January 11, 2014

Bayer leads the way in 4WD qualifying at DHI

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Reigning European Champion Martin Bayer made his intentions clear in the opening two rounds of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the DHI Cup taking his Xray XB4 to a pair of 15-laps run at the Odense based event.  In the opening qualifier the Czech ace was the only driver to record 15-laps setting the fastest time ahead new young Team Associated signing Jesper Rasmussen.  The second encounter was a closer affair with defending champion Joern Neumann becoming only the second driver to run 15-laps.  A bad lap by Bayer meant the Durango driver would finish the round just 1/10th of a second adrift.

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Bayer said ‘after a not so good time in 2WD’, him only managing to qualify 9th overall for the A-Main, his 4WD performance was ‘really good’.  Describing his LRP powered buggy as ‘perfect’, changing nothing between runs, he said the opening round could not have gone much better.  Q2 however was not as good, the driver being the weak point.  Opting to leave his set-up as is and instead focus on adjusting his driving style, this resulted in a few mistakes in the second of the four qualifiers with him losing 2-seconds over one lap. Very confident with his XB4 for Q3 he said the plan is just try and tidy up his driving.

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Chasing a hat trick of DHI wins, Neumann described Bayer’s pace in the opening qualifier as ‘very fast’ and trying to keep pace with him he pushed too hard leading to mistakes that left him only 9th fastest.  Running heavier rear shock oil and a softer front swaybar on his DEX410 in Q2 he said that despite starting the heat down the order due to his Q1 performance he was able to run more with Bayer, recording the fastest lap of the round.  Planning to go heavier again with the oil in the rear shocks for the penultimate run he will also use an untouched set of front tyres having previously removed pins. The EOS Champion said because of the unusually low traction for a carpet track he needs the extra grip.

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Describing his car as ‘OK’ for the opening qualifier when he posted the fourth fastest time, Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill said changes for Q2 made it ‘fell a lot better’.  Sitting second overall after two rounds, the British driver switched from 2 to 3 hole pistons which made for better landings and also put on anti-roll bars which he said brought his K1 Aero much closer to the pace of Bayer & Neumann.  Encouraged by the new found pace he said with a few more changes he ‘might actually be able to starting mixing it with the two boys’.

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15-year-old Rasmussen was very happy with his opening round but a switch to a fresh set of tyres for Q2 left his Associated B44.4 aggressive and dfficult to drive.  Finishing the round 12th fastest, the up & coming Danish talent said with the tyres now scrubbed in he should be back up to speed again in Q3.

In a reverse of form with Bayer, 2WD Top Qualifier Oskar Levin struggled with his 4WD managing only the 13th & 7th fastest times with his Team C.  These results leave the Swede sitting provisional 10th.

View the complete Offroad event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

January 11, 2014

Volker wraps up DHI TQ honours in Q3

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In a pretty much forgone conclusion, Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker is Top Qualifier for the 14th running of the DHI Cup. The driver with the most number of past wins at the famous Danish event, yet another TQ run in Q3 put the pole position for tomorrow’s final beyond the reach of his rivals despite one round of qualifying remaining. Posting his fastest 5-minute run of the weekend, the 4-time event winner was a whole 5-seconds clear of his rivals with Awesomatix Viljami Kutvonen claiming second followed by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, both drivers posting their first 25-lap runs.

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Running the 2014 version of Yokomo’s BD7 for the first time in Europe, Volker said was ‘very happy’ to with how the car has run since putting it on the track for the first time at the Stadium Arena Fyn yesterday morning.  Changing his tyre preparation ‘slightly’ for the penultimate qualifier he said it was ‘slightly’ better and combined with the improving track conditions he said he was able to push the car harder.  Planning to leave the car as is for the final qualifier, which should see a very close battle to determine who will start second on the grid, he said they will use this to try gauge how much the track changes so as to determine what if any set-up changes they should make for the finals.  The German said he is interested to see who will start directly behind him viewing Adrian Berntsen as his biggest threat adding that seeing Viljami’s progress today he wouldn’t rule out the Finn either.  Unfortunately in Q3 an early accident resulted in Berntsen breaking a rear arm on his Xray forcing him to retire after just 30 seconds.

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A ‘good run’ was how a pretty pleased looking Viljami summed up his latest qualifier.  Having lowered the roll centres on his LRP powered A700 EVO he said the changes gave him more steering and more traction.  Having changed and improved the car every run he said for the final qualifier he will leave it as it as there is a lot at stake with him in contention for that No.2 spot on the grid.

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Making a few further set-up tweaks to his ORCA powered Xray, Hagberg said they further improved the speed of the car.  Only 2/10ths of a second off Viljami at the end of the 5-minutes, the Swede said without mistakes they would have been very closely matched.  Feeling that he is maybe trying a little too hard in terms of his driving leading him to make small mistakes, for the final qualifier he is not sure whether or not to leave or change his set-up.  With the Top 6 grid positions wide open he said its going to be close and a clean run could make a big difference to where you start the finals.

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Changing to his ETS car for Q3, setting the fourth fastest time, Marc Rheinard described it as driving a ‘tank’ and he will revert back to his softer TRF418 for the final round.  With a complete lack of steering or corner speed, the Tamiya Racing Factory driver said its pretty much a case of accepting that it ‘is what it is now’ and there is little he can do about Volker’s blistering pace.  Feeling that the rest of the cars are pretty equal he said Yokomo know exactly how to optimse the tyres and their preparation.  The German said there is a lot to be said for the handout additive such as that introduced by the ETS, his reasons for attending the DHI being to prepare for Round 2 of the World famous championship something he said has so far proved worthless.

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Fifth fastest factory Serpent driver Marc Fischer said changes for Q3 made his S411 ‘push like hell’.  With ‘no corner speed’, the German will revert to his Q2 set-up for the final round adding with the grid behind Volker so close its going to be important to run a good 5-minutes.  Behind Fischer fellow countryman Tim Benson once again completed the Top 6 at the controls of his Xray.

View the complete TC event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

January 11, 2014

Chassis Focus – Ronald Volker

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Chassis – Yokomo BD7-2014
Motor – LRP
Battery – LRP
ESC – LRP
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Tires (Handout) – LRP

Four times DHI Cup champion Ronald Volker is running the new 2014 version of the successful BD7 platform in the beautiful “all black” look, equipped with a Mazdaspeed6 body from Protoform. The main new features are the new ackermann that is meant to give more steering and a different motor mount designed to vary the flex of the chassis to make the car more aggressive. The new parts now also allow for superfine adjustments thanks to smaller possible adjustment steps.

Image Gallery

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.