The Swede said he had a couple of mistakes over the 5-minutes adding he is not entirely comfortable with his ORCA powered T4.  Planning to work on it tomorrow, when asked about the possibility of trying a similar set-up to Berntsen he said their driving styles are completely different as he found out when he previously tried to run the Norwegian’s set-up.

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In the Pro Stock class Oliver Franke got his debut for Awesomatix off to a great start by taking his A700 EVO to the fastest time in the opening qualifier.  The German TQ’d the round by just a little over 2-seconds from reigning ETS Pro Stock Champion Marek Cerny, the Xray driver having topped practice earlier in the day.  The Top three for the class which runs a controlled LRP X20 13.5T motor was completed by German driver Jan Ratheisky.

View the complete TC event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

January 10, 2014

Back to back TQ runs for Levin at DHI Cup

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New Team C signing Oskar Levin got his debut for his new sponsor off to the perfect start at the DHI Cup after the Swede claimed the opening two rounds of qualifying at the Danish event.  The result leaves the 19-year-old holding the provisional overall TQ overnight in Odense while some of his key rivals are under pressure to make the most of tomorrow’s remaining two qualifiers.  Defending Champion Joern Neumann finds himself only 4th overall, while Xray’s Martin Bayer is 10th and Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill is way down in 32nd after a DNF in Q1.

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Very pleased, Levin described his opening TQ run as a ‘good clean run’ but said a fresh set of tyres caught him out in Q2 and he had to work a lot harder to take that one. With his TM2 V2 a little edgy on the fresh set of handout Schumacher tyres he made an early mistake and the buggy got caught up on the piping.  Dropping him down the order he said after 2-minutes the tyres came in and the buggy was ‘really good like in Q1’ and getting his confidence back he was able to push really hard with no problems allowing him to work his way back to the front to take the round from Cockerill.

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Its a Team C 1-2 overnight at the DHI with Danish driver Kim Nielsen sitting second with his borrowed buggy.  Having only got the car this morning, driving it for the very first time in the opening practice, he straight away was very comfortable with the car which he described as being ‘easy to drive’.  Finishing second to Levin in Q1, in Q2 he took up the lead of the 5-minute run when the Swede had his early mistake but lost it again with a mistake of his own which saw the TM2 ending up on its roof and needing to be marshaled.  Despite this and a second mistake Nielsen still managed to post the third fastest time.

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Neumann, who is looking to make it three DHI wins from the 3-years Offroad has been part of the event, said his opening run to the third fastest time was ‘OK’ but ‘a little slow’.  Changing from a Cut Stagger front tyre to Mini Pins as he looked for more steering he said it was a bad call and resulted in a run with ‘too many mistakes’.  Sporting a bodyshell design this weekend that is less than pleasing on the eye, the EOS champion plans to revert to his previous tyre choice for Q3.

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Ahead & behind Neumann in the qualification ranking are the Associated’s of Swede Niclas Mansson and young Dane Jesper Rasmussen. Mansson sits 3rd overall but the 24-year-old felt while his first run to fifth was good his second run could have been better if he had not had problems with traffic.

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Rasmussen had a very strong & clean opening qualifier taking his C4.2 to the fourth fastest time.  On target for another strong run in Q2, the 15-year-old got hit by Neumann, the incident leaving him to finish up 9th quickest. Happy with the performance of his C4.2 he will leave his set-up as is as for Q3 and just focus on getting in an incident free 5-minute run.

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After his ‘car fell apart in Q1’ following some ‘bad mechanic work’ resulted in a hinge pin falling out, Cockerill said his Cougar KF was really good in the second one although the driver this time had some problems.  Having cleared it no problem throughout practice the British driver ‘crashed 3 to 4 times’ on the centre table top.  Confident that the ‘car is there’ in terms of pace, he said with a clean run it will be very tight among the top drivers and he is looking forward to tomorrow remaining two qualifiers.

View the complete Offroad event results here.

View our event image gallery here.