Sontag’s talent shines with TQ in 2nd qualifier

16-year-old Tater Sontag’s talent shown through in the second round of qualifying at the 2WD Worlds with the TLR driver putting in a TQ run ahead of Broc Champlin and Aydin Horne.  Going over a second quicker than the pace set by team-mate Dakotah Phend in the opening qualifier,  Sontag was 8/10th quicker than Champlin’s Schumacher in a round that saw the Top 3 from Q1 all have bobbles.  Phend would need to be marshalled in the front of the driver’s stand, Spencer Rivkin would fly off the track at the end of the straight and Ongaro also had a lap that cost him 3-seconds.  The Italian ended up best of the trio with a P7 for the round behind 2017 Champion Ryan Maifield.

A hugely popular TQ performance, Sontag explained, ‘we made a small camber link adjustment and that gave me a super stable car so I could just focus on hitting my marks for the 5-minutes.  I had no mistakes but did have to single single the front jump to avoid traffic’.  He continued, ‘My P4 in the first round was a confidence builder and with the change to the car (for Q2) I got a couple of extra tenths out of it’.  Looking to Q3, the Michigan driver said, ‘I’ll keep the car the same and just run different tyres’.

Reacting to his improvement in Q2, Champlin said, ‘I felt the car was good in the first one but I made dumb mistakes so the goal was to stay on four wheels for the 5-minutes in that one.  I had no mistakes just a couple of bobbles’.  A good round for Schumacher with Ryan Cavalieri getting a P4 from the second fastest heat, Champlin said he would most likely leave his LD3 prototype the same for Round 3 and instead focus on his driving and try to ‘keep it clean’.

Top Seed Horne said his Team Associated was ‘a lot easier to drive’ second time round.  He continued, ‘I was able to push the whole round but I did loose corner speed so I need to try to find a balance in the set-up between the two’.  On his own driving the American said, ‘It took a while to get the good laps going.  I’m not the strongest out of the gate so I’ll try to start better the next one’.

‘I feel the car has been pretty good the whole time but was a little off on raw speed on lap times but that time I extract more from the car and feel more confident.  For sure we have more potential’, was Cavalieri’s thoughts on Q2.  The multiple World Champion continued, ‘we made a small change before Q1 but the car is unchanged since then. I definitely have a little more to come’.

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Phend from Rivkin & Ongaro in opening 2WD qualifier

Dakotah Phend has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 2WD World Championship in Arizona.  Having just scrapped into the top heat after setting the 10th fastest time in yesterday’s two seeding rounds, the TLR driver would TQ the first of the five scheduled rounds of qualifying from reigning World Champion Spencer Rivkin and newly crowned 4WD Champion Davide Ongaro who sat at the top of the timing screen for much of the opening round.  The Top Seed for qualifying Aydin Horne would open his account with a P7 behind former World Champions Ryan Cavalieri (P6) and Ryan Maifield (P5) with young TLR driver Tater Sontag fourth fastest.

Reacting to his Q1 performance, Phend said, ‘we made a couple of small changes and it was not quite what we were looking for. We went in the wriong direction with the change’.  The ROAR National Champion continued, ‘I was able to manage it and put on a bit of a push at the end and overall it was a clean run apart from a few pipe rubs.  We try something different for the next one but the result is a good start’.

‘Hard’ was how Rivkin summed up the opening qualifier.  The Team Associated driver explained, ‘I didn’t think the car was very good at all.  I drove the best I could with what I had and a couple of others’ mistakes benefited me.  It was a nice start off with a good result because it means I have a good position on the driver stand for the next one’, the American having to drive Q1 from the far left side of the driver stand.  Looking to Q2, he said, ‘we need to look at the rear setting the others (team drivers) are running and take their comments & feedback into our program and hopefully get ourselves a better car for the second one.’

Ongaro was pretty pleased with his run having struggled in the final practice this morning.  The Italian said, ‘we tried a few things from Aydin’s (Horne) set-up especially in the shocks and it was way better’.  On his own performance over the 5-minutes having been on target for a TQ run,  he said, ‘Broc was recovering from a mistake and was pushing behind me and then I made a small bobble before the start but I am confident in the car now so all is OK’.

‘Pretty bad honestly’, was Horne’s reply when asked how he felt Q1 went.  Finishing just ahead of Schumacher’s Broc Champlin (P8), the 21-year-old Team Associated driver continued, ‘I was on second run tyres and it was squirmy.  It was hard to drive and unpredictable so we need to work on making it easier to drive on older tyres’.

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Horne Top Seed at 2WD World Championship

Aydin Horne is the Top Seed at the 2WD World Championship, the Team Associated driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second seeding round.  Having set the fastest time in the opening seeding round but unable to improve on that, Bruno Coelho ended up 2nd fastest 2/10th down on Horne time.  Ninth fastest on his first attempt, European Champion Marcus Kaerup improved by over a second to completing the Top 3 at Hobby Action RC Raceway.  Backing up his impressive first round, Brennan Schimmel improved on that time and his TLR will carry No.4 in the top heat tomorrow with Davide Ongaro No.5 and Broc Champlin No.6.  Reigning Champion Spencer Rivkin just scraped into the top heat as he set the 8th fastest time of seeding his time 7/10th off that set by Horne.

Reacting to his run Horne said, ‘I’ve had good speed all day but just wasn’t able to put the hot laps together’.  The 21-year-old continued, ‘we made it easier to drive for that one in the high speed stuff and those changes unlocked new lap time for myself’.  A driver former Champion Jared Tebo tipped for success this week, Horne said he feels good going into qualifying tomorrow and his goal is to put ‘in solid laps and keep a cool head’.

Only 11th fastest in the second seeding round, Coelho explained, ‘It’s still practice so we tried something different and it didn’t work as we thought but I am pretty confident with the car’.  He added, ‘I don’t think I have been this confident with my 2WD before’.  Asked about qualifying tomorrow, the Xray driver said, ‘we still have one more practice so maybe we try something more on the car before but I think we have a good car for qualifying’.

Asked about his improvement between runs, Kaerup said, ‘I just got it together better but the heat was pretty chaotic.  I felt I had got the 3-laps in and then crashed’.  Asked how he thought he was looking for the 5-minute qualifying runs, the young Dane replied, ‘I think it is going to be OK.  Once I don’t push all out the car is decent’.  He added, ‘we made the mistake in 4WD of changing the car too much instead of focusing on learning the track’.

Pleased with his effort, Schimmel said he felt he improved on his driving with his main focus being on getting ready for qualifying.  The Virginia driver said has been able to calm the car down and it is easy to drive for 5-minutes.

‘Better than the first one’ was how Ongaro summed up Round 2 of seeding but again the Team Associated driver had tyres issues.  Despite the problem, this time with a brand new set meaning he will get a replacement, the Italian said, ‘overall it was good and P5 is not bad at the moment’.  He concluded, ‘we will see tomorrow what we can do with the new set of tyres’.

Champlin was pleased with first first day of 2WD action saying, ‘everything is good, we didn’t have the sheer lap pace but the car is super easy to drive over 5-minutes’.  The Schumacher driver said for tomorrow he plans to make the ‘smallest of changes to try get a little more grip’ from his prototype LD3.

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Coelho tops first seeding round

Bruno Coelho has topped the opening round of seeding practice at the 2WD Offroad Worlds, the Xray driver fastest over 3-consecutive laps from Broc Champlin.  The Portuguese driver improved on his free practice pace by over 1.5-seconds being the only one to run 56-seconds and having half a second on Champlin’s effort.  TLR’s Brennan Schimmel put in a strong run to set the third fastest time just ahead of team-mate Cole Tollard.  Defending Champion Spencer Rivkin led the Team Associated challenge, posting the 5th fastest time.  Having set the pace in the four rounds of Free Practice, team-mate Davide Ongaro would have a problem with a broken rear tyre insert that meant he could only go 12th fastest and now finds himself down a set of tyres.

Commenting on his run, Coelho said, ‘the car is working very good.  I believe we made some good changes and now we will try to improve it more’.  Asked about what he felt his XB2 was lacking, the Electric Touring Car World Champion replied, ‘we want to make it more stable so we can run more laps without mistakes to prepare for qualifying’.

‘I stuck to my tyre strategy and it looks like Bruno did the same’, said Champlin of his opening seeding run.  The American Schumacher driver continued, ‘I set my car back to how I normally run it at big events and I will focus on being comfortable with the car rather than try find that extra notch’.  Asked about the body & wing change he tried in Free Practice, he said he would, ‘stick with the JConcepts P2’.

Crediting TLR engineer Frank Roots with his P3 run, Schimmel said a shock change on his buggy made it easier to drive.  The 21-year-old added the improvement ‘made it easier to put the car in the right spot of the track every lap’ which in turn makes for a more consistent 5-minute time.  Asked if he planned any further changes for the second seeding round, which brings Day 1 of the 2WD action to a close, he said he would ‘work more on his driving’.

Cole said his run was ‘pretty good’ adding ‘the track is definitely better.  He continued, ‘the tyres are better warmed up which takes a minute or two but my car felt pretty good’.  For the second seeding round, the Wisconsin driver said with the car to his liking the plan was to ‘just keep going around making consistent laps’.

‘I thought that was OK.  We’ve been making small gains’, was Rivkin feeling on his P5 run.  He continued, ‘there is a lot of stuff changing in the Top 10 but on overall time I think I ran a Top 3 so I’m pretty confident’.  He added, ‘There are a few different tyre strategies going on so it’s hard to gauge where everyone is actually at right now’.

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